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January |
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January |
“Max? You down there?”
“Yeah.” Max glanced up from his work with a smile. He knew that voice. “Hi, Ravi.”
“Hello, love.” Ravi stepped carefully through the cluttered workspace and up to Max’s chair. “I still don’t understand how you can work, let alone live in this mess. That boss of yours could at least let you have one of the apartments above the club.”
“Kale offered me one, but I’d rather be down here. I like being close to my work.” Max closed his eyes and leaned back. Ravi’s warm hands rubbed his shoulders and dug into the knots in his muscles. Oh, that felt good.
“Such an artist.” Ravi spun Max’s chair around so they were facing each other. “I’m surprised I could find you under all this.”
“Like you can talk. How many times have I found you covered in paint or worse?” Max brushed his fingers through the black silk of Ravi’s hair.
“True, I do get rather involved when I paint.” Ravi smiled brightly and kissed Max’s fingers. Oh, he was a handsome one. Ravi was broad shouldered and sleekly muscled with long legs and smooth olive skin, all accented by a gorgeous face and startling ice-blue eyes. No wonder Max was always so distracted when Ravi was around. “It’s a good thing I’m not as messy when I tattoo people. The shop would be a disaster area.”
“I’m sure your boss is happy about that, too.” Max patted Ravi on the cheek. “Speaking of which, what are you doing here? I thought you’d be working tonight.”
“Nope, it’s been slow so the boss man gave me a few days off. It all works out, though, since I have a new project to work on.”
Ravi worked at the tattoo shop down the street and could do the most amazing things with ink and skin. He would rather have been a more traditional artist, but that didn’t pay nearly as well as the tattooing did. Either way, Ravi was an amazing artist and the sweetest person Max had ever met. He had a knack for making everyone around him smile and Max loved him for it.
“Oh, did you get a commission? What are you painting?”
“It’s not a painting.” Ravi leaned closer and nipped at Max’s bottom lip. “A friend of mine is putting out a photo book in a few months and one of the photographers bailed on her at the last minute. Some how, I got shanghaied into helping out.”
“Photos?”
“Yup. It should be fun. I do have one problem, though.”
Max gave Ravi a curious look. “Anything I can help with?”
“I was hoping you’d ask me that.” Ravi gave him a mischievous grin. “The pics are supposed to be of a pretty angel or demon boy and well, I need a model.”
“I can always ask one of the guys for you.” Max set the pirate coat aside. He wasn’t getting any more work done, not with Ravi around. “Dante might be a good choice for a demon boy since he has all those body mods.”
“Actually, I’d like you to do it.”
“Me?”
“Why not? You’d make a beautiful angel.”