Page 85 of Decidedly Off Limits

“Please don’t tell Erin,” Kelsey said to Holly. “We don’t want to hurt her.”

Holly nodded and pushed herself from the chair. “I won’t. But I really believe you two owe it to her to be honest with her…as well as with yourselves.”

She strode to the door, turning back to us once she got there. “I’ll let you get back to what you were doing. But you might want to think about getting up soon. I’m sure the four of you”—she pointed at the wall separating us from Jillian’s room—“are hungry after all that sex last night.” Laughing, she left the room.

Kelsey’s phone beeped from the bedside table. She picked it up while I checked the text from Matt, warning me that Holly had seen him come from Jillian’s room.

Sure,nowI saw it.

“Weird. It’s from Luke,” Kelsey said. “Our photography instructor needs to talk to us.”

“About what?”

“No idea. All he knows is that it’s about our assignment and it’s important.”

For some reason, she seemed more nervous about that than what had just happened with Holly.

After her comment to Holly about what we had between us not lasting forever, I should’ve gotten up and hit the shower. But knowing that this thing between us had an expiry date—as vague as it was—I decided to make the most of the time we did have together.

I took her phone from her and placed it on the nightstand…then slowly, tenderly made love to her one more time.

34

Kelsey

Luke’s carwas already parked on the street when I arrived at Danielle’s house. I pulled up in the space ahead of him and turned off the engine.

My cell phone pinged.

Owen:How about that coffee? Say in two hours? There’s something I need to ask you.

Me:What’s that?

Owen:I’d rather ask you in person.

Me:Okay.

We finalized the details, then I released a long, slow breath, and walked up the path to the house. There was no reason for me to be nervous about meeting with my photography instructor, yet I was more nervous about that than I was at seeing my ex-fiancé afterward.

I rang the doorbell of the large house and a few seconds later the front door opened.

“Come on in,” Danielle said, stepping aside to let me in.

The inside of the house was nothing like I had expected. Her studio was organized and tidy. Her house was chaotic in the way that made you feel at home. It was splashes of different colors, with no particular theme in mind. If an editor for a home-decorating magazine came in, she’d be hard-pressed to identify a particular style Danielle had adhered to. It was as if she couldn’t decide which she’d liked best and had adopted them all.

Luke was on the floral couch, reading a piece of paper when I entered the living room. His expression was serious, the complete opposite of Danielle. She was smiling like she’d found buried treasure in her backyard.

He peered up at me, stunned—and I had a feeling it had nothing to do with me showing up.

“Luke was a few minutes early,” she explained as she and I sat down, me next to Luke on the couch, Danielle on the armchair opposite us, “so I’ve already filled him in on what I wanted to discuss with you both. First, I want to tell you how proud I am of the work you’ve accomplished in the class so far. The work you’ve presented for your assignments has been breathtaking.”

“Thank you,” Luke and I said at the same time.

She gathered a small stack of eight-by-ten photos from the coffee table and laid them out, side-by-side in front of Luke and me. The first two were the ones I’d taken of Trent during our semi-nude assignment. In one, he was standing to the side of the window, wearing his jeans and white dress shirt. The shirt was open and untucked, revealing his taut abs. He was smiling in the way that had caused my panties to grow damp when I had taken the photo. Even now, the smile still had the same effect on me.

The other photo showed him without the shirt. The side lighting emphasized each muscle in his arms, chest, and abs. These photos were two of my favorites that I had taken of him that day.

In the other two photos, I was straddling Trent’s hips while he sat on the bed. One was with me wearing his shirt. The other was when I had removed it. Trent and I had both asked Luke for copies of the pictures.