Page 116 of A Shot at Love
He was secure enough in his thoughts to know Gemma was the woman he wanted a forever with. Getting her on board with the idea was the problem, but if working at the FBI had taught him one thing these past twelve years, he was a first-class problem solver.
*
“Your grandmother is adopting Kandy,” she told him, as she kicked off her shoes and went into the kitchen after arriving home from his grandmother’s ninety-fourth birthday party.
Ky nodded and took the beer she offered him from the refrigerator, while she took a bottled water for herself.
“Before we left my mother pulled me aside and told me Kandy offered her and YiaYia jobs as special culinary consultants for one of her upcoming food specials. She’s gonna do a whole hour on Greek cuisine.” He heaved a theatrical sigh. “There’ll be no living with her now. My poor father.”
“He’ll survive.”
Gemma moved to the living room and collapsed onto the sofa.
“I liked your family,” she told him when he sat with her. She lifted his arm and snuck under it, laying her head on his shoulder while he squeezed her upper arm and then kissed the top of her head.
“They liked you, too. Especially my uncle Stavros.” He groaned then took a swig of beer. “I’ve got a feeling you created a monster when you suggested he get a job as an older male model.”
“I wasn’t kidding. He’s extremely photogenic. His features practically leaped from the camera, just like—”
She stopped and busied herself with taking a long draught of water.
“Just like what?”
“I should have known you wouldn’t let that go.”
“Like what, Gemma?” He pushed against her arm.
She slipped from his under his arm, sat back on the cushions and folded her arms across her chest. “Okay, I’ll tell you, but you have to promise to have an open mind.”
He shrugged and looked at her with confusion. “Okay. Although I don’t know why it would be closed.”
“Stay here,” she commanded, rising. “It’s easier if I show you.”
He heard her rummaging in her home office and then she came back with her work laptop in her hands. She sat back down facing him this time.
“I haven’t shown these to anyone, just like I promised, which is a crying shame because they’re some of the best work I’ve ever done.”
“Gemma?”
She shook her head and booted up the laptop. After signing in with her password she turned the device to him.
An oath spewed from him before he could rein it in.
“That’s the word you curse in Greek when you’re either surprised or upset. I’m really hoping this time it’s because you’re surprised.”
“Is that…me?”
He pulled the device onto his lap and continued to stare at the photo she’d cropped for her screen saver.
She’d blown up the image in black and white so that it started at his neck and went all the way down to where one thigh was peeking out from under the sheet tossed over his groin. His medallion glittered from a spark of errant light, giving the depression where it sat between his pecs an even more defined and toned appearance. Half lying, half sitting against the pillows, one arm was flung carelessly next to him on the bed, as if beckoning a lover to come back to him, the other braced on top of the sheet, casually covering his arousal. The curved, deeply corrugated rows of his abdominal muscles were contracted and taut, each muscular duo perfectly positioned atop, and next to, the other.
The sheet barely concealed him, and it didn’t take any imagination at all to visualize the bulge under the strategically placed piece of material. One thigh was bent outward, a simple fold and pull of the same sheet allowing a small, almost imperceptible glimpse under it.
“It’s the most erotic picture I’ve ever taken,” Gemma said. “I’ve filmed hundreds of people who were totally nude and they didn’t look this sexy. This is tasteful, doesn’t show a thing that could be considered pornographic, and if I wasn’t the one who took it, I’d say it looks like a high-class art piece.”
Ky’s gaze bounced from the screen to her face, then back to the screen a few times. His mouth opened, closed, opened, and then slammed shut as he gave his attention to the picture before him.
