Everly nodded in understanding. “And since Cole had a two-point-three-five ERA and a three-fifty batting average last season, he projects the ability to do two things well, even though it isn’t expected since pitchers usually suck at hitting.”
“He told you?”
“No.” She couldn’t take her gaze from Cole as he posed for Bastian. “I’m an obsessive fan.”
“I see.”
Had Caroline sounded amused? She couldn’t find it in herself to care.
She watched with rapt attention as Bastian guided Cole through various poses. After a while, she even forgot to pretend to be nonchalant. Her mouth probably hung open for a while. She couldn’t remember the last time she blinked. The only thing keeping her quaky knees from crumbling was Caroline’s tight grip on her arm.
The shoot lasted for nearly an hour. To Everly, it was over in a moment.
“Take a break, Cole,” Bastian said.
The photographer walked over to a much smaller man standing alone on the far edge of the photo shoot. Everly thought the man didn’t look particularly pleased. She saw him and Bastian looking at some of the digital images from the shoot. Whatever the man said had Bastian drawing his brows together in thought. Then a woman approached them with another camera. The three of them looked at the images she had captured.
Everly’s attention turned when Cole approached. He was once again wearing his robe, she noted. It helped her maintain her composure.
A little.
“Howdy, Mrs. Sanderson,” Cole said to Caroline. “Thanks for taking Everly under your wing. That was awfully kind of you.”
“Of course, Cole,” Caroline said. Her gaze moved to Everly. “She’s quite the treasure.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” he said.
He reached for Everly’s hand, his eyes containing a mix of warmth and humor. When he brought her hand to his lips, a camera flashed.
“She’s perfect.”
They all looked up as Bastian issued the declaration. The female photographer and the suited man stood together talking in low voices, their eyes focused in Cole’s direction. Or maybe they were looking at Caroline? Everly wasn’t sure.
“Cole, we want to get a few more shots,” Bastian said. He nodded in their direction. “This time, we want to incorporate the girl.”
Everly looked at Caroline. Why did they want the owner’s wife posing with Cole? Then she realized that everyone was looking at her.
“What?” she managed to say.
“Your face was made for my camera,” Bastian said. He walked up to her and turned his camera so she could see the last picture he’d taken. “You’re going to make the difference in this shoot.”
“Oh, I’m not a model,” she said, not even looking at the picture.
“Sure, you’re not,” the female photographer said, rolling her eyes as she approached. “Ballplayers always date tall, beautiful women who aren’t models or actresses.”
Everly blinked. “But, I’m not—”
“What’s your name?” Bastian asked.
“I’m not—” she tried again.
“Her name is Everly Wallace,” Caroline said, giving Everly a slight nudge in the side. “I assume you’ll be paying her the industry standard for modeling in this shoot?”
Bastian glanced at the man in the background, who nodded. “Sure, sure.”
“That’s a guaranteed thousand dollars for this type of shoot,” Caroline whispered to Everly.
“I’m not here to earn money,” Everly returned under her breath. She felt hot in her long-sleeved cotton shirt and cardigan. “I just wanted to see Cole.”
Cole hadn’t said a thing. He watched the photographers and the man in the background with a puzzled expression on his face. Then his gaze moved to the other side of the set. Everly realized he was looking at Wayne. The agent didn’t look pleased.
Realizing things had taken an unexpected turn, Everly glanced at Caroline. “Will this help Cole?”
“It would seem so.”
She squared her shoulders. “All right. What do I need to do?”
* * *
Before Cole could tell Everly not to listen to the photographers, she was offering up her services and getting whisked off the set by a couple of wardrobe stylists. He started to hurry after her, but Caroline took his arm.
“Let Everly do this for you, Cole,” she said.
“I didn’t ask her here to participate,” he protested. He hadn’t ever argued with the owner’s wife, but he’d seen Everly’s expression when she realized the photographers were talking about her. “She’s just here to keep me company and have fun.”
“I know. But she’s been given an opportunity to shine for no other reason than being who she is and being in love with you. Let her do this.”
He looked at Caroline.
Everly? In love with him?
“Would you please come with me, Mr. Parker?” asked a female voice.
“I…”
Caroline turned him in the direction of the stagehand. “Let them get you positioned on the set,” she said.
He didn’t have time to argue. Everyone around the set moved in a blur of activity. He was given a bottle of water to drink and someone zipped by with makeup that he had to suffer through being applied to his face. He tried to ask three different people what was going on, but he wasn’t given an answer.
Lights were adjusted. The background was switched up. People spoke in hushed tones as cameras flashed in the background.
“We’re all set,” Bastian said. “Cole, keep the robe on. When Everly approaches, you should remove your robe slowly, then wait for her to remove hers. Then I want you to kiss her, taking your time in the approach.”
What the hell?
Cole was going to argue, knowing Everly wouldn’t be comfortable with this. Then she walked onto the set. After that, all he could think about was her.
They’d loosened her gorgeous red hair so that it tumbled in soft waves around her face and down her back. Whatever they’d done with her makeup made her brilliant eyes even more potent and alluring. Her full lips had been colored in a soft shade of lipstick. She wore a dark blue robe that dipped in a low V over her breasts and ended at mid-thigh. He saw legs for miles.
Gone were the props. Gone were the stagehands. Gone were the viewers and the flashing cameras.
Their eyes locked and held. He reached for the belt of his robe. She looked down and watched him untie the belt. Her cheeks filled with color. There was something equally innocent and erotic about that look. It sent jolts of sensual awareness through him.
Once his robe was off, her gaze slowly moved from his feet up to his eyes. There was no disguising the interest he saw there. It was driving him out of his mind.
Then she reached for the belt of her robe.
He was entranced. He heard nothing else. Saw nothing else. His world consisted of Everly and that belt.
He watched as she pulled the tie free from its first bow. Then she used both hands to loosen the overlapping middle tie. There was something delightfully uncertain about her movements. She was clearly not used to disrobing for anyone’s viewing pleasure. That, plus the fact that she continued to hold his gaze, made him want to pull her against him and kiss her senseless.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, he remembered Bastian telling him to wait until Everly got her robe off and then take his time before he kissed her. That was all that kept him from rushing her and ripping the damn robe from her shoulders.
At long last, she removed the belt. Then she slid the robe off her body to reveal a deceptively simple white lace bra and panty set.
He thought he must be in a dream. They both looked each other up and down as they moved closer together. If Bastian was issuing orders, Cole couldn’t hear them over the pulse racing in his ears. All he could focus on was Everly.
At last, she was close enough to touch. He reached up to stroke the petal-soft skin of her cheek. The look she gave him was just shy of adoration.
He leaned down, eager to taste her again.
“That’s a wrap,” Bastian said.
Chapter 30
There was a loud sound of protest from all around the set over Bastian’s declaration.
Everly snapped back to her senses as though she’d been doused with ice water. When she remembered where she was and what they were doing, she felt a flush building in her neck. Fortunately, a wardrobe stylist tossed a robe over her shoulders.
“
What?
” Cole said as a robe was also handed to him. “Seriously, Bastian?”
“You two just gave me the shots of my career,” the photographer said, standing with the man in the suit and giving him a preview through the camera’s display. The man’s grin was a mile wide. “We raised the hotness level of this campaign through the roof. You want duality? How about passion and innocence? What could be any hotter than that?”
“I’ll say,” Caroline said, fanning herself. She winked at Everly, who clutched her robe’s lapels and struggled not to burst into flames of embarrassment.
“Come with me,” said the girl who’d handed Everly her robe. “You can get changed back into your clothes.”
Eager to get dressed, Everly turned to follow her. Her eyes widened when she spotted four of Cole’s teammates standing among the set’s observers. She recognized Marshall Grant, Anton Copernicki, Billy Devereux, and Javier Rios. They all turned to stare at her as she walked by. She couldn’t help but stare back. She’d followed each of their careers, especially since they came to Atlanta. What she wouldn’t give to have a baseball for them to autograph.
“Do we get to work with her?” Javier asked, his accent thick on the words. He followed her with dark eyes. “Hot damn.”
Everly feared her entire body had turned pink. She finally looked away from the group and focused on the back of her wardrobe stylist as they walked. They passed several other sets. Soon the sounds from Bastian’s set weren’t audible.
They’d had Everly change in Cole’s dressing room, since the studio was so busy that they didn’t have another room free. The stylist used a key to open the door and waved Everly inside.
“Thanks,” Everly said.
The door closed on the stylist’s, “Sure.” Everly wasn’t offended, though. She could see this was a hundred-mile-an-hour job.
Walking over to the clothes rack, she untied her robe and removed it. Just as she was about to place it over the back of a chair, the door burst open.
She brought the robe up with a gurgled shriek and watched with wide eyes as Cole entered the room. Was that cheering she heard in the distance? Why was Cole out of breath? Had he been running?
He closed and locked the door behind him, his gaze on her.
“There’s no way Bastian’s robbing me of this kiss,” he said in a rough voice.
Crossing the room in two strides, he took the robe from her hands and tossed it to the side. His gaze practically singed her skin as he looked at her in just the bra and panties. The hunger she saw when he met her eyes emboldened her. She reached down and untied his robe, then shoved it from his shoulders.
He reached behind her head with one hand and dragged her mouth to his. She eagerly parted her lips, welcoming his passionate assault. Her body sang with pleasure as he pressed against her. Achingly sweet sensation rolled through her like the build-up to the crescendo of an opera.
It overwhelmed her.
She ran her hands along the contours of his body, wanting to offer him the same magnificent experience that he was giving her. His sounds of approval served to stoke her own desire.
Then his mouth tore away from hers. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to catch her breath. Dazedly, she realized he had turned his attention to the side of her neck. She also realized that he had lifted her onto the dressing table. He stood between her legs and took her earlobe between his teeth, gently grazing it in a way that sent sizzles of pleasure along her arms.
She swallowed a moan as his lips and tongue slowly trailed along her neck, tracing her rapid pulse. His hands lifted from where they sat on her hips, caressing her sides until they reached her breasts.
This time, she couldn’t stop the moan. As if sensing her loss of control, he once again claimed her mouth.
She should protest, she thought in the back of her mind. Dear Lord, what he was doing to her mind and her body was beyond sinful.
Beyond blissful.
But instead of protest, she allowed her hands to touch him more freely, following his lead. When she provoked a reaction over a touch, she did it again. He made a strangled sound against her mouth. Was she giving him pleasure? Pain?
He broke away from her. Bracing himself on the dressing table with his hands on either side of her hips, he bent his head and fought for control.
“Jesus, Everly. You’re killing me.”
She bit her bottom lip. “Did I hurt you?”
He choked out a laugh. “Not in the way you mean.”
She couldn’t help but feel a little proud as she reasoned out what he meant. She guessed that she had pleased him to the point of pain. Since she had experienced a similar reaction herself, she didn’t feel too bad about that.
A loud knock on the door made Cole jerk just as Everly leaned down with the thought of kissing him again. He cracked her right in the nose.
“Ow!” She brought a hand up to her face and blinked back tears of pain.
“No sex in the dressing rooms,” a female voice ordered.
“Oh, God—I’m so sorry!” Cole said to Everly. He tried to see what kind of damage he’d done.
“It happens all the time,” the person on the other side of the door replied. “You can keep the underwear, by the way.”
Despite the lingering sting in her nose, Everly burst out laughing. Cole watched her for a second, then grinned, shaking his head and pushing away from the dressing table. Then he helped her down and planted a light kiss on the tip of her nose.
“Sorry about the head butt. I’m normally classier than that.”
“Uh-huh.” She ran her fingertip over his bottom lip because it continued to tempt her. His reaction made her smile. Then she walked over to the clothes rack and began to get dressed. “I wonder what kind of sexual gymnastics she thought we were doing when the first thing she heard was ‘Ow?’”
He laughed as he pulled on his jeans. “I have no idea. But I think I’m framing this underwear.”