She shot him a look. Yup. He had her pegged. One deep to-hell-with-you breath and Samantha regained her composure. “It happens.”
“You didn’t think it would?”
“No. Of course not.”
“Of course not.” He tipped the beer back into his mouth and put it down on the bar with an emphatic thud. “If you ask my opinion, which you didn’t, marriage is a fairy tale force-fed to us from birth.”
He paused for her reaction. She gave him none. “It’s unreasonable to expect two people to be able to stand each other’s neuroses for all eternity. But there you have it every day.” He gestured with his hand and let it slap onto the bar. “People standing at the altar, sure that mindless infatuation bound to deteriorate is something special and mystical and everlasting. Am I right?”
“You’re right.”
He looked surprised, as if he’d only been baiting her in his best Swaggering Butthead manner, and was anticipating a surefire reaction of hysterical female outrage. “You agree?”
“No. You’re right, I didn’t ask your opinion.”
He blinked once, then clutched his chest as if she’d shot him. “You got me.”
“Easy target.”
“I guess.” He signaled the bartender, pointed to their glasses and held up two fingers. “Can I buy you another beer?”
She rolled her eyes, secretly enjoying his high-handedness. Swagger on, baby; you’re doing just fine. “Apparently you can.”
A couple moved away from two stools behind him at the bar; a trio of thirty-something guys wedged themselves into the space. Jack Hunter slid off his stool, pulled it closer to her and slid back on, acknowledging the thanks of the men behind him.
“So.” He grinned, his knee nudging the side of her thigh.
“So.” She gave him an offhand look, hoping he’d think the flush on her face was from the warm bar and the beer. “What do you do?”
“Guess.”
“Hmm.” She pretended to look him over carefully, as if she hadn’t been doing that already from the second they met. Nicely dressed, linen pants and a loosely woven cotton shirt. No jewelry, early thirties she’d guess. But describing his clothes didn’t begin to capture his real look. The male confidence, the killer eyes that were so magnetic it looked as if they were lit from inside….
“You’re a male stripper.”
He burst out laughing. “Now how did you guess that?”
Samantha shrugged, trying to contain her own laughter. God this was fun. Beat the hell out of staying at home with Blanche and Fudge. “It’s written all over you. Jack the Stripper.”
He laughed again, this time letting his eyes linger on hers after the chuckles died. She held his gaze for a few seconds, then looked away. Holy heat wave. The chemistry was astounding.
“I’m a photographer. I shoot commercial stuff primarily, but I’m also working on a series for a gallery on Carpenter Street.”
“No kidding.”
He grinned, a slow charmer’s grin that made her grab her beer for a long sip. “No kidding.”
Samantha put her glass down and ran her finger around the rim, not at all mystified by her sudden need to touch. “One feeds your pocketbook, one feeds your soul?”
“Yes.” His eyes shifted from lazy sex to sudden alert focus, as if she’d surprised him by being in possession of a brain, lawyer or not. “Exactly.”
“Very nice.”
“I’m glad you approve.” He sat watching her, drumming his fingers on the bar as if he was considering something carefully.
Samantha shot him a look. “So, have you decided?”
He cocked his head in a question. “Decided?”
“Whether to say it or not.”
The same surprised awareness flickered through his eyes before he laughed and leaned his chin on his hand, looking at her like she was a piece of his very favorite chocolate cake. “Yes.”
“And?”
“It’s a go.” He grinned, still watching her intently. “Have you ever done any modeling?”
She let one eyebrow slide halfway up her forehead, while her insides started to jitterbug. Oh. Wow. This could be it. “No.”
“I think you might be right for a project I’m starting soon. Interested in doing a test?”
She let her lids lower suspiciously. “What makes me right where a professional model wouldn’t be?”
“Hard to say. Call it instinct, call it artistic selection. I could easily be wrong, but I think a camera would love you. I think you have exactly what I want.”
His voice was smooth and low, his eye contact direct and no-nonsense. Samantha shrugged and took another sip of her beer, which was pretty amazing considering she felt like gasping and slumping onto the bar. Wow. Unless she was totally wrong, this was the photographer’s equivalent of asking her to come see his etchings. What were the odds she’d find the perfect Man To Do the very night she was finally ready? If she wasn’t so cynical, she’d consider another attempt at believing in Fate.
“I see.” She tipped her head to the side and pushed her hair behind one ear in a consciously seductive gesture, pleased when his eyes followed the movement. “What kind of project?”
“I’m doing a series of photographs of women as pieces of furniture.”
Samantha nearly burst out laughing. Ha! What could be more Swaggering Butthead-y than that? Women as objects! He was getting better all the time. “Furniture?”
“Chairs, dining tables, that kind of thing.” He grinned an I-know-what-you’re-thinking grin.
“Charming. Do you seat men on them? Smoking cigars and flicking burning ashes on their skin?”
“Hmm. No.” He tilted his head and rubbed his chin. “But now that you mention it…”
Samantha rolled her eyes. “Oof.”
“It’s a concept. It has no bearing on how I feel about women. I could just as easily use men.”
“Then why don’t you?”
“Because women’s bodies are more interesting to me. A man’s body impersonating a wooden object is less of a draw. But take the soft strength of a woman, her beauty, her living grace, and transform that into something without life, something utilitarian. That’s such a clear contradiction, a clear paradox. And beautiful visually.”
“I see.” She swung her legs toward him and away on the bar stool. Something about that furniture thing bothered her. And something about hearing him talk about women’s bodies really bothered her. But in an entirely different way. One that had her wondering if his etchings might be something she’d really like to see.
“So…”
She turned toward him again. “So?”
“Are you interested?”
“In being your dining table?”
That slow grin spread itself across his face. “In coming to the studio for a test.”
She knew what that meant. Knew what it would mean if she said yes. And staring into his dynamite eyes, that were sending signals she didn’t need a translator to decipher, she thought maybe Jack Hunter, Swaggering Butthead extraordinaire, was exactly what she needed. “I think I might be.”
“You think?”