Between Heats (Downtown Aquatics Book 1) (2 page)

So her name was Madison. The name definitely rolled off his
tongue. He imagined murmuring her name when she put her arms around him
and— Damn. There he went again. He thought he was going to have more time
to get to know her when he picked her from the Stroke's list of proposed
models, but he didn't count on his buddy south of the border to not cooperate
when it counted. "All right," he agreed reluctantly.

His talent rep exchanged glances with the Agency, before
nodding. "Good. I'll go and fix things and I'll have someone call you when
we're ready to shoot. All right, Aaron?"

"Fine," he replied. The three of them closed the door
when they stepped out and Aaron tore his robe off and threw it at a chair.

Water. He was going to need water.
Lots of
it.

"What do you mean I'm getting replaced?" she
demanded. She turned to Elliott, who looked just as miffed. "I didn’t do
anything wrong, did I? We signed a contract!"

"And you'll still be compensated accordingly, especially
for your earlier work," the production assistant said. "It's just
that they've decided that it might be better if Anna be the lead model and your
shoots with our main talent were significantly reduced."

"They've decided?" she echoed. "
Who's
they? The clients? The agency? But they said I did
really well in the catalog shoots. They liked me then." A thought came to
mind. "Or wait. Did
he
decide?"

The PA's
tell-tale
flush was all the confirmation Madison needed. "Mr. Harding merely
suggested that he might find it more comfortable working with—"

Madison saw red. She couldn't believe his nerve. She had been
nothing but nice to him but he didn't even want to reciprocate that. What's
worse, he was taking away from her one thing she had worked hard for these past
few months.

Growing up, she knew she wanted to be an actress after seeing a
lot of movies as a kid. But she found out how hard it was to get into the
industry as soon as she moved to LA from a small farm in Pullman, Washington.
She had to take odd jobs and small modeling gigs and before long, she realized
that she wanted to have a successful modeling as well. She was lucky enough to
meet Elliott early on and became good friends. Through the agency he worked
for, she steadily got decent modeling jobs. It was also Elliott who helped her
find a talent agency for acting work.

This campaign with Stroke was a really big deal. It didn’t
happen to girls like her every day. But just because one hotshot of an Olympian
said so, she would lose it just like that.

Without another word, she marched past the PA and headed for
Aaron Harding's dressing room.

"Miss Thomas—!" she heard the PA call out but
she was already storming down the hall.

She opened the swimmer's door without knocking and slammed it
behind her. He turned to her in surprise. He was dressed in the same jammers he
had been wearing for the shoot, but he was dripping wet, like had just thrown a
glass of water over his head. Droplets clung to his black hair and dripped over
his strong shoulders. Her eyes couldn't help but travel over his muscled torso,
lingering at the sexy V that disappeared beneath his swimwear. On some other
day, in some other life, Madison would have taken a moment to admire that form.
But not today.

"I can't believe you!" she exploded, unable to keep
the hurt from her voice. "This is important to me!"

Aaron grabbed a towel and held it in front of him, as if in
defense. "I—" he said, caught off-guard. "Uh, it's nothing
personal. I mean
,
you're still getting paid."

"That's not the point!" She shook her head. "It
was never about the money. This was my first major endorsement, too. I don't
know what I've done to deserve this. I can see right through your wholesome,
All-American act, hotshot! You've been nothing but rude to me since we first
met but I didn't think that you'd stoop so low as to—"

“Rude?” Aaron's gray eyes looked puzzled.

Madison's eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest.
The robe slipped from her shoulders and that was when she realized that she was
still clad only in her bikini bottom. She groaned inwardly, but held her
stance. At least her arms now hid her chest from sight. “Oh come on,” she
accused him. “You've barely spoken three words to me at the shoot, even after
everything I did to get you to talk and relax. What, I didn't even merit any
kind of courtesy, and then this?”

Surprisingly, Aaron flushed redder than she had ever seen him.
He licked his lips and she watched his Adam's apple bob in a sexy swallow. “You
distract me,” he said in a low voice.

“I—what?” That was the last thing Madison expected to
hear. And it was suddenly making her insides turn into mush.

The swimmer took a deep breath and released it in a long hiss.
“You distract me. You saw me out there. I couldn't concentrate on anything. At
first, I thought I could handle it. Believe it or not, Stroke made me choose
which of you three I'd like to be the main female model and I chose you.” He
clutched his towel tighter. "But when you walked on set looking like,
well, that”—he gestured towards her—“I realized I made a big
mistake.” He met her eyes. “I'm sorry. I really tried to focus but I guess I got
all stiff
whenever you were close that I knew I had to
do something. We have a shoot to finish. I wanted it so that you could still be
paid as if you were the main model because I like you too much but I didn't
consider that you'd feel bad about losing the role and—”

“You like me?” she echoed dumbly.
Way to hear what you want to hear, Red.

A flicker of a smile ghosted over Aaron's lips, so quickly that
Madison wasn't sure if she had seen it. “I've made a mess out of things,
haven't I?” Aaron sighed, his face still flushed. “I'm sorry, I really am. I
was going to ask you out after this to explain things but… I've really messed
it up, huh?”

“You were going to ask me out? You have a funny way of showing
it.”
Don’t look at his eyes, Thomas,
don’t get charmed, don’t…
fuuuuuck
.

“This is the part where you call me an idiot and that you never
want to see me again.”

“You're an idiot.” But her mind was racing before it finally
reached a decision. Madison stepped towards him. “But we're going to spend the
next five minutes getting to know each other before you make your mind up.”

Aaron groaned. “Damn it, Miss Thomas, I'm telling you now that
talking to you is not going to make things any easier.”

“Who said anything about talking?”

Aaron took a sharp breath as Madison stepped even closer. He
dropped the towel when she let her arms fall to her sides, baring her chest to
him. His eyes flickered down to her body approvingly, as if he couldn't keep
himself from staring. She knew she was toned, one of the reasons why the
catalog job was offered to her. Her breasts tingled under his scrutiny.

She noticed how stiff he had actually grown and she tried hard
not to smile. “I see what you mean now.”

His gaze never left her face as she stepped closer, almost
toe-to-toe with him. She trailed a finger from his sculpted abs downwards to
graze him over his wet suit. He hissed.

Madison had to confess that the thought of a handsome athlete
being attracted to her was thrilling. She slowly looked up at him and said in
her softest sensual voice, “Do you think if I relieved you of this, it’ll make
you less distracted?”

His eyes were now half-closed at the sensation of her fingers
on him. But he was quick to grab her wrist. “I don’t usually do this.”

Neither did she, and she didn’t even know why she was doing
this in the first place. She wasn’t one to proposition, but finding out he was
getting this hard for her coaxed something out of her.
 
And that edge in his voice sounded a
challenge to her ears.

A challenge she was more than willing to accept.

She moved her nail upwards—slowly, lightly—brushing
against him. She held his gaze with her own and watched his
expression
slowly change
as she deliberately teased him with just one finger. She
took her time tracing his contours that strained against the tight
suit—from the tip, along the sides, then lingered at the base—and
he drew shorter breaths. She felt him twitch just slightly, and she felt a
surge of heat rise from her core. His gray eyes had glazed over, staring back.
Curse those penetrating gray eyes.

She continued her teasing and raked her nails upwards, adding a
touch of pressure along the way. She rested them on the top of his suit, and
fingered the waistband. And when Aaron caught his breath, she slipped her hand
into his jammers.

“
Madi
—“ he started, but his
syllables faded as soon as her hand was around his hardness. He was warm and
firm in her hand. She started to stroke him down while her other hand tried to
tug the rest of his suit down. Aaron took a couple of steps backward, before
hitting the low table. She followed as she held onto him, and realized how big
and unyielding he actually was. For one brief moment, she entertained the
thought of how good he could be inside of her.

He grasped her head and clutched at her hair to try and pull
her closer—as if to kiss her—but she resisted and simply stared him
down. "Slow and steady," Madison teased him, angling her face so
their jaws grazed each other. He settled with leaning his forehead against
hers, and his chest heaved with the shortness of his breath. His one hand still
on her wrist, he showed her how he liked it—slow one moment, then urgent
the next, with some twisting around his shaft.

Aaron’s handsome face was just inches away, and she liked how
his breath warmed her up, and it matched the heat that was building inside of
her. But he was tilting his head closer, reducing the gap, so she ducked and
crouched down his front, and she was now level with his erection.

With the suit tugged down and around his thighs, he was pinned
in place. He let go of her hand to grip the edge of the table tightly, and it
gave her leverage to work on him. And Madison had to admit that it delighted
her. Crouched low, she wrapped both hands around him and twisted them around in
opposite directions. Up and down, left and right, a bit of squeezing, and a bit
of pulling. She thumbed the pre-cum on the tip of his head, then snaked her
other hand downwards to gently palm his pelvis. She bobbed her head
forward,
just close enough to breathe on his cock. She
looked up at him and she knew he liked what he saw, especially when his jaw
dropped in a muted groan.

Fuck
this,
she was getting aroused,
too. Without losing her rhythm on his length, she straightened up and licked
her lips. Then she withdrew her hand from his pelvis to reach for his, the one
tangled in her hair. She pulled it down her neck.

It was
all the
signal Aaron needed. “I
want you,” he said in a warning tone. His hand glided over her nape and
shoulders, not stopping until it was over her breast. He took the chance to
grope her, as she hoped he would, and she let him squeeze her breast and thumb
her nipple.

Madison gasped. “That feels good,” she urged, resting her free
hand on his wrist lightly. Aaron’s grasp was strong and warm. He covered most
of her breast as he squeezed and fondled, and it was all she could do to let
him take her completely then.

Their eyes met. With her hand on his cock and his hand was on
her breast, Madison knew things were definitely heating up. She also knew she
had to quit while she was ahead and in control. She quickened her pace, and
applied more pressure, trying to emulate a sucking motion with just her hands.
And finally, she provocatively licked her lips and parted them.

He came right then and there, and she leaned down again to let
him spill himself over her breasts. He twitched, and she slowed down her
ministrations
as his member grew limp.

Madison quickly stood up and grabbed one of his water bottles.
Aaron still had his eyes on her, and she saw him lick his lips. But he was
leaning back and gripping the table’s edge, breathing heavily.

She opened the bottle and let the water dribble from the side
of her lips and down her breasts when she drank, and his eyes grew wider. She
grabbed one of the loose hand towels from the table to wipe her chest in front
of
him,
still staring him down with what she hoped was
a come-hither look. But it looked like he didn't have enough strength yet to
grow stiff again, so her job here was done.

She threw the towel at him, whirled and bent down to pick up
her robe, and put it on. "Now, can we work?" she asked him seriously,
head half-turned to him, even if her heart was beating faster. And how she
wanted more.

“Hell, no,” he growled, reaching for her.

Madison would have let him take her then, if it weren’t for the
knock on his door. “Aaron, are you ready?” a male voice asked.

She saw his fingers clench and unclench, as if he was
restraining himself from touching her. “Five minutes, Mike,” he said in a
strangled voice, looking straight at her.

“Photographer says you only have two,” the other guy replied.
“Hurry, please.”

They waited for the footsteps to fade. Madison smiled at him,
even if a bit smugly. There was a sense of empowerment over having control of
the situation—of him. “I guess I’ll see you later, then,” she said
teasingly before walking off, adding a bit of swing to her hips when she closed
the door behind her.