“If you’ll excuse me, I see my brother,” Vinnie said as he walked away.
The art gallery was filled with influential people. The Governor of Chicago and some outstanding photographers were only a few. As I walked around, admiring some of the other artwork, I came across a display of paintings of beautiful naked women. Ellery walked over to me as I was staring at them.
“I see you found something to admire,” she said as she looked at the paintings.
“They’re beautiful and so exquisite, aren’t they?” I asked.
Ellery looked at me and then looked back at the portraits. “If you’re in love with them so much, the model is right over there. Maybe you could ask her if she would like you to fuck her!” she snapped as she walked away.
What the hell just happened? I couldn’t believe Ellery had just said that. I turned around to look for her, but she was gone. I tried to search the gallery for her, but I kept getting stopped by people. When I finally was able to break free, I found her over by her paintings, talking to a group of people.
“Good evening. Please excuse us; I need to talk to my wife for a moment.” I smiled as I lightly touched Ellery’s arm and let her to a quiet corner.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she snapped.
“Me? What the fuck was all that about back there?” I snapped back.
“People are staring, Connor.”
“Then I suggest you put on a fake smile, Ellery.”
She did just that and she proceeded to yell at me. “You were gushing all over those naked paintings. I simply pointed out that the model is here if you wanted to fuck her, since she was so beautiful and exquisite, and you couldn’t stop staring at her.”
“Are you serious? Are you fucking serious right now? I can’t believe you would be jealous over something like that. My God, Ellery, I was staring at it and saying those things about the artist’s skill, not the actual model. I was picturing you in that painting because I want one of you, naked.”
She looked away from me as she bit down on her bottom lip. I had to do everything in my power to keep from putting my hands all over her. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression. You know I would never want anyone else. I love you, Ellery. I don’t know how to make that any clearer to you than I already have since we’ve been together.”
“I know you do, and I’m sorry. It’s just my nerves with this opening, missing Julia, and the fact that Denny is lying in a hospital bed in a coma.”
“I know, baby,” I said as I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her tight. “It’s almost over and then we’ll be on our way home.”
All of a sudden, we heard a voice behind us. “Really? You can’t wait until after the showing?” Peyton said.
Ellery’s eyes lit up when she saw Peyton and Henry standing there and a huge smile graced her face as looked across the gallery and saw my family smiling at her. I hadn’t told her they were coming; I wanted it be a surprise. She took them over to her section and Henry stayed back with me.
“I heard about Denny. I’m sorry, man,” he said as he patted me on the back.
“Thanks, Henry, but I don’t really want to talk about it right now.”
“I understand. If you need anything let me know.”
Peyton stood in front of the portraits of the naked woman that Ellery and I had just fought about. Henry and I walked over and stood next to her. Not too long after, Ellery joined us.
“Will you paint me naked, Elle?” Peyton asked.
I looked over at Henry, and he smiled at me.
“Maybe,” Ellery answered.
“Can I watch?” I smiled.
The night went smoothly and Ellery sold all five of her paintings. She was very happy, but she just wanted to get back home. We both did. We missed our baby girl, and we wanted to get back to Denny.
It had been a long and exhausting day. Ellery and I were lying on the couch together on the plane. As I held her in my arms, she tilted her head back and looked at me.
“I gave some thought about what you said earlier.”
“About what, baby?” I asked.
“About you wanting a nude portrait of me.”
“Really? And what did you decide?” I smiled.
“I decided that when we get back to New York, I’m going to call that artist and ask him to do it. After all, I know you wouldn’t have a problem with a strange man staring at me for six or seven hours a day while I’m fully naked in front of him, posing.”
I took in a sharp breath. “You know what? Let’s just forget about that painting. I have the real thing right here and that’s all I need.” I smiled as I leaned down and kissed her lips. There was no way I was going to let that happen.
Chapter 30
Ellery
I paced back and forth, trying to comfort Julia as she screamed her head off at three o’clock in the morning. I bounced her, walked her around the penthouse, sat down, rocked her in the rocking chair, and nothing soothed her. I even gave her gas drops, thinking she was gassy, but that didn’t help either. Connor came up behind me in the living room and took her from me.
“What’s wrong, Julia? Daddy’s here.”
I rolled my eyes because sometimes he thought he was the cure-all where she was concerned. When she didn’t stop screaming, he looked at me.
“Don’t you have a book or something you can refer to?” he asked as he bounced her up and down and she continued to scream even louder.
I ran upstairs to our bedroom and grabbed the baby book from the bookshelf. As I ran down the stairs, I turned to the section that was outlined for her age group.
“It says she may be teething. Run your finger along her gums and see if you feel anything,” I said.
He took his finger and put it in Julia’s mouth. “Yep, I feel a lump right here,” he said.
When I walked over to him, he took my finger and placed it on Julia’s gums. “Aw, my poor baby,” I pouted as I kissed her head.
“I’ll go and get the baby Tylenol. That should help her feel better.”
Connor followed me into the kitchen, and I took the Tylenol from the cupboard. I gave Julia her dosage and we sat with her on the couch.
“I can take her, sweetheart. You have to get up for work in a couple of hours.”
“It’s okay. We can do this together.” He smiled as he leaned over and kissed me.
The Tylenol took effect and Julia finally fell asleep. Connor slowly got up from the couch, took her upstairs, and laid her down in her crib. I climbed under my warm sheets and closed my eyes. As I began to drift asleep, I felt little kisses all over my back. I opened my eyes and rolled over.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
Connor climbed on top of me and whispered, “I’m going to make love to you and then you can go to sleep.”
“Is that so? What if I don’t want you to make love to me?”
“Ellery Rose Black! I better never hear those words come from your mouth.”
I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that. I held his face in my hands as he hovered over me. “Make love to me.”
“I changed my mind,” he said as he got off of me and rolled over.
“What?!” I exclaimed as I took my pillow and hit him with it.
“So, you want a pillow fight, do you?” He retaliated by taking his pillow and hitting me back.
I stood up on the bed with my pillow in hand and hit him with it again. He jumped out of bed and swung his pillow at me, but missed when I jumped to the other side. As I jumped off the bed, we stood and stared at each other from opposite sides, waiting for the other to make a move.
“You aren’t getting off that easy, baby,” Connor said.