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Kell shrugged,looking away. "Maybe this is how I normallydress."

"You should dresslike that more often," Parkersaid.

Kell looked at him, surprised. "Thanks."

"People might takeyou more seriously if you did," he added, and Kell's expression wentdark.

"God, you're such an ass."

Parker couldn't helpbut laugh. He was way too easy to wind up. "I'm kidding," he said. "You do lookgood."

"Wow,"Kell said. "I'm shocked that you have a sense of humor." He looked slightly flustered and hurried off to grab his sketchbook. "Anyway, we should get started. It's getting late,already."

"Yeah,"Parker said. "I don't want to have to stay any longer than I have to. I mightsuffocate."

Kell rolled his eyes,and the two of them sat down at the table. "I made some alterations to your design. Take a look." He slid the sketchbookover.

Parker was impressed. "Very nice,"he said, honestly. He'd swapped around certain elements to the illustration and added in some little graphical flourishes to accentuate the key parts, and he'd also done several little color thumbnail samples with gouache paint, each one vibrant and sumptuous. "Now this is what I'm talking about. This isfantastic."

Kell leanedover to point at the page, and when he did, his thigh rubbed up against the side of Parker’s leg. Parker felt a tingle of excitement run through him. And despite what he'd told himself earlier, he didn't pullaway.

"These two are my favorites,"Kell said. "I think this arrangement of color works best. What do youthink?"

"Couldn't have doneit better myself," said Parker. Kell's thigh against his was beginning to feel like being touched by a live wire. How could just that simple contact make his heart beat so fast? He couldn't take it anymore. He had to pull away. He shifted his leg and severed the connection as he pointed to one of the images. "I think we should go with thisone."

Kell took the sketchbook back,his cheeks turning pink again. Parker swallowed and licked his lips. How the hell was Kell this damn adorable? How did he have this much power overhim?

"How shouldwe do the final rendering?" Kell asked. "You probably don't trust me to doit."

Normally,Parker would've agreed to that. For a project as important as this one, he would've preferred to do the heavy lifting on his own, that way he'd be certain it'd be done right. But he did trust Kell, and he wanted to see what he would produce, what he was fully capableof.

"Ithink we should split it,"he suggested. "You can do the line work. I'll take it into the computer and do the digital portion. I've got a lot of experience with doing digital painting, so I can do itquickly."

"Okay,"Kell said. He looked surprised and pleased that Parker trusted him. "I'll get to work on thatnow."

Parker gotout his laptop and tablet and set them up on the folding table while Kell got out a large sheet of paper and clipped it to a wooden board, which he leaned against the wall. He got out his pencils and a drafting ruler and plopped himself on the floor in front of it, and the two of them set towork.

"Idon't get it,"Parker said. "You must've had plenty of opportunities to get hired at a firm. Or even doing commissions. We had that portfolio review fair last quarter. I know several less-skilled people in our class who got hired through that event. Didn't you go tothat?"

"No,"Kell said, soundingembarrassed.

"Are you serious?"Parker asked, surprised. "Whynot?"

"Ijust...My portfolio, it could use a bit of adjusting. I know there's a lot of pieces in it that aren't very strong, so they wouldn't have liked itanyway."

Parker pickedup a pencil from the desk and flicked it at Kell, and it bounced off the side of his head. "Ah!Hey!"

"Let go of your fear, Kell,"he said. "Or eventually, your talent won't be enough to sustain you. Everyone else will pass you, and I'll have left you far behind in the dust. It's limiting you in every way, you've gotta seethat."

"I'm fine,"Kell mumbled, turning back to his work. "I've got it. I've got to go at mypace."

"No,if you go at whatever your pace is right now, it's never going tohappen."

"Why areyou so concerned about it, anyway? Don't worry aboutit."

Parker pickedup a kneaded eraser from the desk and tossed it at Kell's head. "Dammit, stop that!" Kellsaid.

"It pissesme off that you're wasting your potential right now," Parker said. "Someone as talented as you shouldn't be doing anything other than art. It's a damn crime to be wasting your time with anything else. Let me see yourportfolio."