Delon's Slivers

Sliver Nineteen

            The noon breeze was more soothing than Delia had expected,wheezing past her and carrying her pencil along over the canvas. She hardly felt like she was doing anything,the strokes of her pencil were much too in place for someone who was just trying out out-door live painting for the first time in a long while.

            Perhaps it was the air or the lightness of her heart as she sketched him. Stephan,who now lay a few feet away from her,splayed over the picnic blanket they'd come with,seemed tranquil. His right hand was neatly tucked beneath his head while the other hand rested against his temple.

            Delia had suggested the picnic. The weekend had been hectic for Stephan and she'd felt the need to help him relax. Even though he'd protested,she'd still placed an umbrella to his side,so the mild sun rays would not be able to come between him and his sleep.

           Stephan had almost gagged when Delia had told him she was going to draw him. He recalled it had gone in the lines of something like this.

           "You want to draw me? Doesn't that make me your muse?" Stephan had chuckled as they exited the house. Delia had insisted on not going far so he wouldn't have to drive so they settled for the estate park. Stephan found himself liking the idea more after they'd gotten there.

            It was a Sunday afternoon so people were fewer. The grass and flowers of the park seemed even more alive,the only perceivable sound being the sloshing of the water from the water fountains at the corners of the park.

            "Don't get ahead of yourself love" She'd huffed with a small smile. "Are you sure you want to? I thought you gave up out-door painting after the incident with your arts lecturer" Delia found it amusing that she could sense his concern through Stephan's laugh.

           "You still remember that?" Delia had laughed as well. "Like the back of my hand" Stephan emulated her action as her arm linked into his. "Do you ever forget anything Steph?" Delia chuckled this time.

           "Unfortunately,not anything pertaining to you,dear wife of mine" Stephan replied with a smile,bringing the back of her hand to meet his lips.

           Delia had tried to ignore it,the fog the simple action had placed over her brain. She wondered how long she could hold out,hold out from wanting to feel his kiss on parts of her that weren't her knuckles.

           Finally,she placed her pencil down and stared at her sketch. The day had dimmed,at it always became a hassle for her to keep drawing when that happened. But she'd been lucky,she'd finished the sketch at the nick of time. It still needed finishing touches,some more toning and shading but she was done,essentially.

           She looked between the sketch and her husband,her lip lopsiding as she did. So much for a famous artist,she'd almost gagged out loud. She'd tried her best in the sketch,but God had beat her in the game of accentuating her husband's features.

           Delia found herself taking from the chair and moving towards where Stephan lay,crouching down beside him so she could see just where she'd gone wrong. The more she looked,the more she mentally caned herself. How had she never studied his features this well?

            She'd failed in copying nature's chiseling of his jaw,the sleeping of his eyebrows,the perks of his lips,the plane of his nose bridge. She hadn't painted yet but she already had the feeling that she wouldn't be able to make his skin seem as spotless as it did under the light.

           Damn,the man has skin as smooth as the back of her hand. Just how was she meant to compete with that?' She'd thought as she bent her index finger so she could smother it against the side of his face. She arranged his eyebrows,her hand moving and touching almost every aspect of his face thereafter.