I moan.
Oops.
He laughs behind me and I relax a little.
We're still acting,
I tell myself.
Chapter Fourteen - ROOK
Billy follows me downstairs to the shower room again and this makes me wonder. "What's the deal with this whole bodyguard thing, Billy? How come you have to follow me around?"
"Rook, this building is unlocked during business hours, you do realize that, right?"
"Um…"
"I wasn't gonna say anything because you've got enough going on here today, but Antoine was pissed that you didn't wait for me to walk you to the bathroom. You can't just traipse around naked outside the studio. At the very least, have your camera crew around. You need to wait for someone to go with you, even if it's just walking upstairs."
I can't argue with that. It was a little weird walking around naked all alone, anyway. "Thanks, Billy. I'm really glad you're here. It makes a difference."
He smiles and turns around. "Hurry up, I'm starving and we can't eat until we're done. Hopefully the next painting will go fast."
"Oh," I say, squeezing out the sponge and rubbing down my chest. "Are you coming with us to dinner? Ronin just said I was eating with Antoine tonight."
Billy laughs. "Antoine doesn't go anywhere with the models alone. Ever. Not even you, Rook. He keeps a healthy distance from all of them, that's why he's got Ronin. To run interference."
"Makes sense, I guess." I scrub the bikini bottoms off my front and then get as much of my ass as I can before holding the sponge out to Billy. "Get the rest of it, hurry."
He does as I ask and I just have to privately shake my head at what my life has become. It's weird. All these guys looking at me naked. Getting my picture taken. Being a sort of girlfriend to Ronin, yet my job is allowing his former best friend to touch and kiss me. And Billy here, washing paint off my backside.
"OK," he says, turning me around so the water washes off the soap. "You're good. Let's go." He hands me my towel, I wrap myself up again, and we go back to the art room.
Ford is back in his director's chair in the corner of Spencer's space, Spencer is messing with the music, and Team Rook is looking tired and bored. I'd hate to be the camera person for a reality show. It's like you do nothing but hang out until something exciting happens. Even Ford looks bored out of his mind. He's holding the tablet in his lap, reading.
I walk over to him. "
Gatsby,
Odd,
or
Billionaire?"
He grins and a dimple flashes in his chin when the smile reaches his eyes. "Guess."
"
Gatsby,
" I say.
"Correct."
I shrug, "It was the first one on the carousel."
"Do you like
Gatsby,
Rook?"
"Never read it. I pretty much dropped out of school at sixteen, so I never got past
Lord of the Flies
." He's scowling at me. "What?"
"You didn't finish high school?"
"I took the GED. Why? Is there an educational requirement to pose naked with bikes?"
"It surprises me, that's all. You come off as smart, like I said earlier."
Yeah, Ronin likes the dumb ones. I shake my head at him. "You know, Ford, every time I start to like you, you act like a pretentious asshole."
He points his finger at me. "See, that right there is what trips me up. Most drop-outs don't use the word pretentious."
Spencer walks over to me. "Never mind him, Blackbird, disrobe, let's go. This is a one-piece, let's get a move on."
Ford huffs out a laugh under his breath.
"What?" I ask, looking back at him again.
"You'll see," is all he says.
Ford chats with me as Spencer paints, calling out book titles to see if I'd like to read them. He starts with classics, none of which appeal to me. He turns his nose up at every rejection, like he's taking it personally. Which I can totally see. He looks like a classics lover.
"Just skip to the romance, Ford. Why torture yourself?"
"Billionaires?"
I laugh at that, along with Spencer's new fascination with my armpits. He's painting bathing suit strings in very interesting places. "No, I'm not into fantasy billionaires. I've got Ronin, remember?"
My team chuckles at this dig. I think I like my team, they seem to be on my side.
"Right, yes, I do recall that."
"Just try the regular romances, or the ones they write for kids my age."
He cringes at the word kid, but fuck it. Why pretend? I'm still a kid. I like being a kid, I missed a lot of kid time in my earlier life, and I'm in no hurry to grow up now, even if I am standing here naked in front of a whole room full of men.
Ford's brow twists a little as he searches. "Coming-of-age or college life?"
"Um, the last one I guess. Just read the description for the number one book, let's start there."
"
Ashley, the only virgin in her freshman dorm
…" He stops and looks up at me. "Seriously?"
"Keep going, it sounds good." My team is having a hard time hiding their amusement now.
"…
is desperate to be deflowered by long-time crush, Eaton Fuller
. Eaton? What kind of name is that?"
"Says the guy named Ford."
"
But that's before hot and dangerous Rowdy Breaker saves her from a spelunking adventure gone wrong
. This is stupid. Spelunking gone wrong? It's so cliché."
"One-click that sucker, Ford. Any guy called Rowdy has gotta be hot. You don't get to be number one for no reason. I'll read about Rowdy and his cave-dwelling tendencies. Hand it over."
"We're done here, no time for books, Rook."
"Done? You just started!"
Ford laughs.
I look down and if this suit was real, it'd be nothing but a bunch of rope winding around my body in strategic places. None of which happens to cross my private parts. "This isn't a bathing suit, it's rope. I look like I'm being tied up for… Oh."
They are all laughing at me now.
"Come on," Spencer says. "I'll walk you up."
"Are you modeling with me this time, too?"
Snickers from Team Everybody.
"What?"
"Nope, not me this time, Rook. Billy's got this privilege."
Billy is the sexiest cowboy I've ever seen. I've never pretended the guy wasn't gorgeous to look at, because he is very easy on the eyes. But sporting all that western gear, the tight jeans, the hat, the chaps, and the boots, in combination with a new rough expression I've never seen him wear before, plus his bare chest, makes him look like he's about to bind my wrists and take me from behind.
Whew. I have to stop and take a breath after that thought.
This bike is a work of art. It's got a custom seat shaped like a western saddle and an entire scene depicting a bad-boy cowboy meets helpless half-naked female airbrushed on the top of the fat tank. The whole frame is a smoky black with barbed-wire running down the fenders like racing stripes.
"Wow."
"I love this bike, Rook," Spencer says as he stands next to me. "I've been waiting to get decent images of this one and put it online. It's not a showroom model, but a one-of-a-kind custom. I'll be sorry to sell it actually." He laughs a little under his breath. "Until I get the check, that is. Because this one's a sweet ninety-five grand."
Holy shit.
"Over here, Rook," Josie calls.
I walk over to the salon and she removes the makeup from the last shoot and reapplies. I get another wig, only this time it's Farrah Fawcett à la Charlie's Angels hair, all frosted blonde highlights in big bouncy curls that fall halfway down my back. I get the natural look as far as makeup goes, and then I slip my feet into the cowgirl boots and plop the hat on my head.
When I walk back over to the guys Spencer buckles a gun holster around my waist and then slides two revolvers inside.
So I'm wearing boots, guns, and a hat. And my body has been painted to look like I've been tied up.
When I look up to see what's next, every mouth is hanging open.
Except Antoine's, because he's just coming out of his office, trying to pretend I'm fully clothed.
"What're you assholes looking at? I've been walking around here naked all day, quit it!"
They mumble out some incomprehensible words as I walk over to Billy.
He's smiling. "That is fucking hot for some reason. I'm not sure why, it just is, Rook."
I shrug. "You're pretty hot too, Billy. Maybe it's the hats?"
He chuckles. "Yeah, the hats. OK, for this one you're my bitch. So bend the fuck over the seat, ass to the camera, and let me whack you a few good ones so your cheeks turn pink."
"
What
?"
"I'm kidding, Rook." He sits down on the western saddle seat and pulls me toward him. "Just sit in my lap to start, wrists together, because if you do that, you'll see it looks like I've bound you up."
I put my wrists together, then Billy reaches down and adjusts them. He puts his arm around me as Antoine starts the shoot. Billy is not Spencer, he knows exactly what to do and when to do it, so I relax and just do as I'm told. I lean against him as his hands rub the side of my body in long strokes. He leans down and begins nibbling on my neck and then whispers in my ear. "Antoine liked that moaning you did last time, but he's not gonna ask for it, Rook. So give the man his photos and you'll be done sooner. That's the secret to this job. Give him what he wants and right now he wants you to look the same way with me as you do with Ronin."
"Can I move my hands? Or do I have to pretend to be tied up?"
"Do you want to move them?"
"Yes."
He repositions my body so I'm straddling the tank, leaning back on his chest like I was with Spencer. Billy has either had a lot of bike sex before, or he's got a very creative on-the-fly imagination because I'm pretty hot and bothered in a matter of seconds. He opens my legs right up, places one on the handlebars, and then reaches around to cup my breast. "Touch me, Rook."
I reach back and grab his head, thrusting my upper body up and out. Billy's right hand caresses the leg propped up on the handlebar, then slides down and slips right up under my ass. His other hand is squeezing my breast until I squirm from the pressure. "Turn towards me, Rook." His voice is a low rumble.
I turn and his mouth is right there, his kisses just as passionate as any Ronin gave me, and his hands just as daring. His fingers are between my legs, not past any point of no return, but hovering right there, right on the edge. He rubs my lower abdomen a little, slips down, then brings his fingertips back up just when I think he's gonna slip them in farther.
It's driving me fucking crazy. I am so horny right now it's not even funny.
I lose track of time, of the camera, of everyone in the room. I feel his kisses, I kiss him back, but I'm not even inside my body right now, that's how worked up he has me. I'm not sure what it means, but none of this can be good for a brand-new relationship with a man who is not the one fondling me.
"OK, great shots, Billy and Rook. We're done for today."
And that's it. Antoine takes his camera and walks away.
"You OK, Rook?" Billy asks, his voice totally normal, like he always is after a shoot.
"Um…"
Wow
.
He lifts me up off him and sets me on the ground and then removes his cowboy chaps and sets them on the bike. "Come on," he says, taking my hand. "I'll walk you to the showers."
I have no words as we go back downstairs. Like none.
We go in and he starts the shower for me. "You wanna talk about it?"
I blow some air out of my cheeks. "I don't think I can do this, Billy."
"What are you talking about? You did great."
"I mean, I don't think I can keep all these feelings separate."
He laughs. "Oh, you're hot for me now?"
"No, it's just, that felt so…"
He grins as my words trail off. "It's OK to admit it, Rook."
"Good, it felt good."
"It's supposed to feel good. That's what people want to see in the pictures."
"So you don't want to really jump my bones?"
"Well, fuck yeah I do, but you're seeing Ronin, right? So you're off limits. I'm not an asshole, I'd never do that."
I've got nothing for that response. I'm not sure if it helps or makes things worse.
"Rook, when I'm working, you're just a naked body, OK? And I guarantee you, Spencer is the same way. He's got a naked girl in his lap and he'd like to finish her off and get himself some too. That's just how it is. But when the shoot stops, you're Rook again. And that's not the same thing as a naked body in our laps. It's work, Rook. Not love."