Page 27 of Partnering with the Artist

“Pink?”

I nod. “Pink. I love pink.”

“I suppose I should know that, as your significant other and all.”

Odd. I’m not sure Harry ever bothered to learn my favorite color. “What’s your favorite color?” I ask.

“Green.”

My brows rise.

He lets another chuckle slip free while he combs his fingers through his hair. “I promise it’s been green for a while. Although, your eyes absolutely have coerced me into choosing a new favorite shade. Green is versatile and calm. I like the peace it adds to pictures. Why do you like pink?”

“It’s pretty, and soft, and matches white.” I fear my cheeks are matching my hair very well right now.

His eyes scan me—head to toe—slowly. “That is very true. If you prefer pink, why do you wear so much white?”

Um. Well. Because. Thrift store sheet sets usually do not come in pink. They come in white. Or, chillingly,yellowwhen they’re supposed to be white…

I hum, dodging the question, lest I give away the fact he’s walking around with a woman who is currently garbed in old bedding. “Doesn’t white also look good on me? It deflects the sun, which is very important.”

“Duly noted,” he says, toying with a ream of pale pink taffeta.

Taffeta. Taffeta would make a lovely dress.

“If at all possible, and safe, given your reasons for needing sun protection, I’d like to see you in more pink.” Zakery smiles as he glances my way. “Don’t hold back. Get whatever you need for the ballgown and for a new wardrobe. Spoil me with new things to draw you in.”

My fleshbuzzes. “Do I have a budget?”

“Viktor puts a weekly allowance of a thousand dollars on my spending card, unless I make a specific request…and I don’t always spend that much every week, so it adds up, but maybe—just for the sake of posterity—we try not to exceed a week’s allowance in one afternoon?” His head tilts. “Is that reasonable?”

Is letting me buy up to a thousand dollars worth of fabricreasonable?

Giggling, I whirl.

Softly, he says, “Oh dear…”

But he doesn’t stop me. He doesn’t discourage me. He doesn’t remind me of the budget every few minutes, like Harry would, on my birthday, when he’d take me out to pick my own birthday gift ofup to twenty dollars, no more.

All Zakery does is stop me from running into things any time I let my excitement overwhelm my ability to judge where something is.

When I miscalculate…and manage—somehow—to purchase one thousand and four dollars worth of supplies, he doesn’t even flinch

With Harry, if I went over budget, he’d extend his hand to me in the car for the surplus, and I’d fish it out of my wallet, thinking it was only fair. He gave me a rule; I broke it. Of course I need to correct the mistake. That’s what you do in a healthy relationship.

“Well,” Zakery murmurs, closing his back door on the hundreds of dollars’ worth of fabric and buttons and lace, “I am very glad I drove my four-door today. Maybe I should have opted for the SUV, but at least I wasn’t trying to show off with a sports car.” He turns to me, smiling, then drops his attention to the five dollar bill I’m holding out to him. His smile drifts away. “What’s that for, princess?”

“I…went over budget. I don’t even know how I went overbudget. It was athousand dollarbudget.” Swallowing, I shove down the sickening sensation rising in my throat. It is incredibly likely that I wentinsane. All things considered, we’ve been in the fabric store since lunch time, and now the sun is hanging low in the sky. In a trance, I spent a thousand dollars of Zakery’s money and kept him imprisoned with me in a craft and fabric store forsix hours. He never complained a single time. I can’t remember laughing with someone so much. “I’m sorry. I feel bad now that I’m not losing my mind. I shouldn’t takeanyof your money like this. We’ve known each other for a week, and the whole bringing me to the Creator’s Ball thing is for my benefit. I’d let you draw me in public without all this hassle. You…” Make it painless? Being with you is painless and anything but shameful. I feel safe in public with you, in ways I didn’t know were possible, in ways I’ve never felt before.No. No. Don’t say all that. Don’t you dare say any of that.

I move onto my next, more relevant thought. “Maybe I could work for free until I pay off everything? I…I don’t know. Mora’s salary covers our expenses. Even there, you and your family are doing so much for us. I’ve still been taking care of my laundry clients throughout the night, so I’ll give her that money and make some clothes for her, too, to apologize for going ballistic… This is all too much. And I—”

Bypassing the bill, Zakery curls a finger beneath my chin to gently close my mouth. “You could have spent two thousand, and I’d still just be eager to see what you’ll make. Do you think I’d take money from a real girlfriend for going over the budget I gave her, when—all things considered—the budget was irrelevant?”

“You wouldn’t?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“B-but it’s important to be with someone who doesn’t take advantage of you like that. Someone you can trust to follow yourinstructions.”

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