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In fact, she didn’t hted he never made eye contact with the students, which was a bonus Nonudes for years; she still found it unsettling, sketching one of the younger male models, to look up from a study of his penis--a necessary study; you couldn’t exactly leave the area blank--and find hi back at her Karou had felt her cheeks flame on plenty of occasions and ducked behind her easel

Those occasions, as it turned out, were about to fade into insignificance next to thea pencil with a razor blade when Zuzana blurted in a weird, choked voice, "Oh od, Karou!"

And before she even looked up, she knew

An unveiling, he had said Oh, how clever She lifted her gaze fro beside Profesorka Fiala He was barefoot and wearing a robe, and his shoulder-length golden hair, which hadwith snowflakes, was pulled back in a ponytail His face was a perfect blend of Slavic angles and soft sensuality: cheekbones that ht have been turned on a diaertips to see if they felt like velvet Which, Karou knew, they did Stupid lips

Mureous…

One h the others: "Isn’t that Karou’s boyfriend?"

Ex, she wanted to snap So very, very ex

"I think it is Look at hi at him, her face frozen in what she hoped was a mask of impervious calm Don’t blush, she coht back at her, a s one cheek, eyes lazy and aaze, he had the nerve to wink

A flurry of giggles erupted around Karou

"Oh, the evil bastard…" Zuzana breathed

Kaz stepped up onto the ht at Karou as he untied his sash; he looked at her as he shrugged off the robe And then Karou’s ex-boyfriend was standing before her entire class, beautiful as heartbreak, nad as the David And on his chest, right over his heart, was a new tattoo

It was an elaborate cursive K

More giggles burst forth Students didn’t knoho to look at, Karou or Kazi for a drama to unfold "Quiet!" coether until the laughter was stifled Karou’s blush came on then She couldn’t stop it First her chest and neck went hot, then her face Kaz’s eyes were on her the whole time, and his dimple deepened with satisfaction when he saw her flustered

"One-minute poses, please, Kazimir," said Fiala

Kaz stepped into his first pose It was dynamic, as the one-minute poses were meant to be--twisted torso, taut muscles, limbs stretched in simulation of action These warm-up sketches were all aboutthe opportunity to flaunt hiht she didn’t hear a lot of pencils scratching Were the other girls in the class just staring stupidly, as she was?

She dipped her head, took up her sharp pencil--thinking of other uses she would happily put it to--and started to sketch Quick, fluid lines, and all the sketches on one page; she overlapped theraceful He spent enough ti in the mirror that he kne to use his body for effect It was his instru with the voice, the body was an actor’s tool Well, Kaz was a lousy actor--which hy he got by on ghost tours and the occasional low-budget production of Faust--but hedrawn him many times before

His body had reminded Karou, froelo Unlike some Renaissance artists, who’d favored sli broad-shouldered quarry workers and soant at the saant

And deceitful And narcissistic And, honestly, kind of du harshly, trying to get her attention "Is that hi everything was normal Just another day in class And if the model had an insolent dinored it as best she could

When the tiathered up his robe and put it on Karou hoped it wouldn’t occur to him that he was free to walk around the studio Stay where you are, she willed him But he didn’t He sauntered toward her

"Hi, Jackass," said Zuzana "Modesther, he asked Karou, "Likeup to stretch, but rather than dispersing for smoke or bathroom breaks, they hovered casually within earshot

"Sure," Karou said, keeping her voice light "K for Kaziirl You knohat it’s for"

"Well," she mused in Thinker pose, "I know there’s only one person you really love, and his name does start with a K But I can think of a better place for it than your heart" She took up her pencil and, on her last drawing of Kaz, inscribed a K right over his classically sculpted buttock

Zuzana laughed, and Kaz’s jaw tightened Like most vain people, he hated to be mocked "I’m not the only one with a tattoo, am I, Karou?" he asked He looked to Zuzana "Has she shown it to you?"

Zuzana gave Karou the suspicious rendition of the eyebrow arch

"I don’t knohich you mean," Karou lied calmly "I have lots of tattoos" To demonstrate, she didn’t flash true or story, or the serpent coiled around her ankle, or any of her other concealed works of art Rather, she held up her hands in front of her face, palms out In the center of each was an eye inked in deepest indigo, in effect turning her hands into haainst the evil eye Pal, but Karou’s never did She’d had these eyes as long as she could rein, she could have been born with them

"Not those," said Kaz "I ht over your heart"

"I don’t have a tattoo like that" She made herself sound puzzled and unfastened the top few buttons of her sweater Beneath was a ca inches to demonstrate that indeed there was no tattoo above her breast The skin there hite as milk

Kaz blinked "What? How did you--?"

"Corabbed Karou’s hand and pulled her away As they wove a the easels, all eyes were on Karou, lit with curiosity

"Karou, did you break up?" Helen whispered in English, but Zuzana put up her hand in an ied Karou out of the studio and into the girls’ bathroom There, eyebrow still arched, she asked, "What the hell was that?"

"What?"

"What? You practically flashed the boy"

"Please I did not flash him"