"Fuck."
I look back at Julian before he disappears temporarily behind the fresh black t-shirt going over my head. "What's up?" I question as I struggle to keep my balance and slide my legs through my jean legs.
"We were supposed to leave thirty minutes ago. We have to be in Atlanta by seven tomorrow." He grumbles lowly as he stuffs his phone into his pant pocket. "You're ready right? If not, you're shit out of luck."
I roll my eyes and take the handle of my suitcase. "I'm ready. Am I ready for a three-month trip? No. But I'm ready enough."
He ignores my slight complaint and glances at me up and down before turning fully away from me and stepping toward the door. I follow after him, nothing else on my mind other than that his back looks nice in this jacket and he's walking pretty slowly.
"Oh," he turns back around, pausing in his tracks fully. "You have your camera, right?"
I stare at him blankly. In my mind, that's something I wouldn't forget. I don't leave my camera anywhere. Sure, I mostly take pictures of other people, but the world is just as beautiful. I refuse to miss the perfect photo op of the rain falling from the roof of a bakery at just the right angle, or when I'm up in the mountains at my 'office' and I see a fox wandering through the snowy flower field behind the cabin. There are so many beautiful things about the world other than revenge photoshoots and taking forty-million maternity pictures. Nothing wrong with that stuff, but I want to leave behind more than that; even if it's just a picture of a bird in its nest full of chicks.
"Of course, I have my camera. How else am I supposed to take your nudes?" I joke but my tone is flat and monotone.
He stares down at me with that usual hint of annoyance and amusement in his eyes and the corner of his lips. "Oh, you'll be taking more than shirtless pictures of me, Miss. Marlow. You're our brand-new photographer for the rest of this tour." He smirks down at me, his head cocked to the side and his eyes squinted just waiting for me to react.
"...Why?"
He shrugs, "why not? Don't you do more than take pictures of unsuspecting men while they sleep?" he quips.
I roll my eyes and shift my weight onto my suitcase. "Of course, asshole."
"Then we're all good. Let's go, pervert." He flashes an obviously phony and overly squinty smile before finishing his pathway out of my room.
I wheel my suitcase to my front as I run my eyes across the layout of my room one more time. I'm almost never home. I'm always out taking pictures or editing them up in the cabin or I'm out looking for somebody new, but right now, I'm already feeling oddly homesick. Maybe it's because I'm about to be on a tour bus full of people who I don't know yet I know they don't like me or it's because I'm used to my routine. I don't know, but it's happening now and I've gotta suck it up.
As I lock up my apartment and aimlessly follow behind Julian and his bodyguard—who I forgot was ever in my apartment in the first place— I get a lot more nervous.
I don't exactly know what goes on on a tour bus, but I'm sure it's much different than anything I've ever seen or been around. He must have backup dancers and other security guards and a whole team of people just waiting to make sure he looks good at all times. That's a lot of people. I'm not scared of people but considering the circumstances of why I'm here; I'm scared of these people.
Julian slides into the backseat of a perfectly parked and blacked out SUV, his guard sliding into the front passenger's seat after she closed the door behind me and setting my suitcase in the trunk.
"So, how does this work?" I question as I click my seatbelt across my body and into its chamber.
"How does what work? A tour?"
I nod and he glances at me, not a single concern on his face. "Well, there are two buses; one for me and the closer half of my team, and the other for backup dancers, my makeup artist, uh...sometimes stage crew, and anybody else my manager decides we might need."
I nod slowly, his words registering but my questions not soothed in my mind. "So, I'd be on the second bus." I state instead of ask to maybe show that I'm not completely clueless or terrified.
"No. You...are special. You are here under special circumstances, so you'd be on the main bus with me." His eyes wander for a bit as he stares at me.
I stare him in his nearly pitch-black eyes and ignore the growing childish smirk on his lips, "by id be with you...did you mean with you or with you with you?"
He snorts at my repetition of words to hopefully get my point across, the darkness in his eyes faded out into a honey brown. "You've got a lot of questions."
I roll my eyes and reposition myself away from him and toward the window. "Who wouldn't have questions? I'm going on a three month 'trip' with a stranger and a bunch more strangers." I mumble sharply, my words struggling to squeeze through tight lips.
"I meant with me with me. How else would you do your job?" He spoke smoothly and almost sweetly. Like it was a friendly apology—minus the apology. "Can't have you sneaking around and letting everybody know what we do."
I pause. Why wouldn't they know what we do? Wouldn't they already know what I did?
"What?" He questions me and my suddenly stiff posture and blank expression despite my head full of thoughts.
"Wouldn't they already figure out what we were doing? They know I'm the one who posted the picture so if they see—"
"They don't know you posted the pictures of me. Nobody does. Except my manager who also happens to be my lawyer." He turns away to face the view from the car window as if he didn't just break almost life changing news to me.
"What does that mean?"
His brows scrunch together as he strains a laugh through his lips. "What the fuck else is it supposed to mean, Luna?" He laughs as he shrugs slightly. "I didn't tell anybody that you were the one who took the pictures. And you shouldn't either."
I quickly turn to face him, my need to ask questions coming back stronger than before. "Then what do they think I'm here to do?"
He rolls his eyes, his annoyance unable to be held in anymore, I guess. "I thought I told you that you're my photographer now too. They obviously think that you're there to just take pictures. Which you are. They just don't know all the kinds of pictures you have to take."
"Isn't that weird? Randomly just hiring a female photographer after a photo like that of you was posted? Wouldn't they figure it out eventually?" I feel like my eyes are bulging out of my head from just how many questions I'm asking.
Sure, I'm making him go over things he already discussed, but some of these questions are important to my survival for the next three months. If these people are decent human beings like some of the world, they wouldn't even attempt to treat me with any kind of respect after knowing I'm the one who exposed their possible friend and employer.
"Why would they figure it out? I've been looking for a photographer anyways. Drew won't get off my back about needing more publicity so here you are, in the flesh."
I hum, my bottom lip pressed slightly against my top lip as I decide I've asked enough questions. The ride is silent other than the clicking of Julian's keyboard as he texted constantly and with no end. The sound of the clacking digital keyboard and the otherwise silent blacked out SUV, made this feel Julian really is a celebrity. I mean he is, but...
"Come on." My head whips around as I see Julian slide out of the car and disappear behind the door as it shut again. I hadn't even realized we were here let alone that that much time had passed, but I still don't get the chance to fully comprehend it as my door is suddenly opened and I am prompted to get out as Julain tilts his head away from me.
"What's this place?" I question as I hold my camera and its case against my chest.
"It's my house, the buses aren't here yet, but Drew is inside and so is the rest of my crew. It's just the dancers though, so...don't be nervous."
Don't be nervous. "What wise words."
He rolls his eyes before he walks off toward the large glass doors set up next to even larger glass windows. But despite the entire house being made of glass minus the wood-lined balcony and wooden pillars, I can't see a thing inside. All I can see, or anybody who tries to take a peek into the Julian Rhodes modern woodland mansion, is the reflection of the large surrounding spruce and pine trees.
This isn't where I would think he would live. A penthouse apartment with an overview of the entire downtown city sounded more on par with his personality and lifestyle than a beautiful mansion buried in the deep center of a wooded area.
"This must be why you smell like pine." I speak up as I tilt my head toward him, his hand pushing toward opening the door, but he pauses.
"I smell like pine to you?"
I nod and he tilts his head as a puppy would before continuing on through the doors.
As soon as the door is opened, a very well—and expensively—decorated living room was planted in front of me. The lighting was beautiful despite nothing being able to be seen from the outside, but I guess that excludes light.
"This is nice."
"What? Did you think I lived in a dungeon?"
I roll my eyes at him, that seems to be our main form of communication at this point, and lick my lips lightly. "No, I just didn't expect this. And it was a compliment. Most people say, 'thank you' after a compliment."
"Well, I'm not 'most people.'"
"You're right, most people have better manners than you."
"Whatever. Andrew! She's here!"
My eyes shifted up toward where he was looking, which was over the balcony of his staircase, but quickly reverted back to follow Julian as he began to walk off behind a wall and leave lost and with no clue of what to do. "Where are you going—"
"Hello, Miss. Marlow...I would say that it's nice to see you again, but under these circumstances...not so much."
I hum as I watch as the 'L-word' descends down the staircase in a much plainer outfit than before. "So, you're Julian's manager? I thought you were his lawyer."
He shrugs as he takes his final steps in front of me, his eyes much lower than the time I'd met him before. "I do a lot of things for Julian. Who else could he trust?"
"What? He doesn't have friends?" I scoff, my eyes wandering slightly to the movement upstairs.
"Of course he does. Do you?"
My eyes snap back to his, I would like to say yes and get it out but truthfully, I don't have any friends. My own choice of course. I mean, who has time between ruining lives and maternity shoots ya' know?
"Well that settles that...anyway, I'm glad you took the deal. It would have been a very expensive process otherwise."
I hum, my fingers wrapped tightly around the already well-known edges of my camera. "Isn't it expensive for you guys anyways? I mean you're paying me a good chunk of money—"
I freeze as arrogant laughter blurts out from between the thick cages of his throat. "Paying you a 'good chunk' huh?" He continues with his evil laughter, his eyes filled with the most amounts of sadistic joy I've seen. "You're getting paid the same amount we would be paying any photographer."
My eyebrow arche upward as I shift my weight onto my hip, "and what do you plan on doing with the money I make from my blog posts? And I have rates you know. I'm not some porn camerawoman."
His lower lip twitches slightly as he clasps his hands behind his back. "I don't think you're in a position right now to be complaining."
"I' not complaining. I just saying, It's still my blog and I'm still an actual photographer—who doesn't suck. I could just take crappy pictures and waste both of our time."
"Well, that would be in violation of our contract Miss. Marlow—"
"No, it wouldn't," I cut him off, his eyes beginning to twitch more than his blushed pink lips. "I would still be doing everything asked of me. And it wouldn't be my fault if people decided not to care about Julian's half-naked pictures on my blog anymore."
He stood there, the twitching now subsided and a calm, almost accepting, look on his face. "Fine. You will keep the whatever you make from your trashy blog, and we will pay you exactly what you would charge for something like this. Deal?"
"Deal." I smile triumphantly as I stick my open hand out in front of me. He stares at it for a while as if I've got the plague before taking it into a firm handshake. "See that wasn't so hard now, was it?"
Hey y'all. sorry for the almost two months of not updating :'), bad look for a book that just started out. But school started and my classes jumped right into the deep end. So i hope you enjoy this chapter and continue reading for more. I appreciate you all and cannot wait for your feedback.
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Thank you all so much and I will see you soon <3