Intaglio: The Snake and the Coins (31 page)

He pulled off his
helmet once they reached the apartment building. Ava did the same, passing him
the helmet as she stepped off the seat.  Cole’s hair was rumpled and
spiked, and Ava grinned at him, still seated on the bike.  His tie had
flipped over one shoulder and Ava reached up to set it back, straightening his
collar underneath his jacket.

“You know, this
is kind of cute, Cole,” she said.  “I like the
corporate-lawyer-who’s-secretly-a
bad-boy
look.”  She leaned in, rubbing her cheek against the smooth
line of his jaw.  “Makes me want to corrupt you,” she whispered, her
fingers running down his shirt.

Cole chuckled,
and the bike squeaked as he pulled her against him, the warmth between them
distracting her from tiredness.

“That’s a really
weird
kink, Ava,” he said with a grin, running his fingers along her
neck, making her shiver. 

She smiled, then
stifled a yawn.  A moment later, she hugged him. 

“Oh, you have no
idea...” she purred.

He laughed,
tightening his fingers on her shoulders.  It felt good to be back together
again...
really good.
  She turned her mouth toward his ear,
dropping her voice.

“I’m so tired,
Cole... I need some sleep, but I
promise
I’ll show you later.”

Cole nodded,
sliding a hand into her hair, pulling her into a kiss.  Their mouths pressed
together, his tongue tasting her, leaving both of them buzzing with more than
just exhaustion.  His hands ran up and down her torso, fingers finding the
edge where her jeans meet bare skin, and brushing inside.  Ava squirmed as
his tongue dipped into her mouth again... maybe she wasn’t
that
tired.

Cole put one
hand on the back of her shoulders and another on her hip, dragging her forward
so she slid up his thigh.  Ava gasped, eyes fluttering open.  The
kiss dragged on, heat building between them.  With a moan, Cole tugged her
hand from his chest, sliding it down until he was pressing her fingers against
the hard bulge of his crotch.

Ava broke the
kiss in a fit of giggles.  Cole nibbled along her jaw to her neck, sucking
hard, then bringing his mouth to her ear.

“I’m calling you
on that promise,” he said, the words a growl.  “Don’t think I fucking
won’t.”

Ava let out a
happy laugh.  She lifted her hands to his face, tugged him in to kiss
again. The embrace dragged out, growing hotter and more insistent by the
second.  When she finally pulled back, they were both panting hard. They
stood together for a long time, neither quite ready to break the moment. 

Ava sighed in
defeat, nodding over to the visitors' parking at the side.

“Sleep first,”
she said in a stern voice, “more later.”

Cole winked, and
walked his bike over to the side.

In the late
afternoon quiet, Cole wrapped around Ava, his face pressed against the back of
her neck. His knees and chest spooned her body while she slept.  The sun
glowed dully, backlighting the curtains.  He sighed, content with the
woman next to him.  One hand reached across her bare chest to rest on her
shoulder, the other snaked over her hip to lay against the soft curve of her
waist.  He held her tight where she lay warm and soft in his arms. 

Sleep did
not
come first, but Ava hadn’t complained.  Cole smiled, his body reacting
happily to the memories of colour and sensation.  He nuzzled closer,
breathing in the soft scent of Ava – a mixture of shampoo, linseed oil and
turpentine, and that faint underlying fragrance that was exactly ‘her.’ 
It had come to mean comfort and peace to him.  He’d never felt this at
home with someone before... not for many long years, and never as an adult.

It was a good
feeling.

Cole kissed the
soft skin on the back of her neck, then another, catching the moment when she
began to stir.  She arched against him, her hips rocking against his,
teasing him until he was half hard.

“Still tired,”
she grumbled, though she sighed in pleasure as his hand moved lightly against
her breast.

“We should get
up,” Cole insisted, his fingers rolling her nipples into peaks.  “It’s
almost suppertime.  We’re not going to get any sleep tonight if we don’t
get moving.”

“Five more minutes,”
she muttered, “... tired, Cole.  You’re exhausting...”  He laughed
and leaned down, biting her shoulder and making her squeak.

“Nope.  No
more sleep... got to get up, baby.”

She groaned,
then gasped.  His hands continued to explore; the one on her hip dropped
lower, teasing its way to her curls.

“You are a bad
influence, Cole Thomas...” she moaned, her body starting to come awake beside
him.

He chuckled,
leaning forward to kiss the shell of her ear.

“Thought you were
supposed to be corrupting me,” he drawled.

Ava giggled,
angling toward him so that his mouth could reach hers.  When their lips
finally parted, she sighed, eyes dark with desire.

“Too late,” she
said, rolling over to face him.  “You’re already a lost cause.”

He grinned,
sliding on top of her, nudging her knees apart.  His body was aroused and
insistent, ready for her again.

“Good to know,”
he answered, his mouth curling in a devilish grin, “because that means I get to
ruin you.”

Cole wondered if
it would always be like this.  His body reacting with abandon simply
because she was near.  His heart aching to hold her close. 
Together
.

: : : : : : : :
: :

The next days
were split between painting and preparing for Oliver’s return.  True to
his word, Cole let Ava paint him in the nude, though he became obsessive about
checking that the door to the studio was locked. 

“Afraid someone
might see you, Thomas?” Ava teased, peeking out from behind her easel. 
“’Cause I’m really liking the view I’ve got.”

Cole lay on his
back, hands behind his head.  It was a comfortable position, and there
were times while Ava was painting that he nodded off.

 “Yeah,
well... you’re not the one sitting around in the buff if Kip Chambers suddenly
decides he wants a repeat field trip to the train yards.”

Ava pointed at
him with a brush.

“You don’t think
he’d appreciate
this
...?” she said, gesturing to him. 

His body jumped
in reaction to her gaze and he laughed, turning bright red.

“Uh... I hope
not.”

Ava smirked and
went back to painting, her voice disembodied behind the panel.

“Well, he won’t
be coming over anyhow.  Raya Simpson called and left a message that she’d
send a shipping truck from the gallery to pick up the panels on
Wednesday.  I don’t even need to be here.  She arranged it all with
the super... I don’t think she’s particularly interested in talking to me.”

Ava was back to
painting, time moving in the unhindered half-life of flow, hours disappearing
in minutes and the painting – abstract, but working toward realism – appearing
in bold splashes of blues and indigo.  Cole’s form slowly emerged from the
canvas.  She wanted to capture this before she had to share the studio
space again, so she pushed herself to work long hours.

“Why am I blue?”
Cole asked with a snort the first time she let him see it.

Ava stuck her
tongue out at him before looking back at the canvas.

“It’s because
it’s night... and you’re swimming in the dark... the only light is the moon
through the storm clouds.  It’s just you and the water… Nothing and no one
else as far as you can see– ”

“No one else?”
Cole interrupted.

He stared at the
painting in concern.

Ava sighed, her
head tilting to the side.

“You’re free,”
she said quietly, reaching out to take his hand in hers.  “It’s a new
beginning.  You’re there, in the water… like… like a sacrament.  Like
baptism or something… It’s
your
beginning.”

She sighed
happily, smiling down at the canvas.  Cole’s face contracted in pain.

“There’s no
point to a beginning if you have to be alone...”

: : : : : : : :
: :

Ava Brooks was
not
a housekeeper by nature.  With her father coming back, she threw herself
into an apartment overhaul, dusting for the first time since he'd left, washing
the floors and changing all the sheets.  Cole helped her.  He had a
knack for organizing, and Ava laughed aloud the day she caught him categorizing
the kitchen spices.

“My God, Cole,”
she said through a fit of giggles.  “Did you arrange those by alphabetical
order?”

He dropped his
head bashfully.

“Uh...
yeah.  You want me to put them back the way they were?”

Ava grinned as
she walked up, looping her hands around his neck, and pressing a quick kiss to
his lips.

“I think I
really
get
why stone is your medium,” she said, raising a bemused
eyebrow.  “It’s the whole process, and the control in it for you... a lot
of meticulous planning goes into creating something that permanent.”

She stifled
another laugh against his shoulder.

“What...?” 
Cole asked curiously.

She shook her
head, stepping away from him so she could pick up a cardboard box full of
recycling.

“It’s nothing,”
she said over her shoulder as she carried it down the stairs.  “It’ll just
be an interesting adjustment when we move in together.”  She reached out
for the door handle, missing the moment when his face broke into a grin at her
words.

Suzanne and Chim
were flying back later that night.  Ava had agreed to pick them up and
take them back to Chim’s apartment, so she and Cole piled into her truck and
headed to the airport.   She was horribly embarrassed by the escapade
with the police and wanted a chance to explain before Suzanne’s mother did it
for her.

Ava had a crisp
fifty dollar bill folded in her hand as Suzanne and Chim arrived.  She
pressed it into Marcus’s fist when he pulled her into a hug.  He glanced
down into his palm, a series of expressions running over his features before
finally settling on horror. 

“Oh for God’s
sake, Ava, you DIDN’T!”  he barked in the exasperated tone she recognized
as his ‘big brother’ voice.

Watching the
interaction, Cole laughed, bumping Ava’s shoulder.

“Yeah... she
did, but Suzanne’s mom here came to the rescue.”

Ava put her
hands on her hips.

“Didn’t need any
rescuing, Cole,” she said dryly.

He chuckled.

“You’re
right.  Sorry… Mrs. Quan gave Ava a ‘hand’ with her problem,” Cole
amended.  “Though I’m absolutely certain Ava could have handled it all
herself.”

“You’re damn
right,” she said, tossing her head.  Cole laughed, slinging his arm over
her shoulders.

“Never doubted
it for a second…”

An hour later
they were at the Crown and Sceptre,  an empty pitcher of beer sitting
between them.  Ava dragged out the story of the midnight run to the train
yards in excruciating detail, Cole adding his own dry-witted commentary. 
His description of the argument between Chambers and Simpson had Chim laughing
so hard he choked.  Cole  squeezed Ava’s knee under the table,
smiling when she glanced up.  An incident which had been so stressful at
the time was now added one of the many stories in the colourful life of Ava
Brooks.

It was good to
have the group back together.  Suzanne and Chim chattered about snorkeling
and surfing in the waters off Haleiwa on the
coast of
Oahu.  Both of them were relaxed and happy.  They insisted that Cole
and Ava had to come with them next time and the four of them hatched a
semi-serious plan to rent a condo on the beach.  Suzanne claimed she was
going to start looking for Spring Break seat sales right away. 

As
the hour grew late, the conversation turned back to school.  There was
only
a week of holidays before the Spring semester began.  Ava admitted she
wasn’t looking forward to it; she still had two more art history foundations
classes to plow through, but she was hoping that printmaking with Cole would
make up for it.  Cole, Chim and Suzanne all had studio classes and a
variety of others, but they agreed it would be a nice semester before
graduation.  In one week, the final stretch of art school would
begin.  With New Year's only two days away, there was only one more event
to mark the passage of time.

That, of course,
was Oliver’s arrival.

Ava had been
waiting at the arrivals gate for the last half hour.  She was smiling and
bouncing back and forth on the balls of her feet like a kid about to get a Christmas
present.  Her father had been gone since the previous summer, touring
Australia with the symphony;  they called one another every few days, but
this would be the first time Ava had seen her father in months.  Cole sat
a few feet away, a small smile on his lips.