Page 10 of Tempted To Be Mine

“I’ve been talking with my brothers,” Sebastian said. “About the direction of the brand. Where we want to take it over the next year.”

I nodded slowly. Was this the big fuck off? We’re going in a different direction.

It had been a long time since I got that kind of sendoff, but it could happen. Was this it? The beginning of the end? Shouldn’t I feel sad? Or angry?

“You’ve been a significant part of what we’ve built here, Jeremy. The response to the campaigns you’ve been in has been strong. Really strong.” He paused for a moment, like he was choosing his words carefully. “We want to take that further. My brothers and the rest of the creative team all agree, and trust me, that doesn’t happen often.”

I looked at Lucy again. Her expression would tell me where she was at with this weird speech.

“Can you explain what that means?” Lucy asked.

“We want you to be the new face of Blackwell Couture,” Sebastian said with his million-dollar smile. The smile that had graced the billboards I covered now.

The new face of Blackwell Couture. The job was coveted. Good, steady work. A brand deal was always the goal. And they were handing it to me.

I glanced over at Lucy once again. She was smiling. Her lips, with the usual clear gloss and no lipstick, were curved up. Okay. It was a good thing. I wasn’t misreading the situation.

“Hell yeah,” I said. “I’m in. I mean, Lucy will handle the details, but I’m game.”

Sebastian’s mouth curved. “Good. There is one catch.”

Of course there was. Nothing was ever easy.

“The brothers want to push the new winter collection. They’ve put together a last-minute shoot.” He paused. “In Alaska. You’d need to be ready to leave in a week, and the shoot would run about a week on location.”

Alaska.

I’d never worked in Alaska. Snow, mountains, probably some dramatic frozen landscape that would photograph beautifully. That actually sounded incredible. The novelty alone was enough to get me excited. I’d been to Antarctica recently but Alaska was the last great frontier. It sounded thrilling.

The face of Blackwell Couture. I turned that over in my head. It wasn’t just a campaign. It was the brand. Every window display, every billboard, every ad that ran in every magazine that mattered. Sebastian had been at the top of the food chain in our world for nearly twenty years and now they were handing that to me. I’d worked for this without knowing exactly what this looked like. Now I did. I was a Blackwell by birth, but to be the face that represented my cousin’s family business was a big fucking deal.

“That’s not a catch,” I said. “That sounds amazing. The answer’s yes.” I glanced at Lucy as I said it. “We’ll be there.”

Her smile evaporated. The expression on her face told me she had about three hundred thoughts going on in that head of hers.

“Actually,” Lucy said with a polite smile for Sebastian. “I might sit this one out.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Alaska.” She said it like the word itself was offensive. “Sub-zero temperatures. Grizzly bears. Freezing my ass off. That’s not really my thing.”

“Not your thing?” I repeated. “Lucy, you go everywhere with me.”

“I go everywhere warm with you.” She gestured at the pool, the palm trees, the perfect California sunshine surrounding us. “This is my natural habitat. I was born and raised in southern California. I don’t do Arctic cold.”

Sebastian glanced between us, clearly sensing he’d stumbled into something. “I’ll let you two discuss the details. Jeremy, we’ll be ready for the next setup in about ten minutes.”

He walked away, leaving me alone with Lucy and her sudden case of cold feet. Literally.

“Okay,” I said, leaning forward. “What’s going on?”

She sighed, pulling her sunglasses off so I could see her eyes. They looked tired. We’d been working a lot. I stood in front of a camera but she did all the other stuff. She made sure my ass got to wherever I needed to be and that all my contracts were solid.

“I seriously hate the cold, Jeremy. Like, deeply and personally hate it. Can’t I just sit this one out? You’ll be fine. You’re a professional. A whole adult. You are perfectly capable of doing this without me.”

“I need you there.”

“You don’t need me. You need someone to herd you where you’re supposed to go.”