how much time had passed since I wasn’t wearing a watch, but I couldn’t believe what they’d achieved in what hadn’t felt like so much time. Their hands weren’t gentle as they helped me off the stool I’d been on. Then they jabbed their fingers in the direction where the shoot was apparently being held.
There were light boxes and silver sheets, white squares, and all manner of paraphernalia that I was entirely unfamiliar with. I saw Dane talking to a woman on the sidelines, and my stomach did a funny, completely irrational knotting thing when I saw her giggle and rest her hand on his arm.
It made me want to growl, bare my teeth, and snap “mine.” But of course, one night together and a few orgasms did not make him mine. I knew that, but my inner bitch still hoped she farted by accident while speaking to him.
All my thoughts of mildly embarrassing moments I hoped she might have for flirting with him were banished from my mind when someone barked my name in a heavy accent. “Leah James? Over here. Quickly.”
My head whirled in the direction of the voice, and I found a stocky, bearded man with three harried-looking assistants behind him. From the camera hanging around his neck and the multitude of lenses that were being carried after him, I was assuming he was the photographer.
“I am Alain,” he said like his name should mean something to me. Then he snapped his fingers. “We do not have all day. Get into position there.”
He flicked his hand toward the area where the equipment was set up and narrowed his dark eyes at me when I didn’t move fast enough. “Now, Ms. James.”
“Right,” I said, fidgeting with my hands as I marched over and stood in front of a pretty shrub. “Here?”
“No.” He snapped his fingers again, and one of his assistants darted over to get me into position. When the girl flitted away again, he raised the camera to his face, fiddling until the assistants were in place behind standing cameras scattered all around.
It was intimidating as all hell, and it didn’t help when he started barking at me to “pose” and “work my angles.” I had no idea how to do that, but apparently smiling and resting my chin in my palms wasn’t it.
Alain was merciless. He barked and barked until I was flustered and close to tears. I tried my best to do what he wanted, but I still didn’t really know what it was.
A few minutes later, Dane’s voice rang out authoritatively from the sidelines. “Stop. Give me a minute.”
I looked at him just as he marched toward me. Dressed in a light gray suit with a blue tie and white shirt, he was so handsome that I had half a mind to stick him in front of the cameras instead. With his blond hair styled and his eyes the exact same color as the sky above, he would almost certainly have been able to pull off the role of a male model.
His brow furrowed with concern as he stopped in front of me, the faint but expensive, masculine scent of his cologne making me breathe in deeply. “Are you okay?”
“I’m so out of my element, I may as well be trying to fucking sky dive,” I whispered furiously. “For the record, I’ve never done that either, but jumping out of a plane with a parachute attached to my back feels like it would’ve been easier to figure out than this.”
A hint of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Then he reached out and enveloped my hands in both of his. “I thought it might be something like that. You looked like you were about to bolt.”
“Can I?” I asked seriously, glancing at Alain scowling at us over Dane’s shoulder. “He’s horrible. If I had the first idea of what he wanted, I’d do it, but I just don’t know. Constantly being yelled at isn’t helping much either.”
He tightened his grip on my hands, taking a step closer to me. We were standing so close together now that I had to tilt my head back to look into his eyes. There was an interesting mix of warmth and determination in them that made me want to cuddle up in his arms and stay there.
“It’s his job to yell at you, babe,” he said softly, my heart lurching at the ease with which he called me that. “It’s my job to take care