Page 2 of The Model

He’s an asshole.

He’s an asshole.

He’s an asshole.

I kept chanting it repeatedly in my head. He had to be. Otherwise, he’d be perfect, and we all knew there was no such thing as a perfect man. But the Adonis standing in front of me was as close as it got, I was certain.

Today it was going to be hard to stay focused on my job.

“Are you who I’m working with today?” I heard Lana chirp from only a few feet away. Her tone had changed. She was ready to hook her claws into the new guy, and I couldn’t blame her, but I would since I hated her. Lana would do anything, and I meant anything to further her career. Little did she know it was her own actions held her back her back because word had gotten around; that and her shitty attitude when she was around people she knew she couldn’t influence. A Swedish filmmaker had let it be known how unprofessional Lana had been when he was filming a commercial with her and Luke Sandström a couple of years back. When word got out that Lana was trying to hit on Luke while his girlfriend, Alex, was there watching, Lana’s reputation went down the drain. Everyone loved Luke and Alex, and even though they never commented on it, other’s who’d worked with Lana had spoken out.

I loved it, but unfortunately, some clients (probably those she’d blown or slept with) still wanted to hire her. I wished she’d move to New York so I wouldn’t have to work with her as often as I did.

“I believe so. I’m Ryder.” Even his name was hot. I wanted to write a letter to his parents, thanking them for creating the man before me.

“Lana,” she purred.

I simultaneously rolled my eyes and shifted in my wet panties before I noticed Lana’s long manicured finger trail up his arm. I saw red. I wanted to grab her finger and break it, or better yet, cut it off. Both wouldn’t work well for the photo shoot, so I tried to tamp down my unexplained rage. It wasn’t as if I had a shot at Ryder. If anyone did, it would be Lana with her perfect supermodel body. It pissed me off even more that I’d never have a chance with the most physically perfect man on the planet. I knew I wasn’t ugly; I was cute. I looked like a rocker with my long blue hair, nose piercing, and tattoos covering my arms. A cute little rocker chick who never attracted the interest of gods like Ryder.

Internally, I sighed. I didn’t need to start feeling like shit about myself before a big photo shoot and have it affect the vibe. Or me. I didn’t want to start stumbling down that road when I’d been doing so well.

Ryder pulled away from Lana and took a step toward me as he tied his robe. Moving to stand fully next to me, he bit his bottom lip, and in that moment, I knew exactly how Christian Grey felt when Ana would bite her lip. I wanted to pull it out with my own teeth so I could suck and nibble on his full, kissable bottom lip.

Heaven help me. Not once in my thirty-two years of life had I ever felt the urge to tackle a man to the ground and have my way with him. I worked with beautiful men and women daily, and not once had I had such a visceral reaction like I did with Ryder. I could feel the heat radiating from his body next to mine, causing beads of sweat to pop up all along my skin and my panties to dampen further, adding to my discomfort.

“Lana, we’re ready for wardrobe,” Raine called from across the room. I couldn’t help but give her a smile. Raine knew how much Lana annoyed me. Lana knew there was nothing she could do to further her career with me, so she didn’t even try to be civil with me on most days. Luckily, Raine was saving me from turning an already shitty day into me losing my shit before the shoot even started.

I watched as Lana swayed her hips for Ryder, but when I looked back at him, he wasn’t watching Lana strut away. He was watching me.

“Lexie,” he whispered my name. It had never sounded so good on anyone’s lips before. I wanted to hear him say my name like that while we were both naked.

I tried to stay calm and professional as I turned to him. He was still biting that delectable lip, so I attempted to look him in the eyes. Everything about him was a turn on. Maybe I just needed to get laid, or maybe he really was my own personal aphrodisiac. Either way, I planned to get laid tonight and work off some of the tension that had been building in my pants since the moment I saw him.

“This is my first shoot like this.” His voice was quiet as he looked off into the distance.

“Are you nervous?” I picked up the camera that was around my neck and aimed it at him.

“What if…” he blushed, and I nearly threw myself at him. It was the hottest thing ever, and I knew from that little blush that he wasn’t an asshole. He really was perfect. Fuck me. Really, he could fuck me if he wanted to, but I knew he wouldn’t. He was only talking to me because Lana was a bitch, and he probably sensed she would take advantage of him.

“What if, what?” My own voice was quiet, as if we were sharing a secret.

Ryder turned with his back to everyone and stared at me for a moment. “What if I get a hard-on?”

“Then think about your grandmother naked.”

Ryder sputtered twice and then let out a booming laugh. He threw his head back, clutching his hands to his chest. I couldn’t help but watch the way his throat bobbed with each guttural laugh that came out of him. Why was everything he did so damn sexy?

Righting himself, Ryder wiped a tear from his eye. “That will work.”

Lana came out then in a bra and panty set, and I hated thinking of Ryder getting hard because of her. I knew what the customer wanted, and they wanted the shots to be hot. They would be practically fucking in front of me the entire day. If anyone was getting laid tonight, it would be them, and I’d be alone with a migraine after keeping my jaw clenched for hours of watching them.

I got them into place and had Raine help me adjust the lighting before I took my place behind my camera and started shooting.

Shot after shot, Lana acted as if this wasn’t a photo shoot, but her personal bedroom where she was trying to seduce the man she was with. At first, Ryder kept looking to me for direction, but after an hour, he found his stride and landed everything I gave him. They looked perfect together, and I knew the client would be happy with the shots. Hell, they’d have a hard time trying to narrow down which ones they wanted to use because they were all amazing. They could use them all and have the entire magazine filled with this shoot. Besides the fact that Lana was all over Ryder and seemed to know I found him extremely attractive, she actually did her job without causing problems. Probably because I didn’t hide very well how much I hated her touching him.

Once we finished for the day, I watched as Lana whispered in Ryder’s ear. She didn’t see his grimace, but whatever he said back to her pissed her off. The Lana I was used to seeing returned. Her head snapped in my direction, and her eyes narrowed before she stomped out of the room.

“What’s up her ass?” Raine asked from beside me.

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