Page 11 of My Playboy Neighbor

"Beautiful," he murmured, pressing a soft kiss to her lips."Absolutely beautiful."

Maya tried to speak, to say something about what had just happened between them, but Dom silenced her with another kiss.

"We should get back to work," he said against her lips.

Reality crashed back over Maya like cold water.They were in the resort's photography studio.She was supposed to be working, supposed to be professional.Instead, she was half-naked on a counter with her subject's hands still on her body.

"Oh God."She pushed at Dom's chest."We can't...this is..."

"This is what's real," Dom said firmly, catching her hands in his."Don't you dare apologize for it."

Maya looked up at him, seeing the intensity in his eyes, the set of his jaw that suggested he wasn't going to let her retreat into professional distance.Not after this.

"What happens now?"she asked quietly.

Dom's smile was slow, dangerous, full of promise."Now we see how far you're willing to go."

She knew he wasn't just talking about photography anymore.He was talking about them, about whatever this was building between them, about the dangerous territory they'd just entered.

"The photos," she said weakly, trying to cling to something familiar.

"Will be incredible," Dom assured her, helping her down from the counter."Because now you're not hiding behind that camera anymore.Now you're seeing me."

As Maya straightened her clothes and tried to make herself presentable, she couldn't shake the feeling that Dom was right.Something had fundamentally changed.The boundaries between them had crumbled, leaving something honest and terrifying in their place.

When they took up their positions again, the studio was charged with possibility and danger in equal measure.Maya picked up her camera with hands that still trembled slightly, acutely aware of Dom's eyes on her as he pulled his shirt back on.

"Ready for round two?"he asked, his voice carrying layers of meaning that had nothing to do with photography.

Maya raised her camera, looking at him through the viewfinder.What she saw there made her breath catch—a man who'd just claimed her in the most fundamental way possible, who was already planning his next move in whatever game they were playing.

"Bring it on," she said, and meant it.

The shots she took for the rest of the session were unlike anything Maya had ever captured.Every image pulsed with electricity, with the kind of chemistry that couldn't be faked or manufactured.Dom moved like a man who owned the world, and the camera loved him for it.

But more than that, Maya saw the real him now.Not the polished model, but the dominant, possessive man who'd just shown her exactly what surrender felt like.

As she packed up her equipment an hour later, Maya tried to convince herself that what had happened between them was just physical.Just attraction and opportunity combining in a moment of weakness.

But when Dom stopped beside her, his hand briefly touching the small of her back in a gesture of casual possession, Maya knew she was lying to herself.

This was just the beginning.

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