Army of Sin - Season 2 - The Gathering

Episode VIIII - Green With...

Location: Marseille, France

Evangeline positively preened beneath cascading shutter clicks; the designer bag she was contracted to model slung casually over her shoulder. 

"Okay Lino, move in closer!” 

One half of Evangeline stiffened. The other half wanted to lean into the touch. 

"C’mon! Make it sexy people!" Andrei Sanna called from behind the camera, "What's my motto?" he asked impatiently.

"Sex sells!" came a chorus of voices - models and photoshoot staff alike - all of them all too familiar with Andrei and his drive for excellence. 

"May I?" Lino asked in a thick Portuguese accent, lips barely moving.

"Sure," Evangeline replied through lips which were suddenly dry but not due to the sun. 

As the solid roughness of his palm came to rest against the small of her back, Evangeline shuddered inwardly, silently willing him to cup her flesh. 

They were always cordial with each other, having a healthy working relationship but of late Evangeline had found him on her mind during many a daydream. It was not simply the fact that he smelled amazingly edible or kept his body in great shape or towered over her. What held her interest was Lino’s lack of intimidation by the beauty everyone else seemed to gush over. She knew he was aware of her looks. He had admitted that at one of their previous modelling retreats yet he had always maintained a respectful distance. Now as she pressed closer to the defined muscles of his chest, she heard Mona's voice in the back of her mind encouraging her to take him. On heated contact she heard nothing but the blood rushing through her ears in response to the strong beat of his heart as boldness took over. Modelling was such a love/ hate experience for her. Looking around, knowing how Andrei appreciated her ability to improvise during a shoot, she tilted her head back as if Lino had just told her a joke. She felt hyper aware of the other models looking on, especially Karolina - formerly Andrei's favorite model to photograph. Now as she locked eyes with the other woman, Evangeline freed her inhibitions and embraced the wicked voice whispering to her. 

Turning slightly into his chest, she raised up on tiptoe to nibble at the low stubble at the base of his chin. She stayed like this for a couple clicks from the team of photographers positioned at different angles, before turning her head slightly toward the camera, teeth still lightly clenched against the skin of Lino’s chin. Karolina stared daggers, her fists clenched in the folds of the dress she was next up to model.  Evangeline gasped at the response racing through her body, feeling heady with the need to grip his neck for support. 

"Are you okay?" He asked, lips by her ear.

"Just go with it!" she gasped again as she rode another wave of the sensation, eyes locked with Karolina’s. 

"Oh my God!! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Andrei exclaimed, positively glowing from behind the tripod before ripping the camera off of its stand to come even closer, camera shutter not missing a beat as he continued to take snapshots. Not until he entered her field of vision did the sensation leave her body, Karolina storming off along the edge of the site. Sagging against her partner in the shoot and drawing a squeal of delight from Andrei, she attempted to catch her bearings under the guise of another pose. What the hell was that? Where can I get more?

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"Well, well, well," Mona clucked her tongue.

"Oh hush," Evangeline replied, patting the thick curls of her hair dry before wrapping a towel around it.  "Andrei still won't stop talking about earlier," she laughed, "We gonna talk about what happened on the beach?" 

"I thought you'd never ask," Evangeline replied, waving them out onto the porch overlooking the courtyard pool.  "Wine or food?" 

"Food please, positively starving at the moment." 

A couple minutes later, both women sat next to each other sporting two steaming plates of Thai curry courtesy the restaurant staff. Evangeline gave a sigh of appreciation as she chewed her first juicy morsel of almond shrimp, smiling as she heard Mona's murmured agreement. 

"So what had happened was…?" Mona prompted in between delighted mouthfuls. 

"So what happened was..." Evangeline repeated,"the strangest shit ever. I could have sworn to you girl, the more Karolina got upset, the sexier I felt..." 

Mona sat in silence, offering nothing more than the occasional perplexed look or a nod at what followed, listening and sometimes losing herself in staring at her best friend. She saw Evangeline's face go from freaked out to a glint of mischief as she recalled locking eyes with Karolina before biting the tall Portuguese’s chin. She again freaked out at the way her body had been drained of its strength.

 "You think this has anything to do with the man you met all those years ago?" Mona asked softly.  "Girl I really don't know, not even sure that he was real. What I do know is that it felt so good - almost like a forbidden orgasm. It felt so good to see her looking at me like that." 

"Nothing totally wrong with that in my opinion."

"But... I mean I felt so ashamed to enjoy being wicked. Mons, I felt powerful." 

"Everyone has a lil wickedness in them, Cutes. On another note, the poor man gonna think your keeling over was because of him," Mona replied with a slight shake of her head. 

"Win-win I suppose," Evangeline said with a wink as the two women shared a brief laugh.  "Going down to the Planning Meeting for the rest of the shoot?"  "Yeah, let's go!"

"Prepare yourself; Andrei is probably still going to be gushing." 

"Girl if he doesn't pull himself together..." Evangeline trailed off in exasperation, heading back to her room to slide her body into slim-fitting jeans and a t-shirt with a print reading, 'It's hard to be me but  somebody's gotta do it!' 

Too true, she thought, locking the door to their room. 

                   END OF EPISODE