Then I leaned over and picked up the camera, stalking out and only pausing long enough to grab my bags as I stormed toward the stairs. “I’ll get you any of the pictures that aren’tporn, but don’t ever call me for a shot after hours again. If you have an itch that you want scratched, find someone else on your street corner. I’m sure you have a dozen lined up to take a turn.”
There was a moment of complete silence, then I heard Eli’s voice as I walked away. “Asshole photographers are only good for one thing.”
Feeling surprisingly dirty and unreasonably disappointed, I headed down the stairs. Brats never changed. They took what they wanted and left you to pick up the pieces.
Chapter 8
Eli
“I just…you don’t mind…right?” The anger had started to fade into something that left me shaky and frustrated. The combination was almost as bad as the rage had been.
“It’s fine, Eli. I promise. Houston won’t mind. Come have lunch with us and just hang out. It will be okay.” Reece’s calm voice didn’t seem to hide any exasperation for having to deal with my crazy again, but I still wasn’t sure about Houston. After everything that had happened the other night, I was pretty sure he was still ready to kill me.
“Houston’s not going to, like, tear me limb from limb?” I was almost teasing.
Reece laughed. “He’s not mad anymore. Just don’t bring it up.”
I wasn’t sure about that, but I wasn’t in any mood to argue with him. If I couldn’t blastthat assonline, then I was going to have to vent to someone. And I resented Houston’s shitty comment that I only called Reece when I was insane. I liked talking to Reece; hiring him had been one of the best things we’d done lately.
As I hung up the phone, I finally noticed how quiet the office was. The normally bustling area where people were blogging and fighting over advertising ideas or schedules was eerily silent, even for a weekend. When the screaming had begun everyone who’d been working had evacuated pretty fast, leaving me alone as I’d stalked down to the offices on the first floor.
Leaning back in my chair, I stared up at the ceiling and closed my eyes. As I’d stormed off, I’d ended up down at the computers, but I’d managed to call Reece instead of posting first, and then calling second. So I was doing better than other times I’d had it out withthe ass.
When Reece had originally come in for an interview, he’d seemed so vanilla even Preston had been hesitant about hiring him, but things had completely turned around once he’d started to open up. The boring business suit IT guy had turned into a bi submissive who’d been looking for a master. Perfect for the company.
He even tolerated my crazy and the circus that the office devolved into sometimes really well. Reece was just so calm and relaxed that he was like Preston, leveling out the volatile emotions that had a tendency to run through the models.
Looking at things a bit more logically, I should have asked him to come in and just watch the shoot. We’d rescheduled it from earlier in the week, and I’d thought that having the other models around would make boththe assand myself behave more like rational adults, but that didn’t seem possible.
Roman and I had rubbed each other the wrong way since he’d started working at Leashes and Lace, but I’d thought it couldn’t get any worse than the first fights. Unfortunately, I’d been wrong. I’d also been an idiot. I knew better than to get involved with judgmental assholes.
But the way he’d looked at me.
It’d been incredible. It was like I was a living work of art that he wanted to capture and keep forever. I’d never been pushed that high simply by a spanking. Something about the entire experience had sent me right to the edge. But then everything had come crashing down.
Roman had gone from almost loving to insane in a matter of seconds.
Even weeks later, I still wasn’t sure what had happened. Looking back, I should have asked more questions—or at the very least thrown a shoe at him and demanded answers. Normally, it took full intercourse before a man went apeshit on me and changed his mind about fucking the guy in panties. Roman and I hadn’t even gotten that far.
He’d still had all his damned clothes on.
That’d been frustrating me too. Having him so close but still not knowing what he looked like under those conservative clothes made me a little nuts. Maybe it was because so many of my closest friends were people I’d seen naked, but I was always suspicious of the constantly clothed. They always seemed like they were hiding things.
But fuck…for that one moment, he’d been incredible. It had all been perfect.
Then crash! It’d exploded.
A little part of me knew I’d done something, I usually had, but I didn’t know what had gone wrong. As my orgasm had faded, I’d found myself sticky and stuck in panties that should never have gotten that dirty, and then Roman had lost it. Maybe if I hadn’t been feeling so vulnerable it would have been different, and I could have thought things through rationally...been a little more Elijah in just those few seconds.
Probably not.
“What are you still doing here?” Preston’s smooth voice made me jump.
“Huh?” Straightening up in the chair, I swiveled around to look at him.
“After that performance, I was pretty sure you’d have stomped off to do something stupid.” One eyebrow went up, and he glanced at the computer.
He knew me too well.
