Forsaking All Others Read Online Free PDF Page A

paths while viewing it. But it was difficult to disassociate herself from the fact that he was—masculinely speaking—superb. Allison felt her body radiating enough heat to melt every shred of ice off those windows while he stood before her, shivering, letting her study him.
    He looked down his chest, then back up at her. “Enough?” he asked.
    For a moment she felt like a curious teenager peeping at the boys through a knothole in the changing-room wall, while he stood before her thoroughly at ease.
    “Yes,” she answered, and immediately the shirts started coming back over his head. From inside the first he asked, “So what am I going to wear for this picture?”
    “Bathing trunks. Have you got any?”
    “Sure.” His head popped out, hair tousled in gamin boyishness that belied the mature, well-proportioned body she’d just assessed.
    “What color are they?” she asked, moving back around the desk.
    “White.”
    “Perfect, since we’ll be shooting at night and they’ll show up more.”
    His eyebrows curled and again he watched her warily as she moved, businesslike, to pick up pencil and clipboard, making a note while asking, “Do you have any scars on your legs or back?”
    “No.” He tossed the jersey on, shivering visibly now.
    “Do you have any objections to kissing a stranger?”
    With one arm half drawn into his jacket sleeve, he stopped, as if struck dumb.
    “Kissing a stranger?”
    “Yes.” She raised serious eyes to his, making a desperate effort to appear calm.
    “Who?”
    Allison plucked the photo of the chosen female model from the pile on her desk and handed it to him. “Her.”
    He gave it a cursory glance. “The other subject in the photo, I take it?”
    “Yes, if her coloring turns out to be right when I see her.”
    He turned it over and read the name on the back. “Vivien Zuchinski.” He laughed and shook his head, lifting some of the tension from the room. “With a name like that she’d better know how to kiss!”
    It broke the ice. Their eyes met and he chuckled first, followed by her mellow sounds of mirth.
    “I feel like an ass,” she admitted, relaxing even further, at last able to look him in the eye again.
    “Well, I was a little uncomfortable there for a minute myself.”
    She ambled past the windows, toward the back of the studio, away from him. “I’ve never hired anybody for this kind of assignment before. I went about it all wrong. I apologize for making you feel ill at ease.” She turned a brief glance back over her shoulder. He was still beside the desk.
    “It’s okay . . . as long as I get to kiss . . .” He checked the back of the photo again, “Vivien Zuchinski,” he finished with a grin. He tossed the photo back onto the desk and followed Allison along the length of the studio.
    “Do you mind my asking you a few things?” Rick Lang queried.
    “No, ask away.”
    “Well, for starters, why are we shooting at night?”
    She couldn’t help smiling. “I can see you’re still suspicious, Mr. Lang.”
    “Well, you have to admit it sounds a little fishy.”
    “Not when you want a nighttime effect. It’s going to be a beach scene with a fire. I’ll need total darkness outside so I can control the lighting. As you can see, the place is solid windows.” She waved a hand at the glass wall and scanned the length of the studio before her eyes came to rest on him.
    “A fire?” he repeated dubiously.
    “Yup.” With her hands in her pockets, one eyebrow raised slightly higher than the other, she looked a trifle smug.
    “In here?” he asked skeptically.
    “In here. You don’t believe I can do it?”
    He shrugged. “It’ll be a good trick if you do. How many shots are you planning to take?”
    “Oh, sixty-five maybe . . . of each cover, front and back.”
    He whistled softly. If she took that many shots, she was serious, dedicated, and thorough. He glanced around, obviously searching for a beach.
    “Trust me,” she said. “When you