Page 42 of Strut

I turned my back to Darcy, dropped my briefs, and wriggled into the jockstrap, feeling the heat of Darcy’s eyes on me. It creeped me the fuck out. Marco’s words played again in my brain. For fuck’s sake. I was losing my mind. The man hadn’t doneanything. Ten minutes before, I hadn’t given him a second thought other than wanting to make this shoot good.

I still did.

“How do you want me?” I asked, immediately regretting my choice of words, words I used all the fucking time.

“Just freestyle it. Let’s see what you’ve got. But I’m looking for sexy and teasing. And drop one of the side bands down a bit with your thumb hooked in it, like you’re about to take it off.”

I ignored the cringe in my belly and did as he asked. He stared for a second. “Perfect.” Then he lifted his camera, asked me to start posing, and it was as if nothing had happened.

Gary came back and Darcy switched out the camera, then kept shooting while Gary adjusted the lighting and set under his instructions. Normal as shit.

“Okay, stop.” Darcy frowned and folded his arms.

“Do you need me to drop that curtain?” Gary indicated the window to my right.

“No. It’s the angle.” Darcy walked toward me, head tilted, a frustrated expression on his face.

“I’ll check what we’ve got.” Gary ran to the laptop.

Darcy clocked me slowly, head to toe. He put a hand on my shoulder and turned me around. “Mmm. Something’s not quite right. Let’s do a full-frontal, up against the wall with one hip dropped and your head tipped to the side. And maybe a sexy, teasing look.”

I moved to the wall and got myself into position.

Darcy followed, standing at my side. He stroked down my back and over my arse, squeezing as he gently pushed my hips into a slightly different angle. “There, that’s better.” He patted my arse and moved to stand in front of me.

I glanced Gary’s direction in time to catch his narrowed gaze just before he stepped out of sight.

Darcy placed my arm where he wanted it, then looked up with a smile on his face. “You know you really are gorgeous, Alec. Berlini is gonna love these.” And then his hand was back, moving over my hip to tug the jockstrap a little lower.

“We could try another umbrella,” Gary called, back at the laptop once again. He sounded so fucking normal, I had to be wrong about what I was feeling.

“Good idea. Set it up,” Darcy answered, still fiddling with the jockstrap. He grumbled something about it still not being right and stretched around to adjust the other side. The move put his lips close to my shoulder, and his breath washed hot across my skin, sending bile up the back of my throat.

Jesus Christ. Was I losing my fucking mind?

What was happening here? Wasanythinghappening?

I shot another look to Gary, but he showed no sign that he thought anything was off about his boss’s behaviour. But he wasn’t watching that closely, either.

When Darcy stood upright, I caught his gaze and somehow managed to hold it. “I think we should keep shooting, don’t you?” My voice shook a little.

Darcy’s eyes widened in what seemed to be genuine surprise. “Is there something wrong? Are you tired?” His gaze steadied. “Just say the word if you want to stop the shoot.”

Stop the shoot? Jesus Christ.I was fucking this all up on the basis of absolutely nothing. I softened my tone. “No, of course I don’t want to stop the shoot. I just thought we might be light on time.”

He paused, holding my gaze, and there was an edge to his expression I couldn’t put my finger on. “We are. But I can’t imagine you wouldn’t want to get this right?” He held my gaze.

I swallowed hard and nodded.

“Excellent.” He moved slowly to stand in front of me, trailing his hand over my arse and across my hip, and then at the very last second, he ghosted my dick, or at least I thought he did.

I jolted but his hand was gone.Holy fucking shit.Had he just felt me up?

“I apologise,” Darcy said softly, his voice gravel. “It’s awkward, I know. One final adjustment and then we’re done. This elastic is pulling just a little too tight.”

My gaze shot once more to Gary, but Darcy was standing right in front, blocking the young man’s view. And then, before I knew what was happening, Darcy’s fingers were under the elastic on either side of my balls, running up the underside and grazing my cock. It happened so fucking fast, I’d barely registered what he was doing before his fingers were gone and he was standing in front of me again, focused and professional.

“There. Perfect. Hold that.” His eyes met mine and he smiled. Then he headed back to his camera, and just like nothing had happened, we finished the shoot as normal as could be and Darcy called me over to look at the final images.

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