Page 55 of The Model

23

Ryder

Exitingthe elevator with our hands clasped together, I asked. “How should we do this?”

Turning to look toward me, Lexie scrunched her nose up. “What do you mean? This is like any other photo shoot, except everyone knows we’re…probably together.”

I didn’t want people to wonder if we were together or not. If it was up to me, she’d already have my ring on her finger, but I’d yet to convince Lexie to find a little white chapel and get married.

“What do you mean, probably?”

Lexie stopped outside the room we’d met in yesterday, her hand rested on my chest as she looked up at me. “Who’s to say I’d take you back if you had hooked up with Lana, hell she might have been your girlfriend. I shuttered at the thought of Lana ever being my girlfriend. “What if you’d be pissed about me being pregnant?”

“That was never a possibility.” Although I was still trying to wrap my head around everything I’d learned since I’d arrived in Vegas.

“It will be fine. They were all rooting for us. Now, all we have to do is get through this shoot.”

I had another idea of what we needed to do before we left Vegas, but I wasn’t going to push my agenda on her. I understood why Lexie was hesitant, but that didn’t mean I liked it. And it meant I had to prove to her that she was the only woman in the world for me.

Lexie opened the door to a full room. No one seemed to notice us as we stepped inside, but the moment we sat down, all eyes were on us. My leg started to bounce, and Lexie’s hand gripped my thigh underneath the table to calm me. No one asked if everything was okay between us. Instead, they took one look and immediately started to smile.

Raine handed out packets to each of us, and a shift took over Lexie as she went over what she planned for each day. She even had some sketches for what she was hoping to capture as she photographed me and Alyssa, a model I’d never worked with before. She was beautiful with long blonde hair with caramel highlights and eyes to match her hair. I wasn’t sure if they were contacts or not, but either way, she was striking.

I knew we were already behind after not working yesterday, but no one seemed to mind. I stood by a craft table, adding a little sugar to my coffee when Alyssa came to stand beside me. She gave me a hesitant smile as she poured herself a cup. I wasn’t sure if she was uneasy because of what transpired yesterday or because she liked me. Training my eyes to the ceiling, I prayed Alyssa didn’t like me. If she did, it could get uncomfortable, and the last thing I needed was for Lexie to start thinking I was better off with someone else my own age.

“Have you worked with everyone before?” She took a sip of her coffee and hid behind her cup.

I swept the room to see who was in it. All of Lexie’s team seemed to be here. I’d only worked with them once and ran into them in Hawaii, but I had a knack for remembering people. Besides Sadie and Tyson, there were a few others I had no idea what they would be doing.

“Not everyone. Only Lexie and her people.”

Looking out of the side of her eye, Alyssa eyed Lexie and Raine before she whispered, “She seems intense.”

That wasn’t the word I would use to describe Lexie. She was driven and talented and knew exactly what she wanted. She knew how to get it out of the models she worked with. Alyssa hadn’t seen any of that yet, so I was curious how she’d come up with that assumption.

I shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t holding the coffee. “Only when working but in the best way possible. This shoot will probably launch your career.”

Her eyes gleamed with that knowledge. “That would be great.” She clapped her hands together softly. “I was surprised she was so adamant about wanting me on the project.”

Lexie wanting Alyssa on the shoot was a little strange.

“Excuse me, I need to ask a question about one of the scenes they’re hoping for,” I lied. Kind of. The scene I wanted to know about was why Lexie wanted Alyssa so badly.

Lexie’s back was turned toward me, but Raine and Sadie were looking right at me as I strode toward them.

“Trouble in paradise, already?” Sadie asked quietly but not so that I didn’t hear her.

I watched as Lexie let out a sultry laugh and shook her head. “It was a good talk, and we cleared everything up.”

Wrapping my arm around her waist, I let my hand rest on her hip. “Except for the fact that she hasn’t answered whether or not she’ll marry me.”

All eyes turned wide as Raine and Sadie gaped at me, and I could feel Lexie’s body tense before she pulled away and stood staring at me with fire in her eyes.

“That is not to be discussed while we’re working,” she hissed. “If that’s why you came over here, you can leave.”

Fuck, I’d pissed her off and royally too.

Holding my hands up in surrender, I pleaded with her to forgive me. “It’s not. I’m sorry. I can’t help it if I want to marry you.” I eyed Raine and Sadie as they stood there watching us and knew now was not the time to get into this. “I wanted to ask about Alyssa.”

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