what I already knew to be true. I hadn’t wanted to take the chance that it would get wet. If it got damaged, it’d take me months to replace it.
Julian held up his iPhone. “I'll just use my phone. They won’t be perfect, but I’m sure you can tweak them once you get home.”
I nodded and dropped my bag onto one of the lounge chairs nearby. If I stood against the railing, most of the marina would be hidden off to the left. The water and the sky would make for a perfect backdrop for the first few photos.
“Who usually takes your photos?” Julian asked as I tried to strike a pose that wouldn’t be too obnoxious. I usually took photos when no one was around; I didn’t really need Dean’s girlfriends as an audience.
“Other than the day I helped you,” he clarified.
“My landlady,” I admitted with a sheepish smile.
He snapped two photos and then I tried a different pose. I stretched my arms out against the railing and smiled at the camera. I’d realized early on that my blog photos turned out best when I didn’t pretend to know how to model. There were a few standard poses: up close shot of the outfit accessories, subtle glance over the shoulder, active interest in something on the ground, and then a subtle smile that looked mysterious on other bloggers, but only ever made me look constipated.
“But I almost put an ad up on Craigslist the other day,” I mentioned.
“For a photographer?” he asked, clearly unimpressed. He lowered his iPhone as he waited for my reply.
“Yes,” I shrugged, “but then I realized that I’d probably end up on some fetish porn site or something.”
Julian laughed and shook his head.
“Uh, yeah, Jo, don’t hire a photographer off Craigslist.”
Clearly he didn’t understand how hard it was to find a photographer who would take photos for free.
“I just need to find someone better than my landlady. She takes the blurriest photos and I basically have to bribe her into taking them. Last week she made me listen to like two hours of her stories ‘from the homeland’ before she finally agreed. After thirty minutes, I ended up with three photos of my blurry face and about thirty photos of her thumb covering the lens.”
Julian laughed, his deep dimples driving me as insane as ever. He snapped a few more photos while I tried to focus on anything but his appearance. His face was already hard to behold, but somehow the baseball cap brought out a new layer of appeal.
“I can always help you, y’know,” he offered as he held his phone up for me to inspect the photos he’d just taken. I stepped closer and watched him scroll through them, ignoring the exhilarating feeling of being close to him.
“You say that now,” I joked, “but you’ll realize soon that this volunteer job has very few benefits. You just have to follow me around and snap as many photos as you can.”
“I can think of a few benefits,” he offered, with unmistakable lust in his tone.
I stared at his mouth, at the lips that had just formed those seductive words. They were right there, so close that I could reach out and steal a kiss. I inhaled once, slowly, and then convinced myself I’d read too much into his statement.
“Julian, less play-flirting. More snapping,” I said, helpless to prevent the smile spreading across my face as I stepped back toward the railing.
I peered over at him from beneath my lashes and waited for him to start taking photos. He didn’t. He stared straight at me with his eyes full of questions and his lips full of unspoken desire.
“Who said anything about play?” he finally asked.
It was his dark brow, subtly raised beneath the brim of his baseball cap that made my stomach dip low.
We were entering dangerous territory.
Chapter Eighteen
Julian
For the past few weeks, I’d done my best to give Josephine her space. Every urge that wasn’t strictly wholesome, I’d ignored. Mostly. We danced around each other, flirting and teasing, assuming it was all in good fun. Now, as I watched her accept a margarita from Dean and laugh at whatever babble he was throwing her way, I fought the desire to walk closer and slip my hand beneath her cover-up. I’d run my hand along the curve of her ass and up over her hip. The bikini offered up no shortage of soft skin, ready for exploration.
Once she had her drink, she glanced over her