Presque Vu

Chapter 2

  Eventually, Val realized he was going to have to make due with the equipment on hand and motioned for Jared to get back into place. Raina watched him walk away, blushing when she realized she watching a little too hard. She must have had a guilty look on her face because when he glanced back over at her Jared broke into a wide grin. "Yeah like I'm the first girl to get caught staring at that ass," she thought with a smile.

"Go fetch the rest of the band Raina," said Val gruffly. Not wanting to aggravate him any further Raina headed back over the makeup area. Sure enough, Cassidy was giggling and tossing her hair around like a teenager. She brightened and waved when she saw Raina headed towards her.

"Rainy, come meet Tomo and Shannon!"

"Sorry Cass, I have to steal them away. Val is ready for them." Cassie immediately flung her arms around Tomo's neck, causing him to sit up with a start and Shannon to immediately burst into laughter.

"No, they're mine you can't have them!"

With a laugh, Raina reminded Cassie that she would ruin all her hard work if she didn't stop manhandling the guys. She gathered what little was left of her dignity and professionalism after this bumpy day and ushered the two remaining bandmates over to Val and got back to work. Things moved along smoothly from that point forward and by the time they were finishing up the initial shoot she could tell Val was in a much better mood. At least he wouldn't be threatening her job anymore today, as long as she didn't screw anything else up. When everyone else broke to get the guys changed for the secondary shoot, she continued to work through the break, double and triple checking equipment, making sure everything was exactly the way she knew Val liked it, trying to anticipate anything else he might need.

"Don't know why he wanted that filter either."

Jared was there again, smiling, and ... shirtless. Oh dear god, he was shirtless. Trying to act nonchalant, Raina willed her eyes away from muscular chest only to realize looking him in the eyes was no less... stimulating. She quickly looked away but caught the increasing grin on his face as she did so. Dammit, she was starting to feel like a teenage girl herself and not a grown woman who ought to know enough not to fawn over hot rock stars. What was worse was that it was clear he knew what effect he was having on her. Summoning her dignity, she figured she was already in this deep enough she might as well just go for it. No more blushing schoolgirl. Raina took a deep breath, grabbed a few things off the pile that needed to be put back, then drew herself up and put on her best sultry expression.

"Well if I spent my days trying to give men what they wanted I'm sure I'd never get up off my knees." She tossed her hair and started walking back toward the van, pausing just long enough to glance back over her shoulder to see Jared standing there with a somewhat startled look and a grin to beat the devil. Good. It was nice to see him be the one off balance, if only for a moment. By the time she was opening up the back of the van he had scrambled after her, carrying a large umbrella that had been lying near the go back pile. "That actually needed to stay," she said, gesturing toward it.

"Sorry. Just trying to help."

"Well you can walk it back over there with me," Raina said, shutting the cargo doors. "Does Val know you're just wandering about?"

"He was on the phone. Don't think he noticed. Does he always talk to you like that?"

"No. I wouldn't stick around if he did. I don't care how brilliant he is. He's just been in a mood lately. Personal stuff I gather but he's not the type to elaborate." Raina gave Jared a quick up and down glance. "Did Cassidy steal the rest of your clothing?"

Jared laughed. She liked his laugh, it was warm and infectious. "The makeup girl? No, but I think she's going to hide all of Tomo's clothes if we don't watch her closely."

They continued the back and forth while they waited for the shoot to start. She thought he really wasn't so bad, he seemed intelligent and, aside from the shameless flirting, fairly professional and ready to work. She wasn't sure if he was actually interested in her, probably not if she was honest with herself, she was hardly the 20 something B model that most his type seemed to go for, but then again he didn't seem to be typical. At any rate, it was a much more enjoyable way to spend the day than the brooding she had been doing. By the time they had gotten back to work she was practically humming and couldn't resist flirting with Tomo and Shannon too as they joined them. The guys were fun and gracious enough about it, and Raina found herself enjoying the shoot much more than she would have thought. Shannon particularly seemed to be enjoying it, joking and making off-color remarks, even picking her up by the waist to swing her around when she tried to get a light reading. He smirked merrily at her as she jokingly fought him back, chasing after her as she scrambled away after seeing Val glaring at her disapprovingly.

Afterward, as she was almost done loading equipment, Jared bounced over. Thankfully for Raina's self-control, he was no longer shirtless. "I thought you guys were long gone."

"Almost. I only have a couple minutes. I was just wondering how late you'll be packing all this up." He gave her that smile again, the one she was becoming increasingly sure was very carefully calculated. "Maybe you'd like to meet up for something to eat?"

Intuition can be a funny thing. Raina's was usually spot on but had a habit of deserting her in the most crucial of moments. Like when Dan had grown tired of her staying in bed all day, tired of reminding her to eat and to shower. Tired of going everywhere alone. When Dan had grown so tired of everything about her he had packed his bag and told her he was moving in with Brenda, Raina's best friend since second grade. She had asked if he was going to come back to get anything else that they had bought together, surely he wanted some of it, but Dan had told her she could keep it all. He didn't want any of it. Just like he didn't want her anymore, though he was tactful enough not to say so. She needed her intuition working now, to tell her if she was as far in over her head as she thought she was but that inner voice was distressingly silent. 

She must have stood looking at him without responding for too long because Jared apparently decided his invitation needed to be kicked up a notch. With a quick glance around to be sure they were alone, he stepped up against her, slipped his hand under her chin and brought her lips up to his. After the softest of kisses, he pulled back, pausing to look into her eyes for a reaction. Raina was too stunned to pull away, which he took for permission to continue and leaned in again, kissing her harder this time, his hand tracing the line of her chin until he flattened his palm against her cheek. Raina was surprised enough at both the assumption and the intensity of the sudden reactionary clutch in her gut that she gasped slightly, parting her lips. Jared took it as a further invitation to deepen the kiss. It only took Raina a second once she felt his tongue trying to slip its way into her mouth to flatten her palms against his chest and push him back off of her.

"What the hell?" She was outraged that he seemed to think it was okay to do that while she was supposed to be working. "Like Val's not already looking for a reason to yell at me. I'm sure he'd be thrilled to catch me kissing the clients!"

"You've been flirting with me all day. You were kissing me back. What's the problem?" Jared seemed genuinely hurt. "He's nowhere around Raina. I would never get you in trouble."

"I don't know what you would do. I don't know you."

"Then come meet me for dinner. Get to know me."

"I..." Raina wasn't sure why she was still so hesitant. "It will be late, it will take a while to offload all this."

"I'll be back at the studio at 8 then. If you decide you don't want to do this you can duck out before then. You don't even have to give me your phone number." Before Raina could collect herself to say anything else, he was gone.