Page 16 of Darkest Deception

The models are too busy looking appreciatively at Helia to mind his behaviour or the way his voice drips with such authority and venom to suggest he might kill you if you made a mistake.

“Mr Nashwood?” Lilith, the second model, walks up to Helia, a soft smile on her face. She’s a short model with olive skin and curly strawberry blond hair.

Helia looks up from his phone. His sleeves are rolled up to his elbows to reveal just a hint of his tattoos, and his shirt clings to his muscular chest. Each bump of his abs shows through the shirt, and the black slacks he wears emphasise his muscular thighs.

The minute his eyes fall on her, a small breath escapes from her lips. Her eyes widen a fraction as she moves closer to him.

“Do you want to have a quick coffee break with me while they get Runa ready?” She clasps her hands behind her, and she sways lightly, probably nervous, waiting for Helia’s response.

He just keeps looking at her, unfazed and probably unaware she is nervous to ask him.

“Coffee?” he repeats, blinking.

She nods, keeping up her sweet smile.

Helia’s lips twitch, and the minute they do, bitterness claws in my chest.

I push it down and glance down at my iPad, forcing my eyes to stay on the inspiration board I made, but a certain pull drives me to look up again, to find out if Helia has accepted or not.

They’re on their way out, Lilith with a bounce in her step and Helia with a hand in his trouser pockets.

Helia glances over his shoulder. His eyes instantly find mine in the middle of the chaotic room, amongst the people, lights, and dresses being thrown around, and he winks at me. Then he turns around and disappears.

How dare he wink at me when Lilith clearly seems interested in him? Doesn’t he have any respect for her?

Thirty minutes pass, and Runa returns wearing a short blue glittery dress. Helia and a smiling Lilith right behind him arrive shortly after. Runa spots them and walks over, her eyes on Helia, who is walking towards Arlo with an intense expression of concentration. For some weird reason, I find myself walking towards the water bottles placed behind the girls.

“How did it go?” Runa asks Lilith, a high pitch to her voice.

“I think it went well. He kind of just sat there and drank his coffee and looked at his cup the whole time. He seemed happy to be going, but he just stayed quiet while I was talking.”

A stupid smirk makes its way onto my face, but I shut it down.

Exactly. Lilith should realise how fucked up Helia really is.

“Is that all?” Runa asks, her voice now a whisper.

“No. Towards the end, he finally looked at me and started talking about how good I was and how he thinks he could put a good word in for me to get more modelling jobs since I am so new to all this.”

I glance over my shoulder at Lilith to see a faint blush on her cheeks.

No. Don’t think that. Helia is manipulative.

Is he, though? Or does he just act like that with me?

His hate is so clear, so apparent, that I can’t mistake it for anything else.

He despises me so much, loves to see me in trouble and struggling, and laughs when he sees me juggle problems, and yet, with Lilith, he seems so calm, so gentlemanly.

I turn from them and go to stand by Arlo, returning my focus to the task at hand and not on Helia’s private affairs.

I shouldn’t care what he does and doesn’t do.

Throughout the shoot, I kept catching Lilith giving Helia longing glances. He keeps a soft smile on his face while she blushes profusely, and the makeup artists keep glancing at him from their corner of the room.

No one seems to care that he was being rude to Arlo. No one seems to notice his jaw ticking as if a timer is set for patience. And no one sees his fingers tapping on his crossed arms. He is running low on patience, trying to keep it together, but other than that, he looks so easy going.

So easily making himself out to be what everyone here wants him to be. A gentle, smiling charismatic boss.

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