Her Male Model

The First Encounter

^Katrina Levour

Dedicated to @happgirl1973! Thanks for the book idea!

Katrina's POV

I walk into the shoot, and immediately I have everyone's attention. I feel their stares like hands on my skin, but I hardly notice, too busy looking at my phone. Notifications are streaming in. Paris Queen fell on the runway a couple of minutes ago...The show was being filmed live, and so I actually watched her fall. Her heel broke mid-step, causing her to stumble and land on her knees.

To Paris's credit, she got up rather quickly and continued her walk with only one shoe. However, now her entire modeling career is being called into question. Everyone is calling her inexperienced and unqualified. I sigh. This should have no bearing on my reputation, and yet it does. Last month, I gave her my endorsement. I got her on that runway...And now, Twitter thinks that the incident is evidence of my faulty judgment. Fucking idiots. I scroll through the tweets, barely managing to ignore the fuckers instead of responding.

When I look up, I find everyone is still watching me, seeming to have not moved since I walked in.

"Do I pay you to stand around?" I shout, flippantly

The room bursts into soft apologies and quick movements as my employees finish their preparation of the set. Sensing my lingering anger, My personal assistant Sam hands me a caramel macchiato and my favorite lip moisturizer. I take a sip and apply the balm, trying to calm myself down. Trying to remember why I am here.

I would not normally make an appearance for a regular photoshoot like this one, but curiosity got the best of me. I had to see what all the buzz was about.

Coal Ryder. The 'wonder'. I roll my eyes just thinking about him and his stupid nickname. He was first brought to my attention by my assistant, Sam. Not directly...obviously. Sam cannot even look into my eyes, let alone chat with me about an interesting new model. No, I heard about Coal when Sam was gossiping about him to another employee. They spoke for what had to be thirty minutes. Their words were slightly crass for work, however, in a modeling company, there is bound to be some inappropriate language. If you put enough attractive people together, 'work' and 'drama' seem to become synonyms.

I would normally brush off the conversation I accidentally eavesdropped on, however, Sam said something that sparked my interest. When they were gossiping about him, Sam said that the photography unit ran Coal's face through a symmetry test, and found that his face was 100 percent symmetrical. I nearly dropped out of my chair when I heard.

I have never seen someone with a 100% symmetrical face. Not in my entire career. Even Paris Queen, my most recent protégé, is only 96% symmetrical.

After that, I began to hear Coal's name everywhere, even from the most unsuspecting people. They all spoke of his unbelievable beauty, and his out-of-this-world eyes. Light green, with a vibrancy so striking, people were known to get lost in them. Outside of the fashion industry, the compliment would be a big one. However, within the modeling realm, where beauty is so common it is overlooked, a compliment like that one is almost unbelievable.

I wander closer to the set, tuning into the excited buzz of chatter. Today, we're shooting a men's underwear ad featuring the new IT man himself. And apparently, everyone is particularly excited to see him in action.

When I get close enough that my presence can no longer be overlooked, the whispers die. The male models lined up on set stare at me in barely concealed shock. Some look at me with lust in their eyes. Some look at me in fear. But all of them seem to be pondering the same question.

They are wondering how they can use me. They want me to endorse them as I did Paris.

A models' biggest dream is to become a supermodel, and these ones are no different.They look at me with hunger in their eyes.  Because they know I am the only one who can make their dream come true.