Picture Perfect

by Maguire, L. E.

  Feeling crushed by this realization, I dropped down into my seat. Evan took the seat directly across from me. Looking everywhere but at him didn’t stop the feeling I was always get when his eyes are on me. Minutes later the wheel began moving again.

  Bravely, I lifted my gaze to meet his. Immediately, a pain slashed through my chest at how good he looked. My God, I have missed him more than I realized. I was the first to break the uncomfortable silence.

  “You look good.”

  “You look stunning as usual, baby,” he responded with immediately.

  My lips twitched as I fought the smile that threatened to appear at the use of his nickname for me. While my anger was quickly dissipating, the fear that there was no future for us still loomed heavily on my mind.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, sounding angrier then I intended.

  For a brief moment, his eyes widened at my tone. “I...uh...” His gaze bounced between my eyes and my mouth. “I’ve been thinking about you…..a lot,” he said, his voice breaking.

  “But you haven’t reached out to me until now.” It wasn’t a question, but came out sounding more like an accusation.

  His eyes narrowed for a brief moment. “You haven’t exactly reached out to me either,” he said with that same accusing tone.

  His words coupled with that tone reignited my anger. “No, I haven’t,” I said angrily. “Because I verbally threw up all over that bathroom, Evan. I poured my heart out to you and what did you do?” Pausing for a moment, I waited for a response, but none came. “You walked out on me. You rejected me,” I said, pointing my finger at him. He flinched with every word I spoke.

  After several seconds of just staring at each other, he finally spoke. “I was angry, Ember. I was so angry with you, and seeing you that night especially with Eli after how much you hurt me.…” He scrubbed his hand over his face. “I thought I could walk away from you-”

  “You DID walk away from me,” I accused. “I begged you, Evan. I begged you to-” I fought back a sob that threatened to break free, but I could not stop the tears from welling up in my eyes at remembering how devastated I felt that night. Evan moved to stand, but I motioned for him to sit back down. Clearing my throat, I began again. “I begged you to stay with me, but you walked out that door instead. The look you gave me and the words you uttered to me have haunted me every day since.” Unable to stop them any longer, the tears tumbled down my cheeks. Evan reached out for me, but I sprung up and moved toward the door, ready to bolt the minute it opened.

  “Gem, baby, please,” he begged. It was not lost on me that his voice sounded as desperate as mine did the night he walked out on me.

  Unable to look at him any longer, I turned to face the outside, pressing my forehead against the cool glass of the door.

  The creak of the leather seat told me that Evan had gotten up. Within seconds he was pressed up against my back with his hands resting on the cool glass of the gondola door effectively caging me in. The warmth from his hard body and the intoxicating smell that was his spicy cologne and something else that was entirely Evan filled the small space of the gondola, overwhelming my senses. My entire traitorous body responded to him. With my heart pounding in my chest, my breaths came quicker as my blood roared through my veins. The side of his face pressed into my hair and I could hear him inhale deeply. His breath releasing raggedly.

  “I’ve missed you every minute of every day, doll. There wasn’t a moment I didn’t think about you. Even in my sleep. My dreams were filled with images of you and of us together. That was the hardest. I would wake up in a cold sweat with my heart pounding, and I could swear sometimes I even felt your naked body pressed up against mine. I could even smell you. Your smell and the smell of sex permeating the air around us. I love you, Ember, so fucking much. Please don’t walk out that door. Don’t walk out on us,” he finished in a whisper.

  Silently, the tears rolled down my face. With my forehead still pressed against the glass of the gondola door, I watched as my tears fell and splashed at me feet. He missed me as much as I missed him. He was suffering right along with me. A month. We wasted a month because we both had been stubborn and stupid. For a month we both wallowed in the hurt caused by our own actions and the actions of the other. And it was a vicious cycle that I knew would repeat itself. A vicious cycle I knew I could not keep recovering from.

  The wheel was on its final rotation. I watched as the ground slowly approached beneath us, steeling myself to say the words I honestly believed I needed to say to protect my already decimated heart and myself.

  As the ride began to slow down, I took a deep breath and spoke. “Evan,” I whispered around the lump in my throat. Pausing to take a deep breath, he banded his right arm around my waist and held me tightly to him. His touch making every nerve ending in my body tingle with desire. Lifting my head, I met his reflection in the glass. The pained look on his face almost broke my resolve. “What kind of future is there for us if we’re going to hurt each other so badly?” He was shaking his head no before I even finished speaking. “I thought you cheated. I hurt you then you hurt me. Is this how every fight between us is going to be, because I won’t be able to handle it, Evan. Given who you are, like you said, pictures with accusations like that will come out again.”

  “And we’ll deal with it, doll. We’ve learned from this experience. Now we move on together better than we were before because of it.” Now it was my turn to be shaking no before he finished speaking. “Don’t do this. Gem….baby…..”

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered, tears streaking down my face. Evan’s arm loosened and then dropped from my waist. “Goodbye, Evan.” As soon as the door to the gondola opened, I dashed out into the pouring rain, leaving my heart behind without looking back.

  But his last words spoken kept running through my head. Did we learn from this experience? Could we be better because of it? Slowing my pace, as I took in all that he said had me realizing that yes, I think we did, and God, I hoped we could be. The weight of what I had just done came crashing down on me so hard, my legs buckled and I dropped to my knees, landing in a puddle. Water splashed out from my under my already soaked legs as I dropped my head and began to sob.

  Heavy footsteps pounded the pier behind me, sending a vibration through my legs. Within seconds, strong hands gripped my torso and lifted me off the ground. Suddenly I found myself face to face with a very determined-looking Evan. Instinctively, I wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.

  “Damn it, Ember. I’m not letting you walk away from us. Besides, you left something behind.” Frowning at him, I gave him a questioning look. “Your heart,” he said softly.

  Gasping at his words, a fresh torrent of tears streamed down my face, mixing in with the pounding rain. Only this time they were tears of happiness.

  Cupping his face in my hands, I studied his beautiful face. “Please. Please tell me that we can make this work without destroying each other.”

  “We can make this work, baby. You know we can. We have to,” he said, sounding and looking determined. Then the features of his face softened slightly. “We have to, because I don’t know how to live without you.”

  “Evan…” I whispered before crashing my mouth down on his. Running my tongue along the seam of his lips, I encouraged his mouth to open. When our tongues finally met, I could feel the growl vibrate in his chest as I pressed myself against him. His arms wrapped tightly around me, holding me to him. The smell, the taste, and the feel of him was more incredible than I remembered, and it had me so fired up I was ready to rip his clothes off. The need to feel his naked flesh against mine, to feel him buried deep inside had me desperately clawing at his back and my hips gyrating against his torso.

  Evan’s strong hands clamped tightly around my waist, stilling my movements. Breaking the kiss, we both stared at each other, breathing heavily. His emerald green eyes had darkened with desire.

  “Not here, Ember,” he said breathlessly. “Too p
ublic.”

  “Then take me home. Your home.”

  “Our home,” he corrected, which had my eyes growing wide. “We’ll discuss it,” he said, chuckling at my reaction.

  I tried to wiggle out of his hold, but he held me fast to him. “Let me down.”

  “I can’t right now, sweetheart.”

  “And why is that?” I asked with raised brows.

  “Unless you want me to totally embarrass myself in front of everyone by allowing them to see exactly what you do to me…..”

  “Oh,” I said, feeling my cheeks heat as he started walking.

  Burying my face in his neck, I ran my lips along the smooth skin of his neck. Placing a few kisses as I ran my lips up to his ear, I felt a tremor run through him. “Then take me back to that car of yours. I’ll take care of you before we even make it back to your place.” Giving a sexy little groan, he started to pick up the pace, causing me to chuckle.

  The driver, who obviously saw us approaching, was standing on the passenger side of the car holding an umbrella with the back door open. Once the car shielded him, Evan set me down so I could climb in. As soon as he slid onto the seat next to me, he told the driver to take us to his place before he closed the door.

  Stripping out of my light jacket, I quickly straddled his lap, taking Evan by surprise. Before he could respond, my mouth was on his. Running my fingers over his chest, up to his shoulders, and into his hair, I could feel every hard plain of his muscular physique as I pressed myself tightly against him.

  With our mouths locked tightly together, we moaned and groaned, feeling the vibrations against our tightly pressed chests. My nipples grew painfully hard, begging for his touch. Evan’s hands ran down my back to my ass, squeezing each cheek tightly as he pressed my softness against his hardness, bringing my desire to have him to a fever pitch.

  Breaking the kiss, I leaned back slightly so I could remove my shirt. Gripping the bottom, ready to pull it up and over my head, my movements were stopped as Evan gripped my wrists tightly.

  “Ember,” he said, his voice sounding gruff with desire. “As badly as I want you, and you know how much that is,” he said, thrusting his hips up into me to prove his point. Groaning at the feel of him, I fought to keep my eyes from rolling into the back of my head. “The next time I have you, it’s going to be in my bed, not in the backseat of some car like a horny teenager.”

  “Evan, please,” I shamelessly begged.

  “No, baby. You can beg all you want, but it won’t make a damn bit of difference.”

  Letting my forehead fall against his chest, I let out of sigh of frustration.

  “Hey,” he said softly. Cupping my face in his hands, he lifted my gaze to his. “I want to savor you. I want to take my time, kissing every inch of you. I’m going to slowly reacquaint myself with your every curve, running my hands over your silky smooth skin before tracing the same path with my tongue.”

  His words were painting the most erotic pictures in my head. Squirming on his lap, my breathing became erratic. A slow, sexy smile spread across his face. He knew exactly what he was doing to me, and he was loving every minute of it.

  “Once I’m done exploring your entire body with my hands, mouth, and tongue, I’m going to make sweet love to you slowly until you completely fall apart underneath me. And just when you can’t take anymore, I’m going to take you hard and fast until you’re screaming my name.”

  Closing my eyes, I fought to get my breathing under control.

  “Fuck, I’ve missed you.” The pain in his voice had me opening my eyes to him. “Never again, Gem. I’m never going to be without you again. I’m never going to let you go, and I’m never going to let you walk away from me. Never again.”

  Turning sideways on his lap, I snuggled against his chest. A strange calm came over me, being here with him like this. It was as if something inside me clicked into place, like two puzzle pieces coming together. This is what it must feel like when you find your other half.

  “I love you, Evan,” I said softly, placing my hand over his heart and feeling it beat fast and strong against my palm.

  “I love you, Ember,” he said, covering my hand with his, and holding it tightly against his chest. “Our path won’t always be an easy one. Given who we both are, there will be obstacles to face, but we can overcome them. Neither one of us is perfect, but the love we have between us, baby, is picture perfect.”

  “Evan, it’s not going to fit.”

  “Yes, it will, baby.”

  “It’s too big.”

  “Just relax, doll. I think I have enough experience with this to know what I’m doing. Just trust me.”

  I groaned as Evan called the attendant over.

  “We’ll take this one,” Evan said proudly, pointing at the Christmas tree he had just chosen.

  “Excellent choice, Mr. James.”

  It still shocked me to hear people call Evan by name simply because they recognized him from some ad or commercial he had done. Over the last four months, his popularity had exploded as well as mine. Evan had enough clout in the modeling world now that it allowed him to insist that I do every shoot he was involved with. I was, in a sense, his personal photographer. A few months ago this would have bothered the hell out of me. The last thing I wanted to be was riding Evan’s coat tails, or appearing as if I was, but my work has spoken for itself. We were now known as the power couple of the modeling world, and I would not have it any other way. We were with each other now more than we were apart.

  Evan paid the attendant, giving him the address in the process so it could be delivered. While I was still living at The Nolo, I was no longer sharing an apartment with Jake. I was now sharing a place with Evan. Well, you could actually say we were, in a way, sharing an apartment with Jake and Lucina. Evan charmed management into getting us units next to each other. Since our unit was flipped so we shared the wall to our living space, Evan had double French doors installed, which were rarely ever closed.

  Evan turned to me, giving me my favorite half smile as he sauntered over to me. His emerald green eyes sparkling. Wrapping his hands around the ends of my scarf, he pulled me into him, our bulky jackets keeping us from getting too close.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he groaned.

  “Like what?” I asked, frowning.

  “Like you’re about to tackle me to the ground, rip my clothes off, and fuck the living shit out of me,” he said, whispering in my ear in that husky, sexy tone that always drives me crazy.

  Pulling back so I could look into his eyes, we both studied each other for several seconds before we dove for the other at the same time. With our mouths crashing together, our tongues dueled roughly in a passionate kiss that had me temporarily forgetting that we were standing in a Christmas tree lot in Pike Place Market until the sound of girls giggling had us breaking apart.

  Turning to my right, I saw two high school aged girls standing before us. Their eyes were huge as they stared at Evan. Even though their cheeks were pink from the cold, you could still see the blush spread across their faces as Evan smiled at them, making them giggle even more.

  “Oh my God! It really is him,” the tall blonde girl said to the brunette.

  “Could we…uh..get a picture with you Mr. James?” the brunette tentatively asked.

  “Do you have a phone or a camera?” I asked them.

  The two girls looked at each other before the one pulled out a cell phone.

  “Here,” I said, reaching for the phone.

  “Oh, no. We’d like to take it with you too, Ms. Whitfield,” the blonde said.

  I stared at them open mouthed for a few seconds. This was a first for me. People always wanted a picture of Evan, but they never wanted to include me. Surprised, I turned to look at Evan who was smiling widely at me.

  “Come here, doll,” he said, holding his hand out to me.

  “Aww,” the girls crooned together, looking at Evan all dreamy eyed.

  Taking Evan’s hand, I l
et him pull me into his side. The girls decided who was going to go first as the other shot the photo and then they traded places. Evan had them stand between us as we both put an arm around each one. They were polite, thanking us up and down for speaking with them and allowing them to take the photos.

  “Why did you seem so surprised when they said they wanted to include you?” Evan asked as we made our way through the market.

  “I don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “I’m usually behind the camera. People are only interested in the model. Photographers aren’t very exciting.”

  “Hmmm. Not true. I’m only interested in the photographer, and baby, you are very exciting to me,” he finished in a whisper against my ear, sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine.

  “Sweet talker,” I murmured as we made our way through the market.

  Evan insisted that we stay in for dinner tonight. Wanting to make me his mother’s recipe for shrimp scampi, we picked up all the ingredients needed from the market.

  As we were leaving, we walked past the flower shop. Evan stopped, looked down at me, and said, “I’ll be right back.” Kissing me on the cheek, he dashed into the flower shop.

  Several minutes later, he made his way out with a beautiful arrangement of roses with little purple flowers. Smiling widely at me, he handed me the flowers. Burying my nose in one of the roses, I took a deep breath, inhaling the sweet smell.

  “They’re beautiful,” I said, admiring how the deep red and purple colors complimented each other so beautifully. “Thank you,” I said, smiling up at him.

  “Beautiful flowers for my beautiful lady. You’re welcome, Em.” He winked at me as he grabbed my hand and made our way out of the market.

  ***

  As soon as I walked through the door of our place, the sounds of Andy Williams Christmas album flooded my ears. Making my way into the living room, I peeked through the open double doors to find Jake and Lucina decorating a beautiful tree. They looked so cute together. Jake was placing ornaments in the hard to reach areas while Lucina concentrated on the bottom of the tree.