by Anna Lewis
“I don’t agree with you,” I argued with Greg. “The suppliers could have waited until tomorrow morning.” I couldn’t believe that he’s dragged me away from Ellie for that.
“But if you didn’t speak to them right now, they would have waited until Monday to send the new stuff, and I don’t believe that we could have waited that long… not with how popular the new line is going to be.” Greg was arguing back with me furiously, unable to see where I was coming from at all.
“Whatever,” I finally announced, shaking my head at him. “I’m getting back out to the party…”
“Wait,” Greg snapped, causing my focus to fall back to him. “Wait a minute, it’s about the girl.” I sighed deeply, already knowing the lecture I was about to get. “I do think you need to get away from her, just for now.”
“It won’t be like last time,” I held onto his shoulder, doing my best to reassure him. “I promise you, this is going to be okay.”
“I just care about this business,” he sighed sadly, shaking his head at me. “I’m worried about something affecting it. The pictures you took with Ellie are great, and the media are already really interested in them. I don’t want anything to wreck that.”
I did my best not to roll my eyes at that one. “Stop stressing, everything is going to be fine. Just trust me.”
When he didn’t answer me, I gave up and wandered back into the party, not wanting to deal with Greg’s crap. If I just ignored it, this would all blow over soon enough, that was the way it always went between us.
But my eyes quickly flicked over to the bar, I could see that Ellie was nowhere to be seen. Rather than being disappointed, I figured she was probably in the bathroom or something, so I went to get another drink instead.
“Yeah, a whiskey and a glass of champagne please,” I smiled at the bar tender. “Thanks.”
“Ooh, who’s the other drink for?” a woman beside me asked. I could hear her words, but the background noise was too loud for me to figure out who it was, so I turned and my eyes fixed with the last person I ever thought I would see again.
I looked up and down her body, recalling everything about her; the small scar on her stomach that she got when she was cliff diving as a teenager on holiday, the tattoo she got on her butt as a dare, the birth mark on her shoulder.... I could recall every single thing about this woman, which was exactly why I hated her.
“Heather, what the hell are you doing here?” I growled angrily at her, pumping my fists in temper. What was all this about? I hadn't seen Heather since we stood in the divorce courts all those years ago.
I was hopelessly in love when I married this woman. I was sure we would last forever. It was during the time that I was struggling to make something of myself, when I didn’t have the money, so I knew that she loved me for who I was.
She stood by my side as the business grew, and that convinced me that we were meant to be. All I saw was a loving and devoted wife, someone who I could love at the end of every day, but it seemed that she didn’t feel the same way. One day when I came back early from a business trip I found her in bed with her personal trainer. It tore me apart from the inside out.
When we got divorced, I paid her off a lot to keep her away from my business because I wanted to keep it as only mine. She wanted her hands on it, but a few million sent her away, she agreed to keep away. That was the last that I’d seen of her. She left me heartbroken, hollow, devoid of any feelings. It had turned me into the bed-hopping person the media knew me as today.
“Are you surprised to see me?” she asked me, with that nasty, bitchy smirk playing on her lips. “It’s been far too long.”
“Not for me,” I replied coldly. “I couldn’t ever see you again and it would be too soon for me.”
“Oh don’t be like that,” she said teasingly, running her fingers up and down my arm, trying to manipulate me all over again. “I just want to talk.”
“Why don’t you just tell me why you’re here, so we can get it over with? I’ve been living quite an easy life without you in it, and I would much prefer to continue like that.” I couldn’t even stand to look at her anymore.
“Okay fine, be like that,” she stepped back and gave me a hard look. “I have come back to claim what’s rightfully mine.”
“And what’s that?” I folded my arms across my chest, growing angrier with each passing second. This was supposed to be a nice evening with Ellie, not a horrible reunion with my ex. What the hell had I done to deserve that?
“The business of course,” she giggled girlishly. “The money you gave me is gone,” she shrugged as if this meant nothing. “So now I want what you didn’t allow me to have last time. I want in on the business, and you might as well know now that I will not stop until I get it.”
Book 2: Seduction
I did consider giving up, I really did. In fact I agonized over it all night long… all weekend long, before deciding that I shouldn’t let the start of my modeling career be affected by some almost-romance with a horrible man. Just because Kyle Meyer, owner of KM Styles, and the man that I was going to have to pose with in these images, decided to act like a good man while he hit on me, didn’t mean I had to lose out. In reality, he was a womanizing asshole who didn’t care about anyone else’s feelings. His ex-wife told me as much. If I kept that at the forefront of my mind then maybe I would be able to make it through it this job, and then move on to the next one.
Just get through today… I told myself as I stared at the reflection of my terrified face in the mirror. Just get through this campaign. Then you can work for any agency, any company, on any campaign that you want.
“Ellie Wilkes?” someone yelled into the bathroom. “You’re wanted on set.”
“Coming!” I replied, tugging at the clothes, doing my best to get them to fit right.
As I stepped out into the studio, doing my best to keep my features straight, my eyes connected with Kyle’s. He was giving me a curious look, as if he was trying to work out why I ran away from the party, just moments after we were about to kiss, but I wasn’t about to give him anything. I didn’t want him to know that Heather, the woman he once married to, had told me everything about him, so I averted my eyes instead, and focused on the photographer.
He said, “Okay, today we’re doing the pastel colored range, so things need to be soft and sweet. We need to convey romance, okay?” I nodded at that, thinking that romance would be much easier to tackle than the sexual stuff that most of the pictures were conveying. “We’ve brought in the bed prop for you both to lie on as if things are on the brink of getting sensual, so can you do that for me please?”
Oh shit… maybe not…
I glanced over to where the plush-looking bed was, one that screamed luxury, and I gulped down the big ball of fear that was lodged in the back of my throat. Kyle didn’t seem to share any of my reservations though, he strolled over to the bed as if he was right at home, and he lay across it, patting the sheets besides him.
“Come on, Ellie, what are you waiting for?”
I sighed deeply, trying to keep all of the emotions inside, and I made my way over to where he was waiting for me. I hated the fact that I couldn’t dampen my desire for him. I hated the fact that I still felt lust for him, no matter what I knew about him. He was a bad person, the sort of man who would use women just for sex, but somehow despite all of that I found myself still wanting him.
Stop it, I told myself. Just take this one moment at a time. All you need to do is get through it.
***
It took me a while to get into the swing of things again. The photographer made it a whole lot worse by constantly screaming at me. Eventually I found a way to relax.
Actually, it was Kyle helping me to relax, but I was doing my best not to focus on that part. Gone were the suggestive comments and the attempts to turn me on, gone were any moments where we almost kissed, instead he spoke to me as if I were human, as if I were his friend. It helped me to become more of myself.
“So, are you still enjoying being a model?” he asked me with a smile on his face. “Is it still as fun as you thought it was going to be?”
“Yeah, I really love it,” I allowed the excitement to flow through my words. “Except for the paparazzi, they are quite intense, aren’t they?”
“You will get used to that,” he reassured me, sending another round of sparks coursing through my body. “It can be very overwhelming to start with, but it will soon just become an unfortunate side effect of the job. With any luck they will get bored of you soon enough.”
I thought of the one guy who kept following me everywhere, the one with sunken eyes and yellow teeth who didn’t seem to want to give up any time soon. Maybe Kyle was right, maybe he would simply give up, I just needed to be patient and give it time. I nodded hopefully.
“This is great,” the photographer yelled loudly, shaking me from the moment, reminding me that I was on set. “But we need you to be closer, more intertwined.”
Kyle moved towards me with ease, but when he heard my breath hitch in my throat, he smiled kindly at me. “It’s okay, just trust me,” he said quietly. “Just pretend that there’s no one else in the room. Remember, just relax.”
But it wasn’t easy, not when he was making me feel so many things all at once. I did my best to calm down my racing heart, to keep my breathing normal, but it didn’t really work. Kyle could tell that I was freaking out, and it was obvious that I wanted him, but rather than making any joke out of that, or asking me why I hadn’t stayed when something real could have happened, he just held me close and carried on chatting to me like I was his mate.
He made it easier for me, and I was really grateful for that.
***
Kyle
Ellie Wilkes was something else, she really was. She didn’t know how damn good she was at modeling, especially when she relaxed and became more herself. That innocence she had made her so refreshing. When Greg had done his best to convince me that I needed to be a part of this advertising campaign, because my notorious reputation would draw in interest from many new people, I wasn’t keen. Mostly, I didn’t want to get stuck with a frozen stiff, airhead model by my side.
But with Ellie, and her passion, I started to think that Greg’s idea would be a good one.
I also liked Ellie a lot.
The closer we got to one another, the more we laughed and giggled, the deeper I started to fall. I just loved the way that she was so different from other models, other women, really. I embraced that. It made my heart flutter for her.
I kept waiting for her to ask me why I left her at the party, why I didn’t come back to finish the kiss that we almost started, but she didn’t. Of course I was glad, because I really didn’t want to have to explain all about Heather, and the terrible marriage that we shared, or her new demand to be involved in KM Styles, but it did make me wonder. Ellie certainly seemed really into me, by the way that she was acting, but she obviously didn’t want to express that aloud for whatever reason.
Maybe she was shy, maybe she was inexperienced. Maybe she just didn’t know how to say what she felt inside. I wasn’t sure, but I wanted to find out.
“So, how long have you lived in New York?” I asked her casually, trying to find out more about her. “I mean, you didn’t grow up here, did you?”
“No, I grew up in Clinton, New Jersey,” she told me with a small frown on her lips. “How did you know?”
“You don’t seem like a New Yorker. You seem like you’re just trying to figure you way out in the world here. It’s nice.” She didn’t respond to that. I decided to skate around the one question that I had been avoiding. “So, did you enjoy the party the other night?”
I waited for her expression to change, and it did fall just a little bit. “I did… it was different to what I was used to.” Okay, maybe that was why she had acted strange. Maybe it had just become overwhelming for her. She added, “Do you do that sort of thing all the time?”
“Yes,” I admitted, not wanting to hide anything. “Partying is kind of what I’m known for.”
‘All you are is an idiotic party boy.’ Heather’s words flew back into my mind, like a slap in the face. ‘You don’t deserve the business, that’s why I’m taking it from you.’
I did my best to reason with her, ignoring the party and the almost-kiss that Ellie and I had shared, because I so desperately wanted to keep my business. I’d worked so hard to get to where I was, and I certainly wasn’t about to hand it over to my vindictive ex-wife. I’d already paid her off a fair amount to keep her off my back, even though her infidelity was what ended our marriage. It wasn’t my fault that she’d spent it all.
‘Don’t relax ever,’ she’d warned me. ‘I will do what I can to take everything from you, to leave you with nothing. You ruined me with the divorce, now I’m going to ruin you.’
It was fair to say that by the time Heather had left me alone in that room, I was too angry and upset off to face anyone else. Since that moment, I’d spoken to Greg and he reassured me that there wasn’t anything Heather could do, but I’d still blown it with Ellie. I wasn’t sure if there was any coming back from that.
“I… I think I would like to do it a little more,” Ellie told me bravely. “Partying, I mean.” I glanced at her, surprised to hear those words coming from her. “It was kinda fun.”
I broke out into a smile at that, seeing just how different Ellie really was. She wanted to explore this new world, she wanted to have fun… and to actually enjoy herself, not just to pose in front of the rest of the world. I just hoped that it didn’t swallow her up alive.
“Well, you know that I’m always here to take you out. And KM Styles throw a lot of parties too, so I’m sure you’ll get the chance.”
Just as I was about to tell her that I would be having another party at the weekend, the photographer called time on the photo shoot, so we split apart. As soon as her body was away from mine, I felt cold, and more alone than I ever had done before. I missed her… something I didn’t feel would ever happen again.
Now my desire to be with Ellie more wasn’t just motivated by what was in my trousers, now there were feelings growing too; emotions that were strong enough to stop me from worrying about Heather and her threats anymore. Heather had nothing over me, not really. She’d gotten what she needed in the divorce. She was awarded more than the judge thought that she deserved. It had been settled in court. There was no legal reason for why she should have any of the business anymore.
She just wanted to scare me. That was all. I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. She was the past. These feelings that I had for Ellie – they were the future, and I would much rather focus on that.
***
Ellie
“This is so much fun!” Katya yelled over the music. “Who knew that lil ol’ Ellie would be such a laugh.”
She was drunk, but that didn’t really matter because we were all drinking. When I did the photo shoot with Kyle, and we grew a little closer, it made me realize how I wanted to change. I wanted to get out more, to have some fun while I was still young and free, and I hoped that by doing so I would end up less naïve, and more able to deal with difficult situations, such as the one Heather presented me with.
They were dressed in tight fitting, flesh-revealing clothes, whereas my outfit was much more conservative. They were making me feel like one of them regardless. They didn’t seem to be put off by our obvious differences. That was incredible to me. I was so grateful to them. Without their kindness, I might never have managed to break out of my shell.
“Yeah, in all honesty I thought that you were going to be totally boring,” Talia admitted, handing me another shot. I was tipsy
, but I felt like I could handle one more. “That’s why I didn’t bother talking to you much before, at the photo shoot. Now I can see that I was wrong.”
“Does KM Styles constantly hold parties like this?” I asked curiously, finally feeling brave enough to try and find out the truth about Kyle from an outsider’s perspective. I kept trying to find reasons why Heather might have been lying about Kyle. I guessed she could have been because she was an ex with an agenda. I just needed to know the truth.
“Yeah, Kyle is a massive party animal,” Katya told me. “I always assumed that it was just so he could score hapless chicks, but I haven’t seen him with anyone for a little while now. Well, ever since that party where I assumed that you were going to hook up with him,” she eyed me out of the corner of her eye, causing me to shake my head.
“I didn’t hook up with him,” I insisted, for what felt like the hundredth time. “We were just talking.”
“Didn’t look much like talking to me!”
Before we could get into a debate about that, a group of guys circled us – male models, by the look of them – and invited us onto the dance floor. I was unsure of going anywhere with them, because I didn’t know what they would expect from us, but considering Talia and Katya didn’t seem bothered, I got swept along with them.
They were all very handsome guys, but much too clean cut for my liking. They didn’t do anything for me. It seemed like my type was more rough and ready, more like Kyle. Nothing else would do. But meanwhile, we were drinking, and they were there, and it was a fun night, so I joined in.
We all danced in a circle and enjoyed one another’s company, but as soon as Talia started making out with one of them, it seemed like the competition to get to me and Katya kicked up a notch between them all. They started grinding against us, grabbing us, trying to get our attention, and I didn’t like it one bit. I wasn’t that sort of girl, and that was never going to happen, not like this.