I should’ve just broken down and asked Lane what kind of guy Preston might like months ago. The closest thing I’d come to was asking if Preston was gay. Even that had taken several lunches to work up the nerve to bring up.
Lane had answered, but it hadn’t been hard to see the grin he was trying to hide, so I had a feeling I hadn’t been as subtle as I was trying to be.
Good god, what was Eli doing?
They were trying to kill me.
How was I supposed to look him in the eyes after seeing him nearly having sex with his boyfriend? The fact that there was a camera between them didn’t seem to matter. It was…so intimate. It was beautiful and sensual but also personal…like I shouldn’t be watching.
Not that Eli seemed to mind the audience.
Everyone else just took it as perfectly normal. Conversations kept going in the background and people moved around the room doing their jobs, but it was…distracting. How could they ignore something so incredible?
“I think I’m going to have to talk to them again about having sex in the studio.” Preston’s stern voice made me want to moan and promise to be good. I had to remind myself how odd that would look and try to seem calm.
“Um, maybe.” I glanced over to see him leaning against the wall, watching Eli and the photographer. “They seem…”
“Horny.” His dry delivery made me grin. He always looked like a stern businessman until he said something completely outrageous. Well, not outrageous when people realized what kind of company he ran, but still…
He shrugged but gave me a little smile. “What? You know I’m right.”
I couldn’t answer that without potentially oversharing about myself in some way, so I forced my eyes back to Eli. “The pictures will probably turn out good.”
I’d stalked the site enough over the past year to know that look on Eli’s face. Some of his best photos came when he and his boyfriend were either angry or turned on—which with them was nearly all the time.
Preston chuckled quietly. “Probably, but that will only make those two more insane to deal with. It’s hard to enforce rules when the pictures turn out so good.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I’d heard Lane’s stories about everyone, and I knew that Preston made a rule about Eli and his guy…what was his name…having sex in the studio, but even thinking about that made my face start to heat up.
Preston didn’t seem to mind my inability to form a response. “How did you end up here today?”
“Eli did it.”
And I was five years old again, tattling on the neighbor.
I tried again. “Um, Eli thought it would be fun?”
Preston grinned and shook his head. “Yeah, I think the first explanation was more honest.”
The faint blush that always seemed to be on my face when Preston was around flared to tomato levels as I fought for a response. Apologizing wasn’t the right answer because he wasn’t upset, but it was all I could think of.
“It’s very nice.”
Nice? The nearly naked men in the sexiest things I’d ever seen were just nice?
Preston gave me a questioning look. He couldn’t seem to decide what to say to that. Did he think I hated the lingerie? Did he think I was insane and couldn’t form real sentences? Did he think I was too shy to deal with?
“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
Kiss of death, he’d given me the businessman voice again.
Over the past year as I’d slowly gotten to know him, he’d gradually lost the distance in his voice he usually had with the others in my office. There’d grown to be a warmth that hadn’t been there before. It was kind of like the way he talked to the models.
That might have made me worried that he only saw me as another type of coworker, but I knew how much the models and staff at the company meant to him. They were his family. I hadn’t understood at first, but as I’d talked to Lane more, it had put some of the offhand comments Preston had made in more context.
We were still awkward almost-strangers, but knowing I wasn’t just another random accountant he worked with made me feel special. I didn’t want to lose that.
“I’m glad Lane and Eli…encouraged me to come.” I tried to think of what to say that would stop him from pulling away. “I’ve been friends with Lane for a while but seeing this side of…things is interesting.”