How to Love a Blue Demon (8 page)

Niomi shot pictures constantly, a pale girl with fiery red hair trailing her with three cameras hanging from various straps on her body.
And as she worked she told Cass about the vision she had for the shoot.

“It’s gonna
be sexy, but we’re going for a shock treatment between utterly feminine and edgy rocker. We’ll have guitars here and there to reinforce who you are, but you’re not gonna give me the traditional poses. For instance, in the garden you’ll be wearing a beautiful gown and jewels, fingers and toes beautifully painted, but I want you to smell the flowers in one frame, and then destroy hand fulls of them in another. And I want you to grin happily while you do it. Then, in frame three we’ll show you pensively rubbing the crushed petals all over your face and chest. Finally we see you carelessly let the flowers fall from your hand to the ground before you walk over them. See what I mean?”

Cass nodded.

Niomi grinned. “I wanted a shot where we see the dress on the ground with your beautifully shod foot grinding flower petals into the material, but your girl won’t sacrifice the dress.”

Lani snorted. “Over my dead body you’ll do that gown like t
hat. I borrowed the shit anyway.”

“Bitch!” Paulie
suddenly yelled.

“
No,” Patty said, backing away as he turned an alarming shade of red and turned on her in a fury. “It was an accident, Paulie.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he cried, stomping in a circle around Cass.

“What?” said that lady, accepting grapes from an assistant no one had bothered to introduce.

Paulie showed her a slightly bruised flower. Patty had accidentally touched one of the petals
with her creamy hands.

“Do you have another one?” Lani asked anxiously. “I want the side part,
and that flower is for the pink and blue dress.”

Paulie flung himself into a chair and covered his face with both hands. “No.”

Eyoen winced. The man actually sounded like he might cry, and his words sent Lani into a rage.

“
Are you fucking kidding me? We talked about this! I worked out every fucking detail with you, every piece of fabric, every shoe, every jewel and you bring one fucking flower?”

“The other ones
fucking wilted! My power went out in the middle of the night. This was the only one that survived because I had it in the bar fridge.”

Everyone turned to look at Niomi, who shook her head sorrowfully. “Can’t use it, kids. It’s gonna look burnt on film.”

“You,” Paulie pointed at a red faced Patty. “Are a hack.”

A furious debate began as solutions were thrown out and either rejected outright or bantered back and forth before they were rejected. Meanwhil
e, Cass continued to eat grapes and watch wide eyed, as another girl painted her finger nails.

“Stop eating!” Lani hissed at one point, and Ca
ss just rolled her eyes, but Eyoen noticed that she turned away from the grape the nameless girl held before her mouth; her fingernails were drying in some kind of small blue light box, one for each hand. The polish girl was working on her toe nails now.

“I ain’t ate since breakfast,” Cass commented.

“I don’t give a shit,” Lani snarled. “You ain’t havin’ no belly in my clothes!”

Lee watched as several assistants were ordered out to the garden to scout for likely
floral replacements.

“Don’t fuck anything up though,” Niomi told them. “Pick blooms from the middle so I don’t have any holes or broken stems in my shots.
And try not to lean too heavily on anything.”

Three heads nodd
ed grimly and took off at a run, Paulie cursing behind them.

“We may as well get the close ups down while they’re gone,” Niomi said, and got to work.
“Call Paulie back in. If we get her hair without his approval he’ll scream the place down.”

Eyoen
hadn’t had this much fun in ages. Everyone was engrossed in their respective jobs, few of which he’d seen before. The equipment was fascinating: Lights and screens and cords snaking every which way. There was a large rack of clothes, another for shoes, and a small table was filled with makeup and accessories and other fashion bric-a-brac.

He
also indulged in some serious fantasizing as Cass worked. In the garden he imagined swinging on the swing there with her in his lap. The ethereal pink and blue dress with its one shoulder strap would lose the battle with gravity and bare her large breasts to his eyes and mouth as he fucked her to the rhythm of the swaying toy.

In the library he
imagined one of her long brown legs thrown up over the back of a curvy antique couch, her foot and about four inches of ankle and calf visible. Only the sounds she’d make and the motion of those plump painted toes would give away what they were doing.

He must have telegraphed the image to Niomi because she took several snaps of Cass’ foot in exactly that position.

In other shots Cass stood on a ladder reaching for a book on a top shelf. Then Niomi snapped her tossing the book to the ground and leaping down after it. She leaned over a desk reading it, one hip cocked to emphasize her small waist, her ass and a long length of leg exquisitely outlined. In the next few frames she very calmly ripped the book in half and stuffed a folded page down the front of her bra.

He stood with a chair in front of his groin during the bed portion of the shoot. Cass stripped completely to sprawl in the middle of cream silk sheets that Lani
and Niomi painstakingly arranged to tangle around various parts of her body, while leaving most of her free. There were shots of her entire back and one lean leg as she lay on her front or on her side, others of the sheet clinging precariously to her breasts as she laughed against the headboard, one leg raised and bent at a dainty knee.

His favorite pose was her on her belly
. She leaned on one hand and flipped through a guitar magazine, one leg wagging idly. The shadow between the curves of her breasts was tantalizing. He swore he fell in love with her all over again as she sat at a vanity in a beautiful gown and stared into the mirror, unsmiling, the most arresting expression on her face.

Nearly three
hours later Niomi said they were done downstairs. “All that’s left is the tub and kitchen, but I wanted to do that last since we can use artificial light.”

The red-haired camera assistant handed over a bottle of bath bubbles and
Niomi scrutinized the label before she nodded and handed it back.

“Run it hot, I want her dewy,” Patty ordered.

“Turn up the heat,” Niomi countered. “Hot water will ruin her makeup faster.”

Lani stepped forward
, and she and her assistant stripped Cass down to her thong and changed her jewelry.

Eyoen
no longer bristled when a male wandered in or out. Though he did give one the stink eye when he lingered to stare at Cass’s impressive back view after delivering a white guitar. The young man scuttled out hurriedly.

Niomi chuckled, and he grinned at her
and winked. But the moment passed, and then it was back to work.

When
her lips were slicked a deep red, a rogue false eyelash righted and every stray hair subdued, Niomi stepped forward, judged the bubbles were thick and fluffy and high enough, and Cass stepped carefully in and began to pose. One leg poked through the suds, her head thrown back resting on the rim of the tub, utterly relaxed with eyes closed and a sexy little grin on her lips. Another shot showed bubbles clinging precariously to her lush breasts while she blew a hand full of them into the air. Another featured a soapy sponge and the lovely lines of her creamy back. His favorite one of this sequence brought in the white guitar. Cass sat on the edge of the tub, bubbles sliding down her limbs with the guitar in front of her and nothing else. She was unbearably lovely as she concentrated on the instrument, uncaring of her nakedness.

“Lani,” Niomi whispered.

“The earrings?”

The photographer nodded. “Studs?”

“The yellow sapphires.”

Niomi shook her head.
“Too hard to see.”

“The orange?”

“Let me see them. Paulie.”

“I see it,” the hairdresser whispered, stepping forward with a bottle of his favorite potion
and the smallest brush Lee had ever seen to smooth a tuft of hair beside Cass’ ear that had curled up from the damp.

“It’s fascinating,”
Rierdane whispered. “I can’t wait to see the final pictures.”

Neither could
Eyoen.

“Nimi,” the red head said. “Natty
’s on the phone. He wants to know where Cass is. Says she’s supposed to be in the studio.”

“It’s not gonna happen,” Niomi said absently, standing knee deep in suds, camera glued to one large hazel eye. “Hang up on him.”

Natty called Priti next.

“Cass?”

“Tell him I’ll see him tomorrow. I’m naked in a tub full of bubbles right now.”

Priti must have relayed the message exactly because she burst out laughing.

“He wants to come by here.”

Everyone laughed, but Eyoen
was grateful no one invited the unseen man to join them.

They left
just after 10 o’clock, 15 hours after they arrived.

“I’m beat,” Cass said.

Eyoen felt his borrowed human belly drop in disappointment. He wasn’t. He was horny as hell. Watching her pose seductively all day, clothed, unclothed, draped over furniture, every hair and patch of skin lovingly tended, he’d been hoping to coax Cass into bed.

“What is this hell?”
Rierdane asked.

Eyoen
frowned. He didn’t know. The phrase had just been there in his head.

“You okay?” Cass asked, putting her hand on his thigh. They were alone in the back seat.

Eyoen took her hand from his thigh and put it on the bulge between his legs. At first, when he’d learned the mechanics of inhabiting his host’s body he’d been mildly creeped out at the thought of fucking with another man’s dick.

Rierdane had scowled at him. “What do you plan to do then? Remain celibate and shame us all?”

He could have argued with his servant that no one on Cyanus would know, thus no one would be ashamed of his unlikely celibate behavior, but he’d known even then, that not having sex was an impossibility. How many times had he spent into one of his houris’ bodies while thinking of Cass back home? There was no possible way he’d be able to resist her on Earth? Especially not with his host’s numerous happy memories of making love rolling around in his head. He wanted Cass, and he wanted her now.

Now s
he chuckled. “Well, well. I think I may have just gotten a second wind.”

Eyoen
had never exercised more patience in his life than he did as they ate a snack dinner of sandwiches and chips. He rolled his eyes in relief when Priti yawned and said she and Boyd were going to bed.

“Sire, don’t forget to add those to the list,” Rierdane said of the salt and vinegar
chips.

I won’t,
he assured his servant. He knew his family would also enjoy the tangy-flavored snack. Eyoen stared at Cass across the table. He placed his last chip in his mouth and wiped his hands on a cloth napkin, never once looking away from her.

“Why
are you looking at me like that?” she whispered.

“Like what
?” he asked, gesturing to her 7UP.

She drank absently.

“Full?” he asked.

She nodded
. “I still got room.”

He smiled slightly. She really was quite clever.

“This is my first time with you,” he said, knowing she would think it was a game. “So, this may take awhile. Come here.”

She rose slowly and came around the table.

He could tell she was excited as he opened his legs to her and she came to a stop flush against his cock. She was breathing more heavily, her full lips parted as she placed a hand on his hard thigh.

“Unzip me,” he said quietly.

She obeyed, gently tugging him free of his jeans. “No undies?”

Eyoen
hadn’t paid the boxers he’d seen a second thought. On his star, the distinctive silver robes worn by members of the royal family were airy and unconstricting, and very easy to lift out of the way when one wanted to couple.

His hand crept up from her belly
, skimmed the under curves of her full breasts and clasped around her throat. He turned her head to the side, and felt his dominance take root in her quickened breathing and lazy lidded eyes.

So his Cass liked to be
bossed a bit in bed, did she? Eyoen smiled. It made sense. She was an amazingly strong woman, utterly feminine, but enormously capable. She’d need a strong man to truly fire her passions. It was why Lee had fallen out of favor. That and his lovemaking had lacked, what was the modern word? Innovation.

He licked his lips absently.
He would have no problem there. Suddenly a memory rose of Cass on her back looking vulnerable, Lee was above her, the real one, both of her wrists trapped in one of his. The look of rapture on her face was delicious.