Let It Snow (The Hope Falls Series) (21 page)

That’s what he’d always wanted to be. It hit him now that he’d lost sight of that once Tessa had left. He’d not only lost her and their unborn baby, but he’d also lost his lifelong dream of being a father over the course of three days when he was seventeen.

Since that fateful Monday when Tessa had screamed for him to get out of her room, he hadn’t given fatherhood even a passing thought. Sure, he’d participated in the act that could lead to pregnancy more times than he could count, but he was always careful because the last thing he wanted was to be a dad…unless it was with Tessa.

‡

“Y
ou can lose the shirt now,” Tessa said as she pulled the oil from her bag. Turning, she posed the question to the now shirtless brown-haired, blue-eyed man standing in front of her. “Would you like to do the honors or shall I?”

He held out his hands and, with a flirty smile, answered, “I would never turn down the chance to be oiled up by a beautiful woman.”

Tessa laughed as she squeezed the plastic bottle and squirted some on her palms. Rubbing them together, she warned, “I have
really
cold hands.”

“I think I can handle it, sweetheart.” The too-smug-for-his-own-good cop winked at her.

His cocky expression vanished the moment her hands made contact with his chest. The big, tough policeman hissed and jumped back.

“Told you,” Tessa shrugged as she quickly made work of greasing up his muscled upper body.

In the last two days, she’d touched more men than she had in the previous thirty years of her life—combined. When she’d approached Mary for any extra work she might be able to throw her way, she hadn’t expected to be handed the annual policeman-slash-fireman calendar shoots. But Mary had said that she’d scheduled it the month before and had gotten ill. The proofs were due at the printers this Friday, and Mary had only shot March and June for the policemen’s calendar so far. That left twenty-two sessions between the two calendars that needed to be fit into a four-day window.

So of course Tessa had jumped right in. Not only would she do absolutely anything for Mary, but she also really needed the money. Lauren had gotten back to her with estimates on the roofing and plumbing. Even if she maxed out her credit cards, she was still about four thousand short for the bare minimum of contract work the house needed before they could put it on the market.

So for the last few days, she’d gotten up early—like four a.m. early!—worked on Gran’s house, and then come to Say Cheese at nine a.m. She would fit in as many sessions as she could before she headed to JT’s for her night shift. After her shift ended, she would rush home and edit until she couldn’t see straight.

She was exhausted and running on almost no sleep, but on the bright side, between this gig and bartending, she was quickly reaching her financial goal. Also she’d had hardly any time to think about Jake. Well, actually that was not true. She always thought about Jake, but she’d had very little time to dwell and overanalyze, which was working out well for her sanity and general wellbeing.

“All right, you are adequately oiled up.” Tessa crossed to the sink to wash her hands before taking her place behind her camera. She was old school and still looked through the viewfinder, although her camera did have the option of looking on the screen.

Stepping back, she adjusted her lamp reflector and looked at the readings. “Okay, so I just need you to give me your most badass-cop face.”

After getting a few shots, she saw that her subject was not as comfortable in front of the camera as he had been while he had been hitting on her when he first arrived. Part of being a good photographer was pulling out of your models what they needed to give you.

“So, Julian, do you have a girlfriend?” Tessa asked as she unscrewed her camera from the tripod.

“No,” he answered, the spark in his eye renewed.

“Really? That surprises me.” Tessa lifted the camera up, looking through the viewfinder, and she began snapping pictures.

Julian shrugged as a cocky half smile appeared on his face. And there it was—exactly what she needed. “Well, you know how it is. I work a lot.”

“Oh, I bet you do.” She kept snapping. “I can’t even imagine how dangerous what you do is.”

Sticking out his chest like a proud peacock, he hooked his thumbs on his Sam Browne duty belt and his fingers fell loose down his waist. It was a great pose for the calendar because he looked in charge and totally comfortable.

“It can be,” he answered proudly.

Two more shots and she had it. She looked down to check her screen. She flipped through the session, just to confirm that she’d gotten everything she needed. The one thing she absolutely adored about digital photography was that she didn’t have to wait to see what she had until the film developed. Just hoping against hope that she had, in fact, gotten amazing shots.

Everything was at her fingertips. And not only that, but through the magic of technology, she could basically tweak and twist her image any which way until she was happy with it. She loved it.

“Awesome job, Julian. We got what we needed.” Tessa moved to the Mac computer that was sitting on the back table in the studio to download the photos and get ready for the next session.

“So how does dinner sound? Friday night?” Julian moved beside her.
Close
beside her. Clearly he wasn’t a fan of personal space.

“Oh thanks, but I’m actually working this Friday.” Tessa tried to keep her voice as friendly and upbeat as possible. She hated awkward social situations, and she found that if she just stayed happy and clueless they would work themselves out.

“How about Saturday?” His voice dropped an octave.

Or not.

Okay, time to pull out the tried-and-true, old-faithful, get-out-of-jail-free-and-pass-go rejection. “Actually,” she said as she turned, “I’m kind of seeing someone.”

“Really.” Julian looked at her like her pants were about to burst into flames from lying.

Was it really so
hard
to believe that she might be seeing someone? Her brows lifted and she tilted her head at his challenging tone. “Yes, really.”

Julian backed away and held up his hands in mock surrender, perhaps sensing her irritation. He pulled his shirt back on and winked at her before leaving. “Well, if you ever want to give a
real
man a try, call me.”

Tessa turned back to her computer. She heard footsteps and then the door shutting.

“Right,” she mumbled under her breath as she pushed her camera’s flash drive into the side of the computer, “like that would ever happen. Seriously, why do guys think that’s even remotely attractive? News flash, Romeo. Girls do not like assholes.”

“Are you sure about that?” a deep voice sounded from behind her.

Tessa screamed as she jumped at least a foot off the ground and spun around to find Jake dressed in full firefighter gear, leaning casually against the closed doorframe.

“What are you doing?!” Tessa asked as she clutched at her chest.

“Listening to you talking to yourself.” Jake pushed off the doorframe and began walking towards her.

“When did you get here?” Tessa hadn’t heard him come in.

“Right before you shot Officer Douchebag down.” Jake stopped about a foot in front of her.

“Oh.” Tessa nodded, looking up into the dark pools of his brown eyes. Her heart beat began picking up for an entirely different reason than fear. “I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Clearly.” A smile tugged at Jake’s lips and Tessa felt it spread through her like cream in her coffee. “Where do you want me?”

“What?” Tessa wanted him naked and on top of her, but she didn’t think she should just blurt that out.

His brow lifted and a knowing look flitted across his eyes. She couldn’t prove that he could read her mind, but she had always suspected as much. As she tried to clear it of anything X-rated, he put his hand out towards the white backdrop beside him. “The photo shoot.”

“Oh right! That.” Jake was here for his photo session. Duh. Her only excuse for totally blanking on the fact that, of course, she would be shooting
Jake
was the fact that she’d barely slept and, as Gran liked to say, ‘had been busier than a one-legged man in an ass kicking contest’.

Shaking her head slightly, she said, “So we’re gonna start with your full Bunker gear on. Then just your pants and boots. We’re doing side-by-sides of uniform and shirtless. Go ahead and stand there.”

Tessa’s hands were shaking as she pulled the now cleared flash drive from the computer. She wasn’t sure if they were shaking from nerves or arousal, but either way, she needed to lock it down and do her job. These calendars helped raise a lot of money for the city of Hope Falls.

Her heart was pounding and her mouth grew dry as she took her place in front of the backdrop. She began to lift the camera to her eye but realized that the shaking was getting worse. Tripod. Jake’s shoot could obviously not be done freehand.

“Are you okay?” Jake asked with amusement lacing his voice.

“Yep,” Tessa answered perhaps a tad too enthusiastically. She looked up to decide which pose to put Jake in and her breath caught in her chest. He stood totally naturally, his weight on his right foot, his left hand holding his helmet against his side. Not only was his body’s pose picture perfect, the look in his eye was…sizzling.

If it were possible to spontaneously combust from a look, Tessa would have burst into flames by now. Clearing her throat, she focused her attention on screwing the base of her camera onto the tripod. It was difficult when she could feel the heat of his stare all over her skin like she was lying on a beach and the sun was shining down on her.

Pressing her eye to the viewfinder, she began clicking. Jake didn’t need direction or emotion to be pulled out of him like the other models she’d been shooting. He naturally moved, just slightly every few moments, keeping the shots alive and full of life. Tessa adjusted her shutter speed and focusing ring and kept shooting.

“That’s great,” Tessa said. “I think we’ve got everything we need with that setup.”

Tessa was relieved when Jake began taking off his jacket. She wasn’t sure she could ask Jake to “lose the shirt” or “take it off” without her voice cracking, and as much as possible, she did want to at least have the appearance of professionalism.

Leaning down, she grabbed the oil out of her bag. When she stood, her eyes felt like they were popping out of her head, like in the cartoons when the wolf sees the pretty lady. Jake was pulling off his white undershirt, revealing his rippling abs and the hard planes of his muscled chest.

She walked slowly towards him, her heartbeat pounding in her own ears. Tessa knew that it was impossible for him to hear it, but it was so loud she felt like it was equally as impossible for him not to hear it.

Every other model had been given the option of whether or not they wanted to apply the glistening oil to their own bodies. Jake was not going to get any such option. Professionalism was one thing, but passing up a chance to touch Jake was just stupid. Or maybe touching him would be the stupid thing to do. She couldn’t really decide, but she knew one thing for certain—it was going to happen.

Taking in a calming breath, Tessa squirted some the oily liquid in her palm and rubbed her hands together.

“I like where this is going,” Jake said lightheartedly. Her eyes glanced up to his. The look in his eye betrayed his teasing tone. It was deadly serious.

Tessa smiled and let out a little nervous laugh as she rubbed her hands together, the slippery liquid causing them to slide easily. Her hands reached out and touched his body. The skin-to-skin contact sent a bolt of zings all the way to the top of her head and down to the tips of her toes.

Moving across his defined chest, she felt as her hands begin to tremble. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea after all. “Okay, okay, okay, okay,” she whispered under her breath, trying to get some kind of a reign on her raging hormones. It wasn’t really helping.

*

Jake knew that Tessa was just as affected by what was going on as he was. Her hands were shaking and he’d just heard her whispering barely audible “okays.” More than anything, he wanted to cover her mouth with his and swallow her nervous rumblings in a kiss that was sure to cure all of her anxiety.