Through the Lens (Click Duet #1) (Bay Area Duet Series), Persephone Autumn [read aloud books TXT] 📗

lips soft and wickedly. A smile kicks up the corners of his mouth, and it looks like something he flashes with frequency. It is not a personal smile and doesn’t touch his eyes. Not the smile I was once overly familiar with. The smile I memorized for more than a year. Those must be reserved or nonexistent. This smile is forced and pretentious and ugly. I don’t know this Gavin. Not really sure I want to, either. “Feels like it’s been forever. A lifetime. I didn’t know you were a photographer.”

His words weren’t meant to insult me, but they do. They literally feel like a slap to the cheek. How would he know what I have been up to? You would have to communicate with someone to know what is happening in their life. Am I right? I am tempted to say exactly that, but I somehow restrain myself. I need this shoot to go off without a hitch. The paycheck would be a great boost to my savings.

“And I didn’t know you were a model. So many things have changed for us both, I’m sure.” As much as I try to restrain my sarcasm, it pours out of me with ease. When it comes to Gavin, it is difficult to restrain my true feelings. With anyone else, I easily mask my emotions and go about my business. But with him, it just spills out of me. Always has.

The air around us is thick and heavy with our history. A history his agent and my assistant are unfamiliar with. A history I should put on the back burner while I am the photographer and he is the model. This is not the time or place to bring up the past. And if I am lucky, there won’t be a time while he is here.

I can be the skilled photographer and focus on the task at hand. Can silence my emotions. And ignore the flutter circulating in my chest at the sight of him. Ignore the hunger building in my core at the resonance of his voice. Ignore the flashes of our past that float through my mind.

A glowing smirk lifts a corner of his lips, as if he knows he has gotten to me. As if he can read me like he did all those years ago. But he doesn’t know me anymore. Doesn’t know what I went through after he left. Doesn’t know how much I have changed. And two can play his game.

“Mr. Hunt—” I cut the silence. “If you could please move over to the backdrop near the windows.”

He cocks an eyebrow in challenge and his smirk deepens. “Sure thing, Ms. Davies.” His emphasis on the prefix doesn’t go unnoticed. Figures he would assume I am still single. Maybe I kept my name for my business. He doesn’t know one way or the other. But it is irrelevant, because his assumption is correct. And that pisses me off further.

Prick.

He saunters to where I directed him and turns when his feet land on the fabric. “How do you want me?” he asks with a sultry rasp to his voice.

“Have a seat on the stool. We’ll start with some headshots displaying the clothes and watch.”

His smile bumps up a notch and the faint glimpse of his dimples appear. “You know, I always loved it when you bossed me around.” This time, when he smiles wider, it touches his eyes. But it reeks of mischief versus genuineness.

If my eyes roll any farther back in my head, I will see the inside sutures of my skull. This is going to be a long week.

Three hours later, after endless banter and flirting from Gavin, I am ready to go home and drink away any thought ever including him. Drink away memories skirting on the edge of my mind. Drink myself into a stupor. Today was only three hours. But there are several days listed for the shoot, plus dinners.

Can I just request a drink from the hotel bar now?

There is no denying Gavin is gorgeous. Even more than the last time I saw him. Time has treated him kindly. Wish I could say the same for myself.

Seeing him today has stirred up so many festering emotions, bringing them to the surface. Pain and hurt I thought no longer existed or held me hostage. But the second I heard his voice; it was as if my prince returned and kissed his sleeping princess. My body stirred back to life and my heart resumed its rhythm. Hope flickered for the briefest moment for the first time in years.

But I shut that shit down. Reminding myself what he had done thirteen years earlier. Reminding myself how I felt after what he did thirteen years ago. And there is no way in hell I plan to relive that anytime soon.

Minutes ago, he and his agent strolled out and left Erin and me to clean up in awkward silence. But not before he managed to make things a little more confusing between us. He doesn’t need to say or do much, just his presence put me on edge. Being close to him wasn’t always like this. There wasn’t always this looming tension hovering over us. But now, how can there not be?

I have this inkling to explain myself to Erin. To share fragments of my past to help her understand my behavior today. The way I acted when he came in the room is out of character for me. On more than one occasion, Erin stared at me with shock in her eyes. I maintained my expert smile and kept my voice as neutral as possible. But the tension could be cut with a knife.

But I keep my cards close. If Erin broaches the subject, I will spill my heart out to her. Until she asks, though, I won’t say a word. Until she asks, I will process it all and devise a plan on how to work with him for a week. Gavin is