Author's Notes:
Special thanks to TheBasicBitch who beta-read this chapter for me.
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By the time Friday morning had arrived, Dimitri and I had spent hours and hours on the phone talking to each other. He was sweet, charming, and completely disarming. He told me about how he grew up in a house with three sisters, his mother, and his grandmother, and how he had spent many of his teenage years babysitting for his nephew, along with telling me stories of how he had panicked at the responsibilities and done foolish and reckless things to rebel, inevitably learning his lesson and seeking out the more responsible choices. He even told me about his eccentric interest in westerns, right down to the boots, cowboy duster jacket, and country music he sometimes chose to listen to.
I knew that Dimitri and I weren't dating - at least, not yet - but it began to feel like we were from the time we had spent together. We may have only known each other for a couple of days, but I knew him better than some of my ex-boyfriends. And we'd spent more time talking, in deeper conversation, than I had with anyone. Well, except Lissa. I knew him: his kind, gentle, fearless soul; his witty, clever intellect; his dutiful, protective, respectful, honor-bound sense of obligation. There was no one like him I'd ever met in my whole life.
And I was already falling for him. Hard.
If anyone tells you that you can't fall in love with someone you've only known for a couple of days, you'd be wrong. I may have only known him for days, but we'd spent so much time baring our hearts and souls to each other that it was like I had known him for months or years.
I had given him my heart already and he didn't even know it. The only question now was how he felt about me, and what would happen when I was alone with him.
Oddly, Lissa had told me repeatedly about how formal he was with her. She was only slightly less uncomfortable with the idea of taking nude photos than I had been, but he hadn't taken the time to get to know her like he had with me. Lissa found him to be a man of few words who did his best to keep his respectful distance and do only exactly what needed to be done, very businesslike and straight-forward, to make the flawless photos he'd taken of her happen.
Dimitri buzzed me into the building. After climbing the stairs to his floor, I reapplied a light coat of my lip gloss and then knocked on Dimitri's door, nervous and anxious about finally meeting the man I was in love with face-to-face. As I stood there waiting for Dimitri to answer the door, in a sudden panic, I realized that I would be naked in front of him within minutes, too. This would be a whole new level of vulnerability for me.
I was grateful that I had spent an extra half hour perfectly curling each strand of my hair this morning and that I had picked out the sexiest red satin and lace bra and panty set I had ever seen. As Dimitri had requested, I had worn them underneath my paramedic uniform, which included a very unattractive and uninteresting light blue button-up shirt with patches and labels all over it, some unflattering and loose-fitting navy pants, and a pair of suspenders to hold the pants up.
As soon as Dimitri opened the door, he smiled. "Rose," he said. That Russian accent in his deep, rich voice was like warm liquid chocolate.
I returned his grin, throwing him my own man-eating smile. "You must be Dimitri."
He was even more handsome than his picture. Dressed simply, barefoot in a plain black v-neck t-shirt and low-slung faded blue jeans, he still looked like he could be a model instead of the photographer. His shoulder-length hair was loose and down and it looked so soft I almost couldn't stop myself from running my fingers through it. Never before had I seen a man where you could see the outline of his abs through a t-shirt, but I could on Dimitri. He looked like he must work out constantly.
I knew he was trying not to be obvious about it, but I watched as his eyes trailed all the way down my body and back up again. I was still standing in the hallway and neither of us had said anything. If I didn't know better, I'd think he was checking me out. And knowing that I was about to be naked in his apartment, I had no idea what to do with that knowledge.
I smirked at him, covering my nerves with my patented Rose Hathaway bravado. "You see something you like?"
"I'm sorry," he said, moving out of the doorway, "Just evaluating how I want to pose you in that uniform. Please. Please come in, Rose."
I walked into Dimitri's apartment and gasped. For New York City, his apartment was practically palatial. The door opened to a living room that was bigger than my entire studio apartment. I could see at least three doors off to the side, meaning at least two bedrooms, and the edges of a kitchen that most celebrity chefs would be jealous of.
"Wow, this place is amazing," I told him, turning to face him.
Dimitri's eyes were glued on me and I could tell he cared about my opinion from the look on his face. He smiled, saying, "It sort of has to be in order to house my photography studio. I've used nearly every square foot of this place to take photos."
"So, are you planning to pose me slaving away in your kitchen, then?" I asked, laughing at the idea of me cooking.
Dimitri's eyes burned into mine as he replied, "No, but I'm not opposed to having you on my bed."
A moment later, Dimitri added, "Wow, that did not come out the way I meant it, Rose." Or did it? I got goosebumps at the thought. "Hopefully, you knew what I meant, though. Please, have a seat on the couch. Would you like some wine now? I know it's a little early in the morning for it."
"Yes, please," I told him and Dimitri headed toward the kitchen, "Some wine for my nerves would be great right now. So, I guess I'm really going to do this, huh?"
Dimitri gave me a genuinely kind smile as he pulled out two glasses from a cupboard. "It's okay to be nervous, Rose," he said, "It's not every day you bare your body to someone else so completely. Remember, I'm taking off some of my clothes, too. I'm as nervous as you are."
A moment later, Dimitri was pouring a bottle of some kind of white wine into the two glasses and then he brought them over to me, handing me one and sitting beside me on the couch.
"So," he began, "First, we should discuss boundaries. Right after our first phone call on Tuesday night, Vasilisa Ozera completed her own photo shoot with me. She told me that you were her best friend."
"Yes," I told him, "Lissa and I have known each other since kindergarten. I don't know if anyone knows me better than she does."
"Is that so?" Dimitri said, taking a sip from his own glass of wine and arching an eyebrow, "Do you know she told me I should ask you out?"
I laughed. "She told me as much, yes." I tried to keep from showing my feelings on my face, not knowing how he felt about the idea. Let's just get through these pictures first.
"Interesting," he replied.
I expected Dimitri to ask me more about her suggestion, but he was just silent for a moment, searching my face for something. Then, he asked, "Do you know Vasilisa's husband? He was here for the first portion of her shoot, you know?"
I actually hadn't known that, but it honestly wasn't all that surprising that he would want to come. Christian could be unusually jealous and possessive of Lissa. Maybe the only surprising part was that Dimitri could still manage to take pictures of the quality he had with Christian underfoot. "No, I didn't know he was here. She showed me her picture, though. You do amazing work."
"Just between you and me, he hindered my progress substantially, placing additional stipulations on how the pictures could be taken for her shoot. I'm going to need to ask you about limitations for the photos I will be taking of you. You don't have anyone like that, that we should be worried about; do you?"
If I could arch my own eyebrow at that, I would have. "No," I said, "but that doesn't mean that I won't want some limits on what gets shown to other people."
Dimitri smiled and nodded. "Oh, absolutely. So first, we should probably discuss what is not optional about this photo shoot," he said, "and then I'll ask what your preferences are regarding other things."
"Okay," I agreed, suddenly feeling the need to drain my glass.
Dimitri breathed out a sigh of relief and began, picked up some papers from the coffee table sitting in front of me. "Ivan, my manager, draws these contracts up with his lawyer. They try to write it so that it is in plain, understandable English, but without being overly vague or crude. I'm going to go over the major points and then leave it to you to read it and sign."
I nodded, and Dimitri continued, almost avoiding eye contact with me. I didn't know his tells yet, but I could almost see in his face that he was dreading this part. "As you know, this is supposed to be a nude photo shoot. At some point during the shoot, you must be fully unclothed because these calendars will not sell and - quite frankly - I wouldn't be doing the job that they hired me for, if there is no nudity."
Dimitri plunged forward. "So, in this contract, you must consent to be photographed fully nude, meaning that at least two of the following must be visible in at least one photograph," Dimitri cleared his throat, took another swig of his wine, and glanced down at the contract, apparently looking for specific wording. I could almost see his cheeks turning pinker. It was clear from the awkward vocabulary he was using that he was reading verbatim from the contract as he said, "'The underside of at least one of your breasts, one or both nipples, the unadorned groove between your buttocks, or the vaginal pubic hair region.' Do you agree to at least two of these, Rose?"
I gulped and then took another drink of my own glass of wine, finishing it off. Letting out a deep breath, I told him, "I guess I do."
Dimitri seemed to relax at my words, then said, "Do any of those things seem like something you don't feel comfortable having displayed in the photos?"
I thought for a moment, mentally reviewing the list, but quickly remembered the . "Well, honestly, the umm …" I cleared my own throat, "pubic hair."
Dimitri tensed.
My face got hot as I told him, "What I mean to say is, I don't have any. I had it waxed. Brazilian. There's not a single follicle of hair left below the neck on me."
"Oh. I see," Dimitri said, studiously looking back at the contract, clearing his throat again and swallowing, "Well, umm, the contract wording does state that it is that general region, so that should be within the terms. Is there anything else from that list that you'd prefer not to show?"
I ask him, gently chewing on the inside of my cheek, "What were the options again? Underboob, nipple, butt crack, and pubic region?"
Dimitri couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, that's more or less what it boils down to."
"I guess I'd be okay with all of those, as long as you're still willing to get down to your boxers once all of my clothes come off. Could I have another glass of wine, though?"
"Certainly, Rose," Dimitri said, setting the contract down on the table, standing, and walking toward the kitchen with his glass, getting the bottle. He downed the remainder of his own glass on the way, poured something clear into a shot glass for himself and downed it, filled the shot glass again, then returned with the bottle of wine and the shot glass, refilling my wine glass. "Since this is a boilerplate contract - the same one that we use for Playboy and Hustler - there is additional language regarding the display of more intimate photographs. Normally, for the calendar, I would just cross those parts out and I wouldn't even mention them, but since I asked you to be in photos for my personal portfolio, I thought I would at least leave the option open. The rest is all completely at your discretion, of course. If you wish, we never have to speak of this again, but I would be remiss if I didn't at least ask," he downed his second shot and said, "Would you consent to photographs displaying the unclothed area between your spread thighs?"
I sat silent, stunned at such a thing. Aside from the small handful of bed partners I had in my lifetime, no one had seen that particular view. Now, after remaining a mostly private thing for so long, Dimitri was talking about taking photographs, and I knew he had taken digital photos for Lissa's shoot, meaning that they could never - not really, anyways - be fully destroyed. Once the pictures were taken, they would always be out there, somewhere in the world.
"Wow. Whatever happened to not doing explicit shots like Playboy and Hustler?"
"As I said, Rose, this is completely optional. Feel free to deny consent to those pictures. Also, remember that this is only consent to take the photos. I will not share any of your photos with anyone else without your permission on each one. If I take the photos and they go in my portfolio, I would not share them without your signature authorizing it for each picture. Once the photos are taken, they become digitally watermarked to show that they came from my camera. If any of your photos are ever released without your express written consent - even the tamer ones -, the contract entitles you to fifty thousand dollars per image."
"Are there other women's vaginas on full display in your portfolio?" I asked, making it almost sound like portfolio was a dirty word.
"Yes, Rose, but unlike you, they all knew before walking in the door that would be what they were being photographed for. You don't have to do it if you're not comfortable with it."
"I'll do it," I told him, quickly downing the second glass. I had seen how gorgeous the picture he'd taken of Lissa had turned out. He was very good at what he did. I could brazen my way through this. Show Dimitri that I'm not a coward, and that I was willing to expose all before him. It didn't even matter if he returned my feelings; I needed to do this to prove it to him - and to myself - that I could do this. If nothing else, it would be beautiful pictures of me that no one else would ever see.
In the back of my mind, I heard myself adding, And a chance for Dimitri to look at me the way he had looked at those other women he'd taken pictures of.
"Well, that settles everything, then," Dimitri said, handing me the contract and a pen, "You can take your time and read this, then initial in each of the smaller blanks and sign at the end. I'll give you a few minutes. Would you like another glass of wine while you're filling it out?"
I shook my head. "No, thanks." I had been drinking since I was a teenager, so I could handle my alcohol well, but not quite that well. No need to make myself drunk.
"I've already started setting the cameras and backgrounds up in the spare bedroom. Once you've signed, you can join me there. There is a privacy screen in the corner of the room once it's time for you to undress. To start, I would like you to leave your shirt unbuttoned but not off, and leave the suspenders, bra, and pants on, for the first round of pictures. We'll still likely have you fully remove your bra and shirt for this first round of photos, but I'd like it all in the first picture or two. I'll explain in more detail once you begin to undress. Did you wear a red bra, as we discussed?"
"I did," I told him, flipping the page of the contract to initial the first line.
"Good," Dimitri said in a surprisingly husky tone, clearing his throat yet again, "That should match the backdrops I have planned for later on."
Dimitri left the room.
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Author's Notes:
As with many other chapters I've put up, there was a preview of the first chapter of this story up on Facebook. You'll find a preview of chapter 3 up soon. If you ever wonder what HonestPassion13 is up to, Facebook is the place to go. My author page is on my profile.
If you happen to read and enjoy this chapter, I'd love a review/comment, favorite/bookmark, follow/subscribe, or kudos, so I know you liked it! ❤