Bringing Home the Bad Boy (Second Chance #1)(9)
“I can help, you know.”
His eyes snapped back to her. “Help with what?” Inappropriate ideas popped into his head, causing a rogue smile to pull his lips, but he managed to bite his tongue.
“Lyon. He can sunbathe with me, help me develop photos, go with me to the grocery. And you can work.”
“Not gonna happen, Ace.” His creative mind kicked into third gear at one in the morning, but that didn’t mean he’d give into the temptation.
He knew the price of getting to the zone-out stage. Locking himself in the studio at night. Music pumping into his head, the hours flying by, time ceasing to exist. In those dark hours, art became his drug, dragging him away from the real world rife with grief and responsibility and into a world where the only things that mattered were paint and canvas and color. Problem was, when he resurfaced, the real world waited to flay him, claws bared.
There was no true escape.
Didn’t make her offer any less tempting, but he brushed it aside. The price was too high to give into the beast that stalked him when the moon came out.
He pushed off the railing.
“I’m coming, too. Help me up.” Charlie held out a hand and he reached for her palm and pulled her up. She stood gracefully, coming to his shoulders, and tipped her head. In the breeze, her fair hair blew, and the warmth of her fingers wrapped around his made his head swim the slightest bit.
“Thanks,” she breathed.
“Welcome,” he said, amused when his voice came out in a growl. His next words didn’t stay in his mouth. “Packing a lot of heat there, Ace.”
His gaze trickled down to her breasts, bursting out of her bikini top. When he reached her face, he saw that her eyebrows had closed in slightly.
“Thought you were some hot local chick. I came down here to ask you on a date.”
She blinked at him, big hazel eyes going bigger.
Now that he considered it, he realized she was a hot local chick. Charlie and hot hadn’t exactly been synonyms in his mind. Until now.
Her laugh didn’t sound a hundred percent genuine, and he guessed the reason was shock over hearing he saw her as a hot chick. Couldn’t be helped. He’d never seen her this undressed before.
More’s the pity.
A strand of hair blew over her face and he reached to move it aside, skimming the piece behind her ear.
“You could send a seven-year-old straight into puberty in an outfit like that. And a full-grown man into a cold shower.”
Her smile faltered slightly, but before he became sure he’d pushed her too far, she laughed, the sound more natural than before.
“I’d talk.” She tipped her head toward one of his arms, then the other. “How many tickets to the gun show are you selling, anyway?”
“Enough for you and two of your friends.”
She shook her head but grinned.
He grinned back.
Her eyes went to her house. “Gotta go. I’m expecting a package.”
He smirked. “A ‘package,’ Ace?”
She rolled her eyes. “Pervert.”
“You said it.”
Collecting her towel and book, she shuffled into a pair of hideous pink Crocs and wiggled her amazing ass up the dock. “Talk to you later!” she called over her shoulder, looping the towel around her hips.
Shame.
Could’ve watched that ass a while longer.
CHAPTER FOUR
Oh! Oh, that’s perfect.”
Sofie Martin stood from the chair she’d been sitting in and held both hands in front of her like she was stopping traffic.
Faith Garrett turned her head, her long, plaited, light blond braid swishing against her crisp cotton shirt. “What? What did I do?”
“It’s going to be so pretty!” Sofie clasped her hands in front of her face. She pinned Charlie with jade green eyes gone soft. “Tell me you’re getting this.”
Laughing, Charlie returned her eye to the viewfinder of her camera. “Almost,” she told her, then instructed Faith. “Keep walking,” followed by, “Lift the tray a little higher.” She adjusted the focus. “Little bit higher… there. Right there.”
She snapped a few more pictures of Faith in her waitress costume: white shirt, black pants, jaunty bow tie, holding a silver tray filled with mini-cheesecake bites from the local bakery, Sugar Hi.
Knowing the Evergreen Club had only given them an hour to use the empty reception hall, they had to hustle. Charlie had already taken the photos of Sofie and had quite a few good ones. Helping was Sofie’s curvaceous body bedecked in a clingy, but professional, short black dress, and the shine coming off her shoulder-length mahogany hair.
“Can we eat these now?” Faith asked of the tray of miniature cheesecakes balanced on one hand.
“Yes, please,” Charlie agreed while scrolling through the digital photos on her camera.
“I’m dieting,” Sofie said, but sat at the empty round table at the same time Charlie and Faith did. Charlie plugged the camera into her laptop and pulled up the photos so they could all see. “Can you Photoshop my ass so it looks smaller?”
“Shut up.” Faith shoved a mini-cheesecake in her mouth and elbowed Charlie. “Are you hearing this?”
“Sofe, how do you think you landed the USO event you planned over the spring? Because Jim Rivers thinks you’re drop-dead gorgeous,” Charlie supplied before she could answer.