In Bed With The Boss Page 0,28

him and disappeared as Christian pulled himself out of his thoughts and got up to pay for the pizza.

Shutting the door, Christian carried the box to the counter, standing there to eat his dinner. Javier had been right, David deserved to be treated like the special person he was, and Christian needed to be honest and tell David how he felt. He’d been miserable for days, they both had, and it was within his power to put a stop to it. Pulling out his phone, Christian looked up David’s number and was about to press connect when he closed the phone again, shoving it back into his pocket. David deserved to hear what he had to say in person, directly from him. He wasn’t going to take the coward’s way out. He’d done that often enough.

Christian finished his pizza, throwing the box in the trash, before hurrying into the studio. He had plenty to do and not a lot of time to get it done. Christian knew he’d made a mess of things and it was about time he cleaned it up. He knew what he wanted, now he just had to figure out how best to show David. He was a photographer—he told stories with pictures. Now it was time to tell the most important one of his life.

* * * *

Christian waited impatiently in the studio the following morning. He’d been up most of the night working and finally had everything just the way he wanted it. As he waited, Christian took one more look around, happy with how everything looked.

He heard footsteps outside the studio door and he tensed, expecting to hear David’s key in the lock, but that didn’t happen, and the footsteps retreated down to the door of the other studio. So he continued to wait, checking the clock every few minutes and looking out the windows to watch the sidewalk. A full hour later, Christian finally heard footsteps approaching, and then the key slipped into the lock. Hurrying across the floor, Christian opened the apartment door, intent on going inside, but stopped himself. Good or bad, he needed to see David’s reaction. He’d hidden behind his own bravado and cowardliness for too long. Closing the door, he turned around and waited.

David entered the studio and walked over to the desk without turning on any of the lights. Christian watched as he booted up the computer, the light from the monitor illuminating David’s face. Christian didn’t move, and simply watched David work for a while. He’d done this a few times before, but this time he realized how fascinating David was and how close he’d come to losing him because of his own stupidity and fear. The clicking of the keyboard filled the room as David worked. After a while, Christian became inpatient and almost said something, but he knew he wanted David to see what he’d done naturally and unexpectedly, so he continued to wait, leaning against the door.

Christian’s eyes had drifted closed when he heard the wheels on the desk chair roll back and then footsteps. Opening his eyes, he waited, and then the lights flipped on. Christian heard a sharp intake of air as David gasped. Christian watched as David moved around the studio, looking at the pictures Christian had hung from every wall and pillar. There were even some suspended from the ceiling girders. “Where did these come from?” David asked softly.

“I took them when you weren’t looking,” Christian said, and he heard David squeak in surprise. “See, here’s you working at your desk. See your tongue between your teeth. You always do that when you’re puzzled about something. Then there’s this one with your eyes narrowed. That’s your ‘’disgustedly bemused with Christian’ face. I don’t remember what I’d done, but I’d do it again to see that expression.” Christian moved to yet another photograph, this one larger than most of the others. “This is your ‘so happy you forget to censor yourself’ face. I don’t get to see this very often. It’s sort of an endangered species and I’d like to make it breed and multiply, because it’s one of the most beautiful.” Christian took David’s hand and tugged him toward the largest picture of all. “This is my favorite, though.” Christian pulled aside one of the curtains that hid a huge picture of David’s face. “This one was by pure accident. We took it months ago while I was photographing that blonde porn star. One of the remote cameras