"Going," she breathed, trying to make her heart stop racing.
She swore she felt the heat of the man’s eyes following her toward the trailer. Normally they set up the portable beach cabanas, but this was going to be a five day shoot, and there would be different models every day, so Kaiser had sprung for a trailer.
Inside, there was a flurry of activity, girls everywhere in various states of undress, the costume women tucking and folding and taping. Heidi took a moment to try to compose herself, blinking, her eyes adjusting, but all she could think about was the man on the beach, the one who had noticed her, if just for a moment.#p#分页标题#e#
“What do you want?” One of the models, a tall, lanky redhead, frowned in her direction.
"Daniella?" Heidi looked around for the tall blonde in the midst of bodies.
"She's in the bathroom!" One of the girls held her arms above her head, her breasts bare, as a costumer taped them together.
"Daniella?" Heidi knocked on the door. No one answered, but she heard the distinct sounds of vomiting. She knocked again. Nothing.
Making her way back through the flutter of activity, she discovered outside that Lenny had found a chair for Mr. Kaiser. He sat, his cane propped against the arm, his hands folded over his chest and his legs stretched out, his fifteen-hundred dollar Italian shoes crossed in the sand. Again, it was almost a ridiculous pose, but he pulled it off somehow.
"Lenny," she whispered, motioning to him. "I think Daniella's got the stomach flu. She's in the bathroom throwing up."
"That's not the flu!" He laughed, rolling his eyes. "That's Dunkin Donuts reversing gears!"
"Oh." Heidi flushed, noticing Mr. Kaiser watching them again. She could almost swear he was smiling at her naiveté, his head cocked in her direction.
"Heidi, come here!" Ty called. He was looking through his camera towards the surf.
"I'll get her. You go." Lenny nudged Heidi toward the photographer as he headed for the trailer. Heidi waited patiently while Ty fiddled with the camera. He glanced over at her, frowning, eyeing her up and down.
He pointed. "See that towel out there?" She nodded, shifting uncomfortably. Mr. Kaiser was still watching them and his eyes on her made her feel too small in her skin. "Go stand on it." He looked through the camera again. "I need to get a reading, and I can't do it without a subject."
Heidi trotted obediently out to stand on the towel. From this angle, she could see Mr. Kaiser looking at her, tilting his head to the side so he could peer around Ty standing at the tripod. She wished he would stop looking at her. His eyes on her made her whole body feel flushed.
"Hey!" Ty looked over the camera at her. "Take off your top."
"What?" she whispered, knowing he couldn't hear her. She was flushed now, she was sure of it.
"Come on!" He waved his hand impatiently, looking through the camera again. "Let's go!"
Heidi glanced at Mr. Kaiser, who was leaning a little further now around Ty as she obediently crossed her hands in front of her and grabbed the edge of her t-shirt, wishing she had actually put on a bra this morning. Was she actually going to do this? Oh god, was she really?
She wanted to close her eyes in shame and become invisible, to run to the trailer and hide. They had asked her to do a lot of things, a lot of demeaning and degrading and humiliating things, but this—this was too much!
Mr. Kaiser’s eyes grew dark as she began to slowly lift her t-shirt—too slowly for Ty’s taste, and he kept calling her to hurry up, they were burning daylight—and something in the man’s expression suddenly shifted things inside of her. Mr. Kaiser gave a brief nod of his head when she hesitated, her shirt stretched just below her breasts, his jaw tightening, his lips curling into a cruel version of an almost-smile. It was all of that and none of it. She didn’t understand, but her shame and fear and hesitation disappeared. Kaiser was telling her, she was sure he was, that he wanted her to do it, and she did, pulling her shirt over her head and standing there topless, her flesh exposed for everyone’s eyes.
But the only eyes she cared about were Kaiser’s.
“Finally!” Ty did something behind the camera and the spell was broken. She pulled her t-shirt close, holding it modestly in front of her breasts, feeling the heat of her blush and staring at the tips of Mr. Kaiser's shoes. And still, she could feel his eyes on her, like a heat.
"More skin!" Ty called.
She glanced toward the trailer, hoping to see Daniella and Lenny magically appear, but no such luck. She couldn’t, not again. She imagined finding a dark corner and hiding in it. It was enough humiliation, enough…