Page 11 of Partnering with the Artist

“I’m gonna start the water for the potatoes. Dump them in when you’re ready.”

I pout. “You’re no fun.”

But that, at least, gets half a smile out of him.

Chapter 4

?

Not so bad after all?

Maelin

“If I get assaulted by four rich brothers,” Morana has been saying, during the entire drive, “I will have a breakdown. I just want you to know. I mean,really.” She laughs, delirious. “Four! Four. Four male bosses. And me. One me.”

“Just be glad you’re not going to bemodelingfor any of them,” I whisper, feeling very, very sick. “Also, it’s onlythreerich brothers right now. Lukas is on his world tour still.” I discovered that while I was looking up information about our bosses-to-be.

Morana cusses. “This is a horrible idea.”

“It might be fine. They might be nice? Enough. Anyway. I heard Viktor just got engaged. People in love are normally nice. Enough… Anyway…”

“Rich people aren’t nice. And there will be four of them eventually. Four big rich people. And my big sister, selling her body to one of them.”

“He said itwasn’ta nude modeling gig.” I fiddle with the brim of my broad hat, hiding behind my sunglasses from the death ray in the sky and trying to reassure myself in the knowledge that Zakery’s comics are the furthest thing fromerotic. They are fantasy romance, the same genre that his big brother Viktor writes, but it’s all slow burn. Hand brushes and a final kiss on the last panel of a ten-book series type stuff.

“Right, sure. The modeling gig isn’t nude, but there’s only so long a guy’s gonna stare at your body before he throws the gigpart away. First, he’ll undress you with his eyes, then he won’t be able to control himself. I bet they put me in a frilly uniform worse than what stupid, stupid,stupidHelena made me wear.”

As Morana eases up the Bachelor manor’s driveway, a large tan man wearing plaid, a straw hat, and thick leather gloves looks up off his rose bush to wave. I return the gesture as I shrink further into my seat, whispering, “At least the gardener’s nice…”

“Great. Maybe the gardener will hear us if we scream.” Morana cusses as nothing short of a castle with high towers, a lavish staircase, and double front doors appears beyond the foliage and a fountain filled with crystal blue water at the end of the long power-washed drive. “This screams pretentious. This screamsdo what I say, or you’ll wind up unrecognizable in a river.”

“There aren’t bad stories about them online,” I offer.

“Because they’re rich enough to make bad stories disappear, Maelin.”

Biting my trembling lip, I crumple.

“I don’t even know where to park. Do you think they have an entire garage filled with their sports cars somewhere down that lane?” She jerks her chin toward where the drive darts off beside wide arches crawling with greenery.

“Maybe?”

The front door opens before she gets a chance to circle the fountain and head down the lane. Wearing much the same dark attire as on Saturday, Zakery adjusts his cuffs and trots down the stairs toward us.

Morana fills her lungs with air. “Well. Great. We’ve been spotted. No turning back now.” Then she rolls down my window. “You’re talking to him.”

I would rather die. But. You know. Whatever. Sure. I can talk. Probably.

“Good morning, princess,” Zakery says, tilting to catch aglance of Morana through my window. “And other princess. Happy to make your acquaintance.”

Morana’s face provides a tight, lethal smile that in no uncertain terms threatens murder if he calls herprincessagain.

In an effort to quell tensions, I say, “Morning.”

“Wow, your sister stole all your ink, didn’t she?”

I offer a fragile laugh. “Yeah. Um. She’s not really…the friendliest, but she’s a very good worker. I promise.”

“I’m not concerned. Two women coming into a house with four men is enough to put most on edge. I can promise you that we at least won’t be as revolting as your last employer, who I hear had a thing for blondes. Purely professional relationships here, at the moment. When Lukas comes back from his tour, he might try to flirt, but I assure you all of us understand simple words likeno—even Lukas, who sometimes has rocks for brains.”

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