Aaron rubs his thumb in lazy circles over the inside of my wrist. There’s barely been a moment where he hasn’t been touching me this morning. Even through the night, he was there whenever I woke—his arm draped over my stomach, his legs tangled in mine, his chest gently rising and falling beneath my head.
Last night has affected him. I can see it in his eyes and feel it in the way he touches me. Since we woke, limbs entangled, he’s treated me like I’ll break if his gaze is too sharp or his touch too heavy.
Like if he does a single thing wrong, I’ll pick up my cell and call the airline.
Just like I threatened.
And I can’t deny that I would. I can’t confirm it either, though. I have no idea what I’ll do if he pulls that crap again.
He’s right. He’s not my normal client, and I’m not his normal call girl. That means if I have to treat him like someone more, then he has to do the same for me. He can’t demand of me and force me to do something I don’t want to do. It means I can fight back and argue, and it means he has to sit down and take it.
Just like a real relationship.
The only reason his bank account is still sending money to Monique’s is because it’s the only foolproof way to keep me here. I won’t run on a job, no matter what turns it’s taking.
Even if he cut the money, I’d probably stay.
Aaron Stone is my drug. Since the second I met him, he’s been a deliciously and frustratingly addictive part of my life. The highs are sky high, out-of-this-world delirious, and the lows are rock bottom, smack-back-into-reality painful. There is no middle ground—there is only one or the other. He knows no middle ground. All or nothing. That’s the way he lives, and it’s how he loves.
I chose the all before. I took the all and all the bliss and pain I knew would come with it, because back then, the highs were worth every single drop back down to Earth. It was worth it to be so happy. I flew so high I couldn’t see the ground.
Now I’m discovering the middle ground he ignores. I know the other side of the coin, and I know it so intimately I could relive that pain right here, right now.
I don’t have a choice on the highs now. He makes them happen and pushes them into my path, and he’d continue to do so no matter where I turned. But the lows…
I have a choice for them. I know I do. In reality, I have a choice for everything. I could leave and have nothing. I could leave the middle ground and go back to my tidy, controlled life in Seattle. I could climb out before I sink too deep.
I could.
The problem is that the highs are worth the inevitable lows. No matter what he says, how he tries to convince me, I know what will happen at the end of this. I know we’ll both walk away the way we did once before. We have no other choice.
Just like the first time we met, our lives are too different and so far apart that it would never be anything but a train wreck.
The car stops outside a villa-type building sitting on the edge of a private beach. Large, leafy plants surround it, bathing it in shade, and I know where I’ll be spending my day.
Beneath one of those plants.
Aaron opens his door and pulls me along the leather seat. I raise an eyebrow at him and he smirks, helping me out of the car. His fingers stay tightly linked through mine as he leads me into the property.
“You can let me go, you know. I’m not going anywhere.” I bump his arm with mine.
“Joel!” he calls, ignoring me. “Is everything ready to go?”
“Aye, boss,” he replies in a mild Scottish accent.
“Scottish?” I whisper to Aaron.
“We fly our best suited photographers to the location they’re needed. Joel is a master at getting the sultry beach shoots, so he’s here for this swimwear shoot.”
“Who’s the shoot for?”
“Marlena Luiz’s new collection. She’s used us for every single one, and for her advertising, too. She’s one of our biggest clients in South America.”
“And you couldn’t shoot this in her home country?”
“She didn’t want it done in Brazil. She requested Australia.” He looks at me, his lips curved. “And when a woman like Marlena Luiz asks for something, she gets it.”
“You’ll have to introduce me sometime,” I mutter. “I’d like to know how that works.”
“I heard that.” He brushes his lips across my temple. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to our models.”
I slip my sandals off before stepping onto the white sand. The beach is surrounded by rocks and runs straight out into crystal-clear turquoise water. This place is like a little slice of paradise—the places you see as backdrop for shoots like these and wonder if they’re real.
“Dayton, this is Reah.” He motions to a gorgeous dark-haired girl. She gives me a wan smile and Aaron turns my attention to her companion. “And this is Derrick.”
Derrick gives me a thorough once-over. Aaron’s grip on my hand tightens, and Derrick’s smile falters when he meets my eyes.
“If you were expecting me to be blushing or ready to drop my panties for you, you’ll have to do better than that.” I give him my own smile. “And for the record, staring at the boss’s girlfriend like you want to bend her over one of those rocks and do her from behind isn’t the best way to start your day.”
“Or your career.” Joel joins us. “Hana, can we get some more makeup over here? And Charlee, Reah’s hair isn’t right. They want waved, darlin’, not crimped.”
A flurry of activity descends on the models in front of us. Aaron pulls us back into the house, and his lips capture mine the second we’re out of view. He pulls the band from my hair and runs his fingers through it, undoing my braid and leaning me back slightly.
“Most other women would have stood there and waited for me to defend them.”
I grin and wipe a smudge of lipstick from his bottom lip. “I’m not most women. And I’m definitely not into having a guy who looks like he’s just reached adulthood undress me with his eyes.”
“Most women would be flattered by that.”
“He’d probably be able to handle most women.” I lift onto my tiptoes and drag his bottom lip between my teeth. “He definitely wouldn’t be able to handle me.”
“You’ve got that right.” Aaron runs his hands down my body and creeps his fingers beneath the hem of my dress. “I could do with another pair of hands to deal with you.”
I smile against his mouth and hear a cough from the doorway.
“Not to interrupt, but we’re ready to start.”
“Thank you, Joel.” Aaron smiles at him and winks at me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders. I reach up and wipe his lip again.
“Red isn’t your color.”
“Oh, it is. It’s my favorite color,” he says into my ear. “As long as it comes with you, that is.”
“Lips or underwear?”
“We’ll arrange both.”
I grin and ping my bra strap. “I already did.”
He drops his arm, bends back, and lifts my dress. I shriek and jump away, shoving my dress back down.
“So you did.” His eyes twinkle. “For what it’s worth, I definitely like you in red lace.”
“Well keep your like to private, please.” I swat his arm and realize this is the first time all day he hasn’t been touching me. I spin on the sand.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Being not touched.”
He grabs me and pulls me into him. “Now you’re being touched. Deal with it.”
“Be quiet. They’re trying to shoot.” I elbow him and spin so he’s holding me from behind.
Reah and Derrick look incredible together. Both of them are dark haired and toned, and they have a chemistry that’s palpable from fifty feet away. I can almost see it zinging between them, and I tilt my head to the side.
“Hey, are these guys an item?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Would it matter?”
“No. We have couples modeling for us all the time. It’s actually preferable because they’re already comfortable together.”
I nod. “I think they’re together.”
“Are you a matchmaker now?” Aaron teases.
“No.” I snort. “I just have a pair of eyes.”
“Smartass,” he mutters as Reah claps a hand to her mouth and runs up the beach to the house.
“Reah!” Joel yells. “Where are you going?”
Aaron releases me, and I follow him closer to Joel and Derrick. “What’s going on?”
“I know as much as you do, boss,” Joel replies.
We all look to Derrick and he shrugs. “No idea.”
“Do you want me to go after her?” I touch Aaron’s arm. “If she’s sick, I’ll probably be more useful than you all.”
He nods, and I turn to the house, jogging up the beach.
“Reah?” I call, walking through the luxurious building.
“Back here,” she groans, followed by the sound of retching.
I cringe and open doors until I find a bathroom. “Are you okay?” I wince at my own stupid question. She’s bent over a toilet, shaking. Of course she’s not fucking okay.
“I had seafood for dinner last night. It can’t have been cooked properly,” she answers in a hesitant voice.
“Seafood. Riiight.” My eyes find her hand clutched over her belly. “So when is this seafood due? I’d guess in about seven months.”
Her head snaps around so quickly it’d spin right round if it could. “What?” Wide brown eyes stare at me.
“Seafood. Everyone uses that as a morning sickness excuse. My friend used it on everyone until she used it on me twice in three days.” I wave my hand dismissively and perch on the bathtub. “So when are you due?”
“September,” she whispers. “I’m nine weeks.”
“Does anyone know?”
She shakes her head.
“It’s Derrick’s, isn’t it?”
“How do you…”
“Call it a hunch.” I shrug. “When are you planning on telling him?”
“I don’t know.” Reah flushes the toilet and hugs herself. “I have to go back out there.”
I grab her arm. “Honey, you have to go home and see your doctor, not go out on that beach to model in one-hundred-degree heat.”
“I need this job.” She closes her eyes.
“And I’ll make sure you still get paid for it.” I’m bluffing. I can’t make that happen. “But you need to be honest with Derrick, your agent, and Aaron. Okay?”
She nods.
“Wait here.” I sit her in the kitchen and give her a glass of water. Aaron looks up as I approach, questions in his eyes. “She’s not feeling great,” I explain, nodding toward the house for him to follow me.
“Give me a second,” he says to Derrick and Joel. “Reah. Are you okay?”
Her brown eyes flit to me and I jerk my head.
“Um. I have to see my doctor.” She looks away from him. “I can’t finish the shoot. I’m sorry.”
“Are you sick?”
Her hair flies as she shakes her head. “I’m pregnant.”
Aaron stops and looks at me. I suck on the inside of my lip and look away. “Congratulations. I’m assuming your agent doesn’t know or he would have informed us.”
“He doesn’t.”
“Jenny, call for a car for Reah and have someone make an appointment with her doctor.”
A blond girl pauses, looking between the three of us, and Reah smiles wanly. “I ate some bad seafood last night. I need to see him today.”
She scuttles off, a phone already attached to her ear.
Aaron turns back to Reah. “Next time the shoot requirements involve being directly in a heat wave, at least make us aware of the situation so we can cater for your needs. There should be a doctor here right now.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “I just… I thought I’d be okay.”
Jenny enters the room and holds up five fingers.
“A car will be here in five minutes to take you to your doctor. Please take care of yourself.” He pats her hand and leads me back outside.
“Well? Where’s my model?” Joel asks.
“She has food poisoning.” The lie rolls smoothly from Aaron’s tongue. “She’s going home.”
“Great. That’s just fuckin’ great. How do I shoot a couple shoot with one half of it?”
“Can’t you call someone else in?” I ask.
“Not this late,” Aaron sighs, pacing. “It’s too short notice. If we don’t cancel, someone here will have to step in, and there’s no one who can do it.”
He stops, and both he and Joel turn to me. I know what they’re going to say before they open their mouths, and I shake my head.
“No. Oh, no. I’m not a model.” I walk backward.
“You have dark hair and an incredible body. You could stand in for her.” Aaron cups my face. “Please, sweetheart. If we have to cancel this shoot, Marlena might never use us again. She doesn’t do fuck-ups.”
“I’m not a model.” I swallow. “I don’t do pictures, Aaron. I do…you know.”
“And you are amazing at it, but now you need to put that gorgeous body to use in a different way,” he pleads quietly. “Please.”
I glance over his shoulder to Derrick. “And you’re happy for Mr. Baby Daddy over there to rub his body against mine?”
“Not at fucking all,” he answers through gritted teeth. “But we need this shoot to go perfectly so I’ll have to deal with it.”
I close my eyes. I’m not a model. I can barely stand taking a picture for my Facebook profile, let alone professional images to be plastered who the fuck knows where. But he’s asking so desperately, actually begging me…
“On one condition.”
“Anything.”
“Reah still gets paid for the shoot.” I look into his eyes. “She needs the money.”
Aaron nods without hesitation and kisses me—hard—before waving the team over.
What the hell am I doing?
“Please stop looking at me like you want to dribble chocolate sauce all over my body,” I snap.
Derrick grins in a way that I’m sure is supposed to be sexy but does nothing for me. “We’re supposed to be lusting after each other.”
“I think you left the ‘supposed’ at home.” I close my mouth as Joel yells for him to thread his fingers through my hair, pull my head back, and kiss my neck.
Oy vey.
He does as instructed, and I try to play the part, to get into it, but I can’t. And when he kisses me a little too enthusiastically, I shove him off of me.
“Do that again and I’m gonna slap it right out of you!” I point in his direction.
“We’re done here!” Aaron yells, moving forward. Joel’s annoyed cries are drowned out by him. “There’s no chemistry. Derrick, you’ll be paid in full, but you can go. It’s not working with the two of you.”
Derrick shrugs, shoots me a wink, and saunters off. What a fucking jerk.
“What are we gonna do now?” Joel shouts. “Two models and a non-model and the only one left is the non-model!”
I put my hands on my hips. “Hey! You forced me into this.”
“And you are fuckin’ great, but not when you’re working with a dick like Derrick,” he responds. “I’m just wondering where the hell I’m getting a male model from now.”
“You don’t need one.” Aaron pulls his shirt over his head. “Do you have a second pair of those shorts?”
A girl from wardrobe nods and runs off.
“What the hell are you doin’?”
Aaron puts his arms out. “I’m being your model.”
“You’re the boss!” Joel and I reply in unison.
“You don’t model. You order them around,” I remind him.
He takes the shorts from the girl and walks to the house. “Don’t model. Not can’t. Don’t.”
Two minutes later, he appears, clad in the shorts the same style as Derrick’s, and approaches me. I give him my best ‘not impressed’ look.
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you set this up.”
“Good thing you know better.” He takes my hands and pulls me toward the water. “And now you can relax with me.”
He’s right. Derrick had me wound so tight I was at risk of snapping, and all because of his asshole attitude.
“Right. Can we finish this shoot now?” Joel calls. “I want you two to be sexy. I want you to have lust—so much lust we’ll all leave here thinking you’ll be making out in the back of the car on the way back to Sydney.”
“I’ll do him one better,” Aaron mutters, pulling me close to him. “We’ll go for so much lust that there will be absolutely no doubt we’ll be fucking in the back of the car on the way to Sydney.”
The huskiness of his voice combined with his hand curving down my body tugs at every part of my body in sexual awareness. No problem. I hear quiet snaps from Joel’s camera as Aaron teases my body into various poses, each one sparking desire and need across my skin.
And when he gets onto one knee and slides me along his thigh and drops his lips to my neck, making me drop my head back and tangle my fingers in his hair, that desire goes deeper.
Every part of me hums with wanting him. My nipples harden inside my—thankfully—padded bikini top, and I’m grateful for the sea sweeping over my legs, drenching my bikini bottoms. God knows my core is aching so much, my clit throbbing so hard, my arousal would be evident in minutes.
“I love this,” Aaron whispers in my ear, leaning over me, all gorgeous and bronzed and powerful.
“Love what?” I breathe, gazing into his eyes.
He holds the connection for a moment and drops his forehead to mine. “Knowing you’re turned on right now in front of all these people. I love knowing I’ve done that to you, and that even though there are twenty sets of eyes on us, you still can’t hold it back.”
The sea washes over me, wetting my hair and coating my body in a salty sheen. Another wave comes up, and as it washes away again, Aaron pushes his lips against mine. My head falls back against the sand, my leg bending at his side, and I forget about the shoot.
Forget about the audience, the eyes on us, the expectations from this. All I can feel and see and hear are his lips on mine, his short breaths mingling with my own, and my heart pounding in my ears. I quietly moan into his mouth at the feel of his tongue sweeping across mine.
He pulls back and tugs me up, his breathing labored. My own is heavy and full of want. My body is on fire with needing him, and I have to wonder if he has a switch for it. I don’t know how easily he does it, but my nipples are begging for his tongue to circle them and my pussy is practically fucking screaming to be filled by him.
“Holy shit,” one of the wardrobe girls cries. “I think I need a make-out session in the back of a car. What do you say, Joel?”
Aaron smiles against my jaw.
“Anytime, Annabelle. Anytime,” Joel responds, coming closer with his camera. “You two are fucking magical. Ms. Luiz is going to be one happy lady when she sees this.”
I smile and rest my nose alongside Aaron’s. He opens his eyes and I get lost in a sea of blue, completely captivated in him in this moment. Still with desire humming through my veins.
He runs his thumb along my jaw, and my lips part. I curve my fingers around his neck, and I nearly forget we’re not alone.
“Perfect. Hold it there.”
I couldn’t move away if I tried.
“And we’re done.” Joel stands and claps once. “Unravel yourselves and come see.”
Everyone’s eyes are suddenly away from us, and Aaron helps me stand. “You’re a natural,” he murmurs, kissing me softly.
I smile and shake my head. A towel is handed to me and I wrap it around my body, leaving his arms to find Joel in the house.
He pats the stool next to him in the kitchen as he uploads the pictures to his laptop. One by one, pictures flick across the screen too quickly to see. By the time Aaron joins us, they’re all on there.
“Don’t need these,” Joel grumbles, deleting all the images of Derrick and Reah and Derrick and me. “Here we go. Let’s see what we have.”
A large image of me and Aaron fills the screen and my jaw drops. It’s not bad—far from it. It’s amazing. And every one after is even more so. We look so natural, so together, so desperate for one another.
Each hand is perfectly placed, our eyes are connected even when they’re closed, and pure, unadulterated lust is written all over our faces.
“Brilliant. These are brilliant.” Joel flicks through them. “It’s not often one gets to shoot their boss—in a photographical sense or otherwise—but this? This needs to happen again.” He shuts the top down and sighs happily. “You two. Magical. Amazing. Wow.”
“Thanks, Joel.” Aaron shakes his hand.
“I’m gonna pack up and go and find that Annabelle.” He winks and walks back through the beach.
Aaron and I sit in silence until everyone leaves. His eyes burn into me the whole time, doing nothing to expel the lingering arousal in my body. The fierceness in them makes me feel naked, completely exposed to him.
“Get dressed,” he orders me. “Our car is waiting.”
I take my clothes from him. “No one else is here, are they?”
“We’re alone.”
Good. I drop the towel and unclip the bra-style bikini top. My body heats at the way Aaron’s eyes roam over my body, and I crook my fingers in the sides of the bright bottoms.
“Turn around.”
I quirk an eyebrow but do as he says. My back is to him as I bend forward and shimmy the fabric down my legs. I step out of it and reach for my dress, stopping when I feel his hands on my hips.
He slides one around to my front and dips it between my legs. “Still so wet,” he murmurs into my neck.
I reach around and brush my fingers across his hard cock. He shudders, and I peel back the wet material clinging to him to touch him. “Still so hard,” I respond in kind.
He moves his hand so quickly a cold breeze caresses my sex. “Put your dress on and get in that car.”
I pull it over my head and tuck my underwear in my purse. “Sex in the back seat?”
Aaron buttons his pants, his shorts discarded on the floor, and follows me out. He doesn’t answer until he opens the door for me.
“No, a good hard fuck that will have you screaming my name by the time we reach the city. Several times over.”
I hold my breath until he joins me in the car and closes the partition. The engine rumbles as we pull away from the villa, and I look over at him.
“You left our stuff on the floor.”
“The villa belongs to me. They’ll be washed and returned tomorrow.”
He grabs my thighs and pulls me to him. I straddle his lap, sinking my fingers into his hair as his sink inside me. I exhale heavily at the feeling, our lips meeting.
“Should have you bare beneath all of your dresses,” he breathes. “I love how easy it is to touch you.”
“Only if you follow the same rule.”
He laughs, taking his fingers from me and releasing his erection. His swollen head rubs against me, and he teases my opening by dipping in partially then slipping up to nudge my clit.
“If you’ll take me this easily, I’ll forget pants every fucking day.” Our mouths meet in a feverish kiss and I whimper, pushing down against him.
“There’s nothing easy about this.”
He eases into me, going as deep as he can, drawing a breathy moan from me, and holds me against him. “This is easy, Dayton, but only because my need to be inside you is stronger than all else. I want to slide down this seat and lick you from below while you ride my tongue, and I want to tease you to your release with my fingers flicking between your nipples and your clit, but I need to fuck you.” He rocks our hips, stretching me and filling me so deeply there isn’t a part of his cock not inside me. “And savor it, because the next time I’ll be inside you will be in Italy, and I won’t be doing it this way. I’ll be spreading you on the bed and devouring every inch of you with every part of me, worshipping you, and I’ll be making love to you.”
“Oh…”
He kisses my neck, lifting my hips and dropping them back down. Our movements become more frantic, his grip tighter on my hips, mine tugging his hair.
“But right now…” He stares into my eyes, pushing himself right into me. “ Right now, I’m going to fuck you until your throat is sore from screaming my name.”
And he does. He pounds into me relentlessly until I tumble over the edge, his name leaving me in a series of desperate cries.
And he doesn’t stop.
And when he yells his own release, I go again, screaming until I’m sure everyone in Sydney can hear it.