Not Just A Pretty Face

24. Leonel

*mature content ahead*

I was in such big shit.

I stayed cool and kept my hands in my pockets as the elevator smoothly glided up to the top floor. Gideon stepped out first and led the way down the hall, while Raymond stayed behind me as if to ensure I didn’t sneak off before my scolding.

Once Gideon pushed open his room door, he held it for me and Raymond, his intense eyes casting over me for a moment in passing.

I tried not to react, but brushing past the man and having him look at me like that was wildly tempting.

Raymond sat on the dresser, his hands in his pockets, probably in an attempt to be more casual and approachable. “So, there was a little tension there.”

My cheeks flushed and I opened my mouth to defend myself. Should I say that Gideon treated me like any other model? Or that nothing had happened?

“You’ve always been stubborn with photographers,” Gideon added in that deep rumble, wandering past me to sit on the edge of the bed. “It’s going to give you a reputation.”

“Oh?” I played with a lock of my hair, trying to pretend I hadn’t completely misinterpreted that statement. Of course Raymond meant Clive, not Gideon. I leaned against the wall near the bed.

Gideon nodded. “I’ve seen a lot of guys do well, and a lot more go down in history as unemployable.”

I stiffened, my heart starting to race. “Is that a threat?”

“No,” Raymond jumped in, sliding off the dresser. “Not at all. It’s advice from a couple guys who’ve been there and done that.”

The buddy-buddy tone rubbed me a little wrong. I’d rather have been given a professional warning than a friendly lecture on all the things I was fucking up.

I hated that. Never again.

“Right.” I nodded, my shoulders tense. “Suck up to the idiots. ”

Gideon paused, then glanced at Raymond. “You can head to bed. Long day tomorrow.”

Raymond nodded and shook Gideon’s hand on the way past, patting his shoulder and leaning in to murmur something. Gideon nodded and responded, then saw Raymond out.

I stepped back to let the two pass, nodding to Raymond when he raised a hand in a goodnight wave.

Then the door swung shut and Gideon turned on his heel to look me up and down again.

It was incredible how fast the chemistry could build between us. Seconds of being alone was all it took before we couldn’t tear our eyes off each other. I felt the magnetic pull toward Gideon, like he was the inescapable mass at the centre of my orbit.

It took all I had not to push myself away from the wall and saunter up to him, but he saved me the trouble by approaching me instead.

I pushed my shoulder blades into the wall a little more and crossed my ankles, my body angled with my hips further away from the wall. I pressed my hands against the wall behind me, casually running my finger along the wallpaper near my hip.

As Gideon approached, I pulled back, letting him push me up until I was standing straight and flat against the wall. I never dropped my gaze, maintaining my defiant pout until the last moment before turning my face away slightly.

“You’re a cocky little thing,” Gideon murmured, his voice a bare, quiet whisper. It rasped, cutting through the silence in the room alongside my heavier breathing.