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He shook his head. “No. It wasn’t me.”
"It's your calling card. Why should I believe you?”
“Because I can help you save the girl.”
***
KAYA
All I'd heard from Saint was that he had to take care of something for work, but he'd been gone all night. I hadn't wanted to be needy, so I hadn't blown up his cellphone. But I checked in on him with Maureen to see if he had any meetings this morning. She'd said no, but he was still dealing with the issue from last night. All I could do was worry. And worry I did.
Even in class, I was distracted. And being distracted on critique day was a bad call. Even if Xander liked you, he was brutal. When he got to me, my palms were sweating, even though I thought my photos were serviceable this time.
I knew it was going to be a rough one. When my images came up, Xander frowned. I could see that he hated the first one. We were supposed to photograph power, and admittedly, like half my classmates, I'd taken a lot of industrial shots, but they were flat and dull. Except the last one.
I had surreptitiously taken a photo of Saint. He'd been at his desk, jacket off, cuffs rolled up, staring at some papers. His eyes were intense, and he had his hand on his chin, a finger slightly stroking his bottom lip. He hadn't even seen me take it.
Xander then placed thumbnails of all my images on the screen and then turned to the class. "So, what do you see?"
A girl named Nicola Hering sighed from the front row. "I'm sorry, Kaya, but they all suck except that last one. That last one is pure sex."
I flushed. Next to me, Gemma giggled, and I slid her a glance. "Really, Gemma?"
"Well, she's right about the last one. And I don't think the others suck. They just look like what everyone else has done."
I sighed. "Which means, they sucked."
The only one anyone liked was the one of Saint. Xander leaned back against the desk and crossed his arms. "All right, so where did we miss the mark? Because most of you have given me pictures like this. Construction. Industrial. Yes, that's power, but it's flat and boring. No subject that's alive. But this last photo… I agree with you, Nicola. It is powerful. There is strength in the lighting, in the composition. There is obviously strength in the subject."
Xander turned his attention to me. "But there is also strength in the photographer. I can feel your self-assurance that it was the shot of the day. The sheer knowledge, the confidence."
I nodded. "Yeah, I had my camera at the ready, I just… I don't know. I took two of thesame shotand he didn’t even notice me."
From behind me, someone said, "Now I’m paying more attention."
With a gasp, I turned around. And there he was in the back row. How the hell had I not seen him?
Next to me, Gemma whispered, "If that is not the sexiest thing I have ever heard in my life, I don't know what is."
My heart went into full gallop and my body… Well, I needed a change of panties, because after the way he’d left me last night, wet and wanting, I might never recover. I still ached just thinking about him, his lips, his caress. And that tingle started again under my skin as I pulsed deep in my core.
The rest of the critique was brutal but necessary. I knew I'd phoned that one in. But when class was over, I was on my feet. I noticed several girls stopping to whisper and point. One was even bold enough to walk up to Saint and ask if he was the subject. He shrugged, but his eyes never left mine. When the girls saw that I was the object of his attention, several of them rolled their eyes, but Nicola cocked her head. "Are you her boyfriend or something?"
I couldn't even explain the hot flush of excitement when Saint met her gaze straight on and said, "No, I'm her fiancé."
Under her breath, Gemma whispered. "Well damn, if that didn't shut her down, I don't know what would."
As I approached, he pushed out of his seat and stalked toward me. Just watching him take those four or five steps was a revelation, because suddenly, I couldn't hear Gemma, and I couldn't feel anything but him and his gaze and the desperate need pulsing through my veins.
"Um, I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone. Call me later, okay?"
I nodded absently. "Yeah. I think we have some more files to go through."
At the mention of files, Saint frowned. "If you're going through the files, I'll be with you."
"You can't keep Gemma out of this. She's been trying to help."
"I'm not saying I'm keeping her out. I'm just saying I want to help so I can also curtail her more harebrained ideas."
