Page 49 of Perfect (mis)Match

“Absolutely not! We have a team that needs to approve concepts, and we haven’t discussed this. We agreed to some shots showing the setup, and us working on the shoot, but just hands and backs, no faces.”

“You don’t need team approval when you’ve got the CEO right here. I have final say,” I replied smugly. “And I want to see that lotion shimmering on your shoulders and arms. You even wore the perfect top for it.”

Piper looked down at her arms like it was the first time she was seeing them. “But…me?”

“You. That’s a direct order from your boss.”

She opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it. She unbuckled her straps and stared at me.

“I don’t like this one bit.”

Her glum expression made me laugh out loud. God, she was cute when she got defensive. “Piper, come on, have some fun!”

“This isn’t fun for me,” she insisted. “I’m a behind-the-lens kind of person.”

“And as of today, that’s changing.” I placed her camera on the table and turned to the bottles. “Now, which one works best with your skin tone? Come here, please.”

She joined me next to the display of six bottles. “I think passionfruit, but they’re all amazing.”

“Okay, we’ll do passionfruit on one arm, and opal on the other,” I said as I picked up the bottle of pale sparkly white lotion and flipped open the lid. “Skin, please.”

“Hold on, you’re going to get it on my camera!”

“Piper,” I sighed. “Did you not read the marketing copy? Glowtion is transfer-proof. Once it dries, it doesn’t budge. Strip club patrons are going to be very happy. Arm,” I said in a stronger voice.

She frowned at me and thrust out her left arm.

I squeezed the bottle and let the shimmer trail down from her shoulder. The visual was stunning, but it was the anticipation of her soft skin beneath my hands that really got to me.

“Allow me,” I said, my voice dropping lower as I gently massaged the lotion along her arm. Her skin was already satin-soft, and the lotion only enhanced the effect.

“Okay,” Piper said in a soft voice as I rubbed. “Maybe this isn’t so bad.”

I pressed my thumb in slow circles along her arms, moving from her wrist and up toward her shoulder. The intimacy of the moment was hard to ignore. I wasn’t just touching her, I was savoring every second of it.

Piper’s eyes closed, and when I stopped to move to the other arm, she made an adorable, disappointed noise.

“Feels good?” I asked as I grabbed the other bottle.

She nodded. “I didn’t realize how much tension I have in my forearms.”

She wasn’t the only one enjoying it. I bit my tongue to keep from asking if there were any other parts of her body that felt tense, like her inner thighs, or…

I massaged the lotion onto her skin, trying to crush the growing tension between my legs by thinking of how my chemists still hadn’t quite perfected the heliotrope extraction. I was doing okay until Piper let out a little moan.

“Sorry,” she said, giving me a little grin.

I took a step back to examine my work. “Incredible. This line is going to sell out in a heartbeat.”

“I’ve never been much of a sparkle girl, but I sort of love it,” Piper said as she shifted her arms to catch the reflections. I loved it too, but for entirely different reasons.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

Piper trudged out to the backdrop. “Now what?”

I walked closer and held the camera to my eye to frame the shot. “Move toward the light a bit.”

Piper calculated her distance from the box lights and moved to the perfect spot, so the shadows were behind her and the light illuminated her skin.

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