Cajun Vacation (18 page)

***

She knocked on Sara’s door a third time. Sara hadn’t answered the first two times, so she didn’t know what she expected by knocking a third. She obviously wasn’t in her room. Maybe Sara had gone down to the pool and they had just missed each other while she booked the river cruise for tomorrow night. Booking a tour and talking to the most gorgeous man she had ever laid eyes on, she corrected.

She headed back to her room and pulled Peter’s business card out. Her breathless reaction to him unnerved her. Few things in life ever left her speechless, least of all a man. Yet, when he had startled her in the lobby and she had turned to face him, she broke out in a slight sweat. His eyes burned into her with a heat more intense than any man had given her, even if they had seen her naked. Her iron control around men had wavered and an excitement she hadn’t known for years passed through her body.

With a bag of tools slung over his shoulder, she had taken Peter for some sort of handyman, but only for an instant. He certainly had the physique of someone who worked hard for a living. Under his shirt she could tell his body was built. But his clothes were all wrong for someone who did physical labor for a living. Handymen didn’t typically wear nice slacks and a shirt to work. Then she had remembered why he had startled her. She quickly realized that he must be a professional photographer and had just hung a sale he made for his hotel client.

Now she needed to decide whether to take him up on his offer to visit his studio. An attraction definitely existed between them, and she was tired of all the boring sex. No matter how inventive or wild in bed her lovemaking, it ended with her being bored and unsatisfied. She had tried everything to get past her slump with a few men, but nothing seemed to work. Now Peter had lit some type of fuse inside her and she wanted to take him to bed and let it explode.

Seducing him shouldn’t be a problem. With his obvious interest in her, it should be as easy as always. But she had sworn to avoid men during her sister’s trip. Her family matter more than anything to her. They had always been there during her most difficult times, and they didn’t see enough of each other. She sighed.

But their weekend time together had already been interrupted when Erica announced she needed to work and she didn’t know where Sara had wandered off to. A quick phone call could end the mystery of Sara’s location, but then she would be out her excuse to take some time to visit Peter, and there really wasn’t much time. Erica, at worst, would take the whole afternoon, and then be back for dinner and the rest of tomorrow. If she took a few hours for herself to seduce Peter, then it really wouldn’t be taking away from the family time she wanted to spend.

She reached into her bag, pulled out her tablet, and started her web browser. A web address later her browser lit up with the homepage of Peter’s studio. No matter who she slept with, she liked to learn a bit about them before she moved from the possibility of sex into the certainty of sex. Usually she pried the information directly from the men in some public place, and then, when they weren’t looking she googled their names or checked their social media profiles. She had no qualms about the one night stands, but she insisted that she know who she slept with even if she gave them a fake name.

Landscape photos from New Orleans, the Rockies, Europe, the Amazon, and other places she could barely place on a map lined up on Peter’s homepage. He certainly traveled. A sidebar link ‘human photography’ caught her attention and she tapped on it. Two seconds later she broke into wide smile as a beautiful woman, laying on her side, breasts exposed, lit up her tablet screen. She scrolled down. Additional images of women, all without clothes filled up in Peter’s online gallery.

Seducing him will be easier than I expected.

All the women were pretty, although she noted a distinct lack of redheads. Maybe all he was into me for was to get me naked for a photo shoot. A surge of disappointment welled in her and she pushed it aside, but it refused to leave.

Why should she care if all Peter wanted was to get her undressed. Wasn’t that all she wanted with him? To get him naked and inside her? It didn’t matter. It couldn’t matter. If she went to his studio, it was all about sex. She scrolled through the photos of his female models again.

None of them had their faces showing. They were all anonymous. She also realized that none of the poses exposed any of the women’s pussies. The camera focused on the curves and waves of each woman’s body, including their breasts, but only showed some pubic hair surrounding closed legs below the waist.

She imagined Peter posing her body in his studio. Each picture exciting him more, until he couldn’t resist and he tore his own clothes off to surge into her. She picked up her cell and switched the power off. There couldn’t be any distractions. She could take a few hours out of her family weekend to spend with this man. The thought of seeing him, sleeping with him, sent sparks of electricity down between her legs. An anonymous photo shoot, and then sex with an amazingly attractive man was the most exciting thing she’d had happen to her in a long time. She wasn’t going to miss it.

Chapter 24

Peter slumped down in his office chair. He had photos to process and organize, but all his thoughts remained at the hotel and with Alicia. She had dominated every minute of his thoughts since he left. It didn’t make any sense. Beautiful tourists were always in New Orleans and he had met many over the years. On his many travels throughout the world, he’d met even more women. Until he shed his player ways, he’d slept with a good portion of them too.

He believed in love, but what he felt for Alicia wasn’t love. It couldn’t be. Even when he met Jackie, the woman he eventually thought would be his ‘one’, it had been a rocky start. The feelings he had at the hotel were different. His lack of attention to his physical needs had put his body into rebellion. For the last two years he had acted the part of the ‘good guy’, and despite all the dating, he hadn’t taken a single woman into his bed. He wanted Alicia, or at least his body did, and that was all there was to his feelings.

Once he left the hotel, he had been glad that Alicia hadn’t come to the studio with him. The attraction he held for her burned hot. He didn’t think that he’d be able to resist attempting to move things along faster than he knew was best. Try to seduce her or ask her to model? He didn’t know which would be worse for his willpower, but if the manager found out, it’d be a hit to his income. The hotel sales weren’t that important in the big scheme of things, but he grew up here and wanted to keep a solid, even if adventuresome, reputation.

Other women had created moments of doubt as to his promise not to play around, but his reaction to Alicia had been the strongest. Before he broke his promise in a weak moment with the wrong woman, he might have to rethink how strict he should observe his vow. He intended to wait until he fell in love again, and perhaps even marry before having sex again. But after today’s experience, maybe just dating a few months before escalating into sex, would be more realistic. He didn’t know, and he wasn’t ready to make any changes now, but he’d have to think on it.

He got up and headed into his storage room. Next week he needed to travel again for another project. He might as well start preparing. Getting back to work wouldn’t keep his mind off Alicia, but if he kept himself busy, then at least he wouldn’t be giving 100% of his thoughts to her.

The hairs on his skin tingled, and then a loud knock on glass. He froze in place, excitement and uncertainty building, until a second, more urgent knock got him moving. Forgetting all about his assignment, he headed back to the front.

Alicia stood outside, her body centered in the glass door with the sun falling down on her red hair. The sunlight reflected onto the glass and her head seemed enveloped in a slight fiery aura. He wondered if the angel in his thoughts might be more of a devil than he expected. It didn’t matter.

He unlocked the door, let her inside, and then locked it behind her. “No sisters?” he asked, hiding his delight.

“They’re off doing their own things for a few hours,” she said, her eyes seared into him before she shifted her gaze to his gallery. She walked from picture to picture along the wall. “A cozy little showroom you have here.”

“It works well enough,” he said. “Most of my sales are to magazines, rather than retail, so I don’t need much showing space.” He needed to keep focused on work and business, if he couldn’t keep his mind away from how beautiful she was, he will would ultimately break. It helped that Alicia had such a calm demeanor. He knew her lack of interest in him meant that she wasn’t here for anything except taking a look at his work. He needed to work harder to keep his mind away from her body.

It didn’t go so well. The view of her whole body through the glass excited him. The reflection from the window didn’t give him a good view of anything but her face when she stood outside. But in his determination to stay professional, he forced him to focus on her face immediately after opening the door. Now his eyes drifted away from her face to take in the rest of her. Her clothes were extreme casual. Shorts that rode high along her thighs and a plain white top that stopped just short of her belly button. His knees wobbled slightly when he looked over her breasts and realized that she hadn’t worn any bra. Her nipples pressed out against the fabric.

He moved over to the water cooler. “Can I offer you some water?” he asked. “It’s a hot day out.”

Alicia smiled. “I’d love something to drink,” she said peering at the doors behind him. “So do one of those doors lead to your studio where you make the magic happen with the camera?”

He took a cup from the dispenser and pushed the lever to fill it with water.

Keep focused on business
.

“The magazines I sell to are interested in natural, outdoors, and wildlife photos,” he said. “I display a lot of New Orleans and other local sites here, but it’s mostly distant locations I shoot.” The cup filled and he stood to hand it to her.

“So you don’t shoot any of those women here?” she asked. “I saw your website. Your models are quite beautiful.”

His head swirled. He needed her to talk about nature photography not anything else.

Alicia stepped closer. “Would you like to do a shoot involving me?” she asked. “I’m available now.” Then she took the water from his hand before he had a chance to take it back to drink it himself.

***

Poor boy
.

She almost felt sorry for him as she watched his eyes grow two sizes. He had no idea what was about to hit him now that she’d decided that he would be her next conquest. A shred of doubt tugged in the back of her mind that she shouldn’t be so aggressive with him.

Doubts weren’t something that she had often and it bothered her that she had even the slightest with Peter. It made no sense so she pushed it aside. He obviously had his fill of beautiful women. When she left, he would count her as another encounter that came and went. He might be shocked at her full court press, but he’d get over it once he slid in-between her legs.

Now that she’d made her intentions known, that she wanted to get naked for him, she needed to pull back a little and let him feel like he was seducing her. Hopefully he did take his female photos here. She didn’t want to go anywhere else to get things started. He’d show her around, try to make her feel comfortable before disrobing. His pulse would race when he finally saw her body in full. Maybe he would want her to put some oil on for the camera, but she would feign ignorance and ask him to apply it so that it was done right. That was when he’d finally touch her. As his hands roved around her body, massaging the oil in, she make some small sounds of delight until he finally gave in and pulled her in for the inevitable kiss. Eventually his hand would go to her pussy and he would abandon any pretense of not taking her then and there in his studio.

Peter seemed nice enough, but once the clothes were off, he’d react like every other man and follow his instinct to fuck. Men were all the same that way. He couldn’t resist. His eyes couldn’t hide his desire. The years had taught to sense how deeply into her a man was, and Peter wanted her. Her own excitement grew at the thought of how much he obviously wanted her. She wondered if he was the kind of man to simply take her offer and run with it, straight into a bed, or if he would put on a show of professionalism before laying her back.

His initial shock faded and she watched as he build a strictly formal face. The fire still burned in his eyes, but he wanted to be a pro, and she made note of it for the future.

His voice had the slightest waver. “So you enjoyed my nudes,” he said, and he seemed to struggle for the right words. “Those photos… I do shoot them here,” he said, pointing to one of the doors. “But I usually take them with professional models hired through an agency. It’s very rare I shoot an amateur.”

It was her turn to be surprised. She had expected that he photographed any woman that he could find, and that they weren’t models by trade. “Oh, I thought you worked with anyone who had the body type for the work. I think I certainly do, don’t you?” she asked, and then ran her hands down her clothes and gave a slight turn in both directions. “If it helps, I have done some print modeling while I was in college,” she lied. She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the door he showed her. He stood firm for a moment before giving in and following her.

She pushed the door open. Against the wall hung a white backdrop. Lights were rigged in the ceiling, while others stood stationary around a pair of elegant, velvet chairs. Off to the side, outside of camera view, more chairs, a sofa, some tables, and other props waited to be used. A coat rack with thin robes hanging from the hooks and a camera tripod minus the camera rounded out the furnishings.

“Why don’t you go get your camera while I get ready,” she said. She hoped her tone made it clear that it wasn’t a question. Peter looked at her wordlessly, nodded, and then left out the door they entered.