Page 104 of Camera Shy

I sigh, unbothered. He’s misunderstanding my message, so I clarify. “Sometimes you don’t see that you’re a monster until the people you love most won’t tolerate you anymore.”

Finn sits on my words for a moment, letting them saturate. “Oh. Okay, yeah. I guess.” He nods slowly. “Anyway, Mom had a tough time for a while. I lived in the dorms but went to UNLV, so I was close enough to home to visit every weekend. I watched her crumble into depression. Then, one day, she just perked up. I remember it was after finals in my sophomore year. I brought home my girlfriend at the time for the first time, and I warned her not to be offended if Mom didn’t say much because she was in a bad place. But Mom had the entire house decorated for Christmas, which she hadn’t done the year before. She was baking and holiday music was playing.” Finn smiles at the sweet memory that’s clearly playing in his mind. “She was just alive again. I asked her what changed and she said her friend talked her into a boudoir photography shoot. She said she forgot how beautiful and powerful she was, but it helped her remember.

“From there, she started fighting back with my dad. She went to every court hearing. She sat through all the bullshit. She worked three different jobs to make ends meet. Eventually, she let the big house go and moved to Scottsdale. She even started dating again. All from seeing herself through the right lens. And that’s when I decided to start looking into what the hell boudoir was.” Finn laughs. “The descent into madness was swift from there.”

Oh damn. Of course he had to hit me with the sweetest, most sentimental bullshit he could conjure up. “Did you make all of that up just to convince me to do this?”

He smirks. “Why? Did it work?”

I roll my eyes. “Finn.”

He chuckles. “I didn’t make it up. It’s the truth. Every word.”

Taking a small sip from my glass, I let the bubbles of champagne pop on my tongue. “Lennox mentioned you got your pilot’s license.”

“Just my private. I wanted to work toward a commercial license and then one day go further and get the certs to fly for commercial airlines like my dad, but after everything came out…” He trails off before finishing off his glass. He doesn’t refill it. Instead, he turns to look at me hungrily. I know what’s going through his mind.

Just cave. Just say yes. I want you.

“You wanted to do less of what brought your dad joy and be closer to what made your mom come back alive?”

“Right. Something like that.” Finn reaches over the small patio table between us. He holds out his hand. “I just want you to have that experience, Avery. Every woman should. It’s not that I want to get off to sexy pictures of you. I only want you to see how incredible you are and be brave enough to do this, because it makes me sick when I think of you being ashamed of your body. I want to give you the gift of loving yourself. And as selfish as that sounds, I want it to be from me. You asked for my help with intimacy, and this will help.”

“Finn, you’re already doing more for me than I could’ve asked anyone.” I place my hand in his and squeeze tenderly. “I’m really tired. I think I’m going to tuck in for the night.” I rise with his hand still in mine and then proceed to kiss the tips of his fingers. “Thank you for everything. If I’m sleeping when you come in, make sure to kiss me good night.” I let go of his hand and tap my cheek where he should kiss, subtly telling him he did not get his way. The door to sex will remain locked because…

There’s no way I’m going to lose this man.

My fairy-tale man for the summer.

I’m not going to risk him seeing a few unflattering pictures of me half-naked that will surely break the spell.

27

Avery

If this weren’t a dream, I’d be nauseous. I don’t do well with ships. But as the water sways, I’m unaffected because, in dreamland, I’m impervious to seasickness.

My mind is alert enough to realize that my long dress, which is seemingly made of glittery mermaid scales, is clearly nonsensical, but I’m incoherent enough not to question it.

The scenery is odd. We’re on a ship, but the mist is a creepy thick fog covering the stripped wood. I look up and see the tattered sails marked with skulls and bones.

Oh. It’s because I fell asleep staring at Finn’s tattoo. I’m probably drooling on his bare chest right now. Why am I so aware at the moment? What a weird dream. I know I’m sleeping. I know it’s a dream, but I’m watching the movie unfold right in front of my eyes.

I see him approach from the hazy shadows.

His face is marred with a jagged scar underneath his eye and he’s wearing an eye patch because my brain isn’t creative enough to visualize anything else for a ghost pirate. No matter, the concept is clear. And plus, I’m not worried about his costume. My eyes are on Finn’s body—a perfect replica of real-life Finn. He’s shirtless. Every groove of his abdomen is perfectly sculpted into six symmetrical rectangles. The broad wall of his pecs, dotted by his little brown nipples, is so enticing I immediately feel the heat between my legs.

“How are you out of the water?” he asks in a grisly whisper that sends a chill up my spine. “Can you breathe?”

Okay, I get it. I’m a mermaid. I can breathe on land, but can I speak?

“You know what I came for,” I say in a raspy voice that sounds like I’m starring in a porno. I want to laugh at the cheesy dialogue. Come on, dream Avery! You can do better than that.

The action sequences are distorted and we skip the proper continuity. Somehow, now I’m on my back, my ass boring into the wooden ship deck that should be giving me splinters but in dreamland is comfy as a mattress. Finn’s on top of me, cupping my sex. Somewhere in the nonsensical sequence, I’ve lost my mermaid dress. Finn and I are completely naked and I can almost feel the weight of his palm against my clit.

It seems so real. The urge between my thighs grows as he rubs aggressive circles with the heel of his palm all the while taunting me, telling me not to come yet.

“I want to,” I protest in my porno voice, and suddenly I feel something foreign against my neck. My brain scrambles to make sense of the scene so I can compute the sensory experience my dirty mind is trying to treat me to. It’s a hook. Finn has a hook hand and he’s pressing the back of the cool metal against my throat.

---