“You alright, Jake?”

“No, dude. I can’t show you, because that would be rude. But let’s just say Harper took some pictures for me,” he whistled through his teeth, “Some hot pictures.”

Shea laughed as he put a shirt on, “That’s nice, I guess,” he said.

He had to admit, he envied Jakob. He doubt Elli would ever do that for him. If she did, he would probably have a heart attack. Maybe he would ask her to do it for him, since having something he could look at every night before going to bed would probably help him sleep a lot better. Jakob got up, taking his computer into the bathroom with him and Shea laughed as he shook his head. It didn’t take a lot to guess what Jakob was up to.

After getting under the covers, he brought his laptop out of his bag, and loaded it up. He wanted to send Elli an email before bed, so when she checked it in the morning it would bring a smile to her face. He also wanted to send one to Ryan, since Ryan loved getting emails from him. When the computer loaded up with a cute picture of him kissing Elli’s cheek, her eyes bright with excitement, he clicked on his email, and waited for it all to load.

He heard the shower start up just as his email came up saying he had mail. He clicked his inbox and saw it was from Elli, with a title of ‘For you’. He clicked the email, and then clicked the attachment for it to download as he read the message.

Miss you a lot, hope you enjoy.

Love, Elli.

Love? Hmm. Should he read into that, or was that just a simple closing? When the computer dinged, saying his attachment was downloaded, a picture of Elli in a bright purple lingerie came up and Shea’s jaw dropped.

Holy Shit!

Chapter 18

Elli had awakened early and gone for a run before heading into work the next day. She felt refreshed and ready for the day. She had a full morning, and hoped that Shea would call before things got crazy. There were two newborn sessions scheduled that morning, and then two weddings late that night. She would have had the assistants cover the newborn shoots, but the two women had requested her since she had done their engagement, weddings, and pregnancy pictures. So of course Elli obliged. She was walking into the studio when her phone rang; it was Shea, which surprised her since it was only 6:00 where he was.

“Hey!”

“Are you trying to kill me, Eleanor Fisher?”

Elli stopped where she was, turning the lights on.

“Um, no, why?”

“What did you think was going to happen when I opened an email from my beautiful girlfriend in nothing but lace?”

Air rushed out of Elli as she braced herself against the doorframe.

Harper! She was going to kill her!

“I mean, hot damn, baby, I was hard all night! Couldn’t sleep at all!”

“Oh…sorry?”

“Oh, hell no, don’t be sorry. You are just lucky we are over 2,000 miles away from each other. If I was there, I would have had you on your back so damn fast your head would have spun.”

“Jesus, Shea!” she laughed, but she did get a little hot.

“No baby, really. I’ve been staring at the damn pictures for hours, I even put them on my phone. You’re so freaking hot baby, so hot.”

Okay so maybe she wouldn’t kill Harper…but she would cuss her out.

“I’m glad you like them. I wasn’t sure about sending them to you.”

“What?! Why not?”

“Because I didn’t know if you would like them.”

“Like them? Baby, I love them.”

“Well, then good.”

“Yes, good. Oh god, I’ve been waiting all night to call you.”

“You’re crazy.”

“Crazy about you, babe. Thank you, jeez, thank you.”

“Hush! You’re making me blush!” she giggled as she listened to him breathe heavily into the phone.

“What are you doing? Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

“No, I needed to call you.”

“You’re impossible, call me later.”

“You hush. Tell me about what you have planned today, are you busy?”

“Yeah, really busy, actually. It seems no one wants to do anything during the week now. It’s always like this in the winter months.”

“What do you mean?”

“The winter hours are always hard. I’m busy on the weekend with outside work. But on the weekdays, it’s slow. I’ve been home around 7:00 every night.”

“Figures. I leave and you’re home at a decent hour now.”

“I know.”

“So, hell, you’re done by 6:00? That’s crazy.”

“No, I’m done by 7:00.”

He was quiet for a moment.

“But I thought you said you were home by 7:00? I’m sorry, it is early, but what are you doing, babe, flying home?”

Shit, shit, shit.

“Um, well, I’ve been staying at your place,” she began, “but I mean, I could start going back home if that’s a problem. It’s just been easier and I miss you a lot and being at your house helps. I know that it’s crazy; I am basically living in your house, and I mean, we haven’t even had that kind of conversation about it, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you-”

“Jesus, Elli, it’s too early for you to ramble,” he laughed as she felt even more incompetent. God, why didn’t she tell him sooner, or even better, why didn’t she go home!? Be a big girl for once!