Free Wild Craving by Marisa Chenery

I will. Now go take a shower.”
    Kiel released
her and turned her in the direction of the bathroom. Neha huffed out a breath
full of frustration. It was going to be one hell of a long day.
     
    * * * *
     
    After they
arrived in Helena, Kiel took Neha to the Capital Hill Mall. Since it’d only
opened a short time before they’d gone there, it wasn’t busy and Neha was able
to quickly get what she needed. She bought a pair of sneakers for knocking
around, a pair of jeans and a couple t-shirts. She didn’t go for the expensive
items so her credit card didn’t take much of a hit.
    Once they were
back in Kiel’s pickup, they headed over to the hotel where the others were
staying. As planned, David, Joan, the makeup artist, Ron, the hairstylist, and
Mia were all waiting outside at the front. They stood by a rental van.
    “That’s them,”
Neha said as she pointed to the small group.
    Kiel pulled in
behind the van. Neha got out and walked over to the others. She looked around
but couldn’t see Vlad or Gary, the other male model.
    “Hey, David,”
Neha said as she reached them. “Is everyone ready to go? We seem to be missing
two.”
    “Neha. Hi,”
David returned. “Vlad should be on his way down. As for Gary, well, he’s headed
home. He had a family emergency. So I don’t know what to do about replacing
him. With this location change, and having to start over again, we really don’t
have time to wait for your agency to find another model and then fly him here.”
He stopped talking and looked at something over Neha’s shoulder. “Wait a
second. Who is that?”
    She looked
behind her and saw Kiel standing at the side of his truck, looking in their
direction. Neha turned back to David. “That’s Kiel. He owns the cabin where
we’re going to do the shoot.”
    “Has he done any
modeling before? He’s perfect. He looks to be around the same size as Gary.”
    “No, Kiel has
never modeled.”
    “Yeah, he’s a
hunk,” Mia said.
    Neha looked at
the other woman. “Just so you know, he’s taken.”
    Mia smiled. “Got
ya. With a guy as good looking as him, I’d stake my claim on him as soon as I
could too.”
    David cleared
his throat. “If the two of you are done, Neha, do you think Kiel will take
Gary’s place? I’m sure between the two of us we can teach him what he has to
do.”
    She shrugged.
“I’ll have to ask him.”
    “You do that
while we’re on the road.” David glanced at his watch. “We really need to get a
move on. If Vlad doesn’t get down here soon, I’ll have to go up and drag his
ass to the van.”
    “That won’t be
necessary,” Vlad said as he came up behind David.
    When Neha had
first met Vlad, she’d expected him to have a heavy Eastern European accent,
which wasn’t the case. His parent may have come from the old world, but he’d
been born and raised in Texas and sounded like a Texan.
    David turned
around. “About time. What took you so long?”
    “You woke me up
when you called. I had to shower and have a cup of coffee.”
    That used to
drive Neha nuts when she dated Vlad. He was constantly late for everything. He
either had no concept of time or he figured everyone could wait for him to show
up when he felt like it. Considering he was on the obnoxious side, she guessed
it was the latter.
    David shook his
head. “All right, everyone get in the van.” He turned his attention on Neha.
“You can tell Kiel we’re ready to leave now. We’ll follow you guys.”
    Vlad scowled.
“Neha isn’t riding with us?”
    Mia answered his
question with a smile. “No. She’ll be going with her new boyfriend. The hottie by
the pickup truck over there.” She pointed to where Kiel stood. She also knew
Neha and Vlad had dated for a short time, and that the breakup was recent.
    “I’ll see you
there,” Neha said, then quickly headed over to Kiel before Vlad could say
anything more.
    During the shoot
at Yellowstone, Vlad had tried to batter her down to get her to take him back.
Neha