Dark Masterpiece (Serendipity Series 3) by Brieanna Robertson Page B

he whispered.
    She started to nod when her stomach
somersaulted. She flung the blanket off and bolted back down to the
bathroom. Traevyn didn’t follow, but when she managed to pull
herself together and shuffle back out into the living room, he was
waiting on the couch with a brush in his hand.
    “Come here, Evie,” he invited. “Let me help
you with your hair.”
    She eased herself onto the couch and turned
her back to give him access. “You can braid hair?”
    “Have you seen the length of mine
lately?”
    She smiled weakly. His gentle hands gathered
her thick mass of hair and he began to brush it. She closed her
eyes, enjoying the feeling. “You don’t have to do this,” she
murmured.
    He sighed. “Evie, I am not going to leave
you to be miserable. What you did for me last night…” He let the
sentence hang, apparently unable to find words. “Just let me help
you, all right?”
    She nodded and loved how his fingers moved
through her hair. He was so careful and gentle, not tugging or
pulling. Any knots were untangled with care and smoothed.
    “You have lovely hair, Evie.”
    She smiled. “Thank you. So do you. If I could
get my hair to look half as good as yours I would be one happy
girl. I know many women who would be jealous of your hair. How do
you get it so perfect? It doesn’t look like you have any split ends
at all.”
    He gave a soft chuckle as he began to braid.
“I don’t really do anything to it aside from the usual. My father
is Cherokee. I suppose it might have something to do with
that.”
    She nodded. So he was Native American.
That explained his dramatic facial features, as well as his last
name. “Is that why your hair is so long? Does it have something to
do with your heritage?”
    He finished her braid and tied the end. “No,
I just look funny with short hair. It’s been long since I was
sixteen. My brother Julian has long hair also. Goes better with the
Whitelaw features.”
    She turned to face him and gave him a meager
smile. She leaned back against the couch cushions and groaned as
her stomach protested the movement. “So, your brothers share your
Indian features?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the
bile rising in her throat.
    “My brother Talis has the dark hair. Julian
has the features, but he took after my mother as far as his
coloring. He is very blond.”
    She nodded. So those were his two brothers in
the pictures in his office. She would have to remember to take a
better look when she cleaned next. She grasped for the remote and
pulled the blanket up over her legs. Traevyn’s house got cold at
night with the ocean and the fog.
    “Let me get you a glass of water,” he
offered.
    She groaned and shook her head.
    “You need to stay hydrated, Evie. Besides,
throwing up water is better than throwing up nothing.”
    She remained silent. He had a point. Nothing
in the world was worse than dry heaves. As he went into the
kitchen, she started to turn on the TV, but quickly realized that
the worst was not over and booked it back to the bathroom.
    She heard a light knock on the bathroom door
after several seconds and she eased herself onto the floor, leaning
against the wall. “Come in,” she croaked. She knew she had to be
ghastly pale, and she was exhausted.
    Traevyn gave her a tender look as he
entered, wet the washcloth he had been using before and knelt in
front of her, applying it to her face again.
    Evie watched him with curiosity. At times he
seemed so rough and cold. After shutting her out the night before,
she had expected him to go back to being aloof and icy towards her.
She had not expected him to treat her the way a long time friend
would. Not even Seth would have stayed in the bathroom with her
while she threw up. He might have been helpful in other ways, but
he would have lost it too if he’d actually been in the same room as
her digestive pyrotechnics. “Traevyn,” she croaked.
    He met her eyes.
    “Thank you.” She said it seriously. She
hated