Page 58 of Strut

He was professional and encouraging, and slowly, slowly, I relaxed.

After an hour he told me to take a break while he sorted through the images to see what he had. I grabbed a water bottle and a small protein bar from my bag and disappeared into the dressing area for some privacy. I sprawled on the surprisingly comfortable couch, careful to drink just enough to hydrate without bloating my belly in case we had more to do.

“How do they look?” I called to Darcy on the other side of the curtain.

He cleared his throat and answered, “Great. You’re nailing it, but we’ll need to redo the swimsuit line. They’re too blocky and I’m gonna need to change that light to the right-hand side. It’s throwing a strange shadow on your ribs. Slip that blue tartan piece back on and we’ll try again.”

Dammit.I was hoping we were done. I stripped and looked for the tartan swimsuit but couldn’t see it.Shit.I moved the cushions and looked under the couch, even getting down on my hands and knees, and yep, there it was, having clearly fallen off the back. I leaned over and hooked it with my finger, then slipped and jammed my big toe into the leg.

“Ow! Shit.” I slumped onto the couch and hooked my foot over my thigh to inspect the injured toe. There was blood around the nail bed, but I could move it okay.

Darcy appeared around the curtain, startling me. “Are you okay?” His gaze travelled down to where my foot sat lodged in my naked groin.

Fuck.

I shoved the swimsuit over my dick and waved him away. “I’m fine. Just stubbed my toe.”

He slowly met my gaze. “Well, take a minute to settle, and remember, we want sexy with this shot, not painful grimace. Let’s up the emotion from the last lot. Get this nailed and we can finish for the day. Try a few expressions on.” He nodded to the mirror and left.

I flipped him off and flung the stupid swimsuit aside, trying to relax and find somethingsexyin my bag of tricks. I didn’t need Darcy to remind me I hadn’t brought my best to the earlier shots. The fact he made my fucking skin crawl didn’t exactly make it easy to seduce the camera, not with him behind it. But I was a fucking professional. I could do this.

I looked at the mirror and thought of Hunter and how I’d play it up for him. My hand immediately stroked over my bare dick and down my thigh, and yeah, that looked sexy as all hell. I played with a couple of expressions until I was happy, cleaned up my toe, and then slipped the tartan piece back on and headed back into the studio.

“Do you want me against the wall again?”

“Please.” Darcy waited until I was in position, then adjusted the lighting a few times, clearly still not happy. Finally, he approached with a frown on his face.

“You want a different pose?” I asked, rolling my stiff shoulders to loosen the cricks.

“No.” More frowning as he stepped closer. “The pose is fine. But I think we could improve the look of the swimsuit if you... filled it out a bit more. Do you think you could manage that?” He looked up with a steady gaze, almost a challenge, and my stomach dropped.

Filled it outa bit more? “Let me get this right. You want me to fluff myself?” I said incredulously, acid rolling through my stomach.

He simply tilted his head. “Exactly.” Like the request was nothing out of the ordinary. “You’ve got a lot going on down here, Alec.” He cupped my dick for a second, then let go, and I was so fucking shocked, I froze. “Yes, very impressive. Shame to hide it, really.” He walked a circle around me, his hand trailing along the band of my swimsuit and over my skin, making me shudder. Then his fingertips dipped way too far into my crease and I swore he groaned.

I jerked and spun to find him smirking. “What the hell, Darcy?” I glared.

“Sorry.” He didn’t look sorry as he made a show of adjusting the swimsuit. “I’m just trying to make sure we get the best images for Berlini. I assume you want that too?”

“Of course, I do, but—”

“Then, I really think we need to see a bit more of your particular… asset. A…plumperlook will draw attention to the design elements, and Berlini will love it. You want Berlini to love it, don’t you, Alec? Remember the last shoot? When you listened, and let me set you up properly, we got some great shots.”

I blinked slowly and swallowed hard because he wasn’t wrong. Still…. “And I’m telling you to keep your wandering hands to yourself,” I warned him. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to jerk off just to fill Berlini’s fucking swimsuit, I don’t care who they are. Besides—” I glared. “This shoot isn’t for a campaign, Darcy. It’s not about the clothes.”

Darcy leaned forward, and I could feel his breath hot on my face. “It’salwaysabout the clothes, Alec, you know that.” He stepped back and smirked. “Sell the clothes to Berlini, you get the job. Simple as that. And sex sells clothes, Alec.Isell clothes. I can get you that contract.” He gave a slow smile and his sweet cologne caught in my throat, the sour heat of his body so close to my bare skin, it made my stomach churn.

“I don’t—”

“It’s yours if you want it,” he continued, eyeing me up and down. “Or maybe you need a little help to get your cock looking nice and interested?” He eyeballed me and there was zero misunderstanding in that look. Then before I knew what was happening, his mouth was on mine and his fingers were under the waistband of the swimsuit and wrapped around my cock.

Son of a bitch.I shoved him back. “Get the fuck off me.”

Darcy brushed my protest aside and grabbed my wrist, hard, before using his muscle bulk and height advantage to press me back against the wall and hold me there. He leaned against me, his hand on my cock through the swimsuit, his hard dick pressed into my hip.

This couldn’t fucking be happening.

“Get off me!” I turned my head so he couldn’t kiss me, but he simply chuckled and squeezed my dick, angling his head so those hard green eyes stared into me from just centimetres away. “Christ, you’re beautiful,” he rasped.

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