Okay, she needed to be more specific. “I don’t screw strangers. I don’t pick up men. I don’t do”—she swung an arm out to include the entire bed—“this.”
His frown came back. “Is that why you took photos? Because I’m a stranger? I’m not part of your real world.” He let out a small sound of male disgust. “I’m just a nude man in the bed.”
“No. I have standards. Rules I live by. This isn’t how I live my life.”
“I broke your rules?” His smile returned. “I never broke a woman’s rules before. So what was the thing I did that made you decide to break a rule?”
She didn’t have a good explanation, or at least one she was willing to share with this outrageously sexy man. Even now, her traitorous gaze was wandering toward the tent pole under the sheet he’d pulled up to crotch level. Talk was so overrated. She really, really just wanted to reach out and touch.
“I’ll erase them.” She reached for her camera but he was faster than she would have thought possible. With a predator’s grace he launched himself from the pillows and grabbed the camera out of her hand.
He lifted the camera to his face and began taking pictures of her, hunkered down and nude beside the bed. After a dozen shots he lowered the camera and offered it back to her. “Keepsakes. So you can remember how you were, too.” He grinned. “Captured: a moment in time to remember.”
It took her a second to catch up. “Are you brushing me off?”
He leaned back and folded both arms behind his head. “Let’s just say we both got what we asked for. And it was … better than that.” He let his gaze slide over her, taking in every inch of bare skin not hidden by her crouch.
“I have to work this morning.”
“I have to leave this morning.”
They spoke at the same time.
“Listen, I’m sure there are sophisticated and clever ways to ease out of these situations. I don’t know them.” Georgie sighed. “Last night was great. Really great. But I’ve recently broken up with someone and I’m not looking.”
“Sounds like we agree. I can’t get any more involved either.”
Her face stiffened. “Married?”
“Only to my job. Still, before we go our separate ways …” He caught her left wrist in his right hand, thumb and forefinger creating a bracelet, and tugged. “Now come back here and let’s say good morning properly. Because you are definitely a do over, lady.”
She crawled in over him. He caught her by the waist and rolled, flipping her under him. As his body settled over hers, his legs slid between hers to force them apart. Immediately his erection sank into the space, nudging her nether curls.
“I like you, Boots.” His grin rasped her cheeks with a day’s growth of beard as he leaned down and kissed the corner of her mouth. “You never explained that nickname.”
There was a very good reason for that. She’d made it up. Didn’t know why. Self-protection in the face of six feet of sexual danger?
“I—oh!” He’d flexed his hips against her, opening her just enough that she had to take a careful breath to keep from begging him to hurry up.
And then he kissed her and the world went away.
***
“You look like you had a bad night. Was it the chili dogs? I think it was the chili dogs. I ran out of antacids around three.”
Her assistant, Zoey, stood before Georgie wearing a tiny bikini top and cutoff sweats with the hems rolled up to “do me” territory.
Georgie shook her head as she prepared her equipment for the day’s shoot. “Put on a shirt. And unroll the hem of those shorts if you want to work with me today.”
“But it’s Special Ops day. Hear that?”
Both women looked up to see a military helicopter swooping in low on the horizon. Just to show off, the men unfurled ropes and began rappelling out of the chopper one after the other, each with a dog wrapped securely around his neck.
Georgie’s camera was up and she was shooting before she had time to register all the details. “Zoey. Shirt. Now.” She spat the words out even as she continued to record the impressive arrival.
Life for her was what she captured behind her lens. Sometimes it seemed that her photos were more real than anything else in her life. Capture and hold. The camera allowed her to do that. Real life had a way of slipping out of her grasp.
Like Philip.
When she finally lowered her camera Yardley was standing beside her. “Did I thank you for this weekend?”
Georgie gave her a sideways glance. “You owe me.”
Yardley laughed, throaty and sexy and carrying in a way that drew the attention of anyone who heard it. She had come out to greet the soldiers, something she had not been able to do for each and every law enforcement officer and firefighter the day before.
At that moment, a man driving a jeep sped past behind them and blew his horn. Yardley frowned. “What was that for?”
Georgie pretended to examine her camera so that Yardley wouldn’t see the blush warming her cheeks. “He was one of my subjects yesterday, remember? He was just saying hello. His name’s Philip Dexter.”