The Exposure

   On second thought, scratch that. She needed to figure out where she was getting takeout from.

   * * *

   The next day Luke showed up at her apartment at five minutes till seven. Of course he was punctual, of course he was. Meagan was still running around, trying to decide which shirt to put on.

   “Coming!” she yelled at his knock, dragging a short-sleeve silk blouse over her head. “Be right there.”

   He was smiling when she opened the door.

   “Hello,” he said. He looked devilishly handsome in blue jeans and a T-shirt.

   “Come in.” She held the door open wide so he could pass through.

   He dropped a kiss on her cheek before stepping over the threshold. “Thank you for having me tonight.”

   She smiled at the potential double meaning. “It only seemed fair, seeing as how you had me the night before last.”

   He laughed softly. “Nice place.”

   Meagan looked around her apartment as if seeing it for the first time. It was neat and tidy, perhaps overly so. But that was just the way she was. She had a tendency to stress-clean. And between her brother, Luke, and The Taskmaster, there had been a lot of cleaning going on. The decor was more contemporary than traditional, though the one thing she insisted upon was comfortable furniture.

   Her place wasn’t very large, so it took only a few minutes to show him everything. She ended the tour in the kitchen, where the fresh-baked smells of the lasagna she’d picked up at a local Italian restaurant filled the air.

   “Something smells good,” Luke said.

   “Lasagna.”

   “You made lasagna?”

   “I didn’t so much make it as I picked it up from a nearby restaurant and reheated it.”

   “Either way, it smells delicious.”

   Once more he was charming and down-to-earth. He had a breezy, nonchalant air about him. She liked that; it buffered her more type-A personality. They talked over dinner about their families, their current careers, and where they wanted to be in five years.

   As they were finishing up eating, Luke grew serious. “I feel the need to apologize for what happened all those years ago.”

   “You don’t have to,” Meagan said. “I get it. You didn’t like me then.”

   “What the hell? Didn’t like you? I liked you too much.”

   She snorted.

   “Don’t do that. Listen to me.” Luke took a deep breath and started. “After that remarkable weekend we had together, I spoke with a close friend of mine. He was older and more experienced, and I trusted him. I was so happy after that weekend and I wanted to be with you so much. I was so young and naive, I thought we would always be like that.”

   As he spoke about it, the memories of that time came back to her. She remembered the joy and elation after they had spent the weekend together. And her heartache and despair when he ended it.

   “But my friend told me I was walking on thin ice. To have an affair with the model in my shoot? Especially one of my first models? In that day and time, he told me I was only asking for trouble.”

   She remembered when they’d broken it off. She’d thought she’d just move on, but days after, she went to another shoot with a different photographer. She’d forced herself to be all smiles and giggly and happy, but it didn’t take long to see that something wasn’t right. The guy was different, standoffish, almost cold, borderline indifferent.

   Meagan, in her insecurities, thought she had done something wrong. For the duration of the shoot, she wondered what it could’ve been. Was she acting odd? Was the guy just having a bad day? Or was it more? Had word spread about her and Luke?

   Her heart pounded. Did the photographer expect her to sleep with him? That was why he acted so strange. Then she realized it would probably always be that way. The men she worked with would just assume she’d sleep with them. Suddenly, modeling didn’t appeal to her anymore. Though she’d thought she’d cried herself all out over Luke before, she remembered crying herself to sleep that night, and for many more to follow. She mourned what she saw as the loss of her modeling career.

   “Don’t apologize.” She reached across the table and took his hand. “Yes, you hurt me, but that’s part of growing up. The truth is, you left me with much more than you took away.”

   “How’s that?”

   “If it hadn’t been for that weekend, I’d have never explored my submissive side. Thank you for that.” It occurred to her she’d never thanked him for that before.

   “You’re too good, Meagan.”

   “No, not really.”

   “You know what I would like to do?” he asked.

   “Wash all the dishes for me?” she teased, just because she liked seeing his smile.

   “Not quite. But I would like to see what we could be together.” He spoke quickly as if he expected her to interrupt. “I’m not asking for forever. Not even a solid commitment. Just these few weeks while we’re working together. I’d like to explore us.”

   No-strings fun with Luke? It was better than nothing and she’d be a fool not to take what she could get. “Would there be sex involved?”

   His eyes grew dark. She still held his hand and he squeezed her fingers. “Count on it.”

   “I’m in.”

   He lifted her hand to his mouth and his lips brushed against her skin. She sucked in a breath. “Should we wash the dishes now?” he asked.

   She thought he was teasing her back. She hoped he was teasing her. He continued to brush his lips back and forth across her hand. Each pass of his lips sent shock waves of lust throughout her body. He was watching her intently, like he knew what effect his mouth had on her. And he was asking about dishes?