Page 39 of Take My Hand

Ducking her chin to her chest, she lets out a shy “Thank you” as her shoulders curve inward.

Everything in my body screams at me to reach out and grab her face, tip her head back up and hold it high like she deserves to. But we haven’t crossed that boundary. So I tuck my hands into my pockets and fist them to keep them from acting with my heart and not with my head. She’s not mine to touch.

Not yet anyway.

15

HAYDEN

“You’ve got great bones here. You just have to make it feel like you,” Carter says as we walk back upstairs and toward the front door. “God, that downstairs room? I’m going to go to bed dreaming about it tonight.”

Something she said earlier is nagging at the back of my brain and before I allow myself to overthink it, I blurt out, “Do you want the room?”

Her brows dip together. “What?”

“Do you want the room?” I repeat. “To use for photoshoots. Like a studio space.”

She opens and closes her mouth, trying to find the right words.

“I know you don’t just shoot live musicians,” I tell her. Sure, she had plenty of stage shots hanging around her apartment, but she also had lots of portraits and stylized shots in the mix too. “Do you have a space that you can do that kind of work in?”

She bites her lip before shaking her head. “I normally have to rent a space if I want, but since moving out on my own, I haven’t been able to really afford it.”

“It’s yours then.”

“That’s very generous of you, but I couldn’t just take over a whole room in your house for that.”

I cock my head to the side. “Does it look like it’s getting used a whole lot right now? C’mon. I have all of this space and nothing to do with most of it. It would make me feel better knowing it’s being put to good use.”

Carter shifts from one foot to the other, scanning the entryway walls as if it holds more excuses for her to throw at me.

“I don’t even know if I would get much use out of it. I don’t really have anyone around to shoot. Most of the people I used to work with were all friends with Daniel.”

“I’ll volunteer. Do you do nudes? I’m sure you’ll find that I’m a great specimen to be captured in all my glory,” Nikolai pipes in, and Carter laughs.

“He’s not being serious,” I tell her.

“Oh, I’m deadly serious,” he refutes.

Her eyes ping-pong back and forth between us, trying to figure out who’s telling the truth, and by the amusement that dances across her face, I think she’s decided that Nikolai’s offer is, in fact, a serious one.

“Thank you,” she says to him. “But I don’t really do nude shoots. If I ever change my mind, I’ll let you know though.” That last part, coupled with the smile she gives him sends a bolt of jealousy so bright through me that I say the next words without thinking them through.

“I’ll do a shoot for you.”

Her attention snaps to me, and I see Nikolai in my periphery shaking with silent laughter, as if this was exactly the outcome he wanted.

“You don’t have to do that,” she says, but her eyes scan my face with a more critical lens than ever before and I can already see the wheels turning behind them.

“I know. Just like how I don’t have to give you that room to use,” I say, tone serious so she knows that I mean what I say. “I want to.”

She’s hesitant to accept, just like she was months ago when I gifted her the equipment she needed to keep doing her job and stay on tour with us.

She needs an incentive, something she can offer in return so she doesn’t feel like it’s a handout.

“Take it as a thank you for your time coming over here today and for helping me out with some of these projects. Since you won’t let me pay you, let me return the favor in another way.”

Her tongue darts out to lick her bottom lip and her body slightly leans closer to mine, the move almost involuntary.

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