Save My Soul (16 page)

She sat on the low hanging branch then
primped herself without a mirror. I rolled my eyes behind the
camera and began shooting. I had to get going or Amy's session was
going to run into my next appointment. After I'd gotten at least
four good shots of that scene, I handed my camera to Adam. This
time, he didn't look at it like it was a snake. He had apparently
made peace with the device. I watched him as he concentrated on his
breathing and then took his shot. He took two more before I
suggested we move on to the next scene.

I'd told Amy that there would be no
time for her to run in and change between each scene, so she
brought her duffle bag with us. We turned around while she went
behind a tree to change. Not that she would've minded if Adam had
watched, or even helped her undress.

We were doing shots of the last pose
when I heard an ear piercing whistle. I turned to see a guy walking
toward us. Amy let out a squeal, took off running, and jumped on
the boy. She locked her legs around his back and began showering
him with kisses.

I looked at Adam and smiled. "I think
you're off the hook now."

He sighed. "Thank God."

My eyes grew wide as I stared at him.
I raised an eyebrow at him and smiled. "Really? Thank
God?"

He rolled his eyes and frowned. "It's
a figure of speech that everyone uses, Kendra."

"Oh, I wasn't aware. I thought only
believers thanked God." I joked.

"I am having a really good time with
you doing all of this." he shrugged. "It's fun. Please don't ruin
it by bringing religion into the picture."

It was apparently still too early. I
knew he would ask me again later about not being able to stop
looking at me. If he wouldn't believe in God, then he damn sure
wasn't going to believe in soulmates and destiny.

My next appointment showed up while
Amy was still making out with her boyfriend. The client was another
girl, but she was dressed appropriately. She gave Amy a nasty look
as she walked to Adam and me.

I held out my hand to the young girl.
"You must be Ashley," I said, and she nodded as she shook my
hand.

Amy laughed in a sinister way. "You
better watch it, Ms. Larkin, Ashley's looks will break that nice
camera of yours." her boyfriend joined in with the cruel
laughter.

I started to speak, but Adam beat me
to it. "If it made it through your shots, the camera will be just
fine after Ashley's session." I stifled a laugh as I looked at him.
I couldn't believe he'd said that out loud, but I had to admit that
I was just about to say something a whole lot like it. Maybe we
were soulmates.

"I wouldn't lie to you
about that. You know I would change it if I could."
Rhyan said, but I could hear the laughter in his
voice. I knew he thought Adam's remark was funny.

Amy scowled at Adam. She handed me
some bills then stormed away from us with her boyfriend in
tow.

"Her guardian demon has
more control than her guardian angel does."
Rhyan said.

"I can't help her, Rhyan.
Don't ask."

"I wasn't going to. There
are a lot of cases in the world that you can't do anything about.
They have to want to help themselves. It usually takes a major
catastrophe in their life for them to actually look into their soul
and realize how far gone they really are. Adam was actually too far
gone to save, but Coen risked his immortal soul by cheating. He
lost his soul, but it doesn't mean Adam has to lose his. I know you
can do this, Kendra. Have faith."

I nodded then went to work on Ashley.
I couldn't stand there and have a conversation with my Guardian
Angel any longer. Ashley and Adam were beginning to give me funny
looks.

It didn't take us long to take
Ashley's photos. She was easy, and she had a great sense of humor.
She had us laughing the whole time. She also didn't have a problem
with Adam taking some of the shots, but her reasons were different
than Amy's had obviously been.

Ashley changed back into the clothes
she'd arrived in, paid me and then she left after thanking us both
for a great evening.

I looked at the clock on my kitchen
stove. We had about ten minutes before my last appointment of the
night was due to arrive. I went to the fridge and grabbed a couple
more drinks, I handed one to Adam.

He took it but he didn't open it. He
just played with the tab on the Dr. Pepper can as he spoke. "Are
you going to tell me the reason I can't stop looking at
you?"

I shook my head as the doorbell rang.
"I don't think it would be a good idea to tell you
tonight."

"Why?" he said, but I was already
heading for the door.

It was a skinny little guy in glasses.
He could be nice looking one day, after he completed puberty and
grew out of his nerdy stage. Some guys never did grow out of
looking like a nerd, but this guy had potential, and I had every
intention of trying to bring that out in the shots I took of him
tonight.

He was wearing a plaid, short sleeve
shirt buttoned all the way to the top, and his hair was parted down
the middle. Lord, help him.

"The lord is busy, Kendra.
You'll have to do it."
I rolled my eyes at
Rhyan, but the little dork in front of me was the only one who saw
it.

"Come to the bathroom," I said as I
turned and walked back through the house. He followed me, and I
handed him a towel. "Get in the shower and wash that stuff out of
your hair. I'd feel better about your pictures if we could do a few
things differently with your hair and clothes. I'll go find
something for you to wear." I eyed his outfit and mentally shook my
head. He also hadn't brought extra clothes to change into for
different poses.

I shut the door behind me then headed
for my studio. I had all kinds of clothes. The boy would have to
wear his own blue jeans, but they weren't totally hopeless. Most
blue jeans looked like what they were in a photo, blue jeans. I
grabbed a knit polo shirt, a black long sleeve button up, and tried
to remember what color his eyes were. I thought they were green, so
I grabbed a grass green cashmere sweater.

When I turned around, Adam was
standing in the doorway looking at me. "He's a fixer-upper," I said
as I walked by him on my way back to the bathroom. I laid the
shirts on the floor in front of the door. The shower was still
running, so I knocked softly and said, "I laid a few shirts out
here on the floor. You'll see them when you open the door. Put one
of them on when you get finished."

I heard the water cut off. "Okay, Ms.
Larkin." He sounded a little embarrassed, but hopefully he would
thank me later.

Adam was leaning against the counter
when I came back into the kitchen. I was going to have to style his
hair for him; evidently he wasn't capable of such a task. "He'll be
out in a minute."

He looked at me with a smirk. "Was he
that bad?"

"You have no idea. He wasn't as bad as
a girl I had earlier this morning. She was thankful for her
makeover, maybe he will be too."

I heard footsteps coming from my
bedroom, and we watched as the guy revealed himself. He'd chosen
the knit polo. All three buttons were buttoned up, but he looked a
lot better than he had.

"We need to do something with your
hair, and then we can get to work," I said as I headed toward the
bathroom. Adam followed us this time and sat on the toilet lid. I
had the boy sit on the stool. His hair was cut neat and was a
little longer on top. I thought a neat business style wouldn't
scare him too much. I moved the part in his hair from the middle to
the left side of his head and used my blow dryer to get rid of the
dampness and make the part stay. It didn't take much to fix him up,
and for that, I was grateful. I looked at the whole of him then
unbuttoned two of the three buttons. "How is your eyesight? If you
lose the glasses for the picture, will you be able to get
around?"

He took the glasses off his face and
blinked a few times. "I've never been able to see myself without
glasses. It's blurry when I look in the mirror without
them."

I smiled. "How would you feel if I
took some of your pictures without them? When I get them developed,
you'll be able to see what you look like. You're very good looking.
I think you may want to switch to contacts after you see the
pictures."

He smiled at me and nodded. "Yes, I'd
like that. You can take all the pictures without me wearing them."
He talked like no one had ever told him he was good looking before.
I was sure his momma had.

He stood and looked in the mirror. He
stared at himself without the glasses for a long while before I
interrupted him. "We need to get to work. What's your name
again?"

"Raymond." he said. Raymond was a
typical nerd's name, no pun intended; I just haven't met a Raymond
that wasn't a nerd. His dad was probably a Raymond, too.

I nodded. "It's nice to meet you,
Raymond. Let's take some kick ass pictures of you."

He actually laughed, as if he'd never
heard anyone cuss before. If he spent any time around me, that
would change pretty quickly.

The guys followed me to the studio.
Raymond was wearing his glasses so he wouldn't trip over anything,
and Adam had a big grin on his face. It was so nice to see him
smile.

I got out a tux top in Raymond's size
and had him change behind the screen. I had to have at least one
formal of every student to comply with school rules. The students
had to be in formal wear for the school annual.

I was setting up the soft box when
Adam walked up behind me. He put a hand on each side of my waist,
and gently pulled me to fit the front of his body. He had dropped a
couple of hints that he was interested, and I had caught him
staring at me more times than I could count, but this was the first
time he had made it obvious that he wanted to do things with me
other than taking pictures. The feeling I was getting from his
hands on my waist was more than most men could make me feel in a
whole night. I was captivated.

I couldn't speak; he had taken my
breath away. I was instantly hot for him, and there wasn't anything
I could do about it. It was the most natural feeling I had ever
experienced. I guess he sensed my emotion, because he pulled me
tighter to him and kissed the bend of my neck.

I opened my lazy eyes to Raymond
staring at us wide-eyed. I broke away from Adam and stumbled into a
prop. He caught me, and then righted my body until I could stand on
my own. I looked up to his eyes. They were lighter than they had
been before. Was his eye color becoming lighter because his demon
guardian was losing? I didn't know why his eyes were changing
color, but I could only assume it was a good sign.

I stood on my own and motioned, with a
little embarrassment, for Raymond to have a seat in the center of
the prop. I knew that I needed to work on Adam becoming a believer,
but this was my last client of the day, and I needed to get it done
before I could worry about the end of my life. I know it sounds
stupid, but it's what I do.

Raymond sat down in his tux top. I
walked to him and smiled before removing his glasses. He smiled
back at me shyly. He really was good looking. He looked a hundred
percent better than when he'd shown up at my door. I was betting he
would go buy contacts tomorrow.

I could feel Adam looking at me, and I
was a little distracted by it, but I needed to concentrate on my
subject. I cleared my throat, and I felt him look away. I
repositioned the soft box and the lights. The sun had started to
set, so the lighting wasn't as good in the house
anymore.

I positioned Raymond as I wanted him
for the first shot. He smiled and I shook my head. "No smile for
the first two pictures. I'll tell you when." He nodded and his face
became solemn. It was perfect. I straightened his shoulders, and
turned his head so he wouldn't be looking directly at the camera. I
moved out of the way and said, "Click." My camera came to life. I
repositioned him and moved back. Adam took another shot.

"You can smile for me this time,
Raymond." He did, but it was clearly a fake smile. Most people
aren't able to really smile unless they are truly happy about
something. I moved to the side so I was directly in his line of
sight and pulled my ears out from my head and crossed my eyes. I
got a genuine smile that time and Adam took the shot. Maybe I
needed to keep him around to help me with my work. He was actually
good at this.

I had him change into the black long
sleeve button up and I began changing my props while he dressed. I
looked up and just stared at him when he walked around the edge of
the screen. He looked dashing. I led him to the new prop, because
without his glasses on, I wasn't sure he could see to walk without
tripping over something. My equipment was high tech and very
expensive, and I didn't want him breaking anything if I could
prevent it from happening.

"Very nice," Adam said as I moved the
tripod to a new scene.

I smiled as I looked at him, but
quickly realized it wasn't my work with Raymond he was referring
to. His eyes were lust filled and hungry. My body flushed with
heat, and I had to make myself look away from him. I had a job to
do, and there was a seventeen year old kid staring at us. When I
finally looked back at him, he was smiling.