“Don’t hold your breath,” I retort with borrowed confidence.
“Mark my words, little millennial.”
“Lotus, you back here?” Chase calls from around the corner. He stops as soon as he sees me with Kenan, frowns, and runs a hand over the back of his neck. “JP’s looking for you.”
“Yeah, okay,” I say hastily, speed walking around him.
“I’m ready for you,” I hear Chase tell Kenan.
I’m glad one of us is.
JP has averted the crisis with the silk shipment and looks like a pleasant, reasonable man again. We’re talking through a few things we’ll probably work on when we get back to the office when Kenan walks in.
I chose well. The cool green pops against his skin. He’s the portrait of rugged, beautiful masculinity, but once the shoot actually starts, it looks like we caught him in the middle of a root canal. None of the coaxing, coaching, and cajoling Chase typically uses to get the best out of a subject is working on Kenan.
I roll my hips to the heavy beat pouring through the speakers and wonder if this will be a waste of time because the compelling force of Kenan’s personality doesn’t translate.
The beat.
It’s “Bad and Bouje” by Migos.
Mumble, mumble, mumble.
“Hey, JP,” I whisper. “What do you think?”
“It’s not . . . working,” he says, panic in his voice. “And I need to know we have someone locked down for this. He’s much stiffer than I thought he would be, but I still love those arms.”
“Mind if I try something that might help him relax a little?”
“Is it sex?” He widens his eyes and squeezes my hand reassuringly. “I’ll make everyone leave the room if you need privacy.”
“No, it’s not sex,” I say, trying to sound appropriately outraged instead of hella turned on. “Let me try something.”
“It can’t hurt,” JP says, watching as Kenan looks pained going through the poses and expressions Chase requests. I tiptoe over to the sound system and flip through what’s available until I find a song that might work.
At the first notes of “PYT,” the tension leaves Kenan’s shoulders. The longer the song goes, the better he looks, the easier it seems to come to him.
“You’re a miracle worker,” JP says, delight all over his face as he watches Kenan. “He looks great, doesn’t he?”