“I don’t know, I guess I always really liked photography,” I said, flushing a little. I wasn’t sure why I was embarrassed about telling him, but being honest about everything that I actually wanted was still pretty new for me, and I was just getting my head around how it felt. I wasn’t sure it would ever feel normal for me, but I knew it’s what he wanted so I would try my hardest.
“Oh, yeah?” He had perked up, his head cocked with interest.
“Yeah, back when I was in high school I did this photography course and I fell in love with the idea of capturing the soul of something or a fleeting emotion or moment on paper,” I sighed. “And then at university I was part of the photography society, but after I left, I guess I just…had to find a job that paid the bills. I never really went back to it. But yeah, if I could do anything, I would love to just take pictures all the time.”
“Then that’s what you will do. You will become a professional photographer,” he declared confidently.
I spluttered with laughter.
“Why are you laughing? I’m serious.”
“It’s really flattering that you have such belief in me, but it’s not that easy, Chad.”
“Why not?”
“Well to start with, I haven’t had any real training,” I explained. “Besides, I don’t have any equipment. I’ve looked at the really good cameras and the lighting set-ups and they cost like thousands of dollars. It’s completely out of my price range.”
“What about mine?” he threw back, that smile still on his face.
I stared at him in astonishment.
“I believe great photography is not about taking a course. It’s about what’s inside you. Photographers are born. They see things others don’t, and then they take a picture of it, and show it to the world through their eyes.”
I nodded, surprised by his sensitivity. Who would have thought a stripper could be so deep? “That’s a very beautiful way of putting it. You’re right. Photography is having the eye to see something other’s don’t, but there’s no way I can let you pay for all of that,” I protested. “It’s too much. You barely know me.”
“I knew you well enough to bring you into my life. Don’t think this is something I do all the time. As matter of fact, I’ve never done this.” He stroked a rebellious strand of hair back from my face. “I just don’t want you sitting around here with nothing to do, wondering why the fuck you came in the first place.”
“I know why I came,” I replied softly, smiling at him.
“I get that,” he assured. “But just…keep it mind, alright? I want you to be happy and fulfilled. I want us to have a long term plan in place.”
“I’ll think about it,” I promised him, but I wasn’t sure how I could ever bring myself to break into this conversation again.
“Good.” He cocked his head at me with a grin. “I think we should go for a walk, get some fresh air, before you seduce me into bed again.”
I smacked his shoulder. “Excuse me. Who seduced who?”
He looked affronted. “What? The way you looked at me that night. How was I supposed to resist that?” He looked at me slyly. “Weren’t you one of the girls who raised her hand to come up.”
I cleared my throat. This conversation was going down the wrong path. Change the topic, Madison, and quickly. “You know, I’ve never been much of an outdoor person, but maybe that’s just because I didn’t have a beach sitting at the end of my house before.”
“Maybe,” he agreed, leaning over to kiss me once more.
I worried about my coffee breath, but he obviously didn’t give a crap about it. “Maybe I’m feeling a little more indoorsy now, too,” he murmured, and flicked his gaze up to meet mine. I knew at once what was going through his mind. I put my coffee down, pulled the covers back, and invited him into the bed to join me.
Chapter 22
Madison
When we were done, the sun had fully risen and the light was a fierce gold outside the window. The way it never is in England. Boy, I wanted to get outside.
“Time to go out,” I warned him as I leapt out of bed, and took off.
“Mmm…” Chad lifted his head from the pillow, apparently rendered mute by everything I’d just done to him.
“You coming?” I asked, shooting a look over my shoulder as I headed into the bathroom. Once in there I was distracted by the sheer size of the place. I think the thing I would take back with me when I returned to England was how big everything in America was. The shower was a walk-in, like back at the hotel, and there was a huge jacuzzi-style tub sitting at the other end of the room. I knew Chad was loaded, but just how much money did he bring in from the dancing to be able to afford to live like this?
“I’ve already showered. I’m going to get dressed and make some calls,” he called back. “Come out when you’re ready, alright?”
“Sounds perfect,” I dithered between the shower and the bath for a moment before I settled for the shower. Something quick. I wanted to take in as much of Miami as I could, before…
As the water ran over my body, and I noticed the fingermarks where Chad had been gripping on to my hips, and wondered why my thoughts always returned to “before”.
Before this perfect fantasy blew up in my face?
Before he got tired of me and sent me home?
I sighed. I knew I was treating this as though there was a due date attached, and I wasn’t sure I liked that feeling. But what was I meant to do? Just bury my head in the sand and act like this guy I’d known for a matter of days was the love of my life? No matter what my heart might have been telling me, my head was still very much in play, and I wasn’t going to let my heart get caught up in the fairytale aspect of all of this so quickly and with so little resistance.
I got out and stared at myself in the mirror. My skin was glowing, although, that could have been an effect of the semen facial he gave me last night. I grinned at the memory, and in the mirror, I saw a naughty look slip into my eyes. I had never seen that mischievous glint before. I must be happy.
I dried my hair, applied a little lipstick, and headed out of the bathroom to find some clothes. I heard an appreciative groan from behind me, and turned to find Chad, freshly dressed in a simple t-shirt and jeans, eyeing me up as if he was going to grab me and take me back to bed.
“Hey, you said you were going to take me out,” I protested playfully, and he raised his eyes skyward for a moment as though cursing his offer.
“I did, didn’t I?” He shook his head. “Come on then, get dressed, before I change my mind.”
“Fine,” I giggled, pulling out a light dress that hit just below the knee. It allowed for the air to circulate and I wouldn’t get too warm. I was already starting to sweat lightly, despite the liberal antiperspirant I’d applied.
“You ready?” he asked. “You look great.”
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” I nodded.
He proffered me his arm in a gallant gesture.
“Are you doing that because I’m English?” I teased.
“I’m doing that because you make me want to carry you off on a horse.”
“Well, you make a good knight,” I said primly, as I took his hand.
He took me to this little breakfast place, an old-school diner that did waffles and pancakes, and coffee from a bored-looking waitress with a pot who came around the booths offering it. It was perfect. Exactly, how I had imagined America to be.
“Now, this place I could live in.” I leaned across the table and grinned at him.
He cocked an eyebrow. “Oh yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.” I nodded, licking a drop of syrup from my fork before I took another bite of the massive waffle I had ordered.
“I’m glad you approve.” He grinned, tucking into his bacon and eggs.
We spent the rest of breakfast chatting lightly about nothing serious. How long he’d lived here, where he’d stayed before. He was from a small town across the state originally, and had always wanted to move down to the
coast where he knew the nightlife would be way more buzzing.
“And you always wanted to be a…?” I gestured towards him with my fork, not sure if I was allowed to say the word out in public like that.
“A stripper?” he filled in the blank for me. “No. I really did it to piss off my parents.”
My eyebrows shot up into my hairline.
He grinned. “They wanted to send me off to college like my brother but I didn’t want to go. So, they told me that if I could find a job that brought in the same amount he was making, then they would let me off the hook. And this was the first thing that came up.”
“Holy shit.” I shook my head in amazement. “That’s wild.”
“Yeah, well, you know me.” He smiled back. “I tend to make pretty impulsive decisions.”
“And you’ve been doing it ever since?”
“Sure have.” He took a sip of his orange juice. “They came around to it eventually, but I don’t think my brother ever got over the shock of knowing that I was making more than him.”
“I’d like to meet him,” I blurted out, then bit my lip and lowered my mortified gaze to my coffee. I couldn’t believe I went there. I asked to his meet his family!
Chad laughed and squeezed my hand across the table. “I feel as if showing you off to him would be tantamount to salting the wound.”
I felt a shiver of cool excitement run over my skin, so different from the intense heat of the beach.
After breakfast, we strolled hand-in-hand down the beach, but not in the direction of his apartment. I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I knew that he wouldn’t take me anywhere I didn’t want to be. Besides I was on the most exciting adventure. I was open to all kinds of new experiences.
“You going to give me a clue where we’re going?” I prompted when we’d been walking about ten minutes.
He just shook his head and tapped the side of his nose. “Patience, little one. All will be revealed in time.”
Eventually, he came to a halt in front of a tech shop. When he tried to go in, I held back. “Why are we going in there? Do you need a new phone or something?”
“No,” he shook his head, and tugging my hand, led me inside. “This is for you.”
“What?” I followed him, brow furrowed as I tried to make sense of his words, but as soon as we stepped through the door, I found myself face-to-face with a huge, expensive digital camera, and my jaw dropped.
“You don’t have to do this for me,” I turned to him hurriedly. “Really, Chad, I—”
“Babe, you’re wasting your breath. I’ve already made up my mind,” he said calmly. “You Madison, me impulsive, remember?”
“But I can’t let you spend this kind of money on me. It feels wrong,” I protested.
“Call it a loan, then. When you’re rich and famous you can pay me back with interest.”
“There’s no way that I’m going to be able to talk you out of this, is there?” I sighed, a little flutter of excitement in my chest as the salesman approached.
“Nope, so get on board.”
In a daze I watched him drop upwards of four thousand dollars on camera equipment for me. I tried to keep my face organized so the shock wasn’t too obviously, but it was hard. The most a boyfriend ever got me before this was a bottle of wine, and even then, it was usually an offer and not the color I liked.
This was insane.
The amount of cash he was spending on me was ridiculous, but by the time he finished, I had it all. The high octane camera, the memory cards, the guides, the lighting, the software to edit my photographs. Everything that I could possibly have wanted, to get started in photography, I had right there in front of me. My heart swelled with excitement as he paid. I was grateful for the opportunity, but more than that I was stunned that he thought I was deserving of all this trust.
“Thank you,” I said, looking intently into his eyes as soon as we were out of the store. “I know words are nothing, but…thank you. I will pay you back. Every last cent. I promise. I can’t even tell you what this means to me.”
“I just want you to be able to do something you love while you’re here,” he replied simply, and I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes. I blinked hard so I didn’t start bawling my eyes out in public. It wasn’t the amount of money he’d dropped on me. No, it was the fact that he believed in me so completely, so utterly, and was so invested in me being happy that he’d thought nothing of throwing away a few thousand dollars to make that happen.
“I love having sex with you,” I replied, suddenly amorous.
“So, all I have to do is buy you camera equipment to get you in the mood?” he murmured, eyes tracing the shape of my body through my dress. “Totally worth it.”
“Come on, let’s get back to your place,” I whispered.
“Message received,” he muttered, his eyes suddenly dark with passion.
The two of us sped down the beach and back to his apartment to make love for the second time that day. It felt wildly decadent, having him fuck me on the bed in the middle of the afternoon when all the sane people were at work, and in the middle of the grind.
I looked out over the beach as I lay my head down on his chest afterwards, listening to the in and out of his breath and matching it up to the waves of the sea as they crept over the golden sand and retreated again.
“I have a show tonight,” he announced.
I lifted my head. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah, it’s like a back-in-town performance.” He sighed as the two of us naturally sat up. He touched my face, skimming his thumb over my lips and pulling a face. “Trust me, I’d rather be here with you any day of the week, but I can’t get out of this one. It’s sold out.”
“Right,” I nodded, looking down at my hands and trying not to show just how disappointed I was. I wanted to go out with Chad tonight, take in the sparkly excess that this town had to offer, but I supposed he was going to have to go back to work sometime. The lifestyle he lived, the one that he had been showing me couldn’t be sustained on great sex alone.
“But you should come along,” he suggested. “Could be fun. I could get you backstage and we could fuck all over their cheap furniture…”
I pretended to laugh. “That actually sounds pretty good.” Truth was: I was more than a little jealous at the thought of so many women getting to see him that evening, maybe even touch him, but I needed to get used to it since this was his job. And as long as I was the one heading backstage to help him work out his tensions after the fact…
“I’ll book a car to come down and pick you up when it’s time.” He kissed me on the temple. “So you have a few hours to try out some of your new photography equipment, right?”
“Right.” I nodded, looking over to the bags that had been dumped against the bedroom door when we got back to his apartment. “Do you have to go now?”
“Yeah, pretty much. There’s loads of set-up to do before the show kicks off. Since it’s my first one back since the tour, they want to make it a big deal. A huge deal.”
“I bet it’s going to be amazing,” I said, forcing a bright smile on my face. “You’re a great dancer, Chad.”
“Thank you.” He planted a quick kiss on my lips, and flashed me a cocky smile. “But I’m a better lover.”
I pretended to roll my eyes, and he sprang off the bed and headed to take a shower. As soon as I heard the shower running I chewed my lip uncertainly. Obviously, I’d known what he was when we met, so it wasn’t like I could claim ignorance, or act like I hadn’t known how he kept the cash rolling in, but I didn’t expect him to go back to work this soon.
I guess, I had assumed that he would take some time off when the tour was over, that he would be able to dedicate a few more of his evenings to me, to the takeout and couch, and cuddling, and conversations. I guess I just wanted it to be like how it was last night.
I got to my feet, pulled on some clothes, and started unpacking everything that he’d bought for me. I wasn’t in a plac
e to be ungrateful given what he’d just done, and I was truly excited to get all this stuff out of the box and give it a go.
When he emerged from the shower, he stood there and watched me for I don’t know how long – but when I turned, he had a smile on his face.
“You look so serious when you’re reading,” he remarked, touching my shoulder lightly as he brushed by me. I had my nose in the manual for one of the cameras he’d just bought me, trying to figure out how to get it to work.
“Yeah, well, if you were dealing with four thousand dollars’ worth of equipment, you would too!” I called back as he went to put on his shoes and a coat.
“It’s only money,” he replied.
“It’s not only money when you don’t have it,” I shot back.
He came back down and crouched on the floor with me, looking deep into my eyes. “Some things are far more important than money, Madison. I won’t miss what I’ve spent this afternoon. I believe in you. So go take those photographs that you’ve always wanted to take.”
I lost my voice then. I just nodded.
“I’ve called a car for you. They’re going to send it around seven. And my housekeeper filled up the refrigerator while we were out today, so there’s plenty of food. Help yourself, okay.”
I wrinkled up my nose in disbelief. “Wait, you have a housekeeper too?”
He shrugged. “I’m lazy. I don’t want to do my own cleaning.”
“Holy hell,” I shook my head. “Okay, I understand, I guess.”
“So I’ll see you at the show in a few hours?”
“Yep, you will,” I promised. “Got to support my man when he takes his clothes of for a thousand other women, right?”
“Hey.” He put his finger under my chin so I was forced to look into his eyes. “I just want you to know that all those women might be there, but I’m only looking at you. All of it is just for you. Like it was the first time.”
Too hot to handle: A curvy girl romance Page 9