“I love you. Why did I tell you that, true as it is?”

Audra looked through the clothes on hangers and pulled out a body-hugging black sleeveless cocktail dress, then glanced back over her shoulder to PJ. “Keep the corset and the stockings and garters.”

She thrust the dress PJ’s way. “This.”

PJ gave it a skeptical look. “I’m going to regret that doughnut I ate earlier.” She stepped in and Audra managed to get it zipped.

“Shut up. You look fantastic. As to why you love me? You love me because this last shoot is with Asa.”

Audra said this as Stella started dealing with PJ’s hair again, this time smoothing and pinning victory rolls.

“It is? Why? I’m not complaining or anything.”

“They wanted someone hotter and darker than the other male model.”

It wasn’t like PJ hadn’t noticed Asa watching. He’d wander away once she was done, but every time it was her turn, Asa found his way back to where she was, sliding his gaze over her like a caress.

Normally she was pretty easygoing when it came to flirting and being around men she was attracted to. But Asa was different. More intense. More everything. Having him watch her was foreplay. It made her breathless and nervous.

And she liked it.

PJ slid into towering heels, and with a backward glance at the mirror to be sure everything was in place, she headed out to where Asa stood in black pants, black motorcycle boots, and a snug T-shirt that stretched over the muscled wall of his chest.

Hoo. Boy.

His gaze found hers as she walked closer. Asa fastened a watch but never took his attention from her.

“PJ, you know Daniel, right? He has a line with watches and wrist cuffs for men,” Tom explained. “We thought since you looked so great in Asa’s Caddy, maybe the two of you could do this shoot. What do you say?”

She looked up at Asa and his expression nearly sent her to her knees. All smolder and overwhelming sexuality. PJ licked her lips, trying not to appear nervous and giddy.

“I want natural light for part of this. Come on outside. We’re set up.” The photographer dashed off.

Asa held out an elbow. “Those heels look pretty high, and the shop floor can be slippery sometimes.”

Smiling, she took his arm and walked out with him. His skin was warm and taut against her palm.

Outside they had her stand with her back to Frank, facing Asa.

He encircled her waist with his forearm, splaying his palm right above her ass. He was hot and firm and had a hard-on. All her favorite things.

“Asa, with your right hand, grab PJ’s upper arm.”

All the air left her when he wrapped his fingers around her biceps. His cock pressed against her and with her heels, they were cock to pussy. She wanted him to push her back against something, anything, so she could get at what he had in his jeans.

The tension in his muscles brought a head-to-toe shiver. There was so much strength humming from him, it made her wonder just how much he held back. And what he held back.

His pupils seemed to swallow his irises. He bent his head when Frank told him to, his lips against the side of her neck.

Her nipples beaded so hard against the front of her corset and dress, she was sure he could feel it against the wall of his chest.

“Fantastic. I want to try one more thing. Asa, get in the car. I want PJ to lay across the seat, her head in your lap.”

She didn’t blush, but a burst of heat settled between her thighs.

He took a reluctant step back, letting go of her arm.

Stella took her, fixing PJ’s hair. “Girl, you’ve got me all hot and bothered just watching you two,” she murmured.

“Not just you.” Even knowing everything had been staged by the photographer, PJ was still aflutter after all that up-close contact with him.

Audra, who’d changed back into street clothes, waggled her brows.

Asa held his arm out as they removed the watch he’d had on and replaced it with a leather cuff.

He got in the car and she went to the passenger side.

“Don’t make her struggle,” Asa barked to the photographer’s assistant. “Help her.”

How could she just sit there and pretend it wasn’t hotter than the sun that he’d just ordered someone to be careful with her? Jeez.

She sat and then Frank positioned them both as he moved around. “Turn around here and rest the back of your head on his thigh.”

His really muscly thigh.

Asa looked down at her, wishing this were real. Wishing it were just the two of them. His cock was so hard it seemed to throb with each beat of his heart.

“You okay?”

She smiled up at him. “I can think of worse ways to spend a weekend.”

He smiled back.

“Asa, put your hand on her chest, rest it there.”

He did, pretending he wasn’t itching to slide the top of her dress down to bare her breasts. He wondered if she was pierced anywhere other than her eyebrow. Wondered what sort of ink marked all that pretty skin.

This close he could see the freckles dancing across her collarbone and the curve of each shoulder. He bet that under her makeup she had even more of them.

“Cup her throat. Gentle, like a caress.”

Both of them sucked in a breath, but he bet for different reasons.

Except when he wrapped his hand around her throat, she exhaled hard, her pupils widening. She must have been able to feel just how into this he was, poking her in the back of the head. He was so hard it was beginning to hurt.