Page 71 of Bound to Burn


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“I know. They gave me every opportunity to follow my dreams.”

She grabs her camera that’s been sitting next to her the whole time and holds it up to her face, pointing it at me.

I use my hand to cover the lens. “That wasn’t an invitation to start taking pictures of me.”

She pushes my hand out of the way. “You asked a question, so let me finish my answer.” Her laugh is uninhibited and musical.

“I thought it was a short story,” I gripe.

“Well, now it’s a long story,” she teases.

I lay back down, propping my head up with my arm, resting the other across my stomach. She takes a few more pictures and then shields the screen from the sun for me to look.

I shake my head.

“It’s not going to bite,” she teases, clearly making fun of me.

Reluctantly I sit up and rest my forearms on my bent knees, digging my toes into the sand. Sasha cocks her head to the side and her expression softens.

“I’ve never liked having my picture taken,” I try to explain, because anyone who hasn’t been the victim of prying paparazzi wouldn’t understand. “The press can be very invasive, especially when there’s drama, and we provided a lot of it back in the day.”

Concern lines her face. “I hope I didn’t…”

I cut her off by placing my finger against her lip. “Don’t, it’s fine.”

She playfully bites down on my finger and I laugh. Sasha is so sinfully sweet that I ache at just the sight of her.

“Photography is a window into someone’s soul.”

Her expression is serious and serene. The breeze ruffles the hair around her face, rogue pieces caressing her neck.

“I thought the eyes were,” I tease.

“They are.”

“What do you see when you look at me?” I dare to ask.

She moves to sit next to me and shields the screen so we can both look at the images. Reluctantly, I look as she scrolls through pictures of me lying on the beach towel, mostly scowling.

She stops on one of the photos. “Photography is all about finding the right light. It can transform an ordinary image into something extraordinary,” she explains, having my full attention, because the way she describes it is with the same passion I feel about music.

She moves her finger across the screen, showing me how the umbrella casts a shadow across my body, splitting it in half.

Pulling the sunglasses from my face, she says, “You’re beautiful, in light and dark.”

She makes me feel seen, as if all the walls around me have been demolished. It’s unnerving but also freeing. I don’t want to live in the dark anymore.

She lets me take the camera from her and I gently place it back on the towel. Her lips part and I take her face in my hands to kiss her. Running a finger across my chest, she kneels in front of me.

“You just wanted to take naked pictures of me,” I say against her lips.

She laughs and playfully pushes me down, laying her body between my legs.

“Now that’s a thought.” She jiggles her eyebrows at me playfully.

I roll her off me and we intertwine our legs as we lay face to face, all tangled together. I can’t help but stare at her, taking in all of her features from the slope of her nose to the dimples that form when she smiles, and the slight gap between her two front teeth that I think is incredibly sexy.

“Have you ever done that?” I ask her.

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