*****
Entering the back staff entrance, I flicked my chin to the night security guard who was always at his desk. The guy ducked his head behind the desk to break any eye contact. He was terrified of me. Didn’t surprise me; most people were. All except Vin, and maybe Aliyana. Vin because he wasn’t exactly sane, and Aliyana? Fuck knows why.
Noticing the black curtains were shut, I then heard some Spanish-sounding pop music playing from inside.
Taking a deep breath and wishing to God I’d had another smoke to calm me down, I opened the curtain and stepped into the gallery. It looked so different from last night. All the wooden crates and packaging from the sculptures were gone. Only my sculptures and the rigs to position them remained. Handwritten notes were scattered on the floor around each piece.
Hearing off-key singing from the back of the room, I followed the fucking brutal sound. As I rounded the corner, Aliyana Lucia was there dressed in an oversized white shirt, tight black leggings, pink Doc Martens, with her dark hair tied in a messy knot on top of her head.
I couldn’t take my eyes off her.
But the outfit and her looks weren’t what had me entranced. She was holding a paintbrush in her hand, painting what looked like tester pots of tones of white onto the back wall, while shaking her hips, badly singing, “Amor Prohibido murmuran por las calles. Porque somos de distintas sociedades…” in perfect Spanish. She was having fun, letting loose…
My eyebrows pulled down. In all my life, I don’t think I’d ever been around anyone who ever just had fun. I’d never had fun…
An unfamiliar feeling of warmth spread in my chest as I stared at Aliyana. I watched her belting out the lyrics, her brush strokes keeping time to the beat.
For the first time in my life, I wanted to feel that happy, if only for a minute, I wanted to know what that level of freedom felt like. It looked… nice… Aliyana, standing there swaying her hips, not a damn care in the world, was like feeling a ray of light shining on your face when you’d been stuck in a dark pit your whole life.
After a few minutes just watching, mesmerized, I straightened up, dropped my smirk, folded my arms across my chest, and cleared my throat.
Aliyana froze mid-brushstroke and slowly turned her head. Her beautiful face was spattered with white paint, and her brown eyes were almost Disney-level huge as they landed on me. Her olive skin shaded to a bright red. She carefully lowered the brush to the tray on a cart beside her, whispering something to herself under her breath.
My cheeks twitched, and I had to stop myself from laughing at her reaction to finding me here.
Fuck. She looked mortified.
“Elpidio, I didn’t think you were coming,” she said, all flustered, her hand over her chest.
Fuck me, she was gorgeous. I’d thought so last night, but now, like this...?
I held her stare, watching as her chest began to rise and fall under my attention, it went faster and faster the longer we held gazes. Long dark lashes fluttered in nerves and my fists involuntary clenched together against my chest at the action.
“Elpi,” I reminded her icily.
Aliyana’s eyes flared with embarrassment and her face flushed even more than before. She reached up to play with her hair. At the sudden movement, her partly unbuttoned shirt gaped at the neck, allowing me to glimpse her tan skin and the top of her firm tits under her white lace bra. I almost groaned at the sight, but I was rooted to the spot, just fucking dumbstruck by this chick.
“I’m sorry, Elpi,” she rushed out. “You did remind me about your name last night. I wasn’t thinking.”
I immediately felt like a dick on hearing the apology in her soft voice, but I stayed silent as Aliyana hurried to switch the music off.
I remained frozen to the spot as she took a long deep breath, her back to me, shoulders tensed as a deafening silence hit us both. But she pulled herself together and turned to me with that beautiful smiling face of hers.
“I’m so happy you made it,” she said, moving toward me. Her dark eyes ran down my body, from my messy long hair to my clay-covered black shirt and black ripped jeans. Aliyana’s full pink lips twitched, two deep-set dimples on either cheek popping out. Hesitantly, she reached up her hand toward the ends of my hair. Every part of me froze and my breath clogged my throat as I watched her swallow nervously.
It’d been years since a woman had touched me. And never one that looked like her.
As her slim finger drifted past my cheek, I caught her scent… jasmine. Mamma used to burn jasmine incense in the trailer. I didn’t know if that was the reason, but for the first time in a long time, I felt myself relax around someone. Strangely, it felt like home.
Aliyana took a piece of my hair between her index finger and thumb. Her pink lips parted slightly and her warm breath spread all over my face.