Riveted (Art of Eros #1) Read Online Free Page A

anxiety of flying and curious as to why he left so quickly. Mac made that flight a whole lot easier. She didn’t want to forget their encounter, but apparently he did. It made her wonder if she would always be a woman men turned away from. Her pull to him was inexplicable and she was sparked by it. She imagined the sensuality of being with a man like Mac. She would always remember her snippet of time with him.
    She started to search through her beach bag for her form of solace. Her conflicted feelings made her sad so she reverted back to her childhood love of a medium called air-dry clay. She made many little figurines out of clay that dried without the heat of a kiln. Eros, her first creation, marked a significant time in her life when she knew she would be a sculptor. He served as her dragon muse. Mara definitely loved him and carried him with her whenever she traveled. He had big, warm eyes and a wonderful smile that always made her smile in return. His arms clasped together, tucked under his left cheek.
    She hadn’t made another dragon since, progressing to other things like small pigs, lamb and fish, creating each one to be unique and colorful. Over the years she had made so many that she needed to do something with them. After the donation of one of her bigger free-spirit pieces to the hospital lobby, they asked if she had anything for the children’s wing. That was the perfect opportunity to donate her little creatures. As she handed them out to the children, she saw how their smiles lit up their faces. They seemed to love to touch the little sculptures. That encounter made her feel like she could do something worthwhile. She volunteered once a month to help sick kids make their own creatures to hold on to and take with them. Mara hoped that having their own muse would help them get through their illness. In a child’s eye, making their own little creature was unique and colorful, the two things that seemed to be missing from Mara’s life.
    Eros brought so much joy that the time had come to create another little animal to get her through her current rough patch. Examining her small bags of clay, she chose to start with red. She let her hands do the work as her usual mode took over, letting her mind become the blank slate. As she started to mold the clay, her hands were turning it into the shape of another dragon. She took it as a sign of bigger and better things to come. Contentment settled over her body when she worked with her hands. She became lost in the cool touch of the clay. Hopefully, by the end of the day she would have her next wonderful muse, full of potential. She wanted to be open to all life’s possibilities. Her thoughts kept wandering back to Mac and how he stirred something in her that she couldn’t shake off.

 
    Chapter 3
     
    Mac woke up with a pounding headache. The night before, he decided to ‘get his drink on’ with a couple of ladies in attempt to forget about the enticing Marabella. This trip to Mexico had been his only vacation in five years, having been through a lot of shit in that time, he was burned out, running hard in a never-ending marathon. He needed to put the pieces back together after some major life disappointments. Even on vacation, the agency managed to give him one more assignment, keeping him in the loop on the details as they became available.
    He managed to stagger down to the pool of his all-inclusive Mexican resort getaway. He took the closest lounger he could find and sank into it. The five-star resort had been recommended to him and he had done the research. It boasted about spectacular surroundings but he couldn’t get into it. He would have to take it all in later when his mind wasn’t so muddled with other thoughts. Sitting on the edge of the lounger, he hung his head in his hands.
    A tiny prickle on the back of his neck caught his attention and he needed to scope out his surroundings, scanning the area across the pool. Squinting to sharpen his focus, he