Beauty Shot (Hope Parish Novels Book 5) by Zoe Dawson

work so some competitor could upstage us by
snagging one of the hottest new males in the industry. Deke will do
this for us. But only temporarily.”
    “Yes, well, he
might have a decision to make afterwards. My gut tells me he could be
big, work in the industry for a long time. I’m thinking
supermodel.”
    “Agreed. But
baby steps. Right now let’s just get him to agree to this
campaign.”
    In the shower, all
the powerful sensations that had stormed through my system last night
returned. My skin was sensitive, my nipples ached. It had been such a
long time since I had been with a guy.
    I got out and dried
off, got dressed, and took some more painkillers along with my orange
juice. By the time, the elevator opened and Deke got off, I was
feeling almost normal.
    “Oh, love.
What happened to your eye?” It was black and blue and his cheek
a bit swollen. Before I knew what I was doing, I’d reached him,
my hand cupping his jaw, my thumb going gingerly over the bruise. The
fact that he’d been hurt went through me like a knife. “Blimey.
Did you get mugged?”
    “No, just
blindsided by my roommate. We had a misunderstanding and he clocked
me. It’s okay, Minnie. I’m fine. Really. It barely hurts.
Ouch,” he said when I touched what must have been a sensitive
spot.
    “Right, tough
guy,” I leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on the bruise,
kissing along his cheekbone and eye socket.
    He sighed and the
sound of it went through me like thunder.
    “I should get
him to bruise me up more often. How about my mouth?”
    I pulled back. “Did
he hit you there?”
    “No.”
    “Cheeky
devil.”
    Verity cleared her
throat as she came down the stairs, and I moved away from Deke with a
guilty hop.
    “Minnie, did
you…?”
    “No, not yet.
Why don’t you lot go into the kitchen and get your breakfast.
Give me a few minutes with Deke.”
    Verity turned and
crowded her husband, brother-in-law, and friend toward the kitchen,
Brax gave Deke a wink, and River Pearl smiled, saying, “What’s
going on?” to Verity.
    Deke shook his head.
“Geez, you’d think this was high school.”
    “I need to
talk to you.”
    “I want to
talk to you, too.”
    “I think we
have different things to discuss.”
    “I’m
sure. Look, Minnie. Can I take you out?”
    “Deke, have
you seen the paper?”
    I showed it to him
and he grabbed it. “Shit, that’s me. I hope my grannie
doesn’t see me like this.”
    “That’s
not all. You’re all over the net, too. Did you get any offers?”
    He looked up from
the paper. “Offers?”
    He was so damned
adorably clueless. “For modeling?”
    “No. I had
more than a hundred messages on my cell, but I’ve been afraid
to turn it back on.”
    “Verity and I
need to ask you a favor.”
    “Are we
exchanging favors?” he said, his brow raised.
    I was tempted to do
what I had never done before. Throw caution to the wind and take what
I wanted, even knowing the consequences. But then I realized how
awful it would be. How they would laugh and compare me to Angela, and
just the thought of it galled me and chilled me. That woman had never
been much of a mother to me unless it suited her. With her too-tight,
much too youthful clothes, her desperate attempts to keep her face
youthful with plastic surgery, and her outrageous behavior as
Hollywood’s most notorious aging starlet scandals, I was
actually grateful she didn’t mention me very often.
    I reached up to
touch his soft hair, looked into those ocean blue eyes, fighting the
internal battle of want over need, losing it in every way—physically,
emotionally, romantically, spiritually—and not particularly
caring. He made it too easy.
    One look from him,
and I felt like he was the fire that could melt me down to the very
essence of who I should be. It was a wonder we didn’t combust
into a raging inferno.
    Dancing on the edge
of this made me feel so alive. He could ruin me. Which made what I
was about say right now the epitome of