Playing With Seduction (2 page)

“You didn’t answer my question,” Stephanie went on relentlessly as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Do you want to rip off his clothes and drop to your knees to get up close and personal with his cock? When you look at chiropractor guy, do your girly parts get all warm and tingly because you can’t stop thinking about getting down and dirty with him?”

“Yes, yes, I’m attracted to him,” Kendall said with a laugh, giving Stephanie what she wanted to hear. And she
did
find Grant attractive. He was classically handsome, with warm green eyes and an easy smile. He liked running every day and had a nice body to show for it. He was a gentleman, and though they’d only kissed once on their last date, she’d enjoyed it.

Stephanie sighed and didn’t look convinced. “Finding Grant
attractive
and compatible is all well and good, but what about passion and lust?”

Kendall settled the camera strap around her neck, a safety precaution just in case it slipped from her hands during the photo shoot, and decided to be honest—with her friend, and herself. “Passion and lust isn’t something I’ve had a whole lot of experience with. Maybe I’m just not the kind of woman who gets all worked up over sex.” Or the kind of woman who made men go wild with the uncontrollable need to pin her to the nearest mattress and take her hard, fast, and a bit on the rough side. No, that was a fantasy that would probably never become a reality.

“Let me tell you something,” Stephanie said, her brows creased in a suddenly serious expression. “After what your dirty, lying, cheating, pencil-dick of an ex-husband did to you, you
deserve
a man who will make you feel those things. And you know that the girls would agree with me.”

Oh, yeah, they would. The girls—Raina, Paige, Jillian, and Summer, who were all a part of their monthly girls’ night out group—would undoubtedly back up Stephanie. Especially Raina, Paige, and Jillian, who had men in their lives who made sure their women were well satisfied in the bedroom.

“How about we save the rest of this conversation for our next get-together?” Kendall said, not wanting to talk about her love life, or lack thereof, any longer. “Some of us have work to do.”

“I
am
working,” Stephanie said, sounding slightly affronted. “I brought you that new comforter and draping for the bedroom scene you’re shooting today, didn’t I?”

“Yes, you did, thank you very much.” Kendall appreciated her friend’s help, as well as Stephanie’s eye for design. “It’s exactly what the author wanted.”

Jase strolled out of the studio area at that moment, wearing nothing but his tight black briefs—just as Kendall had instructed—and it took extreme effort for her to keep her eyes
above
his chest so he didn’t catch her staring at those tight abs and the outline of his man parts. She could do plenty of ogling and fantasizing from behind her camera, and again when she edited the batch of pictures on her computer.

“Nicole and I are ready when you are,” he said, hooking his thumb over his shoulder toward the studio.

“Be right there,” Kendall said as she grabbed an extra battery pack.

He returned to the adjoining room, and Stephanie leaned toward her and whispered, “
Dayum
, you
really
need to tap that.”

Kendall just shook her head and didn’t respond, because tapping anything of Jase’s wasn’t going to happen.

“Can I at least stay and watch the photo shoot?” Stephanie asked, much too eagerly.

“No.” Kendall would never be able to concentrate with her friend popping off with inappropriate and sexual comments.

Stephanie made a face at her. “Spoil sport. Try and at least enjoy the eye candy.”

Looking but no touching.
“That I can do,” she said with a smile. “I’ll see you later.”

“Yes, you will.”

Stephanie walked out of the building, and with a deep breath, Kendall headed into the studio room that had been transformed into an elegant boudoir, complete with a cream-colored silk chaise lounge, a vanity set with a mirror and cushioned chair, and a large four-poster bed as the main centerpiece in the plush room. She used this setting often for her female clients and had recently started taking on couples who wanted more intimate photos taken of them together, as well.

This was Jase and Nicole’s third, and last, session together as cover models—thank goodness. Kendall had already provided her author client with shots of Jase and Nicole getting sexy on a big, executive-type desk, and the second time had been about capturing the two of them going at each other hot and heavy up against the wall. Today, the author had requested a bedroom backdrop and wanted this cover photo to be the hottest one yet. Erotic and male-dominated had been the description she’d used over the phone.

The couple was standing off to the side, waiting for her instructions—Jase in his indecently tight black briefs and Nicole in a black silky camisole that barely covered her surgically enhanced boobs and matching lace panties. The younger girl had a great body—a tiny waist and hips and long, slender legs—and her waist-length blonde hair had been styled into soft curls that fell over her shoulders. She was gorgeous, and together they made a stunning couple, in person and in photos.

“Okay, guys, I need you two up on the middle of the bed, with Nicole on the bottom and Jase on top,” Kendall said as she focused on setting up the lighting in the room, which gave them plenty of time to get situated on the mattress.

When she turned back around, Jase and Nicole were in a classic horizontal position with him positioned between the girls’ thighs and were ready to get started. Kendall heard Jase murmur something to Nicole that made the young girl laugh, and her stomach gave a little twist that felt too much like a pang of jealousy.

What the hell? Mortified by the unexpected feeling, she shook it off and reminded herself that she did this
all the time
with couples and always remained professional.

This session was no different. Or so she tried to convince herself.

“For this photo shoot, I need a lot of passion and lust,” Kendall said, repeating what the client had asked for. “Jase, I need you to be more assertive with Nicole in these photos.”

He turned his head and flashed her a seductive bad-boy grin. “So, you want it more aggressive?”

His comment, asked oh-so-innocently, was anything but. The heat in his eyes was aimed right at her, his tempting words meant for her and her alone, despite the other woman pinned beneath him.

She swallowed to ease the sudden dryness in her mouth. “Yes, that would be great.”

Kendall lifted her camera and got to work—and so did Jase and Nicole. She had to admit the two of them had great chemistry together and followed her direction for hand placement, emotion, and suggested positions with ease. Then again, Nicole had already made it clear in previous sessions that she was interested in Jase, so Kendall supposed that writhing beneath his strong, hard body and arching her neck so he could skim his lips along her throat was no hardship for the other woman.

Jase didn’t disappoint in the assertive department, either, and slipped into that dominant role as if it came naturally to him. The expression on his face was pure alpha male as he wrapped Nicole’s long hair around his fist, and when the girl’s hands began drifting down over his ass, he grabbed her wrists and secured them over her head, which made for a provocative snapshot. Nicole’s lips parted on a gasp, and this time Kendall couldn’t deny the streak of envy that gripped her—or the pulse of heat that settled between her thighs.

She’d never felt like a voyeur during one of her sessions, but she did now. As she caught all that eroticism on film, along with watching Jase in such a sexual situation, even if it was all acting, arousal seeped through her veins. A restless ache swirled in her belly, her nipples tightened into hard points, and her skin felt warm—everywhere.

Good God, she felt as though she were going to spontaneously combust and couldn’t remember the last time she’d been so turned on. Even with her ex-husband, his form of quick foreplay hadn’t even come close to igniting her desire the way just
watching
Jase did, even if it was from behind a camera lens. But being a peeping Tom and getting all hot and bothered by Jase was beginning to make her feel depraved, and very deprived.

She exhaled a deep breath that did little to smother the lust that had her so off-balance, mentally
and
physically. She needed to get a grip, and after taking a moment to pretend as though she were checking the digital files on the camera’s viewfinder, she returned her attention to the couple on the bed.

All she had to do was get through this last photo session, and then the temptation that was Jase Burns would no longer be a crazy sexual distraction in her life. It was a thought that both relieved and disappointed her.

J
ase couldn’t ever
remember a time when he’d fantasized about another woman while he had a very warm and willing one writhing beneath him. He guessed there was a first time for everything, because even though Nicole had made it verbally and physically clear that she was attracted to him, and was currently rubbing against him like a cat in heat, his thoughts were on the sexy woman standing next to the bed taking pictures of the two of them acting as though they were in the throes of passion.

At least
he
was pretending. Nicole, however, was putting on a very convincing performance. Her spread thighs gripped his hips while she arched her back and rocked her lower body against his, then rubbed her lace-covered breasts across his chest. Her eyes were heavy lidded, and her glossy lips were parted as she panted for breath. Every time he dared to lower his head to give Kendall the more erotic shot she’d ask for, Nicole tipped her mouth up to his for a kiss, which he’d so far managed to avoid.

He thought keeping Nicole pinned beneath him with her hands locked above her head would give him more control of the situation and her grinding movements, but she was clearly a girl who liked to be wild and in control herself. Somewhere along the way, it was as if she’d forgotten that Kendall was taking photos for a romance novel cover and that none of this was real.

He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw, knowing it didn’t help matters that the long legs locked around his waist kept him strategically positioned between Nicole’s thighs for maximum pressure and friction.
Shit.
He was a red-blooded man, and he wasn’t immune to Nicole’s enthusiastic response, even though it was Kendall who he fantasized about having restrained and moaning beneath him.

Moaning
and
shuddering, Jase realized as he opened his eyes and saw Nicole’s increasingly rapturous expression. She was in her own little erotic world, and
Jesus Christ
, if Kendall didn’t end this session very soon, she was going to capture Nicole’s orgasm on film for prosperity.

“Great job, you two,” Kendall finally said, her voice huskier than Jase had ever heard it before—as if this session had quite possibly turned her on, as well. “I got some amazing shots that the author is going to love, so I think we’re finished.”

Thank fucking God
. Jase couldn’t scramble off of Nicole quickly enough, though it did take the other woman a few extra moments to realize that the photo session was over. The haze in her eyes gradually cleared, leaving behind a look of disappointment as she frowned at him. He’d never left a woman unsatisfied before—another first—but he just wasn’t interested in Nicole, despite her attempts to entice him.

Kendall, on the other hand, wouldn’t even look his way as she fiddled with the settings on her camera, but there was no mistaking the warm flush on her face or the tight nipples pressing against the silky tank top she was wearing.

“Go ahead and get dressed, and I’ll meet you two out front,” Kendall said, then quickly disappeared from the bedroom area, leaving Jase alone to deal with Nicole.

He grabbed his jeans and quickly put them on as Nicole slid off the bed. She gave him a sultry smile and skimmed her index finger down his chest, along the groove bisecting his abs, and tucked it into the waistband of his pants.

“Such a shame to let all that foreplay go to waste,” she said, stepping closer so her breasts deliberately brushed against his bare chest. “My place isn’t far from here if you’re interested in finishing what we started.”

He took a step back, dislodging her hand from the fly of his jeans, and summoned a regretful look. Nicole was a nice girl, but if he was going to spend the evening with anyone, he wanted it to be with the stubborn, headstrong woman in the other room.

Yeah, good luck with that
, his mind taunted, considering she’d already turned him down the four other times he’d asked her out on a date.

“I’m really sorry, but I already have other plans,” he lied, trying to let her down easy. Even if he didn’t get what he wanted from Kendall, hooking up with Nicole held no appeal to him.

Nicole’s lip plumped out in a pout. “Too bad,” she said with a sigh, then turned and headed to the dressing area to put her clothes on.