“It’s only my company because you made me take fifty-one percent ownership.” I was simply thankful he didn’t make me actually run most of it. That would have been mind-numbingly boring.
He shook his head. “It’s your company because it was your blog that started it, and you were the one selling panties out of your dorm room. This is your baby. You let me take care of it and do all the practical things, but we both know I wouldn’t have thought of this on my own.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “Bullshit. You would have come up with something cool and fabulous. I just pushed you in the kinky direction you were destined to find, anyway.” When I’d been a slightly awkward freshman in college selling the panties I’d shown on my blog out of my dorm room, he’d been living across town finishing up his MBA, not sure what he really wanted to do.
It was fate that we’d met.
He’d gone to a party at my dorm one Friday night, hoping to find a hookup. We’d had all the doors open on my floor and were well on our way to getting wasted. He’d taken one look at my room and had known immediately who I was. He said it was the combination of posters that had made it so memorable. To him, the terrible eighties hairbands that were decorating my walls did not go with the panties and lingerie that I’d talked about and sold. He just didn’t have enough imagination to see how they went together perfectly.
I’d panicked a little when I’d realized that he knew, but it quickly became clear he was just as into it as I was. But he didn’t want to wear the panties; he wanted a boyfriend who would. It was also clear, though, that we weren’t meant to be anything other than friends. He was kind of boring, and he said I was insane.
But it made for a good working relationship.
“I’m not going to debate that with you again. But back to Roman; if you really think he’s not a good fit, why didn’t you veto him?”
That was a very good question.
Finally, I waved my hand toward the screen. “Those. He’s good when he’s not taking pictures of boring little old ladies.”
And he was hot. Something about him made my nerves stand on end, and I wanted him to look just at me. It was going to suck if that stick stayed lodged up his ass all the time. “Maybe I should have said no.”
We’d started the whole veto thing when this one photographer back at the beginning had made every internal alarm I had go off. Before we’d worked out a system for hiring people, Preston would just look at portfolios and talk to them. It wasn’t until I’d accidentally walked half-naked into an interview that I’d realized we needed something else.
The guy had given me the creeps. Something about the way he watched me made my skin crawl. Until that point, Preston had complete hiring authority, and I hadn’t interfered at all. Hell, only a handful of people actually knew I was the real owner.
Not sure what to do, I’d thrown myself dramatically into Preston’s lap and kissed him. Then whispered if he hired the creepy guy I was going to help with the accounting again. That threat had been enough to make him realize how serious I was.
The creepy guy had ended up arrested a few months later for posting hidden cameras in changing rooms, so we’d taken a long look at our hiring practices. That was when we finalized the veto procedure and had started making everyone meet at least some of the models in a photo shoot.
People showed their freak flag or their creepy-crawly side very quickly when sexy guys were naked.
In the five years that we’d had it implemented, there hadn’t been any issues. That was, until Roman. “I don’t know. He didn’t do anything to make me think he’s bad-weird or going to end up in jail, but I seriously rub him the wrong way.”
“Should I call him back and say I’ve changed my mind? It’s not my naked ass he’s going to be photographing, and I don’t want you to feel unsafe or uncomfortable, Eli. I’ve said that from the very beginning when you didn’t want to give up the blog and photos.” Preston was clearly torn over how the interview had gone.
Preston had done his best to talk me out of staying in front of the camera. Even though I was careful about my face showing and giving too much personal information, he still thought it was dangerous. I liked it. I loved the freedom it gave me to just be myself and to have fun.
It was really the only part of my day that was basically only for me.
Yeah, it was technically a job, but it was one I’d created. He was right, it was my baby, and I wasn’t ready to walk away from that part. I was probably going to end up a wrinkly eighty-year-old model in panties still trying to shake my ass online, but that was fine with me.
“We’ll give it a few weeks and see how it goes. If it’s only me he doesn’t like, then I’ll just suck it up. I’m more worried about everyone else and how the photos will turn out. Now, if they turn out like those fucking apples, then I’m going to lose my marbles and he’s gone. Deal?”
Preston laughed. “Deal. But if we get his good stuff, we might be stuck with him because those were the best we’d gotten.”
I coughed. “Um, we didn’t get those, remember? He just sent the fucking fruit.”
Sighing, Preston shook his head. “He should have sent the other ones too. This is a fetish and lingerie store, what was he thinking?”
I snorted. “Not with his little head, that’s for sure.”
Preston started choking, so I shook my head and scoffed. “Oh no, you don’t get to play prude. And you know I’m right. The best photographers we’ve had were the ones who loved the subject matter.”
I thought that had come out pretty professional.
Preston didn’t think so because he laughed. “So the only good ones are the horny guys who have to go home and jerk off after seeing you guys all day?”
“Hey, I like Toby, he’s a sweet little thing. Just a little nervous and repressed.” Toby was one of the photographers who worked with us occasionally, and he was a cutie.
Shy and quiet, Toby came alive behind the camera, and it was clear from the pictures he took, and how turned on he got sometimes, that he loved the lingerie…and the guys. I just wasn’t sure if it was because he wanted to wear it, or if he liked the men who had it on. I’d tried pushing him, but he’d blush and clam up.
And not wanting to chase away a great photographer, I tried to give him some space and let him work with the easier guys who looked fabulous in the romantic style that Toby seemed to bring out in them. Some days, it was hard. I had this almost irresistible urge to poke at people until I understood them.
Preston said it was unhealthy and made me a nuisance.
I thought it made me lovable and quirky.
“We all like Toby. That’s not the debate here. Roman. We’re trying to decide if we fucked up with hiring him.” Preston looked back at the computer.
He wanted Roman. Not like sexually. I had a feeling they were both pretty strong tops and Dominants. No, he wanted the new photos Roman took for the site to have the same qualities that he’d brought out in the BDSM photos we’d found. He was right.
But I also thought it was going to come back and bite us on the ass.
“We give it a while and see what happens. It will be fine.” I was usually the neurotic basket case that had to be talked down; seeing Preston concerned about anything was weird.
“We’ve made a family with this company. It’s not conventional in any sense, but it works for us and for the business. I don’t want to do anything that might disrupt that.” The company might have been my baby, but Preston had helped to raise it just as much as I had. Maybe more.
“One person, even if they’re nuts, won’t create absolute havoc. It will be fine.”
Hell, what could go wrong? It was just one guy.
Chapter 3
Roman
“I’m still breathing. I didn’t do anything drastic to him. I’m still employed. I ate my vegetables. Anything else you called to be nosy about?” I loved my cousin, but he was starting to drive me to the brink of insanity.
The ho
vering was getting ridiculous.
He laughed. “I’m glad. I feel like I should say good boy, but I think you’d get offended by that.”
“On so many levels; you have no idea.” Unfortunately, he probably did.
Taking the last sip of my coffee, I got up from my tiny kitchen table. The apartment had come fully furnished, so it was all tacky and mismatched, but I hadn’t needed to shell out any extra money. Eventually, I’d get a real place again.
“I just called so I can tell the gaggle that I’ve talked to you recently, and that you seem like you’re doing fine.” Devin tried to sound casual, but I could hear something else in his voice.
Rinsing out my cup, I answered automatically. “I’m fine.”
He coughed. “Um, you sound less like an asshole—but not much. Have you done anything fun lately?” Then he continued like he’d just realized what I’d said. “And I think the job is going better than fine. I saw the pictures on the website that you did. They look great.”
“Why are you browsing around it? Something you want to tell me?” With my asshole ex blasting my personal life to the world, my family hadn’t been spared any of the details, so I wasn’t that concerned with their privacy anymore.
Devin laughed. “Nothing for me. I know someone who needed to see that he’s not the most colorful crayon in the box, so I pulled up the site. The photos you took of Eli showed up first, and they were great. I think some of the best I’ve seen from you.” Then his laughter turned into more of a snicker. “And that includes those kinky ones that my mother called up hollering about.”
“Thanks.” I hated to even admit to myself that he was right. So I stayed silent on the rest.
I’d done several shoots since I’d been hired, and they’d all gone well. But the photos with Eli were always the best. Even when he drove me insane, and I wanted to shove his flirty, smart-ass remarks up his—
I was starting to see the reason his previous photographer had spanked him.
Not that I was willing to indulge the brat.
“So, no comments about how they’re not that good, or that he’s terrible to work with?” Devin’s laughter was beginning to get annoying.
Setting my cup by the edge of the sink, I headed to the bedroom. The living room was almost empty, the only thing in it a lone couch that was so uncomfortable I never used it. After only living in the place twenty-four hours, I’d moved the TV back into the bedroom and basically lived out of there. The bed wasn’t much more comfortable, but at least I could stretch out.
“I’m professional.” Sometimes.
As long as I’d had a reasonable break from Eli.
“Bullshit.” Devin finally got his laughter under control. “The last time I called, you were threatening to murder him.”
That had been the shoot the photos he loved were from.
It’d been…difficult. “I’ve calmed down.”
And the fact that I hadn’t worked with him in a week might have been part of the reason. Eli made me want to pull my hair out. The only time I’d gotten a break from him was when he’d gone out of town for a few days.
Otherwise, no matter who I was shooting, he was always right there. Unfortunately, he was back, and one of the companies they worked with had sent some samples of a new line they were thinking about producing. So my sanity was going to be tested again that afternoon.
“Haven’t been to work lately?” Devin guessed, teasingly.
“I was on a shoot just yesterday. It went very smoothly.”
Devin tried to contain his smirk, but it didn’t work. “Then it wasn’t with Eli.”
“How do you know them so well?”
I could almost hear the shrug in Devin’s voice. “I told you, they do stuff for the center sometimes. They stand out. Especially Eli.”
Devin had sent me the notice about the photography job that’d opened up. It had landed on my desk at the perfect time. I’d been packed up and had sold nearly everything I owned to afford the move, and I’d just needed to figure out where to go.
With Devin offering the use of his couch and the potential for a job, it had seemed like a good fit. I was starting to wish I’d thought things through a bit more. But with the rent on my old place coming due and no way to pay it, there hadn’t been much of a choice.
Browsing through the small closet, I started picking out something to wear. At home all morning working on ways to restart my business, I hadn’t bothered with getting ready, but now that I was on the countdown to deal with Eli, it couldn’t be put off any longer.
“How’s the center doing?” Asking Devin about his work was the only guaranteed way of getting him off my back.
Devin ran an LGBT youth center that focused on helping kids in transition. They did a little bit of everything, but it was his passion and took up most of his time, much to his mother’s frustration. “Mom called and wanted to know why you haven’t found a nice guy yet.”
Devin moaned. “Don’t get me started on that gaggle.”
He’d started calling my mother and her sisters “a gaggle of nosy geese” when he was in high school. It was a good fit for them. Devin and I had about the same level of patience for it, which was how he’d ended up so far from the rest of them. It was working out in my favor.
“The center is going great, but I refuse to give them any more gossip. You wouldn’t believe the shit I had to hear about Aunt Deedee’s oldest. Somebody needs to call her and warn her. She’s going to hit the roof when she finds out what her mother is saying.” I could almost hear Devin rolling his eyes.
“I’m not getting involved. I’m finally off the hot seat, so I have no desire to rock the boat.” My phone had rung off the hook for weeks after all the drama had finally exploded. From my mother worrying about “where she’d gone wrong” to her sisters calling for good bits of gossip under the guise of helping, I’d had about all the family bonding I could handle for a while.
Devin laughed. “They’ll come back to you eventually. You have a job now, but once they find out you’re not working for a clothing company, they’re going to lose their shit.”
“I am working for a clothing company.” Fuck, that was all I needed. “You tell any of them, and I’ll tell your mother you want kids.” Tossing some clothes on the bed, I started gathering up everything else I wanted to bring with me.
He sucked in a breath. “That’s low.”
“Two words…biological clock.” They’d be so focused on him, I’d never hear from any of them. “I’ll tell them you were drunk and crying that you didn’t have a family and kids. You were so upset about not being married that you were hiding it from everyone.”
“Ass.” Then Devin chuckled. “We’ve still got Stevie to throw under the bus. His mother still doesn’t know about the tattoo or those two girls he’s living with.”
“Yeah, we’ll keep him in reserve. But I’m surprised nobody else has used him yet. We wait too long, and all the good shit’s going to be out in the open.” Blackmail material was the only reason to have a big family, as far as I was concerned.
Devin scoffed. “In this family? Not a chance.” I heard what sounded like a car door slamming. “I’m late for a meeting, so I’ve gotta hang up. But when my mother asks if you’re fine, will I be lying if I tell her you’re good?”
Probably.
“No, everything’s starting to work out.” As long as I left out work, my personal life, my finances, and my sanity.
“Alright. Just let me know if you need anything.” He wasn’t going to argue, but it was clear he didn’t believe me.
“You already did more than enough.” Letting me stay on his couch long enough to get my first check, and even putting up with my grumpy ass, was more than I could have asked for.
Not telling my mother how bad things got was enough that I was going to owe him, eventually.
“Just let me know. You can always work with my monsters if you want.”
“No chance in hell.” He laughed at how ser
ious I was. “Helping out sometimes is fine. That’s it, though.”
“I’m hurt.” The laughter made that statement unbelievable.
“Would you want me there all day?”
“Enough said.” The smile in his voice made me almost angry. But his next words pushed me well into insane. “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I think you deserve to know.”
Shit.
“What?”
“He called me.”
There were only two men I referred to as “he.” But in this situation, there was no other “he” it could be. My ex. “Why?”
“I got some line of crap that he missed you and realized how badly he’d treated you.” Devin’s voice said he thought it was a load of shit.
I tried to mentally shrug it off. “I guess all the money is gone.”
Devin didn’t respond to that; he just kept going. “I told him where he could shove his apology and said you weren’t interested. That was what you wanted me to say, right? You didn’t want him back or anything, did you?”
“Hell, no. I’m not that stupid.” I almost smiled at his sigh of relief. “He fucked my entire life up for ten seconds of internet fame.”
Devin just started grumbling, no longer nervous that I’d lose it. “He called the other night around three in the morning or something crazy like that. He’d been drinking and rambled on about how sorry he was.”
“Bullshit. If he’d been that upset it wouldn’t have taken him months and all my money to realize it.” I hadn’t been rich, but I’d been comfortable, with everything in my life planned out.
“Good. I was worried once I woke up completely and realized how fucked up it was that he’d even called.”
“How did he even know to call you?”
“I don’t know, but you might want to be careful with what kind of stuff you put online. Your name and even the business stuff for a while.”
Great. “I can’t stop my life. If he calls, I’ll deal with it. Hopefully, he’s smart enough to know that tracking me would be a bad idea.” In this day and age, no website meant no business, especially for a job like mine.
Devin snorted. “Yeah, understatement of the year. Okay, really got to go this time. Talk to you later.”
Leashes & Lace Books 1-3: MM Romance Boxed Set Page 18