He held out his hands and, with a flirty smile, answered, “I would never turn down the chance to be oiled up by a beautiful woman.”
Tessa laughed as she squeezed the plastic bottle and squirted some on her palms. Rubbing them together, she warned, “I have really cold hands.”
“I think I can handle it, sweetheart.” The too-smug-for-his-own-good cop winked at her.
His cocky expression vanished the moment her hands made contact with his chest. The big, tough policeman hissed and jumped back.
“Told you,” Tessa shrugged as she quickly made work of greasing up his muscled upper body.
In the last two days, she’d touched more men than she had in the previous thirty years of her life—combined. When she’d approached Mary for any extra work she might be able to throw her way, she hadn’t expected to be handed the annual policeman-slash-fireman calendar shoots. But Mary had said that she’d scheduled it the month before and had gotten ill. The proofs were due at the printers this Friday, and Mary had only shot March and June for the policemen’s calendar so far. That left twenty-two sessions between the two calendars that needed to be fit into a four-day window.
So of course Tessa had jumped right in. Not only would she do absolutely anything for Mary, but she also really needed the money. Lauren had gotten back to her with estimates on the roofing and plumbing. Even if she maxed out her credit cards, she was still about four thousand short for the bare minimum of contract work the house needed before they could put it on the market.
So for the last few days, she’d gotten up early—like four a.m. early!—worked on Gran’s house, and then come to Say Cheese at nine a.m. She would fit in as many sessions as she could before she headed to JT’s for her night shift. After her shift ended, she would rush home and edit until she couldn’t see straight.
She was exhausted and running on almost no sleep, but on the bright side, between this gig and bartending, she was quickly reaching her financial goal. Also she’d had hardly any time to think about Jake. Well, actually that was not true. She always thought about Jake, but she’d had very little time to dwell and overanalyze, which was working out well for her sanity and general wellbeing.
“All right, you are adequately oiled up.” Tessa crossed to the sink to wash her hands before taking her place behind her camera. She was old school and still looked through the viewfinder, although her camera did have the option of looking on the screen.
Stepping back, she adjusted her lamp reflector and looked at the readings. “Okay, so I just need you to give me your most badass-cop face.”
After getting a few shots, she saw that her subject was not as comfortable in front of the camera as he had been while he had been hitting on her when he first arrived. Part of being a good photographer was pulling out of your models what they needed to give you.
“So, Julian, do you have a girlfriend?” Tessa asked as she unscrewed her camera from the tripod.
“No,” he answered, the spark in his eye renewed.
“Really? That surprises me.” Tessa lifted the camera up, looking through the viewfinder, and she began snapping pictures.
Julian shrugged as a cocky half smile appeared on his face. And there it was—exactly what she needed. “Well, you know how it is. I work a lot.”
“Oh, I bet you do.” She kept snapping. “I can’t even imagine how dangerous what you do is.”
Sticking out his chest like a proud peacock, he hooked his thumbs on his Sam Browne duty belt and his fingers fell loose down his waist. It was a great pose for the calendar because he looked in charge and totally comfortable.
“It can be,” he answered proudly.
Two more shots and she had it. She looked down to check her screen. She flipped through the session, just to confirm that she’d gotten everything she needed. The one thing she absolutely adored about digital photography was that she didn’t have to wait to see what she had until the film developed. Just hoping against hope that she had, in fact, gotten amazing shots.
Everything was at her fingertips. And not only that, but through the magic of technology, she could basically tweak and twist her image any which way until she was happy with it. She loved it.
“Awesome job, Julian. We got what we needed.” Tessa moved to the Mac computer that was sitting on the back table in the studio to download the photos and get ready for the next session.
“So how does dinner sound? Friday night?” Julian moved beside her. Close beside her. Clearly he wasn’t a fan of personal space.
“Oh thanks, but I’m actually working this Friday.” Tessa tried to keep her voice as friendly and upbeat as possible. She hated awkward social situations, and she found that if she just stayed happy and clueless they would work themselves out.