Assets by Shannon Dermott Page A

for a bit and attend to my guest?”
    “Of course not, go, I’ll be fine,” I said. Somehow, I was transfixed by the odd painting, trying to figure it out.
    Nodding to me, she headed off, looking tall, sleek and statuesque in a stark white asymmetrical off-the-shoulder sheath. I wasn’t a jealous person by nature, but looking at Lizzy, I admired her height and beauty. I felt a little underdressed in the raspberry belted-at-the-waist number I wore, which shouldn’t work with my hair color but did. I wasn’t expecting to see anyone. Although in the back of my head, I secretly wanted Kalen.
    After she disappeared, I turned back to the painting. It was tucked in the darkened corner with low light as if it hoped not to be noticed by anyone. Feeling the same way, I wondered how long I could look at this picture and nobody wonder if I was a crazy person. The background of it was a robin’s egg blue. And taking up most of the canvas space, as if it were coming at you from the right corner, was a red blob. As it didn’t create a full circle, one was left wondering exactly what the blob was. But what was shown and not shown off the canvas, so to speak, was the beginning of a round something. A ball, maybe?
    Sucking in a breath, I nearly jumped out of my skin when strong arms came around me. “Don’t move.” I knew that brogue anywhere. Some things, however, were instinctual. My head began to swivel to look at him when his hand moved before I could stop him and pinched my nipple through the dress. I gasped. The pain was sharp but gone as quickly as it had come. “I said, don’t move.”
     “Kalen,” I breathed. His name now came so easily and naturally off my tongue like it belonged there.
    “Lass, I told you that you would pay for teasing me.” He pressed into my back and the long hard length of him was apparent. My teasing happened earlier in the week. And even though we’d slept in my bed for the past several days, we hadn’t had sex. He’d kept his word and just nuzzled me.
    I could see in my periphery, the guest wondering around the place. “What are you going to do?” I asked a little timidly but excited all the same.
    “Since that night, I’ve been dying to taste you again.” I sucked in a breath at his words. My dress was made of molded material, the kind that was meant to hug the body and not blow in a breeze. If he lifted it in any way, the rest of it was coming along for the ride.
    Determined, he leaned in like he was putting his head on my shoulder in a romantic way.  It must have appeared to prying passersby that we were studying the red blob. I waited. Heck, I was curious to see just what he was going to do. And the idea of getting caught, I hated to admit, was a bit thrilling.
    His finger caught the front hem of my dress in the middle and tugged upwards. I could feel the rest of my dress dragging along. Maybe not at the same pace, but it was riding up as well. I thought for sure he would stop. Lizzy would kill me if I made a spectacle of myself. “Don’t worry. No one can see you behind me. His legs must be closed tight. He definitely dwarfed me. Still, I was ready to protest when his finger grazed my panties.
    My eyes must have rolled back. I felt his shoulder when the back of my head made contact with it. “Easy, Lass.” And his finger penetrated my depths.
    “Kalen,” I panted out in a strangled whisper.
    His finger thrust in and out of me several times before he pulled it out and released my dress. Again, the material was stiff, so it didn’t succumb to gravity as easily as, say, silk. He crossed his arm over my body, licking his finger into his mouth. In it went and I was just about undone. “You still taste as good as you look.” He straightened and stepped back from me.
    I was about to complain and say something vulgar when a couple saddled up to us and the red blob. “Interesting painting, isn’t it?”
    My face flushed probably as red as the blob. “Yes, it is,” I answered