Model Position by Kitsy Clare
Publication Date: February 20, 2014
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance (novella)
Book Description:
In Manhattan’s glitzy gallery scene love and art are perilous games.
Will Sienna dare to play?
All too soon, artist Sienna Karr will graduate art school and be flung out into Manhattan’s glamorous but cutthroat gallery scene. Luckily, she’s just met Dave Hightower, heir to the hippest gallery ever. He’s asked her on a date, and offered to introduce her to the gallery owner, his intimidating Aunt Lydia. Sienna’s excited! Now she’ll be able to climb the ranks and make those all-important art connections.
Trouble is, she’s falling hard for the sexy live drawing model, Erik, whose sizzling green eyes seem to pierce right into her soul. Dare she risk losing those potential art contacts for love? Erik insists that Sienna is a real talent and her painting stands out above all the others. But she worries that he whispers this come-on line to every pretty art student who flocks around him during breaks. And her friends worry, is Erik up to her pay grade? What kind of guy chooses modeling for a living? Who is he, really? Her choice may be her ruin… or not, but she must decide fast. Everything in Sienna’s super-organized life is turning to terrifying yet sweet chaos.
Excerpt:
Dave Hightower catches me admiring him and grins.
“Ready for our date later?”
I just met him two weeks ago, and he asked me out
during our last class. I’m looking forward to it and to getting to know him—and
his family’s gallery—better.
“Sure, where are we going?”
“I’ll take you over to Studio Hightower, my aunt’s
gallery,” Dave suggests offhandedly, as if I am not already completely aware
and awed. It’s been all Merry, Harper, and I have talked about since we found
out Dave was in this class. My two best friends here share charcoal sticks,
drawing paper, and essential buzz. “There’s a show at Hightower you’ll like,”
adds Dave, “of wildly painted neon environ-scapes.”
I nod. Sounds off-putting. I prefer the order of
photorealism and crisp digital art, but I keep my mouth shut. After all, it’s
Dave Hightower.
Anyone who has talent and ambition would kill for
a solo show in Studio Hightower. It’s on West Twenty-Second Street
in the heart of Chelsea, the hottest gallery district in Manhattan.
“Hey, always up for new art,” I say. “I like wild
art done by a loose hand.”
“Manually manipulated is the way to go,” Dave says
suggestively as he waggles his eyebrows and puts his fingers into plastic
gloves.
Plastic gloves for painting? Germaphobe.
I’m a clean freak, and even I don’t do that. I quickly ease my judgmental
cringe into a fetching grin as I search for a funny comeback. “I wonder who our
next model will be. Do you think Mr. Court Jester will make a repeat
appearance?”
“I’m betting on Nightgown Lady.” Dave squeezes out
his last color with an oozy splot.
The teacher, a soft-spoken man in faded corduroys
and wire glasses, announces that the model will be out momentarily. From across
the room, I exchange anticipatory glances with my friends, Harper and Merry,
and pantomime a fake drum roll. They snicker and do drum rolls back. The class
turns its attention to the small stage in front of our easels. It’s been set up
with risers and a red velvet curtain, as if it’s a Broadway production.
Then the model emerges, and I almost spill my
cappuccino on Dave’s shoes.
The sexiest male muse I’ve ever laid eyes on pads
out, all oiled coordination and sleek muscles. He’s at least six-four, and
every chest muscle ripples and cuts in the right place. His hair’s sandy and
shaggy, and his jaw is square and resolute with a gold-dusted five-o’clock
shadow. But it’s his eyes that strike me most; they’re emerald green with a
slight upward slant toward each cheekbone, as if he hiked all the way here from
a northern land of sun and wind.
He arranges himself on a leopard-skin rug, wearing
only a suede thong, and glances around at us artists. As I adjust my canvas and
flip my hair back, his smoking green eyes settle on me. I could swear they’re
looking right into me and seeing my fascination. I’m melting and
hyperventilating all at once.
In the corner of my vision, I see Dave Hightower
lean toward me for my reaction, but I can’t look away from the model—I don’t want
to. I’m imagining myself on that leopard-skin rug, doing some private poses
with him, and the fantasy has me blushing as permanent rose as the paint on my
palette.
______________________________________________
About the Author
When Kitsy Clare isn’t crafting novels, she teaches writing workshops. She also loves to draw, travel, read spicy romance, sci-fi and thrillers. She divides her time between NYC and her Catskills studio, where she enjoys the sounds of birds, bullfrogs and coyotes.
Kitsy also writes YA as Catherine Stine. Her YA futuristic thriller, Fireseed One won finalist spots in both YA and Science Fiction in the 2013 USA Book News International Book Awards, and was an Indie Reader Approved notable book. Her YA Refugees, earned a New York Public Library Best Book. Ruby's Fire, the companion novel to Fireseed One, is receiving high praise from reviewers. She’s a member of RWA, SCBWI, Untethered Realms and SFWA.
Blurbs for Model Position
"Kitsy Clare paints a provocative picture
with words - a sexy montage of art, beauty, lust and love as colorful as any
artist’s canvas." -Share my Destiny, romance book
blogger
"A captivating and sensual work of
art!" -Jaycee DeLorenzo, author of The Truths About Dating and Mating
“Model Position is sexy, suspenseful and oh, so hard to put
down. Kitsy Clare mixes a skillful, fast-moving story as Sienna, a
talented but uptight art student takes on the trendy New York art scene.
She’s caught between the pull of ambition and the possibility of steamy, but
true-blue love in the form of Erik, a delicious male model with no
connections. Or is he true? And is Erik really all he seems to be?”
-Helen
Mallon, author of Indecent
Exposure & other short
stories;
Book Reviewer, Philadelphia Inquirer
Thanks, Jessirae!
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