Maybe the thought was a little cheesy, but she liked – no, loved – anything that involved her and Jed collaborating
“These are amazing.” Jed carefully slipped a photo to the bottom of the stack, raising his gaze briefly to meet her eyes before poring over the next one. “As usual.”
“Thank you.” She resisted the urge to fan herself with the empty envelope as she studied him studying her work. With the exception of his ridiculously handsome face and his neck, Jed was covered in tattoos. There was even ink on his hands, dark and vibrant over the bulges of bones and sinew beneath the surface. It all added to his appeal. He was tall, dark and handsome in a bad-boy sort of way that made her head spin so fast she tripped a little and bumped her thigh on the corner of the nearby desk.
“You okay?” Jed asked, abandoning his perusal of the photos and shooting her a look full of concern.
“Fine,” she breathed, resisting the urge to search for a nearby rock to hide under. Most people didn’t trip while standing still. She was not most people.
She was so accident prone that she’d actually invented a few vivid fantasies that involved her tripping and Jed conveniently scooping her up, her knight in tattooed armor to the rescue… Thinking about those daydreams while standing right in front of him made her wish she could wipe her brain’s memory clean just in case Jed developed the ability to read minds.
“Are these the final images?” Jed asked, holding one aloft.
“Yes. I mean, unless there’s something you don’t like about them? I could always pop them into Photoshop and—”
“No,” he interrupted, “they’re perfect. It’s just that you’re usually so adamant about editing images before you’ll let me use them. I can never find anything I don’t like about them, but I’ve gotten to know you well enough to realize that your standards are higher than mine.” He grinned at her in a way he probably thought was good-natured. In reality, it made her feel in danger of melting from the inside out.
“I’ve already put those images through the editing process. Your client has great skin – I didn’t have to touch up much. I just brightened the colors and cleaned up the background a little.” Jed kept looking at her, and she knew she’d said all that needed to be said, but the words just kept coming. “Hardly any work at all, really, and voilà, they’re ready to go.”
Voilà?
She was naturally chatty and she knew it, but when she was around Jed, sometimes she spoke just because the idea of silence made her nervous. Afterward, she almost always regretted it.
He still held her gaze captive. His eyes were so dark that his gaze always seemed intense when he turned it on her directly. “They look great. Thanks again for photographing McGuiness for me. I’m going to add these images to my online portfolio and the studio’s main page as soon as I get them in an e-mail from you.”
“Great. But it wasn’t hard to photograph, really – you did such an amazing job with that tattoo that it was easy to take a flattering picture.” The back piece Jed had done for McGinnis featured a ship sailing at full mast, riding waves that reflected the vibrant colors of a setting sun. It was amazing – so amazing she could almost see the waves moving and the sunlight shining on the water’s choppy surface when she looked at the pictures.
“Thanks.” He held her gaze for another moment before finally lowering his eyes and sliding the photos back into the envelope. “Do you need these back?”
“No, you can keep them. I can always print out more if I need them.”
“Thanks.”
“Yeah.” Her excuse for lingering in Jed’s office had evaporated like a drop of water in a hot frying pan, but her legs didn’t listen when she willed them to move. “So uh, just let me know whenever you have another spectacular project you want me to photograph, okay?”
She didn’t have any other sessions lined up for Hot Ink at the time, but she’d already photographed well over a dozen Hot Ink clients, plus the photo shoot with Mina and Eric that had started it all. Jed had been using some of the photographs in advertisements for the studio and on its website. Sometimes, when one of his clients had an especially unique or elaborate tattoo done, Jed offered them a Hot Ink gift certificate and free photo prints in exchange for posing for Karen.
The shoots were easy and fun – the unique and beautiful ink Jed gave his clients kept things fresh, made sure Karen had something different to photograph each time. And best of all, doing semi-frequent photo sessions on behalf of the studio meant she was often in contact with Jed – via e-mail, phone and all the in-person visits she could muster up some semblance of an excuse to make.