Beauty Shot (Hope Parish Novels Book 5) (9 page)

“Tonight.
Dinner.”

She nodded. “I’ll
meet you outside at five?”

“That sounds
good. Gives me time to do my homework. And, no,” I said when
she opened her mouth. “We can’t study together just yet.
I wouldn’t get anything done. Well, except cataloguing every
cell in your mouth.”

“Okay, point
taken.”

“Uh, there is
one more thing,” I said before I let her walk away.

“What?”

“Plan to be
with me all day Saturday.”

“All day?”

“Yeah, all
day. That work?”

“It works
great,” she said.

Then she walked away
and I let her go, but watched until the door closed behind her.

“Travis!”

I jumped when Deke
walked up to me, and I swore when I saw his eye was already going
black and blue. “Shoot, son,” I said before he could
speak. “I owe you a huge apology.”

“Nah. I get
it. Everything worked out with Emmie?”

“It shore is.
Got a date tonight.”

“That’s
great.”

“Still sorry
about the shiner.”

“You pack a
punch, boy. But we’re good. Right now I’m headed back to
hang with my Suttontowne friends. We’re going sightseeing.”

“Right, you
don’t have classes today. Well, have fun.”

Minnie

I woke up with a
pounding head and Verity’s soft voice in my ear. “Minnie,
wake up. We have a problem.”

I moaned and opened
one eye. “It’d better be a really bad problem.”

“It is.”

She shoved a
newspaper in my hand, and my sleepy, gritty eyes widened, the
hangover banging in rhythm to the beat of my heart.

“Oh, shit,”
I whined.

Verity walked to my
bathroom, talking all the way. “Yeah, that’s only the
beginning. He’s all over the net too. Fashion blogs, Tumblr,
everywhere.” I heard water running and she came back into the
bedroom, handing me a glass and some painkiller. “Which is
good, but mostly bad. You know what this means?”

“Stop talking
so loud,” I groused, tossing the pills in my mouth and gulping
down the water.

She lowered her
voice and plopped down on the bed. “Great exposure for us, but
if someone snaps him up for their campaign, we’re screwed.”

The picture had been
taken when he was standing on the end of the runway looking all
exotic in that scrap of a bathing suit, and the headline read,
Deke
West Shakes Up Fashion Week
.
“Why does he have to be so damn good-looking?” I moaned
and clutched my head.

“Minnie, that
is beside the point. What do you want to do?”

“We’ll
have to offer him the campaign.”

“Exactly what
I was thinking. We don’t have anyone locked in yet.”

“No, not yet.”

“We need to
lock him in. But, Minnie, I have to warn you. It’s not going to
be easy.”

“Me? He’s
your husband’s former employee. Deke will do it for you.”

“Oh, I think
he’s more interested in you. Besides, you’ll need to be
the one to handle him. I’m going home in a few days.”

“Oh, bollocks.
You’re right.” I clutched at my head again, drawing up my
knees. Then what she’d just said registered. “Why won’t
it be easy?”

“He might have
looked unaffected yesterday, but modeling is not something he’ll
be excited about doing.”

“Why?”

“He doesn’t
like to be objectified. I overheard him talking to Boone about how
much he hates it when people look at him and just see his looks.”

“Oh, bloody
hell. Freaking bloody, bloody hell!” I didn’t want to see
that man almost every day during our ad campaign. I had narrowed my
list down to one male model, but he wasn’t my first choice.
Deke had been my first, last, and in-between choice, and I knew it.
That was why it had been so hard to choose someone else.

“He’s
coming sightseeing with us today. Ask him then.”

I cradled my aching
head, remembering, even after all the alcohol I’d consumed,
what it was like to be straddling his lap. “
Bollocks
,”
I said again. “I’ll be having sex with him before the
week is out.”

My head came up and
Verity eyed me. “Tell me I didn’t say that out loud.”

From the look on her
face, I could see I had.
Bloody
hell
.
I needed a drink. “Okay, if that’s what it takes to get
you up, showered, and ready to storm the Deke gates. He’s not a
professional model. He’s a down-home country boy. Nothing fazes
him. Just be honest with him, for God’s sake, and if you do
decide to sleep with him, be careful. Don’t hurt him, because
I’m not sure I could forgive you.”

“Me? Hurt
him?”

“Yes, it’s
easy to see he’s crazy about you. Don’t encourage him if
you’re not serious.”

“Verity, he’s
kind of irresistible and too young for me…and did I mention
sexy as hell? The press will have a field day if they get wind of
this. I don’t want to be compared to Angela and her penchant
for pretty young boys.”

“Oh,
bollocks
,”
she mimicked, and I laughed without humor.

“Yeah,
exactly.”

“Okay, well,
keep it professional, then. Offer him a job. Tell him there’s
no way there can be any ‘you know,’ and you both have to
keep it platonic.”

“Yeah, how did
that work for you and Boone?”

“Oh, bollocks
ten times over!”

I leaned against the
headboard and blew out a breath. “Professional. Platonic. I
could cooperate, but what about him? He wasn’t cooperating last
night.”

“What happened
last night?”

“He kissed
me.”

“Oh, damn.”

“Hot damn is
more like it. Verity, I really like him. I have a very hard time
concentrating around him. Maybe you should do this.”

“No, Minnie. I
can’t. I have a husband and a child. I need to be with them. I
can’t stay in New York that long. Boone needs me now. With
Booker gone, it’s shaken them up. They won’t admit it,
but he wouldn’t tolerate me away for months and neither would
Duel. You can do this. Now get up and jump in the shower, pronto.”

“Yes, missy,”
I said, slipping out of bed. “For a country bumpkin, you’re
pretty pushy.”

“We didn’t
go through all this hard work so some competitor could upstage us by
snagging one of the hottest new males in the industry. Deke will do
this for us. But only temporarily.”

“Yes, well, he
might have a decision to make afterwards. My gut tells me he could be
big, work in the industry for a long time. I’m thinking
supermodel.”

“Agreed. But
baby steps. Right now let’s just get him to agree to this
campaign.”

In the shower, all
the powerful sensations that had stormed through my system last night
returned. My skin was sensitive, my nipples ached. It had been such a
long time since I had been with a guy.

I got out and dried
off, got dressed, and took some more painkillers along with my orange
juice. By the time, the elevator opened and Deke got off, I was
feeling almost normal.

“Oh, love.
What happened to your eye?” It was black and blue and his cheek
a bit swollen. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d reached him,
my hand cupping his jaw, my thumb going gingerly over the bruise. The
fact that he’d been hurt went through me like a knife. “Blimey.
Did you get mugged?”

“No, just
blindsided by my roommate. We had a misunderstanding and he clocked
me. It’s okay, Minnie. I’m fine. Really. It barely hurts.
Ouch,” he said when I touched what must have been a sensitive
spot.

“Right, tough
guy,” I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on the bruise,
kissing along his cheekbone and eye socket.

He sighed and the
sound of it went through me like thunder.

“I should get
him to bruise me up more often. How about my mouth?”

I pulled back. “Did
he hit you there?”

“No.”

“Cheeky
devil.”

Verity cleared her
throat as she came down the stairs, and I moved away from Deke with a
guilty hop.

“Minnie, did
you…?”

“No, not yet.
Why don’t you lot go into the kitchen and get your breakfast.
Give me a few minutes with Deke.”

Verity turned and
crowded her husband, brother-in-law, and friend toward the kitchen,
Brax gave Deke a wink, and River Pearl smiled, saying, “What’s
going on?” to Verity.

Deke shook his head.
“Geez, you’d think this was high school.”

“I need to
talk to you.”

“I want to
talk to you, too.”

“I think we
have different things to discuss.”

“I’m
sure. Look, Minnie. Can I take you out?”

“Deke, have
you seen the paper?”

I showed it to him
and he grabbed it. “Shit, that’s me. I hope my grannie
doesn’t see me like this.”

“That’s
not all. You’re all over the net, too. Did you get any offers?”

He looked up from
the paper. “Offers?”

He was so damned
adorably clueless. “For modeling?”

“No. I had
more than a hundred messages on my cell, but I’ve been afraid
to turn it back on.”

“Verity and I
need to ask you a favor.”

“Are we
exchanging favors?” he said, his brow raised.

I was tempted to do
what I had never done before. Throw caution to the wind and take what
I wanted, even knowing the consequences. But then I realized how
awful it would be. How they would laugh and compare me to Angela, and
just the thought of it galled me and chilled me. That woman had never
been much of a mother to me unless it suited her. With her too-tight,
much too youthful clothes, her desperate attempts to keep her face
youthful with plastic surgery, and her outrageous behavior as
Hollywood’s most notorious aging starlet scandals, I was
actually grateful she didn’t mention me very often.

I reached up to
touch his soft hair, looked into those ocean blue eyes, fighting the
internal battle of want over need, losing it in every way—physically,
emotionally, romantically, spiritually—and not particularly
caring. He made it too easy.

One look from him,
and I felt like he was the fire that could melt me down to the very
essence of who I should be. It was a wonder we didn’t combust
into a raging inferno.

Dancing on the edge
of this made me feel so alive. He could ruin me. Which made what I
was about say right now the epitome of foolishness.

“I can’t
lie. I am trying to avoid you, because I’m finding it difficult
to be near you and not want something more.”

I put a hand on his
chest, and that was a mistake. It was supposed to hold him back until
I said my piece, not remind myself of how solid he was, how warm his
skin was, and how smooth. My hand ached to move all over him.

“Wait. Before
we do anything we can’t take back, we’re going to need
you to work for us…me and Verity…exclusively. We can’t
have our competition stealing our thunder. We’re about to
launch an ad campaign for the Bespoke brand, and now you’ve
made such an impression on the movers and shakers of the fashion
world, you will be hounded with offers.”

“You’re
offering me a job?”

“Yes, we would
pay you.”

“I’m no
model. I don’t know the first thing about it. I’m not
interested in what you can do for me in your world. I just want a
chance with
you
.
And, I
hate
being objectified.
Especially
for money. And, even more, I
hate
that the money is coming from you.”

“This is such
a complicated situation.”

“Shug,”
he said, teasing the corner of my mouth with his thumb. “I
wouldn’t betray Verity in any way. Why can’t I just fade
into obscurity?”

“Because the
fashion world won’t let you.”

“Then, okay.
I’ll work for you.”

“Now the hard
part. You have to keep your distance until this does die down.”

“No. No deal.
Don’t try to wrangle me, Minnie. It won’t work.”

“Deke….”

“No.”

“Damn you.
Stop being stubborn. Can’t you just keep your distance until
the prep for this campaign is over? It’s just a few weeks of
shooting.”

“No. I’m
negotiating. If I do this for you, I want to take you out. Get to
know you.”

“I can’t
go out in public with you Deke. It’s about gossip and tabloids
and scandal. I can’t see you in public.”

His mouth tightened
and he shifted. “I don’t like sneaking around and being
your closet boy toy.”

“It wouldn’t
be like that and you know it. This business is catty at best and I
have other stressors regarding dating younger men. But I would like
to get to know you better, just not in a public setting where people
will talk. This would be private between us. Can you at least agree
to that? Besides, you’ll soon learn that we probably don’t
have much in common except how much we want to get physical—”

“You want to
get physical with me?”

“Like you have
to ask that. I want to get close to you, but I…can’t
Deke—”

“Minnie. About
the physical. I’m, ah, a virgin.”

I blinked. “What
did you just say?”

“I’m
never been with a woman.”

“
Blimey
.”

“I want the
first woman I’m with to be you.”

I couldn’t
respond since Boone and Braxton came out of the kitchen,
play-battling with each other, with Verity and River close behind,
telling them to stop horsing around. Everything changed. My whole
perspective on him. Here I thought he was experienced in more than
just being charming. He wanted me to be his first? I was overwhelmed
and touched.

“You guys
ready?”

I nodded not taking
my eyes off him and he smiled as if all I had just thought flitted
across my face. It was the first time I had seen him look so
tentative. But there was no time for conversation.

We trooped down to
the street together and caught the tour bus. The first stop was the
art museum.