“Your assignment for today is a quick one,” Luca Romano announced, sitting on the edge of his desk. “You have thirty minutes to go outside the classroom and capture the best examples of a beautiful woman. You and your partner must capture two different images of two different subjects. And no, you and your partner can’t take a picture of the same woman and call it a day.”

The class hummed with laughter.

“Once you’ve both completed that task, you will return and upload your photo digitally. When both raw, untouched photos have been uploaded, you and your partner have officially completed the assignment. These submissions will give me an idea of where your individual starting point is so don’t think too long and hard about it. You only have thirty minutes so let’s get started. Grab your cameras, grab a few consent forms… The time starts now!”

I pulled my camera out of my bag. “Are you ready?” I asked Carlos who was fitting a different lens on his camera.

“Yeah, I’m ready.” When he looked over at me, I could see the excitement in his eyes even though there wasn’t a hint of a smile on his face.

Standing, I smirked. “I’m starting to figure you out.”

He stood, gesturing for me to walk before him. “Is that right?”

“Yes.”

No, not at all.

“I can see right through you,” I added.

I had no idea.

Glancing over my shoulder at him, I continued, “I think you—”

“Stop,” Carlos commanded, gripping my waist and pulling me back.

I gasped as my back hit his chest and my ass hit his thighs. Turning my head, I looked around and then down.

“Oh, sorry,” Jennifer apologized in a saccharine sweet voice that dripped with insincerity and disdain. “You almost tripped over my bag. You should watch where you’re going.”

My blood boiled as I stared at her smug face in shock.

Did she really just try to trip me up?

“That was a bitchy thing to do, Jennifer.” I started moving toward her, but felt a hand flex against my hip, reminding me of his presence and preventing me from going anywhere.

“What?!” Jennifer shrieked, causing the last few students in the room to look our way.

The slight movement of Carlos’s hand sent a wave of activity through my entire body. I didn’t mean to swoon. I wasn’t even sure if I did swoon. But everything slowed down except for the flutter in my belly and the heat of his hand that scorched my skin through my clothes. I let out a small breath instead of the angry growl I was going to give Jennifer’s petty ass.

“Did you just call me a bitch?!” Jennifer yelled, catching the attention of Luca Romano.

“What’s going on?” our instructor asked, making his way across the room as Jennifer continued yelling about me verbally attacking her.

I looked at the legend up close as he approached us, and my tongue felt heavy and too big for my mouth. Cotton had lodged itself in my throat. I opened my mouth and no words came out at first.

“Luca, Akila called me a bitch,” Jennifer whined as she batted her eyelashes.

He looked at her and then looked at me.

Shifting my gaze away from the handsome instructor, I focused on the grown ass woman who was acting like a little ass kid.

“I did not call you a bitch. I said that you trying to trip me up was a bitchy thing to do, but I didn’t call you a bitch,” I corrected her. Turning my attention to Luca, I swallowed hard. “Because I’ve been a fan of your work for a while now and I have the utmost respect for you, I wouldn’t disrespect you or your class like that.”

He held my gaze for a beat too long before turning to speak to Jennifer. “I wasn’t here when it happened, but I do see some belongings in the walkway.” Redirecting his attention to me, he assessed my face silently before his eyes dropped to the strong hand that was still firmly holding my hip. Carlos released me tentatively as Luca continued. “You don’t have very much time to complete your assignment. Head on out.”

I nodded, giving him a soft smile as we started heading out the room.

We’d only managed to get three steps away before I heard Jennifer’s voice. “Thank you for protecting me from her…”

“What?!” I screeched, turning to look over my shoulder.

“Let it go,” Carlos commanded, wrapping his arms around my shoulders and ushering me out of the room. “Don’t feed into her shit. You’re in this class for a reason. You want to get something out of it. Don’t worry about her.”

Inhaling his scent, I closed my eyes briefly and allowed him to lead me down the hall. With my lungs full of the sandalwood and vanilla cologne he wore, I exhaled my words. “But she’s lying on me.”

“And everyone knows that.”

“But Luca—”

“Come on now, Akila…” Carlos removed his arm from around my shoulders and gestured for me to walk through the door before him. When we were walking side by side again, he didn’t look at me as he continued. “If you think Luca gave a damn about what that woman had to say about you, you weren’t paying attention.”

I stared at the strong profile of my partner. His chiseled jawline clenched as we made our way out into the courtyard of Hamilton University.

My stomach twisted.

“What do you mean?” I asked, somewhat sure I understood exactly what he meant.

He slowed to a stop and looked at me. “You’re…” His voice trailed off as we held each other’s gaze.

I swallowed hard. “I’m what?” I whispered, my belly fluttering in anticipation.

“Look out!” A woman screamed as the clunking sound of a rouge skateboard barreled toward us.

“Umph,” I grunted as my body slammed into Carlos’s chest. He’d grabbed me and pulled me into him, out of the way of the skateboard. Our faces were close, too close.

My eyes widened as I looked up into his. My lips parted as I attempted to say something, anything. I wanted to thank him for saving me from falling on my face twice in a five-minute period. I wanted to make a joke to get him to show me those pearly white teeth. But all I could do with those beautiful eyes staring into mine was gape at him. A breathy sigh escaped me as he continued to hold me against him.

“I’m sorry!” Stealing our attention away, the woman ran up to us, throwing an apology over her shoulder as she scooped up her skateboard from the grass a few feet away. “I’m so sorry!”

Carlos let me go and looked down at his watch. “We have twenty, twenty-five minutes.”

I turned my head, looking around the courtyard, so he wouldn’t see how severely his touch affected me.

Still slightly shaken from the rush of endorphins that flooded my brain while in his arms, I pulled myself together. “So, what were you saying? I’m what?” I asked again, my voice back to normal. “And if you say something shitty, I’m going to kick your ass.”

A smile played on his lips. “You’ll kick my ass?”

“Yes.”

“Well, lucky for you, I don’t fight women.”

“Lucky for you.” I shrugged, pursing my lips. “So, I guess you better not say anything shitty, so you won’t have to meet your match.”

“You’re what? Five feet, seven inches? I think you’re tough, but you’re not tough enough to kick my ass. I’m seven inches taller than you and twice your size. So, even with me not fighting back, you wouldn’t be able to kick my ass. Not without some help anyway.”

I stared into his eyes. “I don’t need help.” Raising the arm that didn’t have my bag strap slung over it, I flexed my muscle. “I just need my guns.”

Finally, the sound I’d been waiting for danced against my eardrum.

His deep, rolling chuckle was intoxicatingly sexy. It drew me in with each inflection and as hard as I tried not to, I smiled. Without warning, my smile turned into a small giggle.

“Put your weapon away,” he laughed, pushing my arm down.

I looked at the ground as his fingertips seemed to burn their way into my skin.

“All I was going to say is that… you’re beautiful.”

My eyes met his unintentionally and just when I was about to melt, he continued.

“And beautiful women tend to rise to the top of the class with teachers like Luca Romano.”

I stopped mid-swoon. Furrowing my brows, I asked, “So, I can’t be attractive and talented? You don’t think I could excel in the class on my own merit?”

He gave me a look. “I didn’t say that at all. My comment is less about you and more about him.” He shrugged. “Maybe if you paid any attention to the way he was looking at you, you’d understand what I’m talking about.”

“He wasn’t looking at me any kind of way.”

“Okay.” He shook his head, turning to watch the people around us. “Excuse me, miss,” he called out to the woman with the skateboard, moving into her path, but keeping a safe distance away. “Hello, I’m Carlos.”

Beaming, she bit her bottom lip. “I’m Ava.”

“Hi, Ava,” Carlos’s voice was seductively smooth.

A pang of displeasure tugged at my gut. I wasn’t quite sure why it rubbed me the wrong way that he was speaking to her like that, but it did. I wasn’t jealous or anything. It just felt wrong.

“I’m taking a photography course and our first assignment is to find a beautiful woman and capture that beauty on film.” He handed her the release form. “Would you be interested in being photographed?”

Ava barely read over it before she stared up into Carlos’s face. “I don’t do nudes—well not for anyone I’m not dating.” She swayed back and forth. “But for you, I’ll pose however you want me.”

I almost threw up in my mouth.

Rolling my eyes, I turned my back on the flirtatious display in front of me.

“Really now?” Carlos sounded amused. “Well, I just want to get a couple of fully clothed shots of you...”

I tuned them out. Casting my gaze around the courtyard, I searched for any woman that stood out to me. I didn’t see anyone that really caught my attention, but I heard a laugh that caught my ear. Following the sound, I eyed the most stylish woman on campus at that moment.

In bright blue, wide-legged pants, a white and black polka dot top, and a black leather jacket, she stood out in a sea of casual wear. But it was her big, curly hair, musical laugh, and undeniable confidence that drew me to her. She had three men and one woman surrounding her as she told a story. As I got closer to her, I noticed the black spiked heels and the impeccable makeup.

She was perfect for the assignment.

“Excuse me,” I interrupted as the men were exchanging goodbyes with the beautiful woman.

“Hey!” She flashed a sparkling smile.

“I don’t know if you’re familiar with Luca Romano, but—”

“I’m familiar with the fact that I prayed to the gods that I’d get into his class and wasn’t selected,” she interjected with a laugh. “I’m guessing you were one of the lucky ones?”

I smiled. “Yes. But if it’s any consolation, my sister wanted this more than anything. She loves his work and she didn’t get in either.”

“So, she feels my pain?”

“I imagine she does.” I laughed along with her. “Speaking of his class, our first assignment is to photograph someone beautiful”—I handed her the form— “and with your beauty and your awesome style, I thought you’d be the perfect person for this quick assignment.”

She read over the paper quickly as she spoke. “Well, thank you. I love it when women compliment other women. But I have a question?”

“What’s that?” I pointed to the bold print on the form. “Just so you know, your photo won’t be used for anything outside of this assignment.”

“Yeah, I read that part, and I’m willing to do it,” she replied, scribbling her name at the bottom of the form. “But I was going to ask for something in return.”

“What’s that?” I asked slowly.

I silently prayed she didn’t ask for financial compensation. Time was running out and I’d have to be back in class shortly. I couldn’t go back with assignment number one incomplete. Failing the first assignment was not an option.

“Would you give Luca Romano my card?” She pulled a card out of her pocket. “I’m a stylist, model, and budding photographer.”

“Oh, yeah.” I nodded, relieved. Taking her card, I glanced at the name and the headshot of her that covered the entire back. “This is gorgeous! I can definitely get this to him,” I agreed, before putting it in my bag with the consent form she’d signed.

“And what’s your name?”

“I’m Akila.”

After we shook hands, I positioned my camera to my face and snapped a bunch of shots. In the two-minute photoshoot, I didn’t give her any direction because she knew her angles, she knew how to pose, and she effortlessly slipped into model mode.

“Got it,” I said as I looked at the screen of the last shot I’d taken. “You made this easy.”

“Thanks! And I appreciate you giving THE Luca Romano my card. A campus wide email went out asking us to respect his space, but a secondary email went out to the School of the Arts basically asking us not to embarrass Hamilton University by throwing ourselves and our portfolios at him.”

I giggled. “I get it. So, what I’m going to do is rave about my model and give him your card casually once he raves about the pictures here.”

She grinned. “Perfect!”

“Okay, I have to head back to class, but thank you, Serena.”

“No, thank you!”

Turning, I was only a little surprised to see Carlos standing a few feet away, watching me. As I approached him, I could see the way he searched my face.

“You walked off…” He pointed out as he fell into step with me.

“Well, I needed to find my subject. You seemed preoccupied with yours and I didn’t know how long it was going to take.” I had more bite in my voice than I intended, so I tried to soften my statement. “We’re down to the last ten minutes or less, and we still have to upload and choose the best photos to submit.”

“I spent more time waiting for you than I did with Ava.”

It took everything not to roll my eyes. Ava.

“Did you get your shot?” I asked.

“Yeah. I thought it was going to be difficult to convince people to participate.” He opened the door to the building, gesturing for me to go before him. “But looks like after they see the Romano name on the paper, it’s easy.”

“Did you say she was easy?” I asked, knowing it was in fact not what he said.

Carlos smirked knowingly. “I said it was easy to convince someone to be photographed.”

“Oh okay.” I looked away, a little irritated that he could see through my statement so quickly. “She was obviously interested. I had to walk away when she presented herself to you. Our society conditions women to instinctively present themselves as sexual objects to men.”

“She didn’t present herself as an object,” Carlos pointed out as we approached the classroom. “She offered herself as an object. There’s a difference.”

“What?” I scoffed, secretly loving that he challenged me.

“There’s a difference,” he repeated as we walked into the classroom. “It’s in the intent. You can be attracted to someone and want them to be attracted to you so you present yourself as desirable. You can be attracted to someone and want them sexually so you offer yourself to them in hopes of being desired.” He winked at me. “I minored in Women’s Studies, too.”

I couldn’t help that my lips turned up slightly. “My point is that she’s beautiful—all women are physically, uniquely beautiful—so if she wanted you because she wanted you, cool. But I hope she didn’t offer herself up to you because she thought she had to—” I stopped in my tracks. “Dammit!” I swore under my breath as I saw that almost everyone was back in the room.

“Come on. We still have time,” Carlos assured me, placing a hand on my elbow as we rushed to the other side of the room.

“This one is free!” I spotted a student getting up from one of the computers and claimed it for us.

We quickly uploaded our photos onto the computer, dropping it in the Beautiful Woman Assignment folder. As we returned to our seats, I smiled.

“What are you smiling about?” Carlos asked.

“We just submitted our first assignment for this class. We submitted photos for Luca Romano to critique.” My smile grew. “Life is good.”

He stared at me. “It is.”

I exhaled. “What’s up with you? You keep giving me these looks and if we’re going to be partners for the duration of this class, we need to make sure we’re on the same page.”

His eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I’m not going to let a man distract me from my goals.”

“Who is trying to distract you?” He lifted his hands in surrender. “I was looking at you while you were talking.”

“And you kept finding reasons to touch me…”

“Do you mean when I kept you from falling on your face or when I kept you from being hit by Ava’s skateboard?”

Rolling my eyes to mask the uncertainty I was starting to feel. “Well, you also called me beautiful.”

“You are.”

He was so matter-of-fact about it that my lips snapped shut. I was quiet and so was he.

We just stared at each other as the seconds ticked by.

I cleared my throat. “Don’t tell me you don’t feel like there’s a thing happening here.”

“No, I feel something between us, but you’re the one making a big deal about it. You must’ve been thinking long and hard about it. Must’ve been on your mind the entire class.” He paused before winking at me. “But I don’t mix business with pleasure.”

“Don’t do that.” I shook my head and kept a straight face. “Don’t wink at me again. Unless you have something in your eye or you’re blinking, don’t even close your eyes rapidly around me.”

We both laughed heartily as Luca began class.

“Okay, now that everything has been submitted, you have made your introductions with your work. Let’s talk about beauty.” He flipped a switch, and the projection screen eased down. With a few clicks of a remote, a picture of a woman flooded the screen. She was older—with wrinkles and crow’s feet. Her hair was a mixture of black and grey strands that framed her round face. There was a sparkle in her eyes that drew the focus.

“Look at the eyes,” the photography legend directed. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Beauty is in the eye of the photographer. And lastly, beauty is in the eye of the subject.”

Nodding, I jotted that down in my notebook. Sneaking a quick glance at Carlos, I saw that he was also writing down the quote. There was something so sexy about his personality. My lips turned upward into a smile slightly before I looked away and continued taking notes.

For the next forty-five minutes, Luca explored the idea of beauty and how we limit it through our own filters and through societal definitions. He showed us various photos he’d taken of beautiful women and then he showed us the photos we had taken. Without disclosing whose photo was whose, he offered praise and a suggestion for improvement.

Turning the projector off, Luca walked around to the front of his desk and sat. “Now we’ll conclude class with formal introductions.” He looked around the room and smiled. “Everyone had to write an essay explaining why they wanted to be here. Of those submitted essays, a lottery was conducted to choose who would be offered a seat.” He paused dramatically. “And here you are.” He opened his arms widely. “You randomly sat beside your classmate who is now your partner for the duration of this workshop. But as we will find over the course of the semester: nothing is random.”

I could feel Carlos’s gaze on me, but I kept my eyes forward. Biting the inside of my cheek, I kept myself from smiling. Unfortunately, there was nothing I could do about the butterflies in my stomach.

“Your partner is the person that will push you to be better,” Luca continued. “Look at your neighbor… part of your grade will be influenced by this person.” He clapped his hands and rubbed them together. “So, let’s find out who you are.”

He began the introductions on the other side of the room. As people introduced themselves, I discreetly pulled Serena’s card out of my bag without disrupting Luca engaging with students during their introductions. Once I had it in front of me position where Luca couldn’t miss it, I leaned back in my seat with a satisfied smile.

“What are you doing?” Carlos whispered.

“Minding my business,” I retorted, pursing my lips with sass.

He smiled. “Oh, I thought maybe you were thinking about how there’s something here.” He gestured between us.

“It was…until you winked,” I murmured under my breath, trying not to get caught talking. “Now you’ve lost all your allure.”

“You’re not a good liar.”

I grinned at him. “We have a connection and I brought it up because I think it’ll help us work well as a team for this course. But I wasn’t saying it like I was trying to date you.”

“I wasn’t either.”

“You’re not a good liar.”

He smirked but said nothing.

The connection between us was undeniable and the energy we exchanged was electric.

“Last, but not least…” Luca called out, interrupting the moment and breaking the trance I was in.

I tore my eyes from Carlos to find our teacher glowering in our direction.

“Tell us your name, your occupation, and why you’re here,” he directed, folding his arms across his chest.

Damn! I cursed internally as I rose to my feet. Now he’s going to think I’m some kind of rude, disruptive slacker. Maybe I can redeem myself…

“Hi, my name is Akila. I’m a freelance writer. I’m a fan of your work and a fan of photography so being here is an honor. My hope is that I can capture the essence of what I write and tell a story with my photos. And I can only learn that from a legend.”

“Very nice, Akila.” Luca’s eyes lit up as he flashed me a pearly white smile. “Very nice, indeed. I’ve read an article of yours, and it’s excellent. I look forward to seeing that passion in your photography.”

My cheeks heated under his approving words.

Carlos cleared his throat. “I’m Los. Right now, I teach high school English—ninth grade. But I’m working on my first book of essays and building my online brand. I’m going to be posting original content, including pictures, and I’m here because if I’m going to put out the best, I need to learn from the best.”

Luca nodded. “Good, good.” He paused. “I’ve listened to your podcast. Very entertaining.”

“I love podcasts! What’s the name of it?” The man sitting next to Jennifer called out from across the room. Everyone’s interest seemed piqued.

Luca gestured to Carlos to respond.

He ran his hand over his beard. “I co-host a show called Date Night.”

“What?” I gasped horrified. My stomach plummeted.

Carlos gave me a weird look before he told the class where to follow The Lost Boys on social media and how they raise money for some cause.

I couldn’t hear him clearly over the sound of my mind being blown.

“Are you kidding me?” I hissed under my breath as soon as the photography powerhouse moved on to conclude the class.

“What?” Carlos appeared completely oblivious.

“I just…” I shook my head, glancing at Luca to make sure we weren’t being overhead. “I guess I had you all wrong.”

“What are you talking about?” Carlos asked, just as chairs started scraping against the floor and students started packing to leave.

“I have to go.” Standing, I grabbed all my belongings. “I have to go.”

He didn’t say a word.