Page 62 of Keeper
Overwhelmed, I walked right past the first girl—who’d stretched out her arms, expecting a hug—and made a bee line for my Ainsley instead.
One look at her was all it took for the magic from the other night to come rushing back. Ainsley didn’t have to dress or doll herself up to steal my heart—she was simply stunning the way she was. She was even more gorgeous than I’d remembered, and I couldn’t wait to talk to her. But time froze and my tongue twisted into knots—I had somany questions to ask her but I didn’t know where to begin. Did I take things too far the other night? Did she hate my guts because of it? Was that why she left my place without saying bye? All that aside, did she see my game last night? Could I take her out on a real date?
But the first question that came out of my mouth?
“Wait, areyouMarta Mansour?” I asked, my head still spinning.
She looked at me like she was beyond mortified, like she might die, and it was all going to be my fault.
“My name is Ainsley,” she said, speaking loudly. She stuck out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Vaughn. I’ll be photographing you and Marta today.”
I didn’t know why she would act so cold and sterile, but her serious eyes demanded one thing: that Ipleaseplay along. Confused as I was, I reached for her hand and we shook, meeting for the second time.
“You can call me Tanner,” I muttered.
“Tanner it is,” she said, quickly fetching her hand from my grasp and walking away from me to busy herself with her camera.
The first girl marched towards me.
“Ohmigod.” She laughed derisively. “You’re sofunny,Tanner!I’mMarta.” She possessively hooked her arm through mine and yanked me further away from Ainsley. “Ainsley is just my assistant. She’s just here to take pictures of us, honey.”
“But—” I stammered, glancing over my shoulder, at the girl I’d been hoping to find all this time—but she didn’t care. She looked like she wanted nothing to do with me.
“In fact, the photos will come out better if you ignore the camera completely,” Marta said. “So go ahead and pretend she’s not even here.” Clasping her hand in mine, she steered me away from the Arboretum entrance and dragged me back towards the parking lot. “And with that being said, I think I know thefirstplace we’re taking pictures.”
“Where’s that?” I grumbled.
“Next to that sexy carof yours, of course. We need to make it look like we arrived here together.”
“Right. Of course we do,” I said.
I hated this already.
“Can you make the doors go up?” Marta asked.
I pressed the button on my key fob that made both doors slide up, and tried to sneak a glance at Ainsley—what’s this about?
But Ainsley shied away from me and busied herself with her camera settings instead.
Marta clasped her hands together at the sight of the lifted doors and squealed a note of happiness. “That’ssoooooooocool!”
“Sure is,” I murmured.
I winced as Marta climbed onto my car, crawling across the hood on her hands and knees. She tossed her hair and glanced over her shoulder, glaring at me with her bedroom eyes. Ainsley took aim and her camera let out a burst of rapid firechik chik chiks.
Marta abandoned that pose and deftly snapped her body into a new one.Chik chik chik.On and on, one pose after another. She clearly knew what she was doing—her poses were elegant and sexy, hell, I might even call themartful. But the peek behind the curtain made me feel uneasy. Honestly, the speed and ease at which she could twist and contort her body to perfectly embody a new emotion freaked me the hell out.
Modeling wasnotmy thing. I just wanted to call it off, grab Ainsley, and get the hell out of here.
I moved closer to her, needing to talk to her. But before I could say anything, Marta interrupted. “Ainsley? You wanna do your thing? Direct the shoot, maybe?”
Ainsley turned to me, her heavy eyes filled with regret. “Okay, Tanner, let’s have you join Marta.”
“You want me to get on the hood of my car?” I asked quietly. “With her?”
She hesitated before she whispered back, “Yes.”
I stared at her.
