Page 47 of Caught on Camera
“You look happy,” he says. His fingertips dance over the glass frame, and he traces the outline of my legs. The waves crashing behind me and the sun hanging in the sky. It’s intimate, and it almost feels like he’s tracing me. “Your smile is my favorite smile.”
“What?” I walk over and stand next to him. I tilt my head to the side and study my scrunched nose. My closed eyes. My arms out at my sides like I’m a bird trying to take flight. “That’s not a smile. I look silly.”
“That’s a Lacey smile.” He looks down at me, and our gazes meet. His eyes are soft, and his mouth hooks up in the left corner. It’s slow and careful and something that stretches wider the longer he stares at me. “It’s unique and special. Just like you.”
A blush flares to life on my cheeks. “If I knew you were going to dole out so many compliments, I would’ve invited you over sooner. You sure know how to boost a girl’s ego.”
“It’s not boosting if it’s the truth,” he says, and his shoulder nudges mine. “I like this picture a lot. Can you send me a copy?”
I stare at him, my mouth hitched open and my brain about to explode. “You want a copy? Why?”
“I have photos in my wallet of the people I care about. Maggie and Aiden. Maven. My family. I don’t have one of you. This one would be perfect.”
“Oh.” I tuck a piece of hair behind my ear and my head bounces up and down in a chaotic nod. “Yeah. I’ll send you a copy. I’ll give you an accordion full of photos, if you want.”
“What about a photo of us?” he suggests. “I haven’t posted you on my social media yet.”
“Why would you want a picture of me on your social media when you’re going to have to delete it in a few weeks?”
Shawn shrugs. “My publicist said it would probably be good PR. Might make your hospital director believe you when you tell him you’re bringing me to your gala.”
“Right. Of course. That makes sense. Do you—should we take one right now?” I ask, and my voice catches in the back of my throat.
He turns to face me, and the softness in his eyes is replaced with heat. There’s a fire behind the gray, the start of a blaze that threatens to burn me alive. “If we take one right now, people will know I’m over here when it’s late. After hours. When we should be sleeping.”
“It would make sense that a couple would see each other late at night,” I say, and I’m not sure I’m talking above a whisper. “When else would we…” I trail off, and I snap my mouth closed.
His smile turns wicked. He bends down and crowds my space. “Finish that sentence, Lacey girl,” he murmurs in my ear, and I shake my head.
“I don’t want to. I shouldn’t.”
“Why not?”
“Because it could get me in trouble,” I say.
“Were you going to say when else would we fuck?” he asks. He plays with the ends of my hair and twirls a strand around his finger. “That’s the best part of a relationship, right? Getting to fuck whenever you want.”
I think we’re playing a game again, but this time, I’m going to be the one to crack. I’ve stopped breathing. I’m going to spontaneously combust, and my time of death is going to be just after two in the morning. It’s the only outcome of this, all because my best friend is looking at me and sayingfuckin a way that makes me want to squeeze my thighs together.
Preferably with his head between them.
“I haven’t… it’s been…” I swallow and fan my face. My body has never felt so hot or so close to turning into a dangerous inferno. “Give me your phone.”
Shawn hands over the device without being told twice. I pull up his camera and frown when I see his head cut out of the frame. He laughs, rich and deep, and drags me to the couch.
“Sitting is better,” he says as we fall onto the cushions.
“Maybe if you weren’t a giant, then we would fit better,” I laugh.
“We fit just fine. Come here.” Shawn picks me up and sets me in his lap. He leans me back against his chest and takes the phone from my hands. “My arms are longer.”
I’m too distracted by solid muscles and firm lines to grin. I’m caught off guard by his hand cupping my neck and his cheek pressing against mine. It’s intimate—far more intimate than we’ve ever been—but it also feelsright.
“You going to smile for me, Lacey girl?” he asks, and this man has to know what he’s doing, right?
He has to know he’s taunting me in a way that makes me want to straddle his thighs and kiss him senseless. To pull him into my bedroom and find out what he looks like under the light of the moon. I’ve never,never, had thoughts like this about Shawn before, but now I can’t stop.
His hands under my shirt.