Lovell, Cooper - Tessa's Highlander (Siren Publishing Classic) (11 page)

He looked again and a woman was placing a long, black velvet cape on Tessa’s shoulders, fastening it at her elegant throat with a large emerald brooch. As the woman worked on the cape Tessa slid on a pair of red satin gloves that reached well above her elbows. Once the cape was fastened and the gloves were in place, the three women who had been standing next to her through all of this stood back and looked at her proudly. At the same time, Henri arrived back at the door, appraised Tessa, and shouted, “Perfect, exactly what I wanted! Now get your ass out to set one, sugar lips!”

* * * *

Before walking out to the first set, Tessa scanned the room and found him. Gavan sat on the hearth of the fireplace, watching with an expression of rapt attention on his handsome face. She couldn’t guess how long he’d been sitting there or what he was thinking about the whole production. She smiled at him nervously, not feeling particularly comfortable with the whole High Priestess thing. He didn’t smile back, but stood and crossed the room, his hot amber gaze riveted to her, paying no mind to any of the people who crisscrossed in front of him. She was unable to breathe. He stepped directly in front of her, took her face in his hands, and pressed his mouth to hers roughly. His tongue forced its way into her mouth and he fucked her with it. It was a kiss full of passion, possessiveness, and pure male domination. Her legs trembled and juices flowed from her cunt into the string that the costume designer had referred to as panties. His assault continued until she was nearly in flames before he pulled his mouth from hers abruptly, his breathing jagged.

Pressing his forehead to hers, he looked into her eyes and through gritted teeth in a voice so low that only she could hear he said, “Mine, Tessa, all mine. Nobody else kin have you. You belong tae me now.” His hands on the sides of her head loosened and his thumbs tenderly stroked her cheeks before he turned and stalked away from her.

Tessa was frozen in place, her mouth agape, chest heaving.

Jackie, who had done her makeup for the shoot, said, “Great, now I have to fix your makeup.”

Without missing a beat, Stacey, her hairstylist said, “Yeah, but girl, was that
so
worth it. Did you see that? I swear,
I
felt that kiss from over here.”

A smile danced across Tessa’s tingling lips.

Chapter Nine

Overhearing a conversation while the first set photos were being taken, Gavan learned the details behind the photographer’s concept.

“Oh, yeah,” said the assistant to whomever as he guided one of the models around the sets. “The magazine did their annual poll a few months ago, and this little writer got the most overwhelming response they ever had. Not only did almost every response to that particular poll question name her as the ‘Favorite Celebrity Fantasy,’ but they also
included
their fantasies—some actual short stories that were fan-fiction writings based on her books with her as the heroine. There were sketches and artwork, too. I heard a few of them were really sick. Most of them said they read her books over and over, always picturing her as the vulnerable heroine who is physically and sexually ravaged and ultimately controlled by various evildoers and paranormal entities until she’s rescued by the good-hearted vampire, werewolf, what have you, so that together they take out the bad guys.

“In the next issue, there was an article by some shrink who analyzed some of the fantasies that had been sent in and basically said that she’s a major fantasy because she’s got this dark side with the horror and all. Then you add in the kinky, mind-bending sex that just oozes from her books, and, well, the guys don’t really have to have much imagination to start putting her into all kinds of situations that they’ve never dreamed up before. The fact that she’s a complete knockout helps, too. And, she’s so small that it’s easy for even wimpy guys to feel like they can protect her. So, the magazine decided to capitalize on the whole thing and organized this shoot that depicts three scenes from her books.

“This one is from her first book—she’s in a cemetery because the ancient vampire, who can get energy through both blood and sex and has been living on her sex for weeks, has called to her and now she’s standing there waiting for him. The outfit, though, doesn’t go with the book. The outfit is to put out the whole ‘High Priestess of Horror’ vibe, that’s what some fan site started calling her after her first book came out.”

The model took a long look at Tessa and said, “Cool. What are the other two sets?”

“Well, the next set will be one from her second book where she is taken prisoner by a werewolf, and the scene is where she comes to terms with the fact that she’s in love with and has completely submitted to a wolf.”

The model looked at the assistant. “So, the chick in the book gets it on with a wolf?”

The assistant grinned. “Yeah, basically. At first he’s always a man, but eventually he can’t hold the beast back anymore and he partially turns while they’re in the middle of fucking and the chick loves it.”

The model licked his lips. “
Dayumn
. And that cute little thing comes up with this? Man, I
gotta
start reading. So, what’s with all the beef?”

The assistant chuckled. “The one you guys are all here for is the best one. It’s from the third book. I don’t know what the whole book is about, but I know the scene has her being held captive in a dungeon waiting for a ceremony that will induct her into some kind of coven that will give her the amazing magical powers she needs to defeat the demon. In order for the ceremony to work, she has to have been completely depleted of all sexual energy and desires to eliminate distraction. It costs the elders who run the ceremony all kinds of energy, so to make sure they don’t go through all that for nothing, they chain her up and have something like twenty guys do her until she’s nearly out of her mind. And they don’t just go one at a time in the book.”

The model shook his head. “You’re shitting me, man. There’s no way that chick writes that stuff.”

The assistant nodded. “She does. I’m
tellin
’ ya. Makes ya wonder what kind of kinky stuff she’s into, doesn’t it?”

And there it was.

His very nightmare summed up in one neat little rhetorical question. Gavan’s anger and insecurity coursed through him so strongly he thought he would explode. How could he stand knowing that men everywhere were probably jacking off thinking about his Tessa? That this photo shoot was promoting it and encouraging it? There’s no way he could stay here and watch twenty male models have their way with her, even if it wasn’t real. Just posing and pretending would be too much. He wouldn’t be able to handle the image it created. He paced along the side of the house like an animal in a cage trying to figure out what to do. He couldn’t stay here and see this, couldn’t stay with her and be constantly consumed by this doubt and fear. There would be a plentiful supply of men vying for her attention. How would he survive when one of those men caught her eye? When one of them said the perfect words, had the handsome face and the exciting life? Hell, it could be one of these pretty boys waiting for their time in front of the camera with her. A little flirting during the shoot and she’d forget he even existed.

Yesterday, he’d succumbed because he had to have her, wanted to capture her heart, wanted to believe he could have happiness with her. But today, after holding her in his arms through the night, knowing how far gone he already was, everything was spiraling. Hell, he already loved her and he knew it. He just couldn’t do it. He had to get out now before he was completely destroyed.

* * * *

While the crew broke down the sets, Tessa showered all the makeup off her face and the goo out of her hair. By the time she exited her bedroom, feeling more like herself, only
Marlena
remained.

“Where’d everybody go? People cleared out of here fast, huh?” Tessa asked as she slid onto a counter stool next to her publicist.

Marlena
poured two glasses of wine and handed one to Tessa.

“Everybody’s exhausted, sweetie. It was a long day. A good one, though. The managing editor stopped by while you were on the third set and looked at the digital roughs for the first two. He thinks this issue is going to break all their records.”

Tessa rolled her eyes and leaned her elbows on the counter, too tired to hold herself upright any longer. “Hey, wait! Did the costume designer leave? I still have my outfit upstairs.”

Marlena
swallowed her sip of wine. “She’s gone. She said they’d send a messenger over to our office to pick it up. No rush. Just bring it next time you come in.” With a waggle of her eyebrows,
Marlena
inquired, “Now, tell me about that gorgeous man you showed up with today. And don’t you dare hold out on me. I could have your Girl Club card revoked if you didn’t let me live vicariously through you with the likes of that one.”

Tessa blushed from her head to her toes. A huge part of her wanted to blurt out every delicious detail to
Marlena
. She wanted everyone to know how deliriously happy she was. But modesty and the desire to keep what was happening between Gavan and her special stopped her.

Instead, she quietly said, “He’s more than a little amazing,
Marlena
.”

Marlena
sniffed. “Honey, I’d be willing to bet lots of money that the word ‘little’ doesn’t apply to any part of that man.”

Tessa blushed again and
Marlena
reached over to grasp her hand. “Oh sweetie, look at you! You’re in love! And to think, it was just a few weeks ago you were telling me that you didn’t see the big deal about love, relationships, and, I still can’t believe this,
sex
.”

Tessa gave
Marlena’s
fingers a squeeze realizing her friend had nailed it. She was in love. “I know. I guess I just didn’t know what I was missing back then.”

They chatted through another glass of wine each, and after giving Tessa’s cheek a quick peck,
Marlena
wished her goodnight and left.

* * * *

Settling on the couch with a plate of cookies and a glass of milk, she turned on the TV and reflected on the events of the day. She was pooped but had to admit to herself the shoot was great fun. She had gotten very nervous when the concepts were described to her, beginning with her costume and leading to being told that one of the shoots was to be based on the werewolf love scene in her second book as the animal trainer walked by with a real wolf. Upon seeing the animal, she’d been afraid they actually wanted her to act out the love scene with the wolf. The shoot came to a halt when she learned the plan was for her to sit regally on a chair in a misty forest with the wolf by her side resting his head in her lap while she stroked his fur. Upon realizing her mistake, she was reduced to a fit of hysterical laughter that she couldn’t stop for about thirty minutes.

Throughout the day everyone had been nice to her, encouraged her when she did something that looked good for the camera, and the criticisms were constructive and not too hard to deal with.
Marlena
was true to her word and stood by for every shot, watching like a mother bear protecting her cub to ensure nothing got distasteful.

Dunking a chocolate chip cookie into the milk, she wondered where Gavan had gone. She figured he’d gotten bored and gone home. Neither of them had gotten much sleep the night before, so he was probably exhausted. Besides, standing around watching the photo shoot can’t have been very exciting for him. The thought of their previous night together came back to her and she smiled, feeling huge butterflies take flight in her stomach. It was then she realized how disappointed she was he wasn’t there with her. There was still a sweet soreness in her thighs from grasping Gavan’s strong torso between them. Thinking of it now made her breasts tingle and she felt herself grow wet. She never thought a man could make her feel like Gavan did, so easily, over and over again. It was like his sole focus had been to satisfy her. His satisfaction depended completely upon hers. She realized that she missed him horribly.

Even though it was actually still quite early in the evening, Tessa decided to give in to her exhaustion and make it an early night to get some much needed sleep. She was closing the dishwasher when the doorbell rang. Assuming
Marlena
had forgotten something, she opened the door.