Picture Perfect

by Maguire, L. E.

  His sharp intake of breath came as soon as he pulled the shirt open and exposed my naked body. There was no stopping the smile that spread across my face. I loved the affect I had on him.

  “I love it when you wear nothing but my clothes,” he said softly, running his hands up the sides of my body, over my ribs, and stopping just under my breasts.

  Groaning when the warmth of his hands disappeared from my body, I felt him reach behind me once again. The sweet smell of a strawberry filled my nose as he pressed one to my lips, encouraging me to take a bite. As I bit down on the flesh of the strawberry, juice from the ripe fruit exploded in my mouth.

  Suddenly, I felt the other half of the juicy strawberry being swirled around my nipple causing it to tighten to the point of pain. Seconds later, Evan’s hot, wet tongue took the same path around my nipple, eagerly licking up the remnants of the juice.

  Throwing my head back on a moan, I arched my back, pushing my chest out further as he gave my other nipple the same attention. Running my fingers into his hair, I gripped his head tightly and held him to me.

  He stood suddenly with a growl, easily breaking my hold on him. With his strong fingers digging into my waist, he lifted me and sat me on the edge of the counter. The sudden move and the coolness of the granite countertop had my eyes flying open as I sucked in a breath.

  Transfixed, I watched him strip out of his boxer briefs. My mouth immediately watered at the sight of him naked before me. Stepping up to the counter, he ran his hands up my legs to my inner thighs, urging my legs apart so he could stand between them. With his hands gently cupping my face, he tilted my head back so he could press his lips to mine. His tongue snaked into my mouth with a brutal intensity that had my legs wrapping around his waist and my arms grabbing onto his biceps, pulling him to me.

  Moaning into his mouth, I ran my fingers into his thick, silky strands, anchoring him to me as we feverishly devoured each other. Desperate to feel his body against mine, I wrapped my legs around his lower back and pulled him into me as I slid my bottom along the cool granite. When my heated core made contact with his steely length, my hips began to move on their own accord.

  Running his hands down my back, his fingers dug into my butt cheeks as he lifted me off the counter. Wrapping my arms around his shoulders. I tightened my legs around his waist as he carried me into the bedroom.

  Having me lie down on the bed, he gently covered my body with his, hovering just above me as he rested on his forearms. Cradling my face in his hands tenderly, he whispered my name against my lips as he sweetly and slowly slipped inside me. Our sweat-slicked bodies moved together at an almost painstakingly slow pace. With our hot breaths mingling together, he kissed me softly.

  It did not take long before the storm was brewing within me. Sensing it, Evan lifted and held his upper body above me as he picked up the pace. Grabbing onto his upper arms, I lifted my hips and met each of his powerful thrusts. His quickened movements and the intensity in his eyes as he stared down at me caused a powerful orgasm to rip through me with Evan soon following.

  Lacing his fingers through mine, he carefully collapsed on top of me. Burying his head in my neck, we silently laid together until our breathing slowed. Sooner than I would have liked, he lifted his head and glanced at the clock on the bedside table.

  “We’re going to be late, Gem,” he said.

  “I don’t care,” I said groaning. “I don’t get enough time with you like this. I miss it. I miss you.” My voice broke, portraying the raging emotion that was bubbling just under the surface.

  Evan frowned and brought his forehead to rest against mine. “I know, baby. I miss it, too. I miss you so fucking much.”

  Releasing my fingers, he grabbed my face and kissed me deeply, passionately before pulling away. Breaking our connection, he moved to sit on the edge of the bed. Coming up behind him, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and kissed his neck before jumping out of bed.

  “Come on, lover boy,” I said with a smile trying to lighten the mood. “Let’s save some time and shower together,” I said, grabbing his hand.

  Raising his brows at me, he gave me a skeptical look. “How is that going to save time?”

  “I’m not going to let you touch me. You can only watch,” I said, giving him a devilish smile.

  Groaning, he allowed me to pull him up off the bed, following me to the bathroom. Unable to resist, I let go of his hand and gave his taut ass a generous slap as he walked ahead of me into the bathroom.

  “Hey,” he said, rubbing himself dramatically. “Watch my sensitive man skin.”

  Widening my eyes at his comment, I stopped walking and just stared at him before I burst out laughing. “Sensitive…man…..skin?” I asked, gasping for air between bursts of laughter.

  Still chuckling, I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “God, I love you so fucking much,” I said, kissing him squarely on the lips.

  “Only you could say fucking in the same sentence as I love you and make it sound crazy good,” he said, smiling down at me.

  Feeling playful, I purposefully rubbed myself up against him, and felt him growing hard against my belly. Grabbing his ass in my hands, I held him to me tightly before breaking away and heading to the shower. Looking back, I nearly laughed at the stunned look on his face as he glared at me.

  “That’s it,” he said. A thrill ran through me as he started to stalk towards me. “Now, we’re really going to be late,” he said, capturing me and pushing me up against the shower wall.

  Thankfully, I was only thirty minutes late. Evan had two cars pick us up from his place so we could arrive separately. He still did not like the fact that I wanted to keep our relationship under the radar even though we had been spotted a few times while out in Seattle. I was, however, still relatively unknown, so I was nothing more than the mysterious brunette that Evan had been spotted with.

  Glancing around the room, I found him standing with today’s model by the wall of windows. She was a lovely brunette, tall and statuesque with long flowing hair, plump red lips, and a perfect slender body. The sunlight streaming in behind her almost made her look angelic. They were both wearing white fluffy robes, which told me they had already been through hair and makeup and were ready to begin. As if he could sense my eyes on him, Evan turned and met my gaze. Winking at me surreptitiously, I quickly dropped my head to hide my smile.

  “Ember. It’s such a pleasure to see you again,” Eli suddenly said from behind me.

  Nearly dropping my camera in surprise, I whirled around only to come face to face with a very close standing Eli. Placing his hands on my shoulders to steady me, I instinctively glanced in Evan’s direction. His gaze was focused on us as his lips mashed into a thin line. Noticing his irritation, the model he was talking with glanced in our direction and frowned.

  “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” Eli said, rubbing his fingers on my shoulders.

  Feeling a little uncomfortable with his close proximity and his touch seeming so personal, I took a few steps back until his hands dropped from my shoulders. A slight frown appeared on his brow as he gave me a questioning look. An uncomfortable tension snapped in the air between us. My eyes quickly darted back in Evan’s direction only to find him getting ushered back into make-up while a tall, skinny, eccentric-looking man fused with his hair.

  “It’s fine, Eli. I just didn’t hear you approach,” I said, glancing back at him and giving him a small smile.

  I watched as his eyes studied my face then darted back in Evan’s direction before coming back to rest on mine. Watching the realization that Evan and I were in a fact a couple register on his face filled me with dread, but before I could say anything a loud crash came from behind Eli. Peeking around him, I found Jake sitting at the desk with his laptop open clearly frustrated over something as he slammed his big fist down on the table again. The small table quivered under the force of Jake’s fist while the items on the desk jumped causing a pen to roll and drop
to the floor.

  “Excuse me,” I said to Eli, quickly making my way around him.

  Jake seemed flustered, which was not like him at all, as he dug through his computer bag for what seemed like the twentieth time. Placing my hand lightly on his shoulder, he whirled his head around and glared at me. It seemed to take him a moment to realize it was just I before the anger drained from his face.

  “Hey, Jake. Is everything okay?”

  “I can’t seem to find the damn flash drive from the last photo shoot,” he grumbled. Before I could answer, his phone, which was sitting on the table next to him, started to vibrate. Grabbing it quickly, he shut it off and slammed it back down on the table, but not before I caught Lucina’s name on the display.

  My heavy sigh had Jake glaring up at me.

  “Not a word from you,” he said in a threatening tone.

  Shaking my head and raising my hands, I slowly backed away from him. Sadly, this was how Jake operated, and it was also one of the main reasons why I understood him so well. As soon as a girlfriend starts to get close, he finds an excuse to break it off with her. It all goes back to his freshmen year in college.

  Before I met him, Jake was involved with a girl he had met in high school. Believing she was the one, they made plans for their future, starting with attending the same college and sharing a small apartment.

  After only a few months of living together, he was devastated when he returned home from work one night to find the apartment empty and his live-in girlfriend long gone. Since that fateful night, Jake has not allowed any woman to get too close for fear of getting hurt. It breaks my heart, because he is such a great and lovable guy who deserves to be happy.

  Eli’s arm wrapping around my waist while his hand gently caressed my hip snapped me out of my reverie. “Are you ready, beautiful?”

  Calling me beautiful, standing closer than usual to me, and touching me intimately had me wondering if he was doing all of this on purpose. It would not surprise me if he were trying to goad Evan into reacting so he could prove his suspicions about us.

  Something to the left caught Eli’s attention and I watched as a sly smile slide across his face. Glancing over, I saw Evan and the model coming back from hair and makeup. Evan’s eyes narrowing at the two of us immediately.

  Stepping out of Eli’s reach, I watched Evan with rapt attention as he walked into the room with a sure, commanding stride that I once thought exuded arrogance, but I now knew exuded confidence. His presence just commanded your attention, drawing your eyes immediately to him.

  “Ready when you are,” I said, smiling at Eli before moving into position.

  Thankfully, the first part of our shoot just involved Evan in various poses by himself. Watching intently as he removed his robe, I once again found myself gaping at his inhuman beauty. Having seen my fair share of airbrushed and photoshopped pictures of models, if Evan had not been before me in the flesh, I would have sworn his smooth, bronzed skin and perfect, manly features were photographically altered.

  He was arranged on the bed with his back propped up by several pillows. His left arm was resting on the back of the pillows with his right lying casually by his side. They had him wearing nothing but a tight pair of charcoal gray boxer briefs, which were very similar to the pair he was wearing this morning. In the kitchen. With the fruit.

  As hard as I tried to fight it and maintain my composure, images from this morning flooded my mind. Briefly closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I swore I could still smell the sweet juice of the strawberry on my skin. Remembering how his hot tongue felt licking at the cool juice on my feverish skin sent a shiver through me.

  “Ember.”

  Evan’s voice broke through my reverie. Visibly shaking my head, my eyes met his. His brow was creased with concern.

  “Where did you go just now?” he whispered.

  “This morning,” I whispered, feeling my cheeks heat.

  Evan gave me a little nod. “You okay now?”

  “Mmhmm,” I hummed, shaking my head to clear it.

  My skin prickled as the curious eyes in the room stared at me from behind. I watched as Evan’s eyes darted over my shoulder. He shook his head slightly and held up a hand to stop whoever was headed our way, which I assumed was Eli. It was time to get back to work.

  Evan was amazing. He was a photographer’s dream come true. Requiring very little instruction, he knew exactly what pose and what look to give at exactly the right moment. Reacting to the camera in such a sensual way, he gave me smoldering looks all morning that made it seem like he was making love to the camera.

  Every now and again I would glance over at Jake, who would do nothing but give me a thumbs up. All the shots were coming out so beautifully there was no need to reshoot them. Eli stood behind Jake, watching as the pictures appeared on Jake’s computer screen, smiling widely.

  When the caterers showed up with lunch, Eli hovered around me the entire time we were on break. Doing my best to avoid any eye contact with Evan, it did not stop the chills from racing up my spine every time I felt the heat of his gaze on me. When I did finally turn around, I found Evan surrounded by girls from hair and makeup along with a few of the female stylists. Fighting the surge of jealousy that flashed through me, I realized there was no way I could blame them for hovering around him. When he was relaxed like this with that easy, beautiful smile, he was devastatingly gorgeous. Like a magnet, you could not help but be drawn to him.

  The afternoon shoot was a bit more difficult. The dark-haired model, whose name I learned was Victoria, was scantily clad in sexy, lacy lingerie. Placed in several different positions, all of which required a lot of skin-to-skin contact with Evan, they rolled around on the bed together as I took shot after shot. The only way I could get myself through this shoot was to picture myself as the model, which worked right up until I felt flushed and hot and damp in all the right places. I breathed a tremendous sigh of relief when we were done.

  As Evan disappeared to get ready to leave, I stood beside Jake and watched as he and Eli went through the pictures. Eli moved closer to me, placing his hand on the small of my back. His thumb caressing my skin through my shirt had me wanting to pull away from him. As he leaned down to look over Jake’s shoulder, it left his head level with my chest. If Eli moved his head just a tick to his left, his cheek would have made contact with my right breast.

  Just as I was about to step out of Eli’s reach, a warm hand grabbed my elbow and spun me around. The surprise move had me stumbling into Evan’s hard chest. His hands dove for my face, holding me firmly in place as his lips slammed down on mine. The clean, sexy scent of Evan overwhelmed my senses as his tongue penetrated my mouth possessively. It was a hard kiss, brutal even, that clearly was meant to send a message to Eli. I should have been angry with Evan. I should have pushed him away and stormed off, but a part of me loved this possessive side of him. He was staking a claim, letting the entire room know that I belonged to him.

  Molding my body to his, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back with the same possessiveness. Running his hands down my back, he gripped my ass tightly, pulling me hard against him. The move had me moaning into his mouth. I knew we were boarding on being obscene, but I just did not care.

  When he finally broke the kiss, I rested my forehead on his chest in an attempt to catch my breath. Evan ran his right hand up my back before resting it on the back on my neck.

  “We done here?” he asked, his voice rumbling in his chest against my forehead.

  “Yeah.” I heard Eli said curtly.

  “You got her stuff?” Evan asked, I assumed, Jake.

  “Yeah, man. Go on,” Jake said.

  Evan reached down and around me to grab my pocketbook from the floor. “Here,” he said, handing it to me. Grabbing my hand, he then pulled me toward the door.

  “After putting on a show like that, I should be really pissed off with you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him as we walked down the hall to the elevator.


  “But you aren’t,” he said, sounding confident. The bastard.

  “You just outed us to the entire room,” I said, trying to hang on to my anger, but failing miserably. The smirk on his face was just too damn adorable.

  “I know,” he said casually, leading me into the elevator.

  He let go of my hand to press the button for the ground floor, which allowed me to move to the back of the elevator. Leaning heavily against the back wall, I could do nothing but stare as he turned around and started slowly moving towards me. His eyes were hooded, dark, and lust filled, sending a shiver of pleasure racing down my spine.

  He did not stop until his hard body was pressed up against mine. Pushing my back hard against the elevator wall, I wrapped my hands around the handrail tightly. Gently, he pushed my hair back behind my left shoulder. His fingers brushing lightly against the sensitive skin of my neck had goose bumps shooting down my arms. Cupping my face in his hands, he tilted my head to the side then bent down and ran his nose up the side of my neck, inhaling deeply until his mouth was at my ear. Squeezing the handrail to the point of pain, I suppressed a moan.

  “I’m done hiding, Em, just like I’m done watching assholes like Eli lust after you. You’re mine,” he growled. His tone was angry and possessive and I loved it.

  Running his tongue along my outer ear, he suddenly bit down hard on my earlobe, causing me to suck in a quick breath. “Evan,” I whispered as I exhaled.

  “Shhh. No more talking, baby,” he said softly.

  Gripping my butt cheeks, he lifted, urging me to wrap my legs around his waist. As soon as I did, the elevator door opened to the ground floor.

  “We don’t have much longer before I have to leave again. I refuse to spend that time fighting with you,” he said, sounding pained as he walked out of the building to the car waiting at the curb.

  The reminder of his impending departure had my chest constricting painfully, making it difficult to breath. Squeezing my arms and legs around him a little tighter, I nuzzled my face into his neck and breathed in his mouthwatering scent.