Wild Irish: Wild Image (KW) (A Charisma series novel, The Connollys Book 1)
Page 11
“Good luck with that. I hope your dancer and the diva end up happy.” She nuzzled his neck and touched his pulse with the tip of her tongue. Her nipples tightened into points as she rubbed against his chest. Yes, she still responded to his potent masculinity, but a part of her was devastated. She wanted more than sex with Dion. She wanted something real and meaningful.
“She’s married,” he said, and whispered the diva’s name into her ear.
“Yikes.” She shivered as he gently stroked the whorls of her ear with his tongue. Her pelvis tilted toward him instinctively. He had a lot to offer her, but she wanted everything. “I’m greedy, Dion.”
“How many orgasms do you want? I’m in.” He suckled on her earlobe. She’d managed to leave her house without earrings. She was falling apart, but thankfully, no cameras today to see she wasn’t put together.
“Not orgasms,” she whispered. “That isn’t what I meant.” But instead of telling him she wanted his heart, she simply said, “More naked, now.”
~
Early the next morning Dion drove Kasee to Hampden for her second for-radio interview with an artist who had a gallery opening on 36th Street. He pulled into parking behind the gallery, next to the Ladies of Baltimore van. As they exited the car, the van doors popped open and Lizzie jumped down with mike packs.
“Are you miking me, too?” Dion asked. He’d brought his camera, thinking he’d practice taking interior shots in the gallery.
Lizzie shrugged. “Her first interview didn’t go so well, so Brock thought you might give her tips or something. You got her the job, right?”
“I don’t have it yet,” Kasee said.
She looked very hipster today, in a severe black sundress and creepers. Even her hair was pulled back and restrained, but she’d heavily made up her eyes. He’d noticed the ladies loved their eye makeup.
“I don’t really have anything to say,” Dion protested as Lizzie hooked him up.
A camera man jumped out of the van too, then another assistant handed him his camera. A second operator followed the first. As soon as the cameras went on, Kasee wrapped her arms around his waist.
Dion hugged her back, wondering why she was all touchy-feely in front of the camera now but had been distant before. “You’re going to do great,” he told her. “You’ve had your practice round.”
“It’s for radio,” she said.
“That’s right. Think of it like a photograph. You just need the equivalent. A sound bite or two and then the factual information about the opening so that people know to come.”
She smiled. “See, you have exactly the right advice to give. I’m lucky to have you.” She kissed his cheek.
He kept a benevolent smile on his face as Lizzie opened the rear door of the gallery and everyone trooped in.
“Oh, thank God,” Kasee said out of the side of her mouth when they were ushered into a small room.
Dion surveyed the colorful scenes of underwater life. “No bondage images?”
“I don’t think I could take more of that,” she said with a laugh. “Poor Stephanie. She’s called all of the girls to personally apologize for the sexual content of her cousin’s work, and the gallery has moved all the statuary to a room that isn’t full of slave imagery so that it isn’t misunderstood.”
“That’s good. It was a mess,” he said. “But I know Stephanie meant well. She just wanted to support her cousin.”
“Yes. I think she even had a hand in raising some of her cousins. Incredible woman.”
“I guess you aren’t going to be rival queen bees after all?”
“Not this week.” She raised her eyebrows at him. “She approves of my taste in men too much.”
Knowing his role was to be the hot boyfriend, he took her lips in a searing kiss, imagining how it would look on camera, and turning her to get the best light. He imagined the line of her jaw, that sleek blond chignon, then remembered he was on camera too and concentrated on not getting hard.
When someone cleared their throat he peeled his mouth off of hers and leaned his head back against the wall. But unlike him, all hot and bothered, she seemed cool and crisp still, despite the way their tongues had just tangled.
“What's wrong?”
She shrugged. “I know we are just-for-television.”
“We aren't, don't you know that?”
“I know you like sex with me.” She grinned wickedly. “Beyond that I’m not so sure.”
He frowned and shook his head. “It's more than that. I introduced you to my family. I used my contacts to get you work. You're my girlfriend, Kasee, if you still want to be."
She stared at him and he realized he’d mentioned his family. A total no-no. Hopefully they’d cut that line out of the conversation if they aired the footage. He put his hand to his eyes. He was starting to think like a television character rather than a real person. No wonder Kasee doubted them. He wanted to say something, to wipe that TV seductress expression off her face, but it was already too late.
Three people walked into the room and made a beeline toward Kasee, interrupting him. “I’m Jerrold Way, the owner of the gallery,” a very focused man said in an unusually high-pitched voice.
Dion instinctively lifted his camera, wanting to take a shot of the stick-thin Way and the tubby, short woman next to him, contrasted with the ethereal, patchwork-dressed woman next to her. He pegged Patchwork as the artist and the tubby woman as the salesperson, but the opposite was true.
“This is Honor Place,” Way said.
“Very nice to meet you,” Kasee said, pumping the older woman’s hand. “I absolutely adore your work with color. I feel like I’m actually at an aquarium.”
Honor Place smiled. “Thank you. I’m so happy with the way the installation turned out.”
“You’re going to sell out,” Kasee said enthusiastically. “I can feel it.”
Dion had the sense that she’d completely forgotten his presence, but then she turned back to him. “Mrs. Place, do you mind if my boyfriend, Dion Hamilton the professional photographer, takes a few photos of us?”
“Of course not, dear.” They posed together for Dion, and he managed to take shots of the contrasting foursome as well. That was Baltimore, mixed together as it very often was not. A young, wealthy white woman, a young, gay white male, a middle-aged black woman, and the ethereal woman, who could have been any number of ethnicities.
Eventually, Lizzie steered Kasee and Mrs. Place into position on a couple of stools. Dion listened proudly as Kasee managed a concise five-minute conversation. The editor at the radio station should be able to cut that down perfectly.
“I think you just earned yourself a job!” Dion told Kasee when they were done.
“Really?” She smiled. “That’s so great to hear. Thank you for finding me the opportunity, Dion. I’m glad I didn’t let you down this time.”
He took her hand and drew her toward a vivid painting on the wall of whales gliding alongside a ferry. The white-capped waves and cloudy sky indicated a blistery day, yet the colors were saturated and evocative, rather than grayed out like you might expect. Honor Place had an unusual eye. “The important thing is whether or not you enjoyed this.”
“I like talking to people,” she said. “I just have to channel that into radio-worthy sound bites.”
“Look at you, sounding so smart,” he said. “I get that reality TV needs wild-behaving, mouthy characters. But it’s good to see in real life you can be really smart and sensible, too.”
“It’s hard to get to know the real person when the cameras are on.” She glanced at Lizzie, and the camera man hovering next to them. “Why don’t we take this moment off-camera?”
Lizzie shook her head vociferously.
Kasee glared at her and said, “Then at least let’s reconvene when I’m not at a radio interview location.”
Dion laughed. “How about I come by tonight? You have to get to the station to edit your piece now anyway.”
“Sounds like a
date.”
With Lizzie gesturing wildly at them from behind the camera man, Kasee went to the balls of her toes and slid her fingers around his skull, cupping them through his hair at the back of his head. He closed his eyes and leaned in before her lips even touched his. That tiny moan she made just before her tongue touched his had his senses swimming and his body on overdrive. Cameras or not, he needed a cold shower after that kiss.
~
Kasee paced back and forth across the rug in front of her living room fireplace a few hours later. The sun hadn’t set but she felt chilled. She rubbed her arms, thought about going upstairs for a sweater. Two camera men leaned against the wall. Their cameras were on tripods for now since she wasn’t moving around. They’d already filmed her prepping an antipasto tray. Upstairs, too, they’d followed her into her bedroom, though she knew anything they showed of that would be PG-rated. Her lingerie was anything but, however. Red and sexy, it had shone through the first sundress she’d tried on. She’d ended up choosing a wild print dress with a navy blue background so that nothing would show through.
The doorbell rang. “Finally.” Her bare feet danced across the waxed boards into the entryway.
“You brought flowers!” she exclaimed.
“I even chose them myself,” he said, making it clear they weren’t a date-night prop like on their first date.
Behind him, Lizzie gave her two thumbs-up. Kasee ignored the assistant and ushered Dion in, closing the door behind him in the hopes that no one else from the show would interrupt them or try to steer the evening.
“How much longer is this going to go on?” Dion asked, following her into the kitchen.
“Five or six weeks.” A camera man shot them from the doorway as she clipped off the ends of the bouquet and placed it in a vase. “I want to take these roses upstairs and float the petals in the tub.”
“Why don’t we?”
“I tried it once, just me in a bath of roses, but the petals clogged up the jets. I had to get a repairman in here.” She made a face and Dion chuckled.
“Maybe just on the bed,” he suggested.
“Oooh, I like that.” She smiled at him. “I’ll just take this vase upstairs.”
He nodded and popped an olive into his mouth.
“Anything new and exciting happen this afternoon?”
“Rumor of a divorce about to happen in the baseball world. So Jorge and I need to keep an eye on that, maybe break the story ourselves.”
“That’s too bad.”
Dion shrugged. “That’s business. Any kind of marriage in the public eye has these problems.”
Kasee’s gaze flickered to the camera man who had followed them upstairs. “What do you think it’s going to be like for us when the cameras turn off?”
“Bliss,” Dion said. “Just us, thinking for ourselves.”
“I can’t even lock the doors right now,” Kasee said. “They are allowed to come in, except in my designated off-limits areas.”
Dion glanced at the camera man. “We can make it stop.”
“Oh, I know. All I have to do is something like this.” She lifted the hem of her dress, then in one swift movement, pulled it over her head and threw it on the bed.
Dion sucked in his breath as her lingerie was revealed. The piece she wore was cut in a belly-baring vee down the front, with lacing stretched across. The form fitting stretch lace ended at the top of her thighs and she didn’t wear anything underneath.
“Wow,” Dion breathed.
She glanced at the camera man. He turned his camera off and left the room, grinning. Dion closed the door behind him.
Dion grinned at her. “I wonder what you have in mind.”
“No, you don’t,” she said.
He sat down on the edge of the bed and she straddled him. “This might be the wrong time to tell you, but I’d like us to go from just dating to being an official couple.”
“That’s just what I want,” she said. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before.”
“Do you think a relationship forged on television can last?” he asked.
“Yes!”
“I look forward to finding out. But trust me, I know you’re worth it.”
She leaned into him and captured his mouth in a kiss. “I know you are, Dion. You’ve really helped me. I was so sad and desperate when we met, and now, the only desperation I feel is the kind that is about to have me peeling off your clothes.”
“Mmmm.”
She loved the sound he made as she nipped his earlobe, before her hands drifted down to find the hem of his shirt and pull it upward.
“I’m feeling an entirely new lease on life myself,” he murmured after he helped her lift his shirt over his head. “I think we’re going to be really good for each other.”
“What do you get from me?”
“A life.” He touched her face. “I’m looking at the world with my eyes, not just through a camera lens. You make everything so much more intense than it was before.”
“Yeah?”
He tucked his head into her shoulder and pulled her close. “You are special and important.”
“That’s everything.” She sighed happily. “That wild image people have of me isn’t the full story.”
“A picture is worth a thousand words, but being with you is the real magic.”
Wild Irish
Check out even more stories in the Wild Irish Kindle World.
Wild Enough by Erin Nicholas
One Wild Ride by Desiree Holt
Wilder Mind by Taryn Quinn
Wild Irish Rose by Bianca D'Arc
Wild Rush by Rhian Cahill
Falling for Wild by Melanie Shawn
Wild Image by Heather Hiestand
Wild and Dirty by Elle Boon
Wild Every After by Lissa Matthews
Outback Wild by Lexxie Couper
Acknowledgments
Thank you so much for reading Wild Image! If you liked it, I hope you’ll leave a review so that other potential readers can find this story.
Mari Carr’s Wild Irish series was fantastic inspiration for me, especially Ruby Tuesday, which gave me my initial cues for Wild Image. I set this novella in between the original Wild Irish series and the new Wilder Irish series, in the golden age of the paparazzi lifestyle. I love writing about celebrities as real people, rather than fantasy characters. As a huge fan of reality TV, I had so much fun writing about a reality star heroine, and who is a better frenemy than a paparazzo?
My wonderful beta readers included Stand Hiestand, Madeline Pruett, Judy Di Canio, and Sophie Koufes. Moral support came abundantly from these ladies as well as my agent, Laurie McLean, Eilis Flynn, Delle Jacobs, and my writing group buddies, Melissa McClone, Peggy Bird, and Marilyn Hull. Thank you to Valerie Tibbs for the fantastic cover!
Thanks to Elizabeth Flynn for the copyediting.
If you want to read more stories set in my Charisma universe, there are currently three to choose from and another in the works! Look for The Rock Star’s Christmas Reunion to see Bax Connolly a few years down the road, and meet his treasure hunter cousins in Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: A Treasure in Laguna and Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: That Gold in Laguna.
More From Heather Hiestand
The Charisma Series in Timeline order:
Wild Image (Charisma Series, The Connollys prequel)
Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: A Treasure in Laguna (Charisma Series, The Ericksons #1)
Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: That Gold in Laguna (Charisma Series, The Ericksons #2)
The Rock Star’s Christmas Reunion (Charisma Series, The Connollys #1)
Novels:
The Marquess of Cake (The Redcakes)
One Taste of Scandal (The Redcakes)
His Wicked Smile (The Redcakes)
Christmas Delights (The Redcakes)
Wedding Matilda (The Redcakes)
Trifling Favors (The Redcakes)
If I Had You (The Grand Russe Hotel)
Lady Be Good (The Grand Russe Hotel) (coming September 2017)
The Rock Star’s Christmas Reunion (Charisma Series, The Connollys #1)
The Princess Dilemma (Victorian romance)
Cards Never Lie
Wear Black (with Eilis Flynn)
Novellas:
Sex, Vows, & Babies Kindle Worlds: Wedding with a Baby Bump
Dancing in Red (with Eilis Flynn)
The Kidnapped Bride (The Redcakes)
Victoriana Adventure
Steampunk Smugglers 1: Captain Andrew’s Flying Christmas
Steampunk Smugglers 2: Captain Fenna’s Dirigible Valentine
Steampunk Smugglers 3: Captain Gravenor’s Airship Equinox
Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: A Treasure in Laguna
Laguna Beach Kindle Worlds: That Gold in Laguna
Anthologies:
“The Burro” in Murder Across the Map
“Victoriana” in Holiday in the Heart
www.heatherhiestand.com
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About the Author
Heather Hiestand was born in Illinois, but her family migrated west before she started school. Since then she has claimed Washington State as home, except for a few years in California. She wrote her first story at age seven and went on to major in creative writing at the University of Washington. Her first published fiction was a mystery short story. Heather’s first published romance short story was set in the Victorian period, and she continues to return to historical fiction as well as other subgenres. The author of many novels, novellas, and short stories, she has achieved best-seller status at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. With her husband and son, she makes her home in a small town and supposedly works out of her tiny office, though she mostly writes in her easy chair in the living room.
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