“As I said,” Jared continues. “The men downstairs are friends. I have an understanding of their worth, as well as their ability and reputation for paying their debts. You, on the other hand, were an unknown. I don’t invite anyone to play without first examining my exposure for risk.”
As upset as I am with Daniel, I level a glare at Jared Rush. “So, you knew he had a gambling problem and you still invited him tonight?”
“He’s a big boy, Ms. Laurent. It’s not my job to coddle him. Or anyone else for that matter.”
“Well, congratulations. You rolled the dice tonight, too. Now, you’re out seventy-five thousand dollars.”
“Melanie, please.” Daniel grabs my hand, visibly horrified. “For fuck’s sake, I don’t need you fighting my battles.”
“She’s loyal,” Rush remarks, drawing my attention back to him again. “Loyal and a fighter. I’ll bet you can’t turn either of those qualities off, no matter how thinly someone deserves them.”
I stare at him, stunned by how accurately he’s assessed me. I’ve been in the room with him for hardly a few minutes and already I feel him nipping at the fabric of who I am, trying to expose me.
Is this how he unravels the subjects he paints on his canvases?
I drag my gaze away from the intensity of his dark eyes.
“Daniel, I think we should go now.”
I stand up, but he remains seated.
“He knows he can’t go, Ms. Laurent. Not without throwing away the biggest project his firm has landed in more than a year. And then where will he be? No job. No way to repay what he owes to me and the loan shark that must already be breathing down his neck. If Daniel walks out of this room now, he knows he’ll have nothing left. Maybe not even you.”
I swallow my indignation because in my heart, I know Jared Rush is right. Daniel made a grave mistake coming here tonight. A mistake compounded by the one he left behind him in Las Vegas.
But the even bigger mistake would be in thinking he could outrun those problems.
“What do you want me to tell my friends downstairs?” Rush presses. “I don’t think those men from some of the biggest banks and corporations in the city are going to agree to your IOU. Your associates in Vegas won’t wait much longer, either.”
A curse slips past Daniel’s lips. “No, they won’t. I know that.”
“I have the means to cover both of those debts for you, but my generosity isn’t free. It’s going to come at a price.”
Daniel’s head snaps up, hope blazing in his eyes. “Name it. I’ll do anything. Forgo my commission on the project. Sign away my condo, my car, anything you want.”
Jared Rush leans back as he listens to him plead, but his expression is impossible to read. His dark gaze is shadowed by the low light in the room, but I can feel the irritation crackling off the man in the stillness of his big body.
“I’m not interested in any of those things.” His deep voice cuts the silence like an animal growl. “I don’t see that you’ve got anything of value I could possibly want, Mr. Hathaway.”
He shifts forward now, bringing his face back into the light. His eyes lock on me and I feel the power of his regard the same way I would feel an illicit stroke of his hands on my skin. Every nerve ending in my body explodes with warning.
“Then again,” Jared Rush drawls, “perhaps that’s not entirely true.”
5
MELANIE
“What do you have in mind?”
Daniel’s voice lifts with hope beside me. I feel the change in his stance, the instant flicker of his relief—and his desperation—to learn what he’ll be required to do to get out of this trouble tonight.
I wish I could say I feel some sense of hope or relief, too.
All I feel is the heat of Jared Rush’s smoldering gaze still fixed on me.
He stares unflinchingly, unapologetically, while Daniel hurries to reach for the bait now dangling in front of him.
“Tell me what you want, Jared. I know we can work this out.”
“I hope we can.” Those hot, molasses-brown eyes don’t leave my face for a second. “Ultimately, that’s going to depend on Ms. Laurent.”
“Melanie?” Daniel’s head swivels toward me. “What’s she got to do with this?”
“I want to paint her.”
My breath seizes in my lungs. I wasn’t sure what I expected him to say, but this is the furthest thing from my mind.
I want to bolt. I want Daniel to grab my hand and race with me out of the room, out of this mansion—away from Jared Rush—as fast as we possibly can.
That’s what I want, but my feet stay frozen beneath me.
As for Daniel, he doesn’t move, either. “What do you mean, you want to paint her?”
“Was I unclear? I want Ms. Laurent to pose for me. In my studio.”
Jared Rush wants to paint me?
Images of his notorious artwork bombard my memory. I’m nothing close to an expert when it comes to the art world, but I’ve spent enough time near Manhattan to have seen at least a few of his provocative nudes, whether hanging in galleries or museums, or making headlines at exclusive auctions.
I’m also aware that it’s been some time since he’s produced anything new. Easily a couple of years. The fact that he’s looking at me as his next subject would be laughable if his expression wasn’t so joltingly serious.
“I’m not a model,” I blurt. “And definitely not the kind you’re known for painting.”
His head cocks slightly, making some of the thick chestnut waves at his shoulders break against the crisp white silk of his shirt. A ghost of a smirk plays at the corner of his mouth. “You’re familiar with my work?”
“I know enough.” My reply sounds brittle,
