Dark Frame (2 page)

“
Don’t be a drama queen,” she told me. “You know he cares about you more than anyone in the world.”

I did know that. Of course I knew that, but at that moment, a different universe threatened to reveal itself. What if I had never been paired with Dallas? Would Britain have stuck him with another girl, and would he have grown lusty enough over her to break up with Trish anyway?

I stare at the picture on the browser. All of the models sit in the mud on the field—Dallas and Adam and eight part-time female models. Kayden clings to Dallas’s side, his arm snuggly wrapped around her ass, their lips brushing in a faux kiss.

His eyes are closed.

His eyes are fucking closed.

I shut the browser and run my fingers through my hair, tugging until my scalp hurts.

Trust him, trust him, trust him
. I chant over and over again in my head.

He was with Trish for five years when he fell out of love with her.

He’s only been with me for two months. And now he’s leaving for seven.

Britain

These bitches have no idea what the fuck they’re doing.

Finding a replacement model for Evan has been a goddamn nightmare, to say the least. Since I hate bloating her ego more than it’s already bloated, I’ll probably never tell her that she’s the only one of her kind. It’s not just that she’s a natural. It’s that she doesn’t give a shit about her modeling, so she’s the girl that always takes risks, and those risks happen to work out in her favor.

Jana, the girl I’m photographing now, cares too much about her image. It’s why she’s trying to hide her crotch as she poses on the bed instead of splaying herself like she should. And it’s not even like these photos are going in an issue. All I’m doing is auditioning to see if anyone has what it takes to be a lead, and so far, nada.

The worst part is that Jana is so gorgeous. Dark, creamy skin and these huge brown eyes—plus, tits to die for. If she would just let go a bit, she’d look like the perfect headlining model instead of an awkward stripper.

“
Alright.” I let my camera drop. “We’re good here.”

Jana sits up, blinks, and frowns. “That’s it?”

I’ve only been shooting for five-ish minutes. I scratch my head awkwardly and shrug. “Yeah, I… uhh… usually can see all I’m going to see in the first fifteen shots or so.”

She knows I’m not impressed. Slowly, she rolls off of the bed and trudges to the makeup room to change. When I know she’s gone, I groan and fall onto the bed myself.

Hell, if I have to, I could probably shop sexy expressions on their faces to replace the awkward ones. My dad and my older brother, Cameron, are hard at work developing new photo touch-up software with their company team. Luckily, with my dad being the CEO, it means I’ll have access to that software right when it comes out.

I don’t ever throw around the fact that my family is worth a small fortune. I’ve always tried to make it in the world by my own means. I mean, other than the free software. But who can blame me?

“
That bad, eh?”

I lift my head to see Evan leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over her chest. There’s a look on her face that I can read like a first-grade chapter book. It says that we need to talk.

“
You’re quitting for good, aren’t you?”

She furrows her eyebrows. “How did you know?”

I sigh and sit up. “You’ve been a humungous fat ass lately. I mean, sneaking down for a spoon of cookie dough at two in the morning? Come on.”

She doesn’t look the least bit ashamed. “Hey, now, coming out of the erotica closet took a toll on me.”

“
Bullshit,” I counter. “The only thing it took a toll on was your spare tire.”

“
Whoa, bitch.”

“
Evan.” I put on my super serious face. “So, you quitting, or not?”

She bites her bottom lip. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m quitting.”

I fall back onto the comforter and rub my eyes. “Fucking fuck, fuck. I’m so effed in the A.”

“
Oh, give me a break, Brit. You literally have a million or more girls all over the U.S. who would die to take my place. The new leading bitch doesn’t have to be from East Park. She can be from anywhere. Just put an ad on Craigslist or something.”

“
Oh, okay,
put an ad on Craigslist
. That sounds like a great idea to keep my studio nympho, exhibitionist, and STD-free.”

“
Come on, you know we’re all exhibitionists here,” she says. “Well, except for you. You’re a little voyeur.”

“
Not anymore,” I reply. “This little audition stretch has cured me of wanting to see naked women fake an O-face.”

She giggles, and then there’s an awkward pause between our banter. “I’m really sorry, you know,” she finally says. “It’s not like I wanted to fuck you over. It’s just, balancing Harvard and EPE, even as a part-time model, is going to be way too much.”

“
Even when your boyfriend will be in Costa Lalaland?”

She flops down on the bed next to me. “That will probably make it worse.”

“
What’s that supposed to mean?”

“
Worrying about Dallas on top of worrying about staying afloat in classes on top of moving so far away from home on top of being in a place where I’ll be freezing my sorry ass off in the winter….”

“
I got it, I got it.” Well, actually, there’s one thing I haven’t. “Why are you worried about Dallas?”

“
You know… for his safety… against the monkeys.”

It’s almost creepy how easily I can figure out what’s going through her head. Maybe
we
need to be a couple. “Who’s the girl?”

Evan groans. “I don’t want to talk about the girl, okay?” She sits up. “Can we please not talk about the girl?”

“
Alright, alright,” I say, even though my curiosity is piqued to the extreme. “Instead, why don’t we talk about how the hell I’m going to explain you throwing in the towel to A.J?”

^^^^^

“
Absolutely not.”

A.J.’s underling, Melissa Wayworth, says it almost flippantly.

“
Uhh… well, even though I’m her best friend, she has a mind of her own, you know. I can’t
force
her to stay in EPE if she doesn’t want to.”

Melissa leans back in her computer chair—
my
computer chair. I had to move my work computer into the studio after A.J.’s “assistants” decided to make regular trips and watch my editing like a hawk. Shouldn’t they have better things to do than hang out in a smut house?

“
You can force her, and you will. End of story.”

“
But…”

“
I’m here to talk business. Please, let me finish. Mr. Harrison has decided that the first national issue of EPE will be in October. We’ll launch the new image with Halloween.”

I raise an eyebrow. “Halloween and porn... talk about a party.”

“
And what better place to have a Halloween-themed issue than in New England?”

I open my mouth to respond, but only a strangled squeak emerges. Finally, the words come to me. “You want the first issue shot in
Cambridge
, don’t you?”

“
Cambridge, Boston, you know. The general area. We’ll boost model morale by sending everyone over there, book the whole venue for a week or two, have a bit of bonding time.…”

“
What about school?”

Melissa deadpans. “Your models will be paid more money than they’ve ever seen for posing naked and you’re worried about a bit of school?”

No, not really. I’m not worried about my models and the amount of money they’ll make. I’m a bit more disturbed at the fact that Amora Acquisitions wants to follow Evan out to Boston to make sure that she’s in the first national issue. Isn’t that considered stalking?

Melissa swivels around in her chair and grabs a folder, handing it to me. “Here’s a list of selected models that Mr. Harrison himself has chosen to be featured in the issue. You’ll need to make sure that each of them fills out the correct paperwork and gets it back to a rep by the end of next week.”

I flip through the papers. “When will I see a rep?”

“
There will be one at the auditions, of course.”

I glance up at her. “Auditions?”

“
On Wednesday.”

I narrow my eyes. “I never scheduled an audition.”

“
Of course you didn’t,” Melissa responds calmly. “We did.”

“
You scheduled an audition.”

“
For Wednesday. Don’t worry, we got the advertising handled and everything.”

“
So it won’t just be hobos off the street showing me their diseases.”

She shoots me a fake grin, stands, and brushes off her pin-striped skirt. “Hopefully not.”

I flip to the front page of the file and see that the top two models listed are Rylan and Dallas. Mr. Harrison is going to be a very disappointed man. Being that Melissa seems to be in a don’t-argue-with-me-and-just-do-it kind of mood, I decide not to say anything.

Chapter Two

Evan

“
She said
what
?”

Britain stands in the kitchen like she’s trying to be evasive but knows she can’t be. I sure as hell won’t let her leave. She pushes her hair back and mumbles, “Shesaidthey’reshootinginCambridge.”

“
And you told her
no
, right?”

When Britain flinches, I know she didn’t. She quickly straightens and says, “Dude, it’s not my fault. I kept telling her no and she told me to force you.”

I bark a laugh. “That’s a joke.”

Britain narrows her eyes. “Hah.” She sighs. “Sorry, Evan. There’s nothing more I can do other than continue to say no and get hounded.”

She’d do that for me—I know she would. But I don’t want her to. “I guess I’ll give Amora Acquisitions a call tomorrow and tell them to not waste their time flying their asses out to Boston.”

“
Because you’re so full of yourself that you’re convinced Amora is taking our entire team to Boston just to work with
your
school schedule?”

I know she’s kidding. Well, half-kidding. She cracks a smile.

I jut my chin in the air like a douche and say, “Yeah, dude, I’m fucking hot,” and she laughs.

^^^^^

When Dallas gets home from his orientation for the new semester, I show him the file Britain gave me. The first page has both of our names written on the top of a list of models Amora Acquisitions wants to take to Boston.

“
I don’t know if they’re stupid or persistent,” I groan, falling back onto my bed.

“
Persistent,” Dallas says. “That’s how business works. They’re hoping we cave and they’re using force first.”

“
You think they’ll follow me all of the way out to Boston to get me in this shoot?”

Dallas shrugs and says, “I think they can follow you and still make a great shoot even if you reject them over and over, but they’ll be hounding you the entire time they’re there.”

“
Well, what about you?”

He’s stretching himself out like a cat on my bed. The pose looks really feminine for him and makes me laugh. “What about me? I’m headed to Costa Rica. They know that.”

“
And if they stalk you all the way to Costa Rica to get you to pose?”

Dallas shrugs. “If they pay me and it doesn’t get in the way of my research, why the hell not?”

I roll my eyes and turn toward the window. There’s nothing in that answer I can be mad about. In fact, maybe I should have the same attitude about the situation that Dallas has. But I know that if I let Amora Acquisitions or A.J. Harrison get to me, they won’t ever let me go. It’ll be another request two months later, and I can’t afford that, not with Harvard.

“
I have to put my foot down now.”

“
I know you do,” Dallas says.

I turn back to him, keeping my arms crossed. “But you don’t.”

Dallas sighs and rubs his eyes. I’m picking a fight. I don’t usually do this, but I have been more often lately. By his gesture I know that he realizes it too.

“
No. I mean, other than being out of the country, not really.” I narrow my eyes at him and he widens his own. “What? I juggled grad school and modeling last year. Why would it be different this semester?”

Oh, I don’t know, Dallas, because your girlfriend won’t be modeling, which means you’ll be grinding up on someone else.

And I know what happened last time. He fell out of love with his girlfriend and into love with his coworker. I just happened to be on the lucky end of that trade off.

I should tell him how I’m feeling. That would be the adult way to handle my worries with the guy that I love. But I’m feeling less of a grad student right now and more like a sophomore in high school, so instead, I shoot him a plastic grin and say, “Oh, no reason.”

He sits up. “You pissed at me?”

I don’t feel like explaining it to him. I feel like he should already have a clue as to why I wouldn’t want him modeling without me. “I’m just tired, Dallas.”

“
Seriously? It’s eight.”

“
And I’ve had a long day.”

“
And I leave in forty-eight hours. I thought we were spending time together tonight.”

“
What were you planning?”

“
Well, nothing. I thought you were planning something.”

I fall onto the bed. Maybe my bitchiness is justified. “Nope.”

We both sink into an awkward silence. The kind when both of you are pissed because the other is pissed, and there’s a bunch of unanswered
whys
floating through the air but no one actually wants to voice them because you’re both pussies.

Finally, he mutters, “Goodnight, Evan,” and turns off the lamp.

I sleep pretty restlessly. For one, I don’t know how to fix my silent emotional argument with Dallas. I’m pissed, and technically, he did nothing wrong. And two, I know I’m going to have to put my foot down with Amora Acquisitions tomorrow and stop making Britain perform all of my dirty work for me. She doesn’t deserve that.