Free Model Soldier by Cat Johnson Page B

We turned in at like seven o’clock local time. You should have had plenty of sleep.”
    “I didn’t sleep well,” she supplied, and hoped Jai would leave it at that and not question her further as to why.
    Not sleeping well was an understatement for last night’s torture. First, Emily had called Katie’s office line to leave a message when she got to her room and had to lie on the voicemail that everything with Hawk was going perfectly and that she could handle him no problem.
    Then she’d fallen into bed, only to be tortured with more thoughts of Hawk as she relived each and every uncomfortable, disappointing word exchanged between them, which is probably what led to her dreaming about him. She hoped that was it anyway. Whatever the reason, dream she did.
    The dream started with a photo shoot, which was understandable considering they’d had one that day. However, the model was BB and Katie was there. To her horror, Katie began to take BB’s uniform off until he was nearly naked, then they started kissing each other pretty heavily as she watched.
    Emily cringed even now at the thought. In her dream, she tried to look away but couldn’t. And then something even more disturbing happened. BB morphed into Hawk, and the woman the mostly nude Hawk was making out with was suddenly no longer Katie, but Emily.
    She’d woken up totally freaked out, and alright, she’d admit it, a little bit aroused. That was it for sleep. Her brain spinning and her body clock messed up from the time difference, Emily had given up on bed and took out her laptop.
    Jai had downloaded the day’s shots to her computer so she spent the rest of the time until she had to get ready to meet Jai playing with Hawk’s photos and laying out some potential print ads.
    “I woke up really early so I mocked up a few ads. I’ll show them to you when we get there,” she told him, happy to center the discussion on business.
    “How’d they look? Do you think we have all we need for the interior shots and close-ups?” Jai asked.
    Emily had to admit, she was pleased with what she’d come up with. “I think so. Although, since he’s so far away,” and such a pain in the ass , she added silently, “we may want to take some extras. And I never did get him into his dress uniform yesterday.”
    Or out of it, except in my dream…
    “Mmm. Right. Make sure I’m in the room when you ask him to put his ‘dress outfit’ on. That should be fun.” Jai grinned in her direction.
    “Thanks,” Emily scowled. So much for her supposed ally.

    Surrounded by the photographic equipment that had been left set up from the day before, Hawk observed through the window as Goldilocks and Rasta-photographer parked in front of the Head Shed and got out of their car. He studied her more closely today than he had yesterday when he’d dismissed her as a young, silly, though cute, annoyance.
    This morning, watching her juggle a large briefcase and an extra-large cup of coffee as she came through the door, he realized his nocturnal imaginings had given her a slutty sort of makeover. She didn’t wear “fuck-me” high heel shoes or butt-bearing mini-skirts and her nails weren’t long, red talons at all.
    Cocking his head to one side, he wondered about why his brain would do that because the blonde before him—nose pink from the cold, unruly curls tousled by the wind, all bundled up in her thick wool sweater and looking like the girl next door, was pretty damn cute in her own right, just as she was.
    He moved to the open door of the room, where he had a view of the main entrance of the building, just in time to see her blustering through the front door with a burst of cold air.
    Goldilocks met his gaze and said quickly, “Morning,” before concentrating overly hard on passing him in the doorway and setting down her briefcase on one of the tables.
    If Hawk wasn’t mistaken, she was avoiding eye contact with him as she set up her laptop.
    Had he been such a beast the day