I was glad he didn’t tell me thateverything would be all right or draw attention to how crazy I was. It at leastgave me the ability to pretend I didn’t look nuts. “It’ll be a few minutesbefore everyone else gets here, but Eli was insistent that you meet Romanbefore he got distracted. I didn’t feel like arguing with him.”
Thinking about how that sounded, I winced.“Not that I don’t want you to meet them. I think you’re going to like everyone.But Eli just has this idea in his head, and I haven’t had a chance to tellRoman no.”
Wilder’s tender smile took a mischievousturn. “The sexy photo shoot? I don’t hate the idea, if that’s what you’reworried about. I’ve never done anything like that, but I don’t have an issuewith it. Roman is quite skilled and if he thinks the photos would turn out well,then I have to trust that. The pictures that he’s put up on the site have beenbeautiful and erotic.”
We should have probably had thisconversation earlier.
“Are you sure?”
I must have looked more uncomfortable thanI’d intended, because he stopped at the bottom of the stairs and pulled me intohis arms. “If the idea is something that makes you uneasy, then we don’t haveto do it. I can tell them it’s not something I’m interested in. We can leave itat that.”
He was sweet, but now I wasn’t sure what todo. “I don’t know. I’ve seen some of the photos from the private shoots thathe’s done and…I don’t know why I’m worried.”
I felt ridiculous having to say that.
Wilder didn’t seem to think it was stupid,however. His arms tightened around me and he gave me a tender kiss. “Well, it’ssharing a different side of yourself with me and possibly a different side ofyourself than Eli normally sees. No matter what you were wearing, it would beintimate and personal. In the photos you usually take there’s a little bit of awall between you and the people who are browsing around the site. I think withsomething like the pictures Eli was describing, there wouldn’t be the sameseparation.”
I nodded slowly and pressed myself tighteragainst his chest. “It’s not stupid? I know I’m nearly naked on the website sothat probably shouldn’t matter, but…”
“It’s not stupid, and I don’t want you toput yourself down because something makes you uncomfortable. We don’t have todecide right now. It’s something we can talk about and figure out what we’recomfortable with.” Wilder made it seem easy and matter-of-fact.
“Okay, I’m putting you in charge of notletting Eli rope me into something. I’m not saying no, but I’m not ready to sayyes.” Having that decision off my plate was like a weight lifted off myshoulders.
I pulled back just enough that I could seehis face. Giving him a teasing smile, I tried to show him I was more relaxed.“Not that you wouldn’t look sexy standing over me as a badass Dom.”
He gave me a teasing leer and a quick kiss.“I just keep thinking about all the sketches I could do from the photos.”
Oh.
“Sketches?” I hadn’t thought aboutsomething like that.
Wilder nodded slowly, his voice droppinglower. “I thought about doing a whole series of sketches from it that could go inthe bedroom. Mostly you, because I’ve never done a self-portrait, but if we hadsome photos of us together for me to work from, I might be able to do a sketchwith both of us in it.”
Interesting.
The logical part of my brain still wasn’tsure what to say, but other parts of me found the idea fascinating. Before Icould figure out how to respond, Wilder shook his head. “We’re not going tomake any decisions today. I need to see some of Roman’s other work, and youneed to think about it more.” His body rocked forward, making it clear we wereboth more than a little turned on. “Preferably when you can think about it witha clear head.”
I gave a shaky laugh but nodded. “Probablya good idea.”
Because the idea of sketches put everythingin a whole new light.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved the sexyimages out of my head and glanced toward the stairs. “Come on, I want to showyou where I work.”
Wilder’s smile widened. “I’d like that.”
Taking a step back, I pointed back downtoward the computers and office area. “We all have stations over there toupdate the blogs and work on anything we need to, but I do a lot of that athome. Fewer distractions that way.”
“It probably gets pretty chaotic in here.That makes sense.”
Taking his hand, I started leading us upthe stairs. “Some people can tune out the chaos really well, but I do betterwhen it’s quiet.”
I liked hanging out with everyone and whenwe were all together, the last thing I wanted to do was ignore them to work onthe blog. “I have a pretty good schedule worked out most of the time. I getthat kind of stuff done first thing in the morning before I get here so I don’thave to worry about it.”
Wilder squeezed my hand as we headed up tothe second floor. “I’m impressed with how much you get done. It can’t be easy.”
I shrugged, but I could feel the heat in mycheeks rising. Most people didn’t always understand how much work went into myjob at Leashes and Lace. I’d had one date roll his eyes and ask how hard itcould be to take my clothes off for a living.
Needless to say, that had been a shortdate.
