Page 16 of Cherry Breeze

Chapter sixteen

Paint Me Like One of Your French Girls

“Are you comfortable? Can you stay like that for a while?” Asher asked as he looked at the absolute vision in the bed before him.

“Yeah. I’m good, Cherry. Now, paint me like one of your French girls.”

"And you say I'm the smartmouth."

Asher took in the alpha in the pose he'd put him in and bit his lip. His alpha was so handsome and in that moment, he was ungodly sexy. Laid against pillows, all of his tawny skin open to Asher’s eyes, every curve and muscle perfectly lit by the light coming in through the wall of windows, he had one arm up over his head, curled around to follow the shape of his head, his bulging bicep pillowing his strong cheek and jaw. His hair was a tumble of mussed black curls, reflecting the treatment they’d spent most of the morning receiving, having Asher’s hands tangled in them as they’d made love. That treatment was reflected also in the bedding that Sebastian was spread out on, rumpled and loose, one corner of a light blue blanket artfully draped over Sebastian’s hips, the only part of him that was covered. One of his legs was bent, foot flat on the bed, and the other straightened out. He was, in Asher’s opinion, the absolute picture of eroticism, stretched out in the clear aftermath of their lovemaking.

“But if you don’t stop biting your lip like that while you look at me wearing nothing but my shirt, you’re going to end up in this bed with me again.” The alpha warned and Asher laughed.

“Okay, okay.”

He paused for a moment and used his phone to snap a picture of the scene, in case they were interrupted, but also because he’d likely end up finishing the portrait later on, as it took much longer to finish a complete work.

“For reference.” Asher explained. “And possibly some other personal uses.”

“You really are just trying to get snatched back into this bed.”

“Don’t break your pose, you horny beast. I’m painting you.”

“Stop being provocative then.”

“Shush, I’m working.” Asher said, picking up a pencil.

Asher thankfully had previously primed one of the large canvases, and the gesso was already dry and ready. He began by sketching him out in pencil, mapping out his shape and the contours of his form and the larger setup of the room before focusing a bit on the smaller details, the shape of his nose and the lines of his muscles. Once he had everything properly mapped out, he took his paints and put them on a clean palette that he'd brought. He chose all of the needed pigments and once he had everything ready, he began to paint.

It was quiet at first as Asher began blocking out some of the darker areas and shadows. He always found it easier to start in the dark areas and move toward the light areas when painting with oils.

Sebastian was enjoying watching his omega paint. He’d seen him paint before, but just in brief spurts. The omega was completely naked, only wearing one of Sebastian’s own button ups that the alpha had willingly sacrificed for the cause of seeing his omega in it. The shirt was totally open and Asher’s flaccid cock hung prettily, completely exposed. Sebastian loved how unabashed he was about his nudity with him. Asher loved being naked and Sebastian loved seeing him naked. He’d never had a relationship like this, where everything felt so… open and okay. He felt like he could tell Asher anything and hoped that his omega felt that too.

After a while, Sebastian broke the long silence.

“Am I allowed to talk to you while you paint?”

“Yes, of course. I'm not doing any detail work right now. I'm pretty much just getting your general shape down.” Asher said as his hand moved smoothly across the canvas in little back and forth brushings before he mixed a new color, changed a bit, added more of this or that color and painted on.

“What made you want to be an artist? Did you look up to someone who was an artist?”

Asher pondered the question for a moment as he added a little bit of white to the color he was mixing into the tan shade of Sebastian's skin.

“When my mom married my third stepfather, he wanted to send me away to boarding school. Since my mother didn't care to stop him, I ended up moving away to a private school across the country at fourteen. There was an art teacher there, Mrs. Jo. She was really young and very hippie-ish. She wasn’t like the other teachers, and her art class became the highlights of my week. She helped me discover that I had a talent for art, and ever since then I found a great deal of comfort and solace in it. It helps me get my emotions out in ways other forms of expression like talking or writing just don't allow... I decided then that, even if I had to spend the rest of my life broke, I wanted to be an artist…. And it didn’t hurt that my graffiti phase pissed off my stepdads.” Asher added the last part with a smile, glancing over at him from his place at the easel and giving him a wink.

“You naughty boy! Graffiti? Do you have a criminal record?”

“I do. I spent a week in county jail for getting caught spraypainting a dick on a billboard advertising my stepfather’s company.” Asher said and Sebastian laughed. “Hey! Don’t move! You’re out of position now.”

“Sorry, sorry. Okay.” Sebastian said, getting back in position. “Tell all about your bad boy past. I’m dying to know everything.”

“I mean, what do you want to know? About my pink hair phase and my belly button ring?”

“Yes and yes.”

“I was in the bad omegas clique at school, of course.”

“Of course.”

“I used to wear the skirts made for the female students, just to irk the stuffy old headmaster, who didn’t approve of my torn up stockings and combat boots, or my mohawk.”

“Oh my gods, please tell me you have photographic evidence of this.”

“I think I have a few old polaroids somewhere. I’ll have to look for them.”

“I’ll give you anything.”

“Anything?” Asher asked, biting his lip and looking at the alpha with hooded eyes.

“Anything.” Sebastian replied, eyeing his naked omega and feeling so much love and adoration inside him.

“Okay… Then I want you to bend your right knee a little more, you’re out of position.”

“Goddamnit! You little tease.”

“You said ANYTHING!”

“Little smartmouth.”

“Oh, come on… Don’t pout. If you’re a very good boy, I’ll give you a reward afterward.”

“What kind of reward?” Sebastian asked, pout vanishing as he waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“The best blowjob of your life.” Asher answered and Sebastian smirked.

“Do you think you can out-do your previous performances? Because I don’t think it gets any better than that.”

Asher giggled and gave him a look that seared him, erasing his smirk.

“Oh, Sebastian… I’ve been going easy on you. You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

“You said, bend my right knee?” Sebastian asked, immediately getting back into position as Asher threw his head back and gave a loud laugh of pure amusement.

“Very good. So, how about I ask you a question? Why did you become a makeup artist?”

“You remember me telling you about my grandfather taking me to car shows?”

“Mm-hm.”

“Well, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a car show, but some of the bigshots, usually people who are wealthy collectors or who are promoting their own businesses restoring them, will hire omega models to pose with their cars during a show. There was this one time that my grandfather took me to a show, and we arrived a bit early. I saw some of the models getting their makeup done. Of course, I was a young alpha at this time, maybe 11 or so, and you know... pretty omegas and all that. I watched them getting their makeup done and I asked my grandfather what they were doing, and he explained to me what a makeup artist was. I realized that that was an actual job and ever since then, it's just been my dream to do makeup. I ended up going to school for it so that I could follow that inspiration, but that was the inciting incident.”

“So, your grandfather was the one who made you want to be a makeup artist, in a way?”

Sebastian had never thought of it that way, but he supposed without the influence of his grandfather and the car shows, he probably never would have decided to become a makeup artist.

“Yeah, I guess so. He was always my number one supporter when I was in school and then when I started working as a makeup artist. My parents didn’t really understand why I wanted to do makeup for a living, since I didn't even really wear makeup myself, but they still supported me as best they could. But my grandfather was the one who really made me realize that my dream was achievable and who gave me the original inspiration to start my own makeup brand. I always used to complain to him about different products and how I would do things if I were in charge. I remember he asked me why I didn't start my own company, and you know at the time, I thought... ‘I'm just a makeup artist, who am I to start a company?’ But he told me that every great company was started by somebody with passion about what they were doing, and I had that for makeup. It wasn’t long after that I started taking business night classes. I got a loan, and I started Rossi Cosmetics.”

“Wow, your grandfather sounds like an amazing man.” Asher said.

“He really was.”

Asher had seen calendars and posters throughout his life of omegas in sexy outfits, posing with shiny, colorful cars, but he'd never really thought much about it. He thought they were just something to bait young alphas with. Now it seemed so cute as he thought of it through the lens of Sebastian's story about his grandfather and how he been inspired to become a makeup artist. He knew that most alphas probably did not look at those calendars in the same light as his sweet alpha, but knowing that his alpha did, warmed his heart. He really was a very unique kind of man, and the more time Asher spent with him, the more time his heart was opening up.

“Tell me about him.” Asher said as he continued painting.

Sebastian thought for a moment, wondering how best to describe his grandfather.

“He actually fixed cars for a living, though he ran just a regular body shop, fixing cars that got in accidents and things like that. His favorite car was a 1965 Shelby Cobra, classic car and he took me to see one once. It was a beautiful thing. He loved to watch any kind of sports, even golf. My grandma always told him that the only thing more boring than golf on TV was golf on the radio, but it’s what he loved and my grandma would huff and puff about it, but in the end she’d sit with him on their sofa and let him hold her while she knitted and he watched golf or baseball or car racing. She passed away first, I was only 9 when she died and he was devastated. They were mated for almost fifty years. I can’t imagine how hard it was for him, but he always tried to put in an effort for his kids and grandkids.

“A few years before his death, one of my uncles tried to tell him at the big family Christmas that he should find someone to spend the last years of his life with instead of being alone, and I’ll never forget what he said then, ‘I already had the great love of my life. There’s no reason to move on or let her go. I’ll belong to her until I die.’ ” Sebastian sniffled and blinked and Asher’s eyes also filled with tears at the emotional story. “That’s when I stopped dating so much. I realized that I wanted that. I wanted to spend my life with someone who I’d be with for fifty years and still want fifty more… It just snapped into place for me that I was wasting my life with all these random dates and hookups that I knew weren’t going anywhere. So… I decided to wait until I found the right omega.”

Asher paused in his panting and looked over to the alpha, shock settling in his gut at those words. Had he just implied what Asher thought he did? Because, it sounded very much like he thought Asher was that omega, who he wanted to spend his life with, and the thought had his heart thudding hard and fast in his chest. Sebastian’s doe eyes were full of emotion and rimmed with tears and Asher set aside his brush and easel before walking to the edge of the bed and climbing in. Sebastian sat up and Asher immediately straddled him, settling in his lap, fingers moving up to gently trace the contours of his face, leaving a small turquoise smear on his right cheekbone.

“Fifty years is a long time.” Asher whispered as he stared into those expressive doe eyes.

“Not if you spend it with someone you love.”

It wasn’t an outright confession, but the implication was there and Asher crashed their lips together in a hard kiss before pulling back.

“You’re a wonderful alpha, Sebastian.”

“Only for the best omega.” The alpha replied before rolling them over and trapping Asher beneath his larger body to kiss him more thoroughly.

They didn’t have sex, but they did kiss and scent for a long time until it was time to eat lunch. The couple hadn’t bothered to go grocery shopping, since they were only staying through Sunday morning. Sebastian ordered lunch to be delivered to them, still mostly wrapped around the omega in his bed and refusing to part from him, but Asher was content in his embrace, kissing his way over his jaw and neck, which led to Sebastian tossing his phone across the bed after confirming the order and pinning Asher’s hands over his head to get his revenge. They stayed like that until the doorbell rang and Asher rolled out first, buttoning up the long shirt and flouncing off to answer the door, Sebastian half-stumbling his way into sweatpants and following along in his wake.

They ate and Asher worked on his painting some more, but eventually they wound up going out for a walk on the beach, holding hands as they made their way down the sand in the lowering light of late afternoon. Sebastian felt at peace with his omega by his side. Asher was feeling better and he was proud that he’d helped him. It made him feel like a good alpha. They watched the sunset on the beach as the sky turned vibrant with purples and oranges, and Sebastian listened fondly to Asher as he move his hands in front of him like he was painting the sky, talking about the colors and how very pretty they were and how he’d have to mix this and that shade to get that color of purple or how that orange was just the perfect amount of red, and he looked at him with a smile.

“Someday, maybe I can paint the sunset if we come back here.”

“I’d love to have you here anytime.”

They held hands and watched until the light got dark, and they watched the stars come out. Asher flopped back onto his back in the sand where they sat and reached a hand up to trace lines between the stars. Sebastian followed his lead and laid down, scooching closer to see what Asher was doing from his perspective and he was certain he was tracing constellations.

“My dad used to teach me about the stars when I was a kid. It’s the only thing I really remember about him. Here you can see Orion…” He traced a line through a constellation. “Perseus…” The omega repeated it again. “And Taurus…” He dropped his hand and sighed.

Sebastian took that hand and held it in his own, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

“Don’t let him ruin something as beautiful as the stars for you. You can teach me about the constellations and let’s make it our thing instead. Let’s make it into a good memory.”

Asher looked at him and he gave him an encouraging smile which Asher returned.

“Okay… Well, if you look right there, “ he pointed up and Sebastian moved his head to see what Asher saw. “That is Orion. In legend he was the tallest and most handsome of men.” Asher said, and looked at Sebastian, poking his tongue out and wiggling his eyebrows, making the alpha laugh. “His right shoulder and left foot… there and there... are Betelgeuse and Rigel, and the line of three stars form his belt…. there…”

Asher continued telling Sebastian about the stars and constellations that were visible and eventually dropped his hand back by his side and looked at the alpha.

“You’re amazing, you know that?” Sebastian said.

Asher laughed and rolled over, to cuddle against his side in the sand.

“Ditto, big guy.”

As they lay in bed that night, Sebastian fell asleep first but Asher was still awake, so he browsed his phone in the dark with Sebastian’s even breaths puffing against his shoulder. Curious, he googled car shows, wanting to know more about the hobby that had brought his alpha closer with his grandfather. His phone recommended him a website and he opened it to see that a huge car show was taking place in town and began tomorrow. He went through the website for the event and paused as he recognized something. “Newly Restored 1965 Shelby Cobra Reveal!” Asher was certain that was the car Sebastian had said his grandfather liked. He bookmarked the page and kept scrolling through the site as a plan formed in his mind.