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My hand trembles as I reach for the handle. It’s stupid. I’ve already let Garrett see who I am, but this…this is so personal, so intimate in many, many ways that I’m more nervous than I’ve been in a really, really long time.

I take a deep breath before pushing the door open and guiding him inside, allowing him to stand beside me and take it all in.

I don’t look over. I don’t do anything as he looks around at hours and hours of work.

Eventually, he begins moving, and I watch out of the corner of my eye as he walks around, looking at each canvas on show.

My favorites.

My heart is beating out of control as he moves from one to the next.

Say something. Please, just say something.

“Cooper,” he finally breathes before stopping in front of one canvas and studying it so closely I can’t help but feel self-conscious. There are so many in here that are of him. But the one he’s stopped at isn’t. “This is…fuck. I really am your muse, aren’t I?”

His words hit me like an eighteen-wheeler, and I have little choice but to take a step back.

“My…my muse?” I stutter. There’s only been one person I’ve ever called that. Only, they weren’t really a person.

Just a profile online that I connected with.

He called me Picasso, and I called him my muse.

I blink, staring at Garrett’s profile.

Time seems to stop as I wait for him to face me.

That notification.

That app.

The same one I used.

Finally, Garrett rips his eyes from my painting and turns to face me.

The truth is right there in his eyes, forcing me to take another step back.

“It was you,” I breathe. “All this time. It was you.”

60

GARRETT

Panic floods through my veins. This is the moment I’ve been dreading. And I didn’t even get the chance to tell him myself.

Those words tumbled from my lips before I had a chance to bite them back.

For the briefest of moments, I consider pretending that I don’t know what he’s talking about.

But I can’t.

This incredible man has spent the last few weeks creating pieces of art from the images I’ve sent him and the photos he’s taken himself.

They’re unbelievably good.

Especially the one I’m standing beside right now.

When I sent the photo to him, I was impressed with the angle and how good my abs and dick looked in it. But seeing it now that it’s been brought to life by his talented hand?