Page 35 of Illicit Illustration

He had, but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to deal with playful Reid right now.

Hazel: He gave me an F. Straight to jail.

Reid: Feeling a little snarky today, kitten?

Hazel: Quit calling me kitten. I am not soft and cuddly.

He immediately started typing, but I sent off another one to cut him off.

Hazel: Or adorable.

And it made me feel even more insecure since he still didn’t see me as anything butadorable.I was starting to hate that word every time he used it.

Reid: You are after you’ve used an unsuspecting thumb to get yourself off.

My mouth literally dropped open at his brazen text. I could not believe he just went there. But I also wasn’t letting him think it got under my skin.

Hazel: Maybe I was just faking it.

Reid: That was not fake. Neither was the way your chest flushed or how your eyes rolled back when you let go. I couldn’t take my eyes off you. Not fake at all.

Hazel: I’m sure it’s hard for you to recognize what a real one looks like.

Reid: Don’t fucking test me, woman. I will come over there and prove it to you if you need confirmation that I know what it looks like when a woman comes all over my hand.

He didn’t even realize that he was kind of setting up the scene I needed for these pictures. But there was no way I could have asked him to simulate having phone sex with me. The motorcycle pictures had crossed a line, and I couldn’t bring myself to cross back to the other side where things were safe.

And his increasingly suggestive texts were showing me he didn’t want to cross back either. But I was also treading into dangerous waters by letting myself get invested in a man who didn’t really want me. I wasn’t sure what kind of game Reid was playing.

Reid: Too much?

More like not enough. But I could never tell him that either. I still wasn’t sure if things between us were just a case of unresolved sexual tension, or something more. And then I felt guilty wheneverthings got flirty with Seven, because it felt like I was cheating. I just wasn’t sure which one of them I was cheating on.

Reid: I’m sorry. That moment will go back in the vault. I won’t bring it up again. That wasn’t fair of me to use to tease you. No matter how many times it’s run through my mind on repeat.

Mine too.But I resisted texting him that because it wouldn’t help keep things under control.

Reid: Got any new commissions you need help with?

I didn’t respond, trying to search the internet for photos I could use for source material. It seemed anticlimactic to go back to my previous methods when I’d been able to get exactly what I needed to get to work from on my last few projects.

Reid: I have tomorrow off, and you’re not on shift at the bar because I don’t see your smiling face down here. If you keep ignoring me, I might come knocking.

Reid: And if you’re wearing anything remotely close to what you did to the last photoshoot, I’m not sure I can keep my hands to myself.

Hazel: That’s kind of exactly what I need. You to keep your hands to yourself.

Reid: Are we talking about in general or for your commission?

Hazel: Both.

Reid: Really giving my self-restraint a workout, aren’t you?

Hazel: Don’t even need you in the same room with me for this one.

Reid: Alright, I’m intrigued. Details, please.

Hazel: I could probably find a video online for his part.

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