The Sanderson contract had been large enough to have kept us going for another two months. Without it, we’d be cutting things close to the wire. Which meant the Reality Life deal, instead of being gravy, was now critical to keeping our business going.
“Are you mad at me?” In that moment, Sophia sounded very unlike herself. We’d been friends long enough that I considered her the sister I never had. And while sometimes Sophia could drive me nuts, I loved her more than anything.
“Hon, you did the right thing. I would have hated to have our name on something that made us look bad. Don’t worry about a thing. I’ll get the contract here and then we’ll be good.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
A noise in the background filtered through the phone to me. “What’s that?”
“That would be Fynn and the football game. I was just getting us a couple of beers when you called.”
I don’t know why I thought she’d be alone and able to talk. Sophia had been tied to Fynn’s hip since they’d finally got together. With me away, of course Sophia would spend as much time as she could with him. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
Fynn cheered loudly and Sophia laughed. “I think someone just got a score.”
“It’s called a touchdown.”
“Right. I knew that.”
“Go watch your game. I’m going to go eat and figure a few things out.”
“Okay. You take care. And maybe you meeting up with Reid again is a good thing. People can change a lot in three years. Maybe things will be better between you now.”
I held the phone in my hand for a full minute after hanging up with her. She was right, of course. I wasn’t the same person I’d been when we’d been dating, so there was no reason to think he truly hadn’t changed.
Not that there was anything I could do about it tonight. I needed to get out of the hotel and go get something to eat. I remembered Reid mentioning the restaurant not far from here. A nice rare steak had a way of making things better.
Getting dressed only took a few minutes and I grabbed my leather jacket in case I got cold. I slipped on my wedges and opened the door to see Reid walking down the hallway, a bag slung over his shoulder. He looked tired but smiled when he saw me. He slowed his saunter down the closer he got, giving me ample opportunity to stare without feeling guilty.
“You’re back late.” I hated that my voice sounded a bit breathy. “Brian making you work?”
“Yeah, the production meeting ran longer than normal.” His gaze slipped down my body. “You’re heading out on the town? I thought you had no time for fun?”
Without thinking I reached up and touched my hair. Normally I wore it up whenever I was working, just so I wouldn’t play with it. But I hadn’t bothered to do anything to it since I was only doing supper. “I was just going to grab some food.”
He reached out and snagged a lock of my hair, rubbing it between his fingers before letting it go. “Are you looking for some alone time, or do you want some company?”
Company. Naked company in my bed. “That would be dangerously close to being a date.”
“Or it could simply be two old friends having dinner.” He cocked his eyebrow.
There was no reason to say no, not without coming across as the bitch he’d once accused me of being. “That sounds nice.”
“Just give me a minute to drop this stuff in my room.”
Fate must have been laughing at me because Reid’s room was only three down the hall from mine. I didn’t want to follow him, no matter how much I was tempted, and instead awkwardly hung out in the hall. Before I knew it he was back out in the hall, a different, smaller bag over his shoulder. “What’s that?”
“My camera. Just in case I see anything picture-worthy while we’re out.”
“Oh.” I hoped he was talking about seeing something in the streets and not me.
“I take it everywhere I go. Don’t worry, I’m not too crazy with it.”
We rode down the few floors in the elevator in silence. The doors dinged and slid open. When I stepped into the lobby and realized he wasn’t behind me, I turned to see where he’d gone. A burst of light from his flash startled a small yelp from me.
“Dude. The hell?”
“Sorry.” His grin told me he was anything but. “I couldn’t resist. I’ll delete it if you want.”
I fought to keep my hands down at my sides and resisted the urge to fix my hair. “Delete? I figured a camera guy would be all into using film and the right lenses.”
“I have film, too. But I’m not so old-school. I like having the choice.” Reid came alongside me and held up the camera so I could see the display. “You didn’t answer my question. Would you like me to delete this?”
It was strange seeing myself caught in a picture I hadn’t posed for. Normally I despised having my picture taken. My cheeks would start to twitch the moment I’d smile and the end result never turned out looking like me. Somehow, without any preparation, Reid had managed to take a picture of me that I didn’t want to immediately blot from the face of the Earth. My hair seemed to be moving as I turned, light from behind me giving me an otherworldly glow. I was even almost smiling.
“No. You can keep it.” I pushed the camera down and let out a sigh. “I’m hungry. If you’re going to be snapping pictures all night, I’m going to abandon you.”
Reid tucked the camera back into his bag. “I know better than to get in the way of you eating. There’s a great place only a five-minute cab ride from here.”
He held out his arm for me and I took it without thinking. Another shiver of desire worked its way through my body. I used to tease Sophia about being too sexually hard up, but my own love life had been pretty empty for the past few months. Things were bad if I was contemplating sex with Reid again.
Nothing good would come of that.
Chapter Four
Shooting has been delayed today due to Jennifer being “sick.” We’re doing a callback tomorrow for the contestants who’ve made it to the next round to give her a day to get over this “flu.” I’m sure she’ll be better by then. I’ve given the rest of the cast and crew a day off to enjoy the sights of the Big Apple.
Production Notes, Brian Merrick, Director
Why the hell had I agreed to this?
“You can’t seriously want me to stand here?” The wind was strong and more than a little chilly as I carefully made my way to the top of the rocks. “I’m going to die. Become one of those bodies they find in the harbor.”
“I’ll tell them the mob did it.” Reid rested his camera on his shoulder as he directed me to the outcropping. The city rose up behind me, and for the first time in a while I felt very small in the grand scale of life. “That looks good. Sit there.”
What had started out as a sightseeing tour, courtesy of a hungover Jennifer, quickly turned into a photo shoot. I still couldn’t figure out how he’d managed to convince me to do this. Sure, we’d talked about his photography and how important it had become to him, but discussing his art and becoming the subject of it were two completely different things. Though it would give me some really awesome shots of me in New York to take home.
Reid gave me a few more directions and I was able to get into the pose without killing myself. The breeze was a lot warmer today and I’d chosen to wear a skirt with a thin top. The wind had my nipples hard beneath my silk bra, and for the hundredth time since we’d started this, I prayed that he wasn’t able to see them in the pictures.
“Lean forward a bit more.” He’d come close so that I was now forced to look almost directly down at him. His glasses were reflecting the sunlight so it was hard to see his eyes even when he didn’t have his camera in front of his face.
Not that I’d tell him, but I was having as much fun watching him as I think he was taking pictures of
me. I wasn’t completely comfortable in his company, though. Strange as it felt, I half expected the other shoe to drop, for him to lose his temper the way he would sometimes when I’d say something snarky. The longer we spent together, the more I began to realize how much he really had changed.
“So, do you do this a lot? Use people you know as subjects?”
“Don’t smile. Just look out over the water and think about something that makes you happy.” The camera continued to click away as he took pictures. “And no. I’ve mostly done environmental shots. Abandoned places. That type of thing.”
“Oh, I’d love to see some of those.” Ignoring his request, I looked down at him again. “Seriously, I have a thing for those types of photos. There are some fascinating places out there that no one gets to see. I bet we could find a shit-ton here in New York. Pardon my language.”
Shifting his camera away, he looked up at me. “Do you want to see my etchings?”
“Oh crap, that’s so lame.” My ass was officially frozen from sitting on the cold rocks. I took my time and made my way back down to where he stood. “Yes, I’d like to see some of your pictures. Call me curious.”
“They’re not great.” There was something about the way he dismissed his own work. “It’s just a hobby.”
“I find it hard to believe anything you do isn’t fantastic. I really would like to see them.”
For the first time since we’d met on the plane, something changed in him. “Maybe another time.”
As quickly as his mood darkened, the easygoing man was back. His smile relaxed his face. “Are you hungry? I’m sure we can grab some street meat close by.”
My stomach growled at the suggestion. “Damn, you remembered my weakness for greasy food.”
“The Ice Queen’s soft spot.”
I did my best to conceal it, but his words hurt. “I wish you wouldn’t call me that.”
“You didn’t mind before.”
“Yes, I did.” I started walking, saying nothing else until he joined me. “It always bothered me.”
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?”
It was a good question. “I don’t know. I was a bit overwhelmed by our relationship back then. And sometimes I knew I deserved it.”
He stopped walking, forcing me to turn back to see him. His expression was closed off and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “I’m sorry if I’d hurt you. I...lashed out sometimes. You never deserved that.”
My heart ached at the sound of regret in his voice. “I think it’s fair to say we both said and did things that hurt the other.” Moving closer, I held out my hand. “How about we agree to start off fresh. I promise not to be such a bitch and you promise not to shut me out.”
His hand swallowed mine as we shook. “Deal.”
I looked down at the difference in our fingers. I remembered what his felt like on my skin and in my hair. Forcing my gaze up, I smiled and hoped I wasn’t blushing too much. “And I really would like to see some of your pictures.”
I wasn’t expecting him to pull me against his body, lower his head and place a soft kiss on my lips. I didn’t kiss him back—my brain had chosen that moment to stop working—and could only stare up into his eyes.
“What was that for?” My voice shook, but I didn’t move away from him. His body was as warm as the sun on my back, inviting in a way that a man’s hadn’t been to me for a long time.
“Sealing the deal with a kiss.”
“Sure. That makes sense.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want you to think that I was overstepping my bounds.” He leaned down and kissed my forehead. “Let’s get you that food, and then we can head back into the city. There’s a place I want to show you.”
My mind buzzed. For the first time in ages I wanted to let myself go, take a deep breath and simply enjoy the ride. As we walked, his fingers brushed mine, the brief contact sending delightful shivers through me. I wanted to know about his life since we’d broken up. What had he been doing? Who had he been with?
The pressure between my legs pulsed and I had to force my attention from the gutter that it had slipped into. Think about food, girl, not about sexy fun times.
Yeah, that didn’t help.
* * *
After dinner we hopped onto the subway. Sure, I’d been on subways all the time in Toronto and even the one in Montreal once, but they were different from this. I was too busy gawking to follow where Reid was taking me. There was a pulse to this place that made everything feel bigger to me. Maybe it was because I was little more than a tourist, but New York was quickly winning me over.
Being with Reid was certainly helping. The man clearly knew where he was going, even if I didn’t have a clue. He took us into a neighborhood that was more than a little run-down. I had to skirt around a pothole in the asphalt parking lot as he led me toward what appeared to be an abandoned building. “What a mess.”
“You were the one who wanted to see me take some shots. You can wait outside if you want.”
“No, thanks.” The old brick building was huge. Most of the windows on the first two floors were boarded up, but the third and fourth levels still had glass, though it was mostly broken. The wood covering the windows was covered in graffiti, words and images that held little meaning to me. Birds darted above us, and I could hear the beat of their wings echo against the brick, drawing my gaze upward. “This place is falling apart.”
His grin took up a generous portion of his impish face. “That’s the point. We sneak in, take some pictures and leave.” He walked over to a set of concrete stairs that led to what at one time would have served as an entrance.
“This can’t be legal.”
“It’s not. Technically it’s trespassing, though I’ve never had any of the security guards I’ve run into call the cops.”
I’d never gotten a speeding ticket, let alone do something like this. I stopped at the bottom of the stairs as Reid peeked inside the window. “I’m not going in there. We could get arrested or something.”
“No one is going to get arrested. The building is in pretty good shape based on what some of my online buddies have told me. People have been here before and have given us a way in. There’s an open window on the other side.” He jogged down the stairs, grabbing my hand to tug me along behind him. “I promise nothing bad will happen.”
“We could get deported!” This had to be one of his jokes. There was no way we were actually going to break into that death trap.
“We won’t. If anyone shows up I’ll tell them that we’re here scouting for a location to use for the show. Easy.”
“You’re not kidding about this.”
He looked over his shoulder and grinned. “The only rule you need to know is that we take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but footprints. Relax. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.” He stole another quick kiss. “You wanted to prove that you weren’t uptight.”
The bastard knew I couldn’t walk away from a challenge. “Fine, let’s go. But if the cops show up, you have to call Brian and explain why we’re being shipped back to Toronto.”
Reid had to use some muscle to get the window open enough to allow us to climb through. Once inside we had to tread carefully around damaged wooden planks in the floor while avoiding pipes sticking out from the walls.
“Do you know what this place was?” I stayed close to him, as he stopped here and there to take pictures. “It looks like some sort of factory.”
“It was. They used to make shoes and boots here for nearly a hundred years. I’ve heard that there are some old machines still on-site.” He looked back and took a picture of me. “If you’re up for it, I’d love to get you to pose for me there.”
“Sure.” Not that I’d admit it out loud, but I was turned on. Something about being alone in an abandoned place, walking th
rough the light and shadows with a handsome man who wanted to share this moment with me. I had no idea what that said about me.
We wandered around, pausing occasionally for him to take a picture of me. One looking out an old window. Another of me pulling on a chain that was still dangling from the ceiling. But finally we walked into what must have been the main factory floor, and off to the side were several old machines that took up a generous portion of the wall.
“Wow.” Reid dropped his bag on the floor and went over to inspect the metal. “They’re in surprisingly good shape given their age.”
“These are incredible. I can’t believe they were left behind.”
“Too big to move. This building is up for sale, so I imagine they’ll be broken down for scrap when the new owners take over. That’s why taking pictures is so important. We need to preserve this part of history.”
I found a spot on the windowsill that looked mostly clean and sat down. For a solid ten minutes I watched Reid work, moving around the equipment and the room, capturing what he could with his camera. Gone was the easygoing man I’d gotten to know, replaced by a man with intense concentration. When he turned his gaze back to me, I shivered. If I’d suddenly heard a voice-over proclaiming me the prey on a nature show, I wouldn’t have been surprised.
“Don’t move.” He lifted his camera and took several shots of me. “Slip your jacket off.”
If it had been any other person asking, I might have protested. Instead, I did as he asked and let the leather fall into a heap on the floor.
“Undo the top two buttons of your shirt.” His voice was huskier than before; the raw tone filled the room. It was his turned-on voice, something I hadn’t heard in a long time. “But don’t look at me.”
My body moved on his command. There was a sense of relief that he’d taken control, telling me what to do. I didn’t have to be the one to make all the decisions, to have people count on me, their fates in the balance because of my decisions.
Reid shrugged out of his own jacket before dropping to his knees in front of me. “Look down, but to the side of me. Fuck, I love the way your hair falls. It looks like silk.”
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