“There is no way I am developing these.”
He didn’t respond. He continued to discover her mouth and then her neck, her throat, and her chest. Her fingers tangled with the long hair at the back of his neck and her eyes closed. Alexis was so lost in everything about him. Cory pulled away long enough to slide the unfastened bra strap over her shoulder. The beat in her heart sped to a fast tick, but she never stopped him. She couldn’t. Cory was extremely sensual. Like nothing she’d ever been a part of before. Pulling off another heist, Cory slid the thin straps down her arms. Alexis let him remove the top half of her clothes, right there in the studio.
His eyes left hers and wandered down to her bare breasts. He snapped another picture, but this time it didn’t intimidate her. She was immobile with her arms dangling next to her sides, focused on the lustful way he explored her body. Cory used the tips of his fingers, started at her throat, and moved down her chest. His soft hands cupped both breasts while his thumbs explored forbidden, hard pebbles, and his tongue discovered her mouth. Alexis felt the throbbing sensation between her legs again, not even trying to hide the moan. She wanted him. She wanted him more than ever, and she could feel the want he also carried, pressing against her stomach.
“Lex, you still here?” Bernie called.
Seriously? Alexis would be smashing the stupid chime with a hammer, breaking it into tiny little pieces. Alexis didn’t even try to move. There was no need. Bernie would be in the studio in two seconds. Nope. It was best to hide her face in Cory’s chest and wait for her to leave. Sigh…
“Oh…I forgot my…um…my cell phone,” Bernie stated with eyes as big as a full moon. Alexis pointed to the red phone she’d laid on the shelf with the books without looking up. “I’ll lock the door,” she said with a flabbergasted expression, leaving the two lovebirds alone.
Really Alexis?! In the studio? Wow. She had it bad. Was this the wakeup call she needed?
Cory snapped one more photo and retreated. “Give me that thing,” Alexis demanded. Cory handed over the trigger without a struggle. Their eyes locked while they watched each other dress. Alexis tried to keep her eyes from the protrusion, laying to the right side of his dress pants, but failed. And truth be told, she didn’t really care. She fell once again. Harder, feeling a pang she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt before.
“I have to get away from you,” Cory admitted as his hands took hers and he met her back under the X.
“From the looks of things, you may want to wait a little bit,” she teased not hiding where her eyes were led, letting them drift below his belt. She took the photo that time and then screamed when Cory scooped her into his arms. He carried her all the way out to the waiting area before placing her feet to the floor.
“Are you hungry?” she asked.
“I have to get back to the office, but I’ll be done at five. Do you want to grab a pizza? I don’t have a lot of time for much more than that. I have to be in Canterville by seven for a meeting.”
“Sure, pizza sounds good,” she agreed. She actually felt relieved that he couldn’t stay out any longer, afraid of what might happen if he did.
“I’ll see you in a little while,” Cory said with one sweet kiss goodbye.
“Okay. I better go delete some pictures before Bernie sees them. See you later, Doc.”
Alexis plopped her elbows to the counter and rested her chin on her fists. She watched him wave to the mailman and stride across the street. Well, it was too late now. She was in. She’d dropped her guard and let him in. All in. But for the first time in years, she was okay with it. Feeling like it was right this time, she slapped her hands flat against the counter and giggled. “You dumb girl,” she audibly spoke and headed to the camera room to get rid of the erotic photo shoot.
Once the photos were sent to her computer and deleted from the camera, Alexis went to her office. Oblivious to everything around her, she looked through the photos, all twenty-seven of them. There were way more than she remembered him taking. She must have really been caught up in the moment. She could tell by the erotic expressions on her face that she was in deep. Very deep. Like she needed boots, deep.
“What the hell? You took photos?” Bernie asked.
Alexis tried to click out of it, but it was too late. Nosy Bernie already saw it.
“No, go away. You and Paige have a busy afternoon.”
“No, what was that?”
“Nothing, Bernie.”
“Come on. Let me see.”
“No way, Bernie.”
“Did you just have sex in the studio?”
“No!” Alexis exclaimed with an elevated tone. For God’s sake. Really?
“Alexis McKinley! You show me those pictures right now. Can you see his penis?”
Alexis laughed. “No. There are no penis shots. Good God.”
“Then let me see.”
“No, Bernie. They’re too personal.”
“Alexis, give me a break. Did you forget who I was? I’m the one that washed the blood out of your cheerleading skirt in the sixth grade. I’m the one that washed the puke from your hair the first time you got drunk. I’ve seen you at your worst. Let me see,” Bernie whined. She could tell by the relaxed shoulders that Alexis had given in. They had already been through thick and thin together, a few risqué photos were nothing.
“Don’t laugh!” Alexis order while pulling up the folder. She really didn’t have choice. Knowing Bernie the way she did, Alexis knew she wouldn’t shut up until she did anyway. And Bernie was right. If anyone had ever seen her at her worst, it was her.
“That is freaking hot, Lex,” Bernie confirmed. They were hot, and they kept getting hotter with every click. Yes. Bernie had seen a lot, but that didn’t stop the crimson Alexis felt, searing the top of her ears and then her cheeks.
“Hey, what’re you guys doing?” Paige asked announced. Alexis tried again to get rid of the photos. AGAIN!
“What…was…that?”
“Nothing, forget it.”
“No way, you showed Bernie and she’s not even blood.”
Bernie shot her a dirty look. “Hey.”
“Sorry,” Paige apologized.
“Exactly, you’re my little baby niece.”
“I am not a baby. I’m almost eighteen and besides, I already saw you with a hot guy naked.”
“We were not naked.”
“Did you have sex in the studio?”
“No, for God’s sake, you two are unbelievable.”
“Show her, Lex, she’s one of us,” Bernie pleaded. Paige smiled with pride at Bernie’s comment and joined her right behind Alexis’s shoulders. Alexis relented, and tossed her arms into the air. Not saying a word, she stood and waved an open hand to her desktop. What the hell? Neither one of them were going to shut up until she surrendered anyway. Might as well get it over with. Bernie jumped in her chair and Paige gaped over her shoulder.
“Oh my freaking God. That is fuc—hot.” Paige did watch the F-bomb, stopping it just in time.
“My words exactly,” Bernie mumbled while her eyes glanced back to Paige, standing behind her.
Alexis stood behind them, leaning against a table full of papers and folders. Arms and ankles crossed, and head shaking, she twisted her mouth, back and forth. This was really happening. Alexis couldn’t believe the pictures herself, and letting Paige and Bernie see them, too, iced the cake. As soon as they got to the shirtless ones, the door chime rang through the building.
“Oh, now the chime works. Get out of here, both of you. Go work.” Bernie and Paige finally left her alone and Alexis closed out of the photos. She opened up the ones she needed to work on. Unfortunately, her job did little to keep her from thinking about the stimulating photo shoot. She couldn’t wait to see him. This was so, so bad, but she didn’t care. Was that her first mistake, or was it like Bernie said? Was she looking for reasons to push him away? Nonetheless, she was falling. Regardless of Cory being a bad idea or not, she may have been in the beginning stages of
falling in love. No. There was no may about it. She was falling in love.
***
Alexis and Cory sat in a corner booth at Antonio’s Pizza. They both ordered a beer and one medium pizza with the works. Alexis was happy that he liked his pizza with everything on it. She’d hoped he wouldn’t be like Bernie and only eat pepperoni. Cory explained his busy day, and Alexis was ecstatic. Liking the idea of hearing about his day, she smiled and listened to him talk about Jackie and Misty, hanging on every word he spoke.
“I just did a shoot with Jackie’s granddaughter. She’s the cutesiest kid ever,” Alexis explained. Cory’s eyes shifted to his drink, and he breathed a long, deep breath. Alexis wasn’t sure about the expression or the mood change.
Cory reached for her hands and quietly spoke. “There’s something I need to tell you, Lex,” he said in a soft and serious tone.
Alexis pulled her hands away from his, feeling the calm before the storm.
“No, Cory. There is nothing you need to tell me. I don’t want to hear it.”
“But I really think you need to hear this, Lex.”
“Will it hurt me if you don’t tell me?”
“No, I wouldn’t say that.”
“Will it affect my safety if you don’t?”
“No, Lex, it’s nothing like that.”
“Cory…then stop, I don’t need to know.”
Thank God the waitress brought the pizza and she’d been spared his past, for now. Dammit. She knew it. She knew there was a past. Of course there was a past. People don’t just move to small towns unless they have a past. However, the past was left in the past for a while longer and they were back to flirting and talking. Phew.
“I want a picture,” Cory stated.
“I don’t think so.”
“I promise I won’t show anyone. You have to at least let me see them.”
“I deleted them.”
“You did not. You showed them to Paige and Bernie.”
Alexis almost choked on her drink. “Who told you that?” It had to be Bernie. Paige would never say anything to him. Stupid, Bernie.
“Nobody told me. I could tell by the way Bernie and Paige were looking at me, and giggling like little schoolgirls when I came to pick you up, but you just confirmed it,” he stated with a mischievous grin, stretching pizza cheese a foot long.
“Well, just for the record, I did not show them, they walked in when I was looking at them. I couldn’t close them fast enough,” she explained with an apologetic smile, hoping he wasn’t mad.
“Then I should get to see them, too.”
Alexis looked at him with the same defeated look that she gave Bernie, knowing she’d give into him, too.
“Okay, you can see them. I’ll see what I can come up with.”
“Are they hot?”
Alexis leaned across the table on her elbows, and Cory kissed her. “They are scorching hot. I love you without a shirt,” she whispered to his lips.
“I could take it off,” he joked with his fingers on the top button of his dress shirt.
“Okay.”
“Or you could. The studio will be closed by the time we get back, right?”
“Stop it. Now you’re embarrassing me.”
“Girl, you have no reason to be embarrassed. The truth is, I sort of love you without a shirt, too,” he admitted. The ice-cold Coke did little to cool the burning in her cheeks.
Their time together ended way too soon. Alexis didn’t want to say goodbye. Maybe it was time to take this thing to the next base. Frustration began to set in, fast. Cory pulled in behind her jeep and they sat in his shiny red car and made out like a couple of schoolkids.
“Do you want to have lunch tomorrow?” Cory asked with his held high on her leg.
“I’m meeting my parents at April’s for lunch, but I would love for you to come.”
“I would love that, too, maybe I can get a second chance at a first impression.”
“Don’t wear white,” Alexis teased as her lips moved close to his. She kissed him quickly and exited the car.
“I only wear white for you.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Doc,” Alexis said through the opened passenger window, wearing a smile.
“You know, just because I’m a doctor doesn’t mean you have to call me Doc.”
“I like it,” she said with a wink and walked away.
Cory smiled to himself. “I like it, too,” he said out loud to no one.
Alexis stayed up later than planned doing some Photoshop on the pictures from her and Cory’s shoot. She printed off the best ones and put them in a manila envelope, taping it shut, using more tape than she probably needed to.
The next morning, she swung by Cory’s office before going to the studio.
“Good morning, Jackie,” she announced to the receptionist.
“Hello, Alexis. I haven’t seen you in a while. Jody just gave me new pictures of Kayla. You do such a remarkable job with her. The portraits are absolutely beautiful. I especially like this one,” Jacki boasted as her fingers pulled the picture of her one-year-old granddaughter from the wall. She held it to the glass window and beamed with pride.
“She was a little pistol. She wasn’t about to sit and look pretty. I had to get creative. Jody was trying to change her into her dress when I got that. She was standing there in the perfect spot in her little white diaper. I handed her the purple beads and she put them around her neck. I just started shooting and they turned out wonderful.”
“I love all of them.”
“I’m glad. Is Cory busy?”
“Cory? You mean, Dr. Baker?”
“Yes,” she answered while feeling a little self-conscious.
“He’s with a patient. Did you want an appointment with him?”
“No, not exactly.” She grinned while her toes curled in her shoes, hoping she got it without having to say anymore.
“Oh,” Jackie replied like a light bulb had just gone off in her head. “Well, I can send him a message with Misty and tell him you’re here if you’d like.”
“No, that’s okay. Can you just give him this?” Alexis handed over the sealed envelope.
“Sure I will.” Jackie grinned a toothy smile, knowing there was romance in the air. She could feel it. And what a cute couple. Alexis McKinley and Cory Baker. Splendid.
Cory emerged from his last patient just as Alexis walked out the door, missing her.
“Was that Alexis?”
“Oh, yes, and she left this for you.” She handed him the envelope reading, “Doc” in black ink. Cory smiled with a snort, knowing exactly what it was. He wanted to run into his little office and open it right away, but he knew he couldn’t. His next patient waited for his care in the exam room. He tossed it on his desk and hurriedly got to the next patient, a little boy about four with an ear ache.
Although he was anxious to get out of there and couldn’t quit thinking about what was in the envelope, he did a comprehensive job. He checked the little boy out completely before giving his mother a prescription for amoxicillin and Tylenol for the pain.
Nurse Misty was still in with the next patient doing the preliminary exam and he used the time wisely. He locked his door and pulled the abundant amount of tape off, shaking his head with a grin. The photos were shielded by a note in her handwriting.
Cory chuckled at the note while he read it.
“Doc… please protect what you are about to see in a well secured place, preferably a safe with a combination, deadbolt, and a key lock. Text me later if you have time and let me know if you are going to meet me here or at April’s.”
Finally a phone number.
“P.S. Not too bad for an amateur.”
Cory removed the cover page and his heart skipped a beat as he viewed the first photo. They were playfully staring at each other while he held the wireless remote high in the air. She had been trying to reach for it. The next one took his breath away. The black and white photo was the two of them fully clothed, e
ngaged in an erotic kiss.
The next one was also in black and white, only they were both shirtless. Cory held her clothing in his clenched fists behind her back. Her arms hung at her sides while her head was thrown back. A look of pure rapture covered her face while he kissed her throat. The next one, Alexis’s favorite, was in color with the black backdrop. It was cropped and only showed from the waist up. Her fingers were tracing the line of hair at his belly button and her eyes were focused on his body. He stared at her intently as he watched what she was doing with her fingers while caressing her breasts with his thumb. His dress pants hung low, and a tan line along with his sexy build were visible. The next one was also cropped, it too was in black and white, only showing their faces. Their foreheads touched and they smiled friskily at one another. The last one was one that she had taken after Bernie had interrupted, the one where he scooped her up into his arms. They both had the happiest smile on their faces and were again looking into each other’s eyes.
Cory placed the photos back inside the envelope and tucked them away in a drawer for later viewing. A ten year old boy with a swollen ankle waited for him in room two. If there was ever a time he needed the distraction, it was now. Jesus, what the hell was this girl doing to him?
***
Alexis stayed detained in her office, trying to catch up on work while Bernie was busy with a session. Her phone sang the tune from Happy Days, alerting her of a new text. She wasn’t even mad at Bernie when the unfamiliar number displayed on her screen. An instant smile took over and her lips curled, knowing it was Cory.
Cory—I am sorry to inform you, that under the circumstances, I will not be able to accompany you and your parents for lunch today. I do apologize, and please give my regards to your folks. Although I was looking forward to it, I do not think it would be in my best interest to have this be my second first chance with your parents. There is no way in hell I could keep my hands off you after what I have just been subjected to. I will, however, come over this afternoon to see you.
Alexis smiled from ear to ear as she closed the outdated phone and got back to the portraits on her computer screen. Her phone sang again before she had a chance to change it back to the vibrating buzz.