Chapter 2
FRAME TWO
THE FORBIDDEN PICTURES
“Fate can be a bitch,” Theo said once he towered over me. His hair, damp from the drizzle, clung to his forehead, allowing me to clearly see the once-over he gave me, even in the dark. His lips curled into a grin. “Or is it karma?”
My chest stopped moving for a second as I held my breath, my heart pounding as if it were trying to break out of my body.
In all the years I’ve used these apps for casual encounters, not once has someone shown up whom I even remotely knew.
But this time, truly, must’ve been fate, karma, or some sort of cosmic joke.
“At least now I have an answer whether you were checking me out earlier or not.” Theo chuckled. “You still wanna do this?”
“Do you?” I grumbled.
He tilted his head, letting his eyes wander over my body once more. “Very much so.”
There he was, not backing down—and neither was I. Backing down wasn’t even an option after fantasizing about him for hours. This wasn’t a cosmic joke; it was a gift.
On autopilot, I fumbled the keys out of my pocket.
I unlocked the door and walked in backward, keeping my eyes on him the whole time.
Now that I had been given this opportunity, I didn’t want to miss another second of his beautiful face.
As he stepped through the doorway, he craned his neck and looked upstairs, scrutinizing everything with curiosity.
“You—”
“Shh,” I said, bringing my index finger to my mouth to stop him right away.
He pressed his lips together and nodded.
I stepped onto the stairs first, leading the way.
He stayed close behind me, brushing his hand along the railing as his eyes darted everywhere as if he were taking mental snapshots of everything.
Our footsteps creaked on the floorboards, but within half a minute, they fell into sync enough to sound like only one person was climbing the stairs.
When we reached the third floor, I opened the door to my apartment and gestured for him to go in first. He bowed his head, and keeping his eyes fixed on me, stepped inside backward, just as I had a minute earlier.
I pulled the door shut behind me and turned the lock. “Sorry. Not everyone needs to know my personal business.”
“Understandable.” He lifted his head just enough to show off his neck, as if to show me the spot where he wanted my mouth to go first. “You said in the interview that you run a bar. I wouldn’t have guessed it would be Hops & Dreams. Or that you lived above it.”
As he stood there in the middle of my entrance nook, blocking the way, I couldn’t help but let my gaze wander down to his crotch. I leaned against the door, hiding my hands behind my back.
He shifted his weight from one leg to the other and glanced over his shoulder, taking in my living room that was glowing orange under all the lights.
(I have a thing about lamps changing color depending on the time of day.
At night, it can only ever be orange, because it reminds me of the good old streetlamps I grew up with before they switched most of them to that ugly white.) His gaze swept over the empty walls to the nook on the right, with my desk, the shelf holding my camera, and the eight lenses I had bought over the years.
“I can’t deny that I’m a little intrigued to geek out about photography, but that’s not why we’re here.” He turned back to me, now smirking. “This is even better.”
Our eyes locked. He took one step closer, leaving barely a foot between us.
His right hand rose to my face. His eyes followed the movement of his hand.
There it was again, that soul-seeing gaze of his, only this time not hiding behind a lens.
His index finger brushed over my temple, catching a strand of hair and tucking it behind my ear before his palm settled against my cheek.
“Have you done this before?” I asked. “Slept with someone you photographed?”
His finger skimmed down my neck and stopped right on my Adam’s apple. He glanced up. “Have you?”
“I don’t take pictures of people.”
“Interesting.” His gaze wandered back to his finger as he moved it over to my other ear. “You’d think I’d done it before, but this is actually my first time.” He bit his lip and settled his eyes on mine again. “Although I have to admit, it turns me on quite a lot.”
With a sudden urgency, he leaned in, pressing his mouth against mine.
I braced myself against the door, careful not to make any noise that could be heard downstairs, but the warmth of his lips made me quickly toss those worries aside.
His palm slid over my shoulder, down my arm to my ass, checking out the prize he was about to claim.
I placed my fingers right on his bulge, feeling up the hard sensation hiding underneath the fabric.
He released his mouth from mine, glancing down at my hand. “That’s a man of my taste,” he whispered and brought his mouth to my ear, breathing into it before licking over my earlobe and down my neck. “Wanna do it right here? Or move somewhere where I can find out how loudly you can moan?”
“Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not a noisy guy.”
“Challenge accepted.”
I nodded toward the door on the other side of the living room, and he stepped aside to let me lead the way.
I walked into the bedroom and stopped a few steps short of the queen-size bed in the middle of the room.
The gray blanket still hung neatly over the edges.
I had made it in a rush five minutes earlier.
A pack of condoms and some lube waited on the nightstand already. Preparation was everything, after all.
“One last question,” Theo asked behind me. “Would you mind if I took some pictures while we fucked?”
“That’s a hard no.” Heat rushed to my head as I turned to face him. “I’m not joking.”
“It’s fine. Relax. That’s why I’m asking first. I’m happy to just show you a good time. But I wanted to take a chance. It’s not like I have someone this sexy in front of me every day.”
“You sure have a way with words.”
“Just speaking the truth here.” He let his coat slide off his shoulders and drop to the floor. “Just so you know, if you want to take any pictures of me, feel free. I’d just like a copy.”
“No cameras.”
“We’ll see about that.” He grinned, glancing down to his prominent bulge as if he were certain that once I saw his cock, I would change my mind.
Even if I were the one taking pictures of him—which I would honestly love to do, because he certainly was someone I wanted to remember—they still wouldn’t turn out well.
I’m just not good at photographing people.
It’s embarrassing to admit, but every time I tried, the pictures turned out worse than what any amateur could do with a smartphone.
But that’s something I could never admit to another photographer, especially not now.
He lifted his shirt off his chest, revealing a firm, slim body covered in a dusting of hair running from his nipples down over his stomach and into his pants.
“This is the most I can do on my own,” he teased me, pushing his hips forward. “I think you have to help me with the rest.”
“That I’m happy to do.” I knelt in front of him, my hands rushing to his belt.
The buckle came off easily, as did the upper button.
I pulled the zipper down, and instead of underwear, his hard dick sprang forth, right into my face.
It was firm, probably the straightest dick I’ve ever seen, and at least as long as my entire face.
His balls hung close and were neatly shaved, except for a few short hairs that had likely just grown back.
“Wow.”
“Still sure you don’t want to take any pictures?” he asked.
“Are you, like, an exhibitionist?”
“No. I’m just curious to see which part of me you’d focus on.
” His right hand crawled to his dick, wrapping around the shaft and pulling it up, to present his balls to me.
“Would it be my nuts?” He brushed his thumb over his shaft, holding his dick only by the tip.
“My shaft?” He pushed his dick down to show me his slightly red glans.
“The tip?” He let go of his cock entirely, letting it flop onto my face.
His musky scent made my mouth water. I let his dick just rest there and didn’t move, just enjoying the feeling of his skin on mine.
His fingers trailed over his chest. “Would you focus on the view from down there?” He brought his thumb to his mouth and licked it.
“Or on the fact that I’m not wearing any underwear?
” His hand rushed down to my face again.
“Since this is exactly what I wanted to do when I first saw you earlier, I’ll let you in on a secret.
” The thumb that had just been on his tongue dug into my lower lip, pulling my mouth open as the tip of his finger sneaked inside.
“I wasn’t wearing any underwear during the shoot either. ”
I closed my eyes. His words flooded my mind with images from the photo shoot—too many to keep my eyes open.
I tried to figure out if I could have noticed what he just told me.
What stood out to me even more, though, was the fact that he had just confirmed that he had the same dirty thoughts during the shooting as I did.
His thumb slipped forward, probing my tongue, my teeth, and the inside of my cheek.
“Open wide,” he said, pulling his finger out and holding my chin like he wanted to make sure I followed orders, and fuck—
I couldn’t resist giving in to his command.
His presence was even more overwhelming now than it had been at the gallery earlier, making me want to give myself entirely to him.
I opened my mouth as wide as I could and stuck out my tongue, awaiting his dick as a reward.
His thumb dug into my chin a little deeper, tilting my head slightly.
“What a nice view,” he said. This was probably what he would have taken a picture of if I’d allowed cameras.
Wait! He could take pictures without me noticing while I had my eyes closed.