Before You: Standalone Contemporary Romance (19 page)

He grinned. “Well, now you have one.”

André yelled out more instructions, and we returned our attention to screen. What we could see and what was popping up on screen were completely different. André was a photographic magician, and I loved watching him work. I loved hearing his voice give orders. I loved when he got involved and physically posed the model. I loved that he wasn’t afraid to try something different to him, and to put his own flare on what the magazine was asking for.

“Now, pull her into the water.”

The models both looked at André in surprise, and he snapped a couple of shots of their gaping mouths.

“I know you’re wearing couture. But you only have one shot at this. Pull her into the water.”

He was still behind his camera, still ready to take the shot the moment they complied. The models still looked worried.

“It’s fine,” Jasper assured them. “Go with the shot.” Then he leaned into me. “Vivienne is going to have a fit, but these images will be so worth it.”

It was hard to make the choice between watching the scene play out in real life or to watch it as it loaded in bursts of photos on the screen in front of me. I chose to do both, flicking my eyes between the models, André, and the screen.

A girl squealed.

Splash.

Laughter.

Shots up on screen.

“We got it,” André stated. “Great job.”

Applause.

André handed his camera to a member of the crew then came to stand beside me at the computer.

“They aren’t as beautiful as the photos I took of you, but I think they work.”

I blushed and Jasper smiled, glancing at me before turning his attention to André. “These are perfect. Vivienne is going to lose her mind and beg you for more.”

André slung his arm around my shoulders. “I was happy to help. This was actually a lot of fun. Models are so much more cooperative than animals.”

Jasper laughed. “Spend some more time around us, they’re more like animals than you think.”

Jasper left us alone to go and gave instructions to the crew about clean up.

“So, this is what you do for work?” André asked, his eyes moving about the busy scene, taking in all the action like a cat watching ants running about before a storm.

“Not normally, no. Most of the time, I’m strapped to my desk. It’s not very glamorous at all, but sometimes, we get to go out and do things like this. Especially when we procured the most amazing photographer in town to save the magazine’s ass.”

“Well, I liked working with you.”

I smiled and tilted my head up, pressing a kiss to his lips. “I liked working with you too.”

“Get a room you two,” Jasper joked, returning to pack up the computer and talk to André about coming back in to help select and edit the shots. “I’m sure Vivienne would love to meet up with you as well.”

They set up a time early the next week then we were free leave for the day.

“I’ve got to head back to work to tie up a few things before the weekend. You still going to
Splinters
with your friends tonight?”

“I am. You still coming?”

“Wouldn’t miss it,” he told me with a dazzling smile as he kissed me again, not caring who was watching.

––––––––

“H
er boyfriend is...” Milly and I had just arrived at
Splinters
and were standing right behind Jasper, ready to say hello but paused when he shook his head then downed a mouthful of his drink. It seemed as though he’d already had a few. “He’s a-fucking-mazing. The best I’ve ever worked with. So good. So inspired.”

Catherine gave me a wink as she laughed at Jasper while he regaled her with André’s photo shoot antics. “You sound like you have a man-crush, Jasper,” she said as she draped herself against her current model, Carlos.

“I fucking do.” Jasper took another gulp of the dark liquid in his glass. “André is talented. He’s incredibly good looking. And he has an accent. I mean, come on. I defy you to spend time with the guy and not crush on him.”

“I thought you were straight,” Catherine giggled.

“Must we label?” he said with a sigh. “I like either.”

“So Willa and André would be your ultimate threesome,” she cackled, her eyes moving right to mine and finally letting Jasper know that I was right there, listening to him.

“Oh god, Willa. I didn’t mean...I’m not trying to disrespect you or anything.” Then he turned to Catherine and scowled at her for knowing I was there and not saying anything.

“It’s fine. André is rather gorgeous. I totally get it. How about you buy me a drink and we’ll call it even?” I nudged him playfully with my elbow.

Jasper grinned. “Absolutely.”

We made our way through the crowd, the low beat of the music making it hard to hear when mixed with all the conversations around us.

“Vodka martini?” Jasper asked, leaning close to my ear to be heard.

I shook my head, remembering how sick I was after drinking them the last time. “Cosmopolitan.”

He leaned forward and called out our order to the bartender, ordering a scotch and soda for himself.

“Vivienne went nuts over the pictures I showed her. You can expect her to offer André more work with us if he’s interested.” Again, he was talking close to my ear, and I had to do the same to him.

“Wow. I suppose it’s something you’d have to talk to him about.”

Our drinks were set down in front of us and once Jasper paid, I thanked him and clinked glasses before taking a sip.

“Is this what happens when I leave you alone for two seconds?” André’s voice entered my ear like a soft song as his arms slid around my waist, and he pulled me against him, holding me possessively.

Smiling, I turned my head so I could speak only to him. “No need to get jealous. We were just talking about how much our Editor loved your work.”

“That’s all?”

“That’s all.”

With a low grunt in my ear, he shifted to the side and held out his hand to Jasper. “I just need to borrow my girlfriend for a moment,” he said, shaking Jasper’s hand. Jasper held on for a moment too long, and I wondered if I should tell André what I’d overheard when I’d gotten here.

“I don’t like you accepting drinks from other men,” he said in my ear as he steered me away.

“Then I don’t want you accepting drinks off other men either.”

He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means that our friend over there is just as interested in you as he is in me. So if I need to say no, you’ll need to say no as well.”

“He swings both ways?”

“He swings both ways.”

He glanced back to where Jasper had rejoined our group. “I know we’ve moved past the whole rule thing. But, I think I need to make something very clear.”

“What’s that?”

“No sharing. Ever.”

I looked up at him and smiled. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”

Grinning, he pulled me up against his hard body and lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me in the crowd while the music pulsed through our bodies, letting everyone in the club know that I was his.

“Speaking of no sharing – watch out for Catherine. She can get a little handsy.”

“Which one is she?”

“The tall waif-like blonde.”

He glanced over to the group where Dave and Milly were sitting close together on one of the couches and spotted her. “She’s not my type.”

“She looks exactly like your type,” I stated, remembering the girl from Chicago and then a very similar looking girl here.

“No. You are my type. You’re the only girl who has ever been my type.”

I grinned. “You know how to say all the right things to get a girl to drop her panties,” I teased. 

“I don’t need you to drop them,” he said in my ear. “I think I’ve proven that I’m quite willing to rip them off.”

A familiar flutter danced about in my stomach as my insides clenched, and I wondered if we’d be missed if we just went home and made love on every available surface. But when I looked over to the group, we were being waved over.

“Let’s go say hi so we can get out of here,” I said, taking a hold of his hand and pulling him through the crowd to the lounge chairs that were our group’s hang out. Even Sara had turned up tonight.

“I hear this is the photographer who saved the day,” she said when we arrived, holding out her hand to greet André.

Catherine stood from her position on Carlos’s lap and placed one of her elegant hands on André’s shoulder as if they were somehow acquainted. “Your photography is inspired,” she said, intercepting him. “Catherine Rose.” She shook his hand. “I’m sure Willa has told you how impressed everyone was by your work today. Vivienne, our Editor, is planning on offering you a staff position. Lord knows the office could do with a man like you around the hallways.” She stepped back and ran her hand down his chest, and scowling, I decided that I was going to rethink my decision to call her a friend. Friends don’t openly flirt with other friend’s boyfriends. No matter how good looking they are.

“Maybe we should get out of here,” I stated, taking a hold of André’s arm to steer him away.

“A staff position?” he asked me.

I shook my head. “It’s the first I’m hearing about it. But, it doesn't surprise me, Vivienne isn’t the kind of person to let an opportunity pass her by.”

“What would you think if I took it?”

I looked at him for a moment, my mind running through the conversation I’d had with Dave about his work being in his blood. Could he really be happy as a fashion photographer?

“Is it something you’d want to do?” I asked instead of answering. I didn’t want him to feel as though I was pressuring him either way.

“Perhaps I’ll wait and see what your editor has to say.”

“Great idea. But I’ll be happy with whichever you decide.”

“Tell me you two aren’t bickering,” Milly interrupted, taking the seriousness of my expression as annoyance as opposed to concern.

I placed my hand lovingly on André’s chest, running it down the smooth fabric of his cotton shirt. “Just talking,” I told her. “We can’t all be lovey dovey like you and Dave.” I nudged her with my shoulder playfully.

She grinned like she was the cat who got the cream. “I know he’s your brother and you don’t want to hear this but, wow.” She fanned her face, causing me to laugh and Dave to interrupt.

“What is she saying about me?”

I grinned. He seemed happy. I could tell by the way his brown eyes took on this softness when he looked at her, and how he was always just a touch away from her. I wondered if they were experiencing the same visceral need inside them that André and I were. But even if they weren’t, I was glad that they seemed happy for now. Dave needed happiness. I may have been a witness to our parent’s deaths, but he’d lost everything too that day. We were both scarred.

“She thinks you’re awesome, Dave, relax,” I said with a smile, watching as he slipped his arm around her waist and pressed a kiss into her hair.

As the night wore on, we all talked until our throats hurt, laughed until our stomachs ached. Catherine and Carlos coaxed Jasper onto the dance floor and eventually, they all left together, causing the rest of us to raise our eyebrows and comment that Jasper was about to get eaten alive by Catherine’s insatiable appetite.

Then we left together and went for coffee, continuing our camaraderie well into the early hours of the morning, and when we finally parted ways and headed home – Dave with Milly, and me with André, I couldn’t stop the happy sigh from bursting out of my chest.

“Good night?” André asked from drivers seat.

I turned to him and smiled. “The best.”

And it really was. I hoped that things could always be this way. It was the first time that I ever had hope for happiness.

I smiled to myself.

I had hope...

––––––––

T
ime changes things. Even when you have something as powerful as what André and I shared, the outside world, the decisions we make, and our own insidious minds can change things.

We had love. That, we had in spades. But, when André took a job at Vibe Magazine and left his job with Phoenix Productions behind, things changed.

At first, everything was great. We’d go into work together. We’d come home from work together. We’d have lunch. We’d discuss meetings and ideas for future issues. At first it felt like we’d be an unstoppable team. But, a couple of weeks after Christmas, Dave came home and announced he was heading to Afghanistan. It was the project André had last worked on – the one where they’d been evacuated after only a month’s worth of filming. Because André had left, Dave was taking his place.

André became withdrawn.

Things changed.

A gulf was growing between us, and our sex was becoming an angry slapping of bodies and growled words with rough hands, bitten flesh. Our appetite and need for each other was still there, but the emotion was changing.

André was agitated.

Everything was changing.

“What’s going on with you?” I asked, my breath heaving as I sat in bed, drenched in sweat from our vigorous lovemaking, watching him pull up his Calvin Kleins.

“Nothing is going on. I’m simply thirsty.”

He stood to go downstairs. “André,” I called after him. But, he didn’t stop, he simply continued to walk, and I was left watching his receding back.

Feeling the crush of what wasn’t being said pressing against my chest, I got up and wrapped myself in my silk robe then followed him to the kitchen.

When he came into view, I could see that he was on a stool, his head in his hands, a half drunk bottle of beer sitting open in front of him. My heart ached. I wanted him to talk to me. I wanted to be a part of whatever he was going through.

Quietly, I approached him and rested my hand on the warmth of his naked back before sliding my hand up into his thick hair. “Talk to me, André,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his shoulder as I moved around to his side.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” His voice was cold, and he avoided my gaze.

“Of course there is. You haven’t been yourself since Dave said he was going to Afghanistan. And you’ve been even worse since he left.”