"we fell in love the way you fall in leaves."
Juwan "Rocky" Rockwell has had a pretty hard life. Between trying to find a way to fend for himself and dealing with the normal hardships of teenage angst, he had nowhere to turn as an adolescent and no...
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"marlo and mahogany"
"Bienvenida, mami," Marlo welcomed me with a small smile. "Hey, Marlo," I chuckled lightly, allowing my hand to be taken into his.
"How's your day been?" he asked while kissing my hand and moving out of my way so I could enter. "It's been alright. I've actually been looking forward to seeing you all day," I smiled. "Aww," he grinned before closing the door behind me.
"Well, you know, I'm ready to do this lil' shoot," I gave half of a shrug. "I know you are. You've been ready since the first moment I saw you," he replied while leading me into his bedroom.
"A'ight, so just strip down and put on this robe. Come out, when you're ready. . ." he instructed softly before leaving and closing the door behind him.
As you can see, I have finally agreed to not only do a shoot for Marlo but to do so nude. This week home has been eventful, to say the least. Monday night, I went dancing with him at that big party. Tuesday night, we cooked dinner for one another. Wednesday, I tagged along with him to a wedding, where he was hired to take pictures. Wednesday night, I spent the evening taking down my braids.
After searching for something that would make me feel empowered and seeing him work up close and personal, I figured that a nude shoot would be just the thing I needed. It'd make me more comfortable with myself, and it'd force me out of my shell. . . and I came out of it like a freight train.
I was in the silk robe he gifted me with, walking into his spacious living room, where he had the background and equipment set up.
He motioned me toward the chair that sat in front of a plain white background and told me that if I planned on going through with being nude, to come out of the robe little by little, if it'd help me feel more comfortable. I was already out of my comfort zone by being here, so I figured that it'd be best to just jump right in, full force.
The robe became a puddle on the floor before I turned the chair around. I sat in it backwards with my legs on either side of it so that I was still concealed quite a bit by the furniture.
Flashes from the camera began and so did my poses. On the outside, I probably looked like I was owning the fuck out of the camera, but my internal battle was another story. Butterflies were rampant with me, and all I could think about was what Marlo thought about me.
It didn't take long for me to find out, seeing as though he brought the camera down from his eye with a soft laugh. My eyes furrowed a bit in offense.
"What?" I asked him. "Don't feel obligated to be sexy. Just because you're naked doesn't mean we're suddenly doing a shoot for Playboy," he commented.
"Sorry," I could feel heat staining my cheeks in embarrassment. "No, Quinn. Don't apologize. I just want you to relax. You're never as human as you are when you're naked. You're most yourself— most vulnerable— when you're bare so just be yourself," he encouraged me.
