Late Call (Call #1)(45)
Author: Emma Hart

He stops, and both he and Joel turn to me. I know what they’re going to say before they open their mouths, and I shake my head.

“No. Oh, no. I’m not a model.” I walk backward.

“You have dark hair and an incredible body. You could stand in for her.” Aaron cups my face. “Please, sweetheart. If we have to cancel this shoot, Marlena might never use us again. She doesn’t do f**k-ups.”

“I’m not a model.” I swallow. “I don’t do pictures, Aaron. I do…you know.”

“And you are amazing at it, but now you need to put that gorgeous body to use in a different way,” he pleads quietly. “Please.”

I glance over his shoulder to Derrick. “And you’re happy for Mr. Baby Daddy over there to rub his body against mine?”

“Not at f**king all,” he answers through gritted teeth. “But we need this shoot to go perfectly so I’ll have to deal with it.”

I close my eyes. I’m not a model. I can barely stand taking a picture for my Facebook profile, let alone professional images to be plastered who the f**k knows where. But he’s asking so desperately, actually begging me…

“On one condition.”

“Anything.”

“Reah still gets paid for the shoot.” I look into his eyes. “She needs the money.”

Aaron nods without hesitation and kisses me—hard—before waving the team over.

What the hell am I doing?

***

“Please stop looking at me like you want to dribble chocolate sauce all over my body,” I snap.

Derrick grins in a way that I’m sure is supposed to be sexy but does nothing for me. “We’re supposed to be lusting after each other.”

“I think you left the ‘supposed’ at home.” I close my mouth as Joel yells for him to thread his fingers through my hair, pull my head back, and kiss my neck.

Oy vey.

He does as instructed, and I try to play the part, to get into it, but I can’t. And when he kisses me a little too enthusiastically, I shove him off of me.

“Do that again and I’m gonna slap it right out of you!” I point in his direction.

“We’re done here!” Aaron yells, moving forward. Joel’s annoyed cries are drowned out by him. “There’s no chemistry. Derrick, you’ll be paid in full, but you can go. It’s not working with the two of you.”

Derrick shrugs, shoots me a wink, and saunters off. What a f**king jerk.

“What are we gonna do now?” Joel shouts. “Two models and a non-model and the only one left is the non-model!”

I put my hands on my hips. “Hey! You forced me into this.”

“And you are f**kin’ great, but not when you’re working with a dick like Derrick,” he responds. “I’m just wondering where the hell I’m getting a male model from now.”

“You don’t need one.” Aaron pulls his shirt over his head. “Do you have a second pair of those shorts?”

A girl from wardrobe nods and runs off.

“What the hell are you doin’?”

Aaron puts his arms out. “I’m being your model.”

“You’re the boss!” Joel and I reply in unison.

“You don’t model. You order them around,” I remind him.

He takes the shorts from the girl and walks to the house. “Don’t model. Not can’t. Don’t.”

Two minutes later, he appears, clad in the shorts the same style as Derrick’s, and approaches me. I give him my best ‘not impressed’ look.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you set this up.”

“Good thing you know better.” He takes my hands and pulls me toward the water. “And now you can relax with me.”

He’s right. Derrick had me wound so tight I was at risk of snapping, and all because of his ass**le attitude.

“Right. Can we finish this shoot now?” Joel calls. “I want you two to be sexy. I want you to have lust—so much lust we’ll all leave here thinking you’ll be making out in the back of the car on the way back to Sydney.”

“I’ll do him one better,” Aaron mutters, pulling me close to him. “We’ll go for so much lust that there will be absolutely no doubt we’ll be f**king in the back of the car on the way to Sydney.”

The huskiness of his voice combined with his hand curving down my body tugs at every part of my body in sexual awareness. No problem. I hear quiet snaps from Joel’s camera as Aaron teases my body into various poses, each one sparking desire and need across my skin.

And when he gets onto one knee and slides me along his thigh and drops his lips to my neck, making me drop my head back and tangle my fingers in his hair, that desire goes deeper.

Every part of me hums with wanting him. My ni**les harden inside my—thankfully—padded bikini top, and I’m grateful for the sea sweeping over my legs, drenching my bikini bottoms. God knows my core is aching so much, my clit throbbing so hard, my arousal would be evident in minutes.

“I love this,” Aaron whispers in my ear, leaning over me, all gorgeous and bronzed and powerful.

“Love what?” I breathe, gazing into his eyes.

He holds the connection for a moment and drops his forehead to mine. “Knowing you’re turned on right now in front of all these people. I love knowing I’ve done that to you, and that even though there are twenty sets of eyes on us, you still can’t hold it back.”

The sea washes over me, wetting my hair and coating my body in a salty sheen. Another wave comes up, and as it washes away again, Aaron pushes his lips against mine. My head falls back against the sand, my leg bending at his side, and I forget about the shoot.

Forget about the audience, the eyes on us, the expectations from this. All I can feel and see and hear are his lips on mine, his short breaths mingling with my own, and my heart pounding in my ears. I quietly moan into his mouth at the feel of his tongue sweeping across mine.

He pulls back and tugs me up, his breathing labored. My own is heavy and full of want. My body is on fire with needing him, and I have to wonder if he has a switch for it. I don’t know how easily he does it, but my ni**les are begging for his tongue to circle them and my pu**y is practically f**king screaming to be filled by him.

“Holy shit,” one of the wardrobe girls cries. “I think I need a make-out session in the back of a car. What do you say, Joel?”

Aaron smiles against my jaw.