Page 72 of Follow Your Bliss

“Come over by the sofa. I have the cameras set on interval timers. They’ll take a photo every three seconds from these two angles, so as long as we stay between the area I have taped on the floor”—she looked down, marking the spots—“we’ll be in the picture.” I flipped through one of the wedding magazines we bought last night to one of the bride and groom poses we’d marked. “Here. Refresh your memory on the poses while I get my suit jacket on.”

After last minute checks and adjustments on the cameras, I started them both and stepped up beside her. I whirled her around, settling her train in an aesthetically pleasing pool at her side. “Let’s start with the back-to-back pose.”

I smiled slightly, my head turned toward the camera, my eyes downcast and back toward her. I hooked my hand into hers and adjusted the class ring I’d slipped on backwards to look like a wedding ring, and we went through a silent dance of poses, punctuated by the snapping of the camera’s shutter. Me standing behind her with her arm out and my hand on her hip. Me standing closer behind her as if I were about to kiss her cheek, which I then did, which made her breathe out a soft laugh. Her turning to me, adjusting my tie. Her hand on my shoulder, mine on her waist as she pressed her forehead to the bridge of my nose.

She was a vision in lace. Her dark eyes were fringed in black lashes, and her soft lips begged to be kissed. We moved closer, lips nearly brushing. She pushed my jacket off my shoulders slowly, letting the snapping cameras have their fill. She held my gaze as she loosened my tie, pulled it off me, and unbuttoned my shirt. Rose untucked the shirt and turned her back to me, pulling all her hair aside and baring her neck as I leaned in to kiss it. I splayed my hand across her belly and pulled her tight against me so she could feel what this was doing to me.

We’d planned all these shots, and I expected it to turn me on. But I wasn’t prepared for how it felt for Rose and me to playact our wedding night. She turned to face me, all seductive eyes, her face almost solemn, and pulled my shirt off the rest of the way.

“I want to kiss you so bad,” I murmured against her ear.

“But you can’t mess up my lipstick,” she said, smiling. She pulled me toward the chaise lounge. “Let’s finish up with the seated photos.”

I lounged on the chaise behind her, not even acting as I gazed adoringly at her as she stood nearer the camera. I arrayed her gown onto the sofa and leaned partly around her from behind as she sat like a queen. I got out of the way and adjusted the camera before setting her up for a solo photo kneeling against the side of the chaise to catch the creamy skin of her bare back in the gown. And finally, I adjusted the camera to point toward the floor where I had her sit on sumptuous fabrics as I laid with my head in her lap, gazing adoringly up at her. Which again, wasn’t hard to do.

I sat up and leaned in. “That’s all the poses. Can I kiss you now?”

“We deserve it after all our hard work.” She pulled my face closer with a hand cupped against my jaw, and kissed me. The cameras snapped.

“What if we turn off the cameras before this gets too hot and heavy, and we maybe go upstairs where I can take this dress off of you?”

“Mmm, I love that idea. But also, a camera sounds kinda hot.”

“Next time,” I chuckled.

She shrugged and slipped off her heels, and we went hand-in-hand up the stairs to the loft. It was surreal unzipping her wedding gown with a ring on my fourth finger. Surreal to watch her, nude except for the flash of her fake diamond wedding set sparkling in the dim light as she unbuttoned my pants.

This felt real, like it was our wedding night. It was too soon to feel this way about her, wasn’t it?

“Wise move not to tell me you weren’t wearing underwear under this gown,” I murmured against the soft, peaked tip of her breast. “Or we’d never have made it through the photoshoot.”

“Mmmm, have you been imagining all the different ways you could defile me?”

“Most definitely.”

“Show me all of them.”

“Only if you show me where you keep your toys,” I dared.

Chapter 12

Pocketing and Flashpanning

Jason

I woke up on the edge of my bed. I shifted carefully to my other side to see why: the most beautiful woman I’ve ever known had snuggled up against me all night until she’d nearly pushed me out of bed. Warmth expanded my chest and spilled into a sappy smile.

Rose was still asleep, and the sunlight streaming through the stained-glass window cast blues and yellows across her face, shoulders, arms, and breasts. My fluttering heart felt full to bursting when I looked at her. I kissed her forehead and smoothed a lock of her hair from her brow. She smiled, eyelashes fluttering, and slept on with even breaths.

She giggled in her sleep. I tried to hold back a laugh, which was apparently my first reaction to unbearable cuteness, but my breath out through my nose roused her. She blinked once, laid eyes on me. I scooched closer to her, slipped my hands under the covers, and ran them along the velvet of her hip and back. She wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled my head against her chest.

“Morning,” she murmured, her voice laced with a sleepy smile.

I pressed a kiss against her breastbone, right over her beautiful heart. “Morning. You were giggling in your sleep. It was the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen.”

She giggled again, rubbing my back and squeezing me tighter. “I was dreaming about you.”

This. This moment. This woman. She was everything I’ve ever wanted. “I love you so fucking much,” I murmured, burying my face against her skin, breathing in her scent.

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