“Don’t be ridiculous.” He wrapped an arm around her waist, anchoring her against him. “This way I get your sweet ass rubbing up against me while I eat. It’s the best of both worlds.”
She wanted to roll her eyes at his playful words, but she opened the box of pizza, balancing it in one hand and offering him a slice with the other. He took it, and she grabbed a slice for herself, and they ate in relative silence. Elise felt weird and awkward sitting on his lap and staring ahead while she ate.
He devoured another two slices while she picked at her one, and then downed a soda. When they’d both eaten, he wrapped both his arms around her and began to push her hair over one shoulder, lightly kissing her neck.
She squirmed against him, all eating forgotten.
“You miss me?” he whispered in a husky voice.
“It’s only been two days,” she said in a shaky voice. Thing was, she had missed him. Or at least daydreamed about him constantly. Maybe that was the same thing.
“Thinking about the other night when we were watching the movie?” His hands rubbed up and down her sides in a soft, teasing motion.
“I don’t think we did much watching of the movie.”
“I can’t say I missed it.”
She couldn’t say that she did, either. Even now, she could feel the warmth of his body against hers, and her ni**les were aching. She felt him growing erect against her ass, and pulled herself reluctantly out of his embrace. If she got all distracted, she’d never get this photoshoot done, and she wanted to concentrate. “Yes, well.” She struggled to think of something to say, flustered. Eventually, she went back to work-related things. “You ready to get this started?”
“Ready if you are,” he said, and got to his feet also. He pulled his black T-shirt off in a quick, fluid motion that took her breath away to watch, and then he was all bared skin and tattoos. “Where do you want me?”
On the floor, over me, her mind thought, and she swallowed the nervous giggle rising in her throat. God, she was just turning into the biggest horndog, wasn’t she? “Come with me,” she told him.
He shifted in place. “Will it be weird for you if I take off my jeans? I think I’m losing circulation.”
This time, the laugh escaped. “Go right ahead.”
He gave her a boyish grin and undid his pants, and, okay, she watched him move, his fingers dragging the zipper down and then pulling his pants to his thighs. Everything he did seemed full of sensuality, and when he stood in front of her in nothing but his cloth boxers, his c**k making them stiff and tented in the front, she had to bite her lip to keep from moaning at the sight.
Was it bad that she really, really wanted to touch him at the moment? Forget all about the photo shoot and just touch him? But then she’d feel like she dragged him here under false pretenses.
“All right,” she said, taking a deep breath to get control of herself. “Follow me.”
She led him to the center of the floor, to the stool that sat amidst the draped fabric, and moved it, then gestured that he should stand where she indicated. “I wanted to do some of the shots seated, and some standing, but I think we’ll start with standing.” She’d wanted to do them seated to make him more at ease, but the thought of him seated and those boxers pulling taut over his c**k was distracting her. Really, she was just changing her mind all over the place.
“All right,” Rome said, and stood where she pointed, his hands on his hips. “What now?”
“Now we work on the lighting,” she said. “You just stay there.” She hurried over and picked up a long-handled lighter, and began to light the candles one by one.
As she leaned over, he brushed a hand on her ass, startling her. “This is pretty.”
She jumped, startled, and gasped. “Don’t do that when I have an open flame near all this fabric.”
He laughed. “Sorry. Just in case, is there a fire extinguisher anywhere?”
She pointed primly at the opposite wall, where a red extinguisher was propped. “We’d better not need it.”
“That’s what I’m hoping,” he said, but he didn’t grab her again, and she was almost disappointed.
No, she was disappointed. But she’d pushed him away, so it was her own fault. She finished lighting the two dozen candles and reviewed her work, then nodded. “That looks good. I’m going to turn the lights off now.”
“I’ll stay right here,” he said, pointing at his spot and grinning at her.
That grin made her nervous and all flustered again, but she smiled back at him, then hurried over to flick the lights off.
The effect of the candlelight was nice. She’d set up the candles so the light would flicker at different levels, and it gave a soft, shadowy glow to everything. She wanted that contrast of light and shadow to go with his muscles and his tattoos. But it wasn’t quite perfect, so she wanted more.
“Don’t think I’m weird for this next part, okay?”
Rome gave her a wary look. “You’re not going to ask me to dress up like a unicorn or anything, are you?”
Elise laughed. “Nothing like that. But the entire concept I’m going for is light and shadow on skin, so I want to make sure it’s noticeable.” And she moved to the side of the room and picked up a tiny bottle of baby oil and demonstrated it to him.
He looked surprised. “You’re going to grease me up?”
“Well, actually, I thought you could—”
He shook his head, interrupting her train of thought before she even finished it. “Oh no. If we’re doing this, you’re the one who’s putting that stuff on me. Consider it payment for all this cheap modeling you’re getting.”
She shrugged, pretending nonchalance. “I can do that.” She flicked the cap off and squirted a fair amount into her hand, and then began to rub her hands together to warm the oil.
His eyes gleamed as she held her hands out to him, and he stepped a bit closer to her. “Go ahead,” he dared.
With his gaze bearing down on her, Elise suddenly felt shy. Hesitantly, she put her fingertips on his chest and marveled again at how warm he was.
He inhaled at her touch, long and slow. “That feels good.”
It did, didn’t it? She was fascinated by touching him. Instead of spreading the oil around in a brisk, businesslike manner, she traced her fingertips up and down his body, feeling the muscles under his skin and loving the way he felt.