Chapter Eleven
Chill, Baby, Chill
Two very annoyed people watched me walk up to the brightly lit tent on the beach. Ronnie tapped her wrist where a watch would be if she wore one. Theo tapped his foot. Both stared my way as though they would like to tie me down and beat me. The thought excited me a bit.
“You’re twenty minutes late.” This from Theo.
“You look like you’ve been in a fight.” This from Ronnie.
“His piece of ass,”—I pointed my finger in Theo’s direction—”accosted me on the beach.”
“Fuck Keera.” Theo rubbed at the bridge of his nose then looked at Ronnie. “I made her promise to stay away from Alicia. She obviously isn’t good at following directions.”
Ronnie snapped her fingers and two girls emerged from the tent. “We need makeup and a hair brush…immediately.”
The girls descended upon me, but before I was swept away in a poof of eye shadow and glitter, Theo said, “It’s my fault that she has it out for you.”
I laughed because life would be so much less complicated if that was true. “Keera’s hatred of me has nothing to do with you.”
I let the girls whisk me away and do their thing. Night time shoots required less make-me-look-presentable work, but I enjoyed the few moments of peace I had before going out to perform in front of Theo.
When they declared I was finished, one of the girls pointed to a rack in the corner. “Theo wants you to wear that suit this evening.”
On the rack was one hanger. On it hung something that could loosely be described as a bathing suit. I walked over and pulled the few strips of fabric off the hanger, amazed that he managed to find something even skimpier than the red number from that morning. The color almost identical to my jeep, Tiffany, blue, with black edges and straps, just enough to make the color pop. Another black strap criss-crossed over my ribs and tied in the back.
I slipped into the top, instantly wondering what would happen if I bent over too far, then stepped into the bottoms. More material covered the front than covered the back. So. Not. Cool.
I snatched a towel off the chair in the corner, wrapped it around my naked ass, and marched out to have some words with Mr. Castas. He was standing next to a few other men, handing out lens and lights to them.
“This is not going to work for me,” I said as I approached.
All eyes turned in my direction, and I thanked god for the towel covering my bare butt.
“You don’t like the suit?” He sounded innocent but his eyes and his smile screamed I am the devil.
“Did you really think I would?”
“Not sure what the bottoms look like, but the top is all kinds of sensational. Come on, off with the towel, let’s see if I picked right.”
“You picked this?”
“I bought it.” His smile deepened with laughter.
“Prick.”
But if he thought he would embarrass me, make me feel cheap, he didn’t know who he was messing with.
I let the towel fall from my fingers. It hit the sand. I turned in a circle, bent over, and picked up the discarded towel. I could have picked Theo’s jaw up, too, but I decided to let it stay on the ground where it had fallen after he saw my backside in his choice of beach wear.
“Hot damn.” He almost stuttered over his words. “That’s the exact effect I was searching for when I found that suit.”
I didn’t want his words to make me feel all warm and tingly, but they did. “Let’s get this over with so I can put some clothes on.”
He hesitated, still staring at my mostly naked body, I was about to ask him if he was okay, but he quickly said, “Follow me.” He led us over to a well-lit area on the beach. One of my surfboards was perched against a rocky area. “I want the sky, the moon, the ocean in the background. But what I mostly want is you looking lost. Pensive. Sad even.”
All I had to do was think about my fucked up life and he would get more sad than he bargained for.
I gave him a salute and went to my board and did my thing as he did his. A crowd gathered close by, held back by the men who were helping him when I came out in my suit.
Working with Theo was different than working with any other photographer I’ve had before. The others would tell me how to move, where to put my hands, how to shift my body for the perfect shot. Theo never said a word.
I know everyone talked about our crazy, behind-the-camera chemistry, something I doubted until this very moment.
I moved according to his movements. Watched him watching me and it was as if I knew what he wanted me to do without words or orders.
We worked in unison, barely saying ten words to each other through the whole forty-five minutes that he kept me out there. The crowd was enormous and in the center of it all, I spied Keera watching.
Daggers of hatred and jealousy shot in my direction.
Screw her. I hadn’t broken my promise. This was all business.
The camera stopped clicking, and I stopped posing.
The breeze picked up and the sweet smell that accompanied Dream Theo filled the air. I glanced in his direction. His eyes watched me. His mouth cocked up on one side. His scar almost all the way gone.
“You look unbelievable.” His words were delivered on a complimentary cloud without any condescending tone.
I felt my face flame. Unable to process the feelings that were churning throughout my body.
Within seconds of Theo setting his camera down, Keera had forced her way through the crowd and was hanging on his elbow. When they touched the smell changed from sweet to pungent. Wrong. Real Theo had returned.
“Are you done working for the night?” Her lips twisted into a sneer.
He barley looked in her direction as he pried her fingers from his skin. “Maybe another half an hour.”
“Mind if I hang around?” She not only seemed desperate, but she sounded it, too.
“We’re going to be cleaning up.” He started packing his camera equipment in his bag. “Go see if you can help move the process along.”
She had just been reduced from girl-of-the-weekend to lackey. Things were not looking good for Keera.
With her arms straight at her side, shoulders slumped, and head lowered, she kept her normally volatile temper in check and went off to see if she could be useful.
She wasn’t ten feet away when the sweet smell returned. I inhaled his scent.
“I’m going to be up all night going through these shots.”
“I think Keera has other ideas.”
He walked close. Invading my personal space, something he had been very careful to never do before. I felt the heat coming off his body. Fought the urge to reach up and stroke the spot where the scar usually lived. Fought the urge to run my hands through his hair. Tried my hardest to remember my promise not more than ninety minutes ago to stay away from Theo Castas.
His breath warmed the edge of my ear as he leaned in close. “I don’t care what Keera has in mind.”
Having him this close, smelling like Dream Theo, I couldn’t tell if I wanted to shove him away or pull him closer.
I think the smutty, barely-there bathing suit was screwing with my hormones.
Some of the men worked around us, taking down the lights, leaving us in the streaming moonlight, which was not helping the already sexed up situation. Time to throw some cold water on whatever was going on between Theo and I.
“Don’t you have some pictures to get to?” I pointed at his ever-present camera.
“Want to help?”
“Help you pick out the best ones?” The idea was all kinds of appealing.
“Yes.” He paused and his I’m-going-to-seduce-your-pants-off smile returned. “But only if you stay in that bathing suit.”
I laughed. “Not a chance. I’m taking this thing off the moment I get back to the tent.”
“Naked. That’s even better.”
I decided to move the conversation away from anything having to do with the sexual variety. “I’d love to help you tonight. Fully clothed of course.”
“Let me clean everything up, then we can meet in your room later.”
“My room?” I saw bad things happening if he stayed in my room another night. Naughty things. Sex things. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” is what my mouth said, but my body said, hell-to-the-yeah.
“I left my computer there last night. Let’s order in room service and impress our bosses.”
I knew I should suggest meeting somewhere less private. That having Theo in my room was a temptation I didn’t need. That I would be breaking my promise to Keera.
In my heart, I knew what I should do, but I’ve spent my whole life doing the right thing. Just once, I wanted to do something just for me. And the me at this very moment wanted to spend the evening with Theo.
I agreed.
Within twenty minutes we had everything cleaned up, and I was up in my room removing my stripper suit and putting on something far less revealing. Sweats, a tank top, and fuzzy socks. Clothes that screamed I-am-not-having-sex-with-you.
I heard Keera’s explosion from next door a few moments before I heard the door slam and the knock on mine.
Grimacing, I walked over and let Theo in. “That didn’t sound like a happy good-bye.”
“She really has issues with me spending time with you. I’ve never seen her like this before.” He found his computer on the couch where he had left it. “I promised her it was only work related, but I don’t think she believed me.”
“Not sure I’d act any different if I was in her situation.”
“You wouldn’t trust me to keep it in my pants, either?” I knew from the tilt of his lips that he was teasing.
“I’m surprised you wear any at all.”
“Oh, there’s that sass Ronnie’s been telling me about.” He walked close. Not as close as on the beach, but somehow this felt more sensual. More provocative. More personal. “For a while I thought you were just plain old mean.”
“Something about you brings out my inner bitch.” I stepped forward, bringing us even closer.
“That’s not what I usually bring out in my women.” He took another step toward me, reached up and took a strand of my hair in his fingers, then let it fall. “What is it about you, Alicia?”
The sweet smell that filled the room almost undid me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, even though we can barely speak five civil words to one another, I want nothing more than to do this…”
Theo leaned in and his lips found mine.
It was in that moment I realized Theo had never touched me before. Not flesh-to-flesh. How did I know? Because the second his lips touched mine, the fire inside my veins, the blood that constantly boiled, cooled. I felt normal. Undamaged.
As he kissed me my heart hemorrhaged, almost shattering. This one kiss had just confirmed all my darkest fears. Theo was the answer to everything.
But would I, could I, risk killing for love again?