Page 26 of Breakaway
For Sombrans, our shadows are seen as an extension of ourselves. But that doesn't mean Reese is going to be okay with a whole bunch of needy little smoke tendrils wanting her. They all stop moving, the weight of my thoughts heavy for all of us.
"I understand if it's too much. I should've told you about it sooner, or at least explained them to you. I–"
"Zill," Reese presses her palm to the center of my chest, shutting me up in an instant. "I was just curious. I didn't realize how much of their own thing they were. It's fine, they're fine."
And just like that, they all start skimming over her body again, a few of them being quite a bit more daring than they should be. They're quickly brought back to heel when they tickle up underneath Reese's robes.
"If they do anything you don't like, just tell them to stop. Pretty sure they'll listen to you better than they listen to me."
I'm joking, but completely serious at the same time. My shadows are even in my head, telling me how quickly they'll do whatever she wants them to. They're also fantasizing about her asking them to do a million different scandalous things to her.
Reese wraps her arms around my neck, the same way she did when we were at the beach. My shadows, without being prompted, pin her to me, attempting to get us as close to one another as possible.
"I have so many questions," Reese says, standing on her tiptoes again.
"I'll answer them all," I respond, brushing my lips gently across hers at first, teasing the sensation.
She deepens the kiss, tightens her grip on my neck, bringing our lips crashing into one another. Her fingers clutch at my hair while my shadows scramble up and down her body, wanting to be closer to her, wanting to slip underneath her clothing, to touch her and make her cry out for us.
It's such a temptation, one that's broken in a quick second as Reese's makeup artist and costume director enter the changing room without knocking. Granted, I knew they were in the hallway. I could hear them thinking about coming inside, but kissing Reese was more important. It's not like they're a threat to her. How was I supposed to know they wouldn't at least knock?
Chelsea decides to enter the room without any forethought about what might be happening in here, throwing the door open as soon as she thinks about it. My shadows shoot up around Reese, covering her like they always do when they think there's any danger. Reese doesn't release me, and I'm not about to push her away, not when more than anything I want to pull her even closer. It isn't until one of the women clears their throat that Reese finally lets go of me, her face bright pink, her lipstick smeared, and her eyes shining.
She turns to face the two women, her smile even bigger than before. "Let me wash my face," she says as if everything is perfectly normal and we didn't just get caught making out in her changing room. "Will one of you send a message to Dom telling him there's been a change in who's acting as my model for the next shoot?"
I narrow my eyes at Reese, who is beaming even brighter. She shoots me a wink before turning from all of us to the small bathroom attached to her dressing room. The costume designer pulls out her comm and shoots off a message while Chelsea moves over to her station near the floor-to-ceiling mirror on one of the walls. She rummages through one of her bags, pulling out a wet wipe of some kind and walking it over to me.
"You have lipstick just like…" She motions at her own face. I glare at the wipe, not wanting to remove the traces of my soulbond from my skin. As if she's the mind reader between us, Chelsea quirks a brow at me. "If you're going to be the stand-in model, you can't have lipstick all over before the photoshoot even starts."
And that's enough to get me to do whatever she wants. My shadows cycle through her thoughts, making sure she's being genuine. Sure enough, it was discussed earlier that Reese might want me to take the place of the male model for her fourth shoot. If that's the case, I'm more than willing to wipe her lipstick from me, because I've seen the photos she's recreating. There's going to be lipstick in a lot more places before the day is done.
CHAPTER 11
REESE
Breaking News! Empress is quarreling with her family because of her new alien lover. Get all the intimate details from our new favorite insight into everything Empress!
I'm going to pass out. I don't know how I haven't already, considering I feel like I'm a low simmering ball of lust. Zill walking over here, all sure of himself and cocky, is doing nothing to help cool me down. He's never been with anyone in his life, and yet he's looking at me like he's going to devour me whole right here in the middle of this photoshoot.
Mauve, thankfully, has gone home early. Something I've never once seen her do ever, but then again, I doubt she wants to see me use her son as a prop.
"Where do you want me?" Zill asks when he gets close enough to me.
He's in a pair of dress slacks, sans shirt, and of course, he looks chiseled out of stone. I don't know why I expected less when I can feel how hard his body is any time I'm pressed against it.
"Did you study the photos?" Dom asks, answering for me since I don't think I can speak just yet.
It took every ounce of seduction I had earlier to confront Zill. Once I did, the reality of the situation has been sitting heavily on me. Not the whole being tied to him forever thing, though I'm sure the severity of that will hit me at some point. But the fact is that if I play this right, I'm going to screw his brains out as soon as we're done with this photoshoot. And not just like one-night stand fucking, but real, passionate, I want you for a long, long time meaningful sex. I haven't had that in, probably since before Empress. I didn't want to be with someone who would want me to stop being her, so all relationships were reduced to one night only.
"I did," Zill says, eyes not leaving my face, and I can feel myself getting redder and redder.
"Stop embarrassing her," Dom chides, and it does nothing to ease the warmth in my face. "She needs to look in control, not flushed from having a quickie in the changing room."
"We didn't," Zill says, his tone more serious, his features hardening. Dom doesn't look like he cares one way or the other, just holds up his camera and waggles it at us.
"Last shoot of the day," Dom says, smirking as he looks between us. "We can be here all night, but I don't think that's what you two want."
He's not wrong. I'd much rather get Zill back to the apartment where we can maybe talk more about where this is going, preferably while we're both naked. In order to do that, we need to get this shoot done with, and we need to do it in a way that doesn't make me burn up from the inside out. I have a feeling that the last part is going to be the hardest, considering just how hot Zill looks right now.
