Exposure (8 page)

He smiles, and says lowly,
“If you’re not into spanking, then what
are
you into?”

My heart begins to race, pleasure
shooting deep into my abdomen. I can’t believe this is turning me
on—talking about sex in a public place with a taken man.

“
I never said I wasn’t
into spanking,” I say. Light dances in his eyes, like he’s drinking
in my every movement, my every word. “But I don’t need some
billionaire with a six-pack to tell me that. I can decide for
myself if I like to be spanked or not.”

“
And your decision
is….”

“
Yeah, sometimes it’s hot.
Okay?”

“
But you’re obviously not
the same kind of creature as the majority of these protagonists,”
he says amusedly, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms.
“And if we’re to visually recreate their deepest, darkest desires,
then what do you suppose we do?” He looks down at his cup, tracing
the coffee-stained lid with the tip of his fingers.

I cross my legs to keep the pressure
from building and work to keep my breath as even as possible. “I
guess you’re going to have to dominate me.”

His eyes shoot to mine
again, wicked and playful and startling blue. Delicious pleasure
shoots through my loins and I swear I’m closer to orgasm than I’ve
ever been during sex. Just from Dallas
looking
at me.

“
I guess I’m going to have
to dominate you,” he responds.

Dallas

“
I’ve been emailing your
photographer,” Tricia says.

We’re both lying in bed naked. It’s
been over a week since I’ve had sex with Tricia, and I thought
that’d mean that when we finally had the chance to sleep together,
it would be like fireworks. Like it used to be.

I was wrong.

She seemed distracted the whole time,
even when I went down on her. And after an hour of trying to get
her off, I gave up.

I hate giving up on getting a girl
off. And it’s not even a pride thing. Watching a girl come is one
of the most beautiful things in the world—like an addiction—and I
haven’t had my fix in a long time.

I wrap my arms around Tricia, and she
relaxes into me. “What about?” I’m wondering if her suggestion of
wanting me to act single was just a test, and now she’s trying to
use Britain to spy on me.

Britain saw me cornering Evan the
other day, my face in her hair. What if she told Tricia? My stomach
twists.

“
How much you’ll make from
your audition shoot.”

I relax, but only a little. “You’re
worried about money?” Not about my fidelity. But about
money.

She rolls over so she’s facing me. “I
just know how hard you’re working in school, and I didn’t want you
to be under any more strain if you didn’t have to be.”

“
I’m fine,” I tell her.
“It’s not really work. E—Rylan really knows what she’s doing and I
kind of just follow her lead.”

Tricia giggles. “That’s right. Britain
told me you got paired with the faux innocent one. The virgin
skank.”

I push away from her. “Why would you
call her that?”

“
Because that’s what she
is.”

“
That’s what her character
is,” I correct. “That’s not who she really is.”

She pushes against my chest. “Come on,
she has to be a bit skanky to pose for that magazine.”

I can’t believe what she’s
actually suggesting. “Trish,
I
pose for that magazine.”

“
Yeah, but that’s
different.”

“
Because I’m a
guy?”

“
Because… Fuck, Dallas, I
don’t know. Because it just is.”

It’s useless to get into an argument
right now. I’m tired and irritated and have the worst case of blue
balls. I can’t be in this condition if I’m going to be shooting
with Evan today. I say nothing, kissing Tricia on the cheek and
rolling out of bed.

If I don’t get myself off in the
shower, I’m going to accidentally come during our shoot today—if
it’s anything like our shoot last week.

^^^^

The studio is as busy as it was on
Wednesday, except a different kind of busy. As I walk in, several
women sitting on the couches go quiet, all looking up at me.
Instead of lingerie, they’re all dressed in jeans and t-shirts.
Britain is among them. Papers scatter the coffee table.
“Dallas,” Britain says. “Glad you’re here.” She gestures to a woman
with dark skin and curly hair sitting next to her. “This is Andrea,
one of our writers for this upcoming issue of EPE. She’s going to
be crafting yours and Rylan’s story for the magazine.”

Andrea stands. I walk over to her and
shake her hand. “Nice to meet you. I’m sorry,” I turn to Britain.
“Story?”

“
Glad you asked. Rylan!”
Britain yells.

“
WHAT!” Evan screams from
the dressing room. I bite back my grin.

“
Get your ass in here.
We’re talking marketing.”

Evan saunters out of the
dressing room dressed
as
Evan—just as adorable as she when I saw her last
in the coffee shop. No makeup, hipster glasses on, hair
up.

“
I don’t know what’s going
on,” I tell Evan honestly when she’s standing by me.

“
You and I are going to
craft our love story.” Evan says dryly. “Yippee.”

“
Love story?” I
ask.

“
With this issue, we’re
trying to attract a bigger audience,” Britain explains. “That’s why
we hired you. We want to appeal to women. Research shows that the
type of erotica women tend to go for is erotica with a storyline.”
She points to Andrea, and Andrea waves. “So I’ve hired Andrea here
to write your story. Every issue, we’ll have a shoot and an
episode.”

“
Titled, ‘The Seduction of
Rylan Willow,’” Evan drawls.

I snort.

“
It’s not a joke,” Britain
says seriously, looking at me.

“
Oh,” I mutter.

“
Anyway,” Britain
continues. “We were hoping to gain a little inspiration from your
ideas. Who should these characters be, how should the shoots be
themed, etcetera. We could just make it easy. Billionaire CEO and
his adorable little secretary.” Britain nudges Evan with her
shoulder.

Evan scowls. “That shit
is
so
overdone.”

“
Fine then,
Rylan
. What are your
ideas?”

Evan shrugs dramatically. “Why don’t
you go all-out if we’re doing that whole dom-sub thing? Base it in
a fucking BDSM club or something.”

Andrea makes a face. “Too hard to
write a story for.”

“
Come on, Rylan, you know
better,” Britain says. “We need to work with what we have, too.
Building a set for a freaking BDSM club would be way too difficult.
Plus, we’d have to buy a bunch of kinky toys and shit.”

“
Work with what we have,”
I mutter. Everyone’s eyes flicker to me. “That’s easy. We run out
of a university, for crying out loud.
Student-Professor.”

The women on the couches start to
murmur excitedly. While Evan groans, Britain’s eyes widen. “Dallas,
you are a genius.”

“
Genius!” Evan cries.
“This is the context of our
real
lives
. He just taught me last
week!”

I shake my head. “But I’m not your
professor. I’m a grad student.”

“
Aren’t you afraid of what
this is going to do to your image? The next time you lecture,
you’re going to have undergrads falling all over you. How will your
girlfriend feel?” If I’m not mistaken, there’s bitterness in her
tone beneath all of that disgust.

“
I told you,” I say. “I’m
done guest lecturing for this semester. And I’m done with teaching.
Next year they’re letting me dive fully into field
research.”

This obviously isn’t what
Evan wants to hear. She groans again and turns on here heel. “Well
fucking
fine
.
Give me a minute, let me go throw on some skanky catholic
school-girl outfit and perfect my lip biting.”

Britain rolls her eyes as Evan stomps
away and slams the door to the dressing room.

I sigh and push back my hair. “I
should go talk to her.”

“
Don’t bother,” Britain
says, but I ignore her.

When I enter the dressing room, Evan
is already standing in her bra and panties, sifting through racks
of clothing. It’s hard for me to not stare at her delicious
curves.

“
Go away,” she mutters,
not taking her eyes off of the clothes in front of her.

“
Stop, Evan,” I tell her.
“Look at me.”

Her shoulders slump, but her eyes
still avoid me.

“
You keep acting like this
isn’t awkward for me too.”

“
It’s different for you,”
she says, pulling a white button up shirt off the rack and chucking
it behind her.

“
I have a
girlfriend.”

“
Exactly,” she says. “And
I feel like the whore intruding on your relationship.”

“
Evan. Evan, look at
me,
now
.”

She blinks a few times and her eyes
find mine.

“
Don’t you ever call
yourself that again, do you understand me? If anything, I’m the
whore.”

She traces a microscopic school-girl
skirt on the rack, and I’m positive her ass won’t fit into it.
Maybe that’s the idea. “How does your girlfriend put up with
this?”

“
She loves it, actually,”
I tell her honestly. She raises an eyebrow, and I continue. “She
loves that it’s going to give us extra income. She even told me to
act single on set.”

Evan narrows her eyes
skeptically. “She did
what
?”

“
To relax me. Because I
felt bad about it, you know?”

“
You seem confident
enough,” she murmurs. “She must really trust you.”

“
That’s what happens when
you’ve been together forever.” And sometimes, you also forget that
you’re supposed to be in love too, but I don’t tell Evan that.
Instead, I step toward her, take the skirt from her hands, and
throw it over the clothing racks.

“
What the hell are you
doing?” she cries.

“
That’s not what women
want to see you in. They want to see you in something they would
wear.” I sift through the racks until I pull out a pair of low-rise
jeans that look her size, and a pink rhinestone EPU hoodie. I hand
them to her. “In this, you could be any female student on campus.
That way, readers will be able to fantasize when they watch me
undress you.”

Chapter Six

Evan

I clench my teeth to keep my jaw from
falling to the floor.

Dallas has a way of making me hate him
for turning me on so much. For normal guys, this wouldn’t be a
problem. I’d just flirt back and go along for the ride. But
Dallas—well, first of all, he’s extraordinarily beautiful. And
second of all he just got done talking about his girlfriend. Of
forever. Who trusts him.

What I need to do is just accept this,
and take advantage of the fact that his ever-so-trusting girlfriend
wants him to act single on set. I can’t have a boyfriend. Boys are
too distracting and get all weird when they find out my source of
income. This will be my only thrill for a while.

Dallas.

“
It’s going to be hard for
me to get into the moment with this silly scenario,” I tell him
honestly. “I’m going to need a little bit of help.”

“
I’ll make sure to do
that,” he responds huskily before leaving me alone to
change.

When he’s gone, I place my hand upon
my frantically beating heart. “Don’t get too excited,” I whisper to
myself. “It’s only instant gratification.”

^^^^

Britain is the bravest,
most shameless girl I’ve ever met in my entire life. It’s why we’re
friends. It’s also why she was able to convince a university
committee to approve
East Park
Exposed
as an official East Park
University publication. Britain’s argument:
Hell, Harvard did it.

And it worked.

There’s a clause in the agreement
stating that we can’t shoot in any East Park building except for
one—an abandoned gym that hosts a set of classrooms, lockers,
showers, and a drained swimming pool. We can’t do much with it, but
we should be able to find an office for this shoot.

Fuck, this shoot.

The campus police gives Britain the
wink when he drives up to unlock the building for us. We’ve used
this building a couple times before, and he knows exactly what
we’re up to. I guess he thinks we need that extra wink in order to
feel sexy or something.

Luckily for me, the only ones
attending this off-site shoot are me, Dallas, Britain, and Andrea.
Andrea’s here in order to direct us toward the vision of the story
she’s conjuring up in her head right now. Delilah really wanted to
watch, and so did Adam, but I think Britain can sense how tense my
nerves are right now, so she made the shoot private.