Putting that aside, there’s much more to her than being sexy, and I can’t wait to peel back all the layers to see what’s underneath. If she’ll let me. I worry she might not when I remember how she was about me learning her real name.

I’m glad I found her. And grateful she is willing to give us a chance.

She lifts her eye from her plate and beams. “What?”

I struggle, wondering if I should say anything. She might think I’m being too much like a chickie babe if she knows what I’m thinking, so I keep it simple. “Thank you for saying yes.”

“To what?”

“To us.”

She smiles and reaches across the table to touch my hand. “Thank you for choosing me. And for running into me at the club. And for moving Ben’s wine so you could steal a dance with me.”

“The dance that was cut short.” By none other than lover boy Ben. He is good at ruining things for me, but he won’t ruin this now. I get up from the table and offer Laurelyn my hand. “I would very much like to finish our dance.”

I take her in my arms and pull her close as we begin to move back and forth.

“Do you remember the song that was playing?”

I’m not musical like she is, but I could never forget the song. “It was ‘Someone Like You’ by Van Morrison.”

She smiles. “You remember.”

We sway to the silence for a while and then Laurelyn takes her head from my chest and asks me to kiss her. So I do. And that’s the end of our dance. For now.

We’re lying in bed. Laurelyn is so beautiful, I can’t resist.

“What are you doing, Lachlan?”

She knows exactly what I’m doing because she did the same thing to me earlier in the day. Except maybe I was wearing more clothes. “I’m getting pictures of you so I can see your beautiful face every time you call me.”

“I’m not so sure you’re taking pictures of my face. It needs to be something presentable if it’s going to pop up when I call.”

“Baby, you’re very presentable right now. Besides, I’ll need some visuals to get me by while I’m out of town next week.”

She holds her hands in front of her face. “No way. I’m naked in your bed with sexed-up hair. That’s not presentable by anyone’s standards.”

I grab both of her wrists in one of my hands and hold them hostage over her head. “It is very presentable by my standards and happens to be perfect for me to look at while I’m away from you.” I drop down and kiss her mouth. “Relax, baby. No one’s going to see these little beauties except me, so smile.”

I put the phone on the bed so I have a free hand to tug on the sheet. “We need to drop this down so I can see a little more.”

“Lachlan!” She smiles as she pretends to be shocked by what I’m doing.

I’m still holding her wrists as I kiss her neck and whisper into her ear. “Come on, Laurelyn. Please, let me.”

“What happened to you staying in Wagga Wagga for three months?”

“I’m responsible for other vineyards and I can’t neglect them. I’ll still be here most of the time, until the middle of March.”

I can sense her considering it, so I nuzzle my nose down her neck and plant a kiss to convince her. “Please, baby.”

She sighs deeply. “How long will you be gone?”

“I won’t have you for at least three days. It’s going to be torture.”

She rolls her eyes. “You can take a few, but nothing completely nude.”

I reach for my phone, but she stops me with her hand. “I at least get to brush my hair first.”

“You’re the boss.”

She gets up and walks naked to the bathroom. “Yeah, I’m not so sure about that.”

I’m tempted to snap a shot of her beautiful behind, but I know she’ll kill me if I do. I remind myself of what she said. Nothing completely nude.

She comes out of the bathroom a few minutes later with freshly brushed hair, now cascading down her back. She’s wearing thigh-highs with lace toppers. Hey, hey … is this what she means by nothing completely nude?

She climbs onto the bed and is on her knees. “How do you want me?”

Hearing that come from her is like a fantasy come true. I hold up my phone to take a picture and she puts her hand over it. “I mean it. No nudies.”

“Okay. Lie down first.”

She falls to her back, pulls the sheet under her arms to cover her naked breasts, and waits for directions. “Scoop your hair up and let it spill across the pillow.” She does and it falls in all the right places. My eyes roam her smooth, creamy skin against my black sheets and she’s so beautiful, it’s almost painful.

I take a lot of shots of her like that … more than she intended, I’m sure. When I’m finished with her in that pose, she sits up. “What’s next?”

She’s sitting with her knees pulled up, ankles crossed. I reach for the sheet and begin to pull it away. “You can’t see anything. I promise.”

She smiles and rolls her eyes. “You’re such a liar, but it doesn’t matter. I’m inspecting these pictures when you’re done and any tits, ass, or vagina shots are getting deleted.”

“We’ll see.”

“Umm, yes, we certainly will.”

“Lie down on your stomach.”

“That sounds an awfully lot like a command,” she complains, but does it anyway. I pull the sheet low on her hips and caress her lower back. “I love this part of your body.”

“You love my back? Why?”

“I don’t know why. I just know I do.” I take picture after picture of her silhouette with her lying on her stomach, her side, and sitting. When I can, I sneak the sheet down a little at a time until she busts me and lifts it higher again.

“Are you done? Surely you’ve used up all the phone’s memory.”

“No. I have one more pose I want you to do, but I won’t if you’re not comfortable with it.”

She lifts her brow at me. “That sounds suspicious.”

“Can I position you?”

“You can, but that doesn’t mean I’ll agree to it.”

“But you’ll try it?”

She rolls her eyes at me again. “Yes, I’ll try it.”

“Lie on your back.” She does as I tell her and waits for my direction, but this one won’t be verbal commands. She’ll never do it if she hears me say it.

I put my hands on her knees and spread them apart. I gather the sheet between her legs and twist it so that only a thin strip of material covers her. I bunch it up between her breasts and then take one of her hands and lay it over both breasts. She’s still covered, so it’s not really a nudie, but damn … she is so hot.

Before I take the picture, I ask her. “Can I?”

She swallows and then lifts her head to see what’s covered. “Don’t move. You’ll mess up your hair. Just let me take it and if you don’t like it, I’ll delete it.”

She’s torn. “I promise everything is covered. No tits, ass, or vagina.”

“Okay.” She rests her head back on the pillow and I take picture after picture of her. She eventually relaxes and drops her knees further apart and relaxes the arm covering her breasts.

When I’m done, I ask for the hell of it. “Just one nudie?”

“No!”

I can see I’ve pushed my luck as far as I should, so I put the phone on the bed and drop down to kiss her. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I may not let you keep any of them.”

“I’m not deleting them.”

“I have to approve. That’s our deal.”

I start peeling through them at rapid speed before she gets her hands on the phone. “None of them are nudie, so I get to keep all of them.”

She holds out her hand. “Gimme.” I pass her the phone like a teenage boy in trouble with his mum over a Playboy. I swear I’ll take them all again while she’s asleep if she erases the good ones.

I sit. I watch. I wait. She hoots and laughs as she goes through the first several and then I almost hear her brakes skid to a stop. “No way, bro. That one shows my nipples.” She goes through a few more and then scrunches her eyebrows and brings the phone closer to her face. “You said you couldn’t see anything when I was sitting like that, you liar. You can see my vajayjay in these.”

Dammit! She’s deleting all the great ones.

She passes the phone back to me and I go through to see what’s left. It’s not too bad. She only erased a handful. I’m surprised I get to keep all the near nudies with her legs sprawled apart. In fact, it shocks the shit out of me. I wonder if she overlooked those, but I choose to not mention it, just in case.

She picks up the phone I gave her from the bedside table and then lies next to me on the bed. She holds it at arm’s length to take our picture together. “Say cheese.”

I smile because she asks me to, knowing I shouldn’t let her take these kinds of pictures of us in bed together. I only give in because she doesn’t know how much money she can make by selling these photographs to the media. She has no idea I’m Jack McLachlan. Even if she knew my name, she still wouldn’t know I’m one of Australia’s richest and most eligible bachelors. I somehow think it wouldn’t matter to her, even if she did know. She’s the daughter of a superstar and his fame doesn’t seem to phase her at all.

Oh, to hell with it. What’s a few pictures going to hurt? I take the phone out of her hand and hold it out to get one of me kissing the side of her face. Then her mouth. Then her neck.

After my mouth reaches her breast, I drop her phone to the bed because our photo shoot is forgotten.

23

Laurelyn Prescott

I wake before Lachlan for the first time, but it’s because I don’t feel well. I try to go back to sleep for an hour, but I’m unsuccessful. My head is pounding at the base of my skull and I’m nauseated as waves of heat flash throughout my body. I kick off the covers in an unsuccessful attempt to gain a little relief from the uncomfortable sensation.