Hello all! Cate here! Ally and I are working on this story a lot right now, so hopefully there will be more frequent updates for you guys. Please let us know what you think! Things are really starting to heat up plot-wise and we're dying to know what you all think! Thanks so much to Yellow-Queen for reviewing the last chapter!

Hetta breezed down the guys' hallway, a confident smile on her face. Braeden emerged from his room only to freeze in place at the sight of her walking past in a ridiculously short red dress.

"Hetta, what are you doing here?" he asked. She looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"I'm not here to see you, so just calm down," she told him. He stood there in the doorway and watched as she knocked on Eric and Chris' door. Eric answered a few seconds later, obviously ogling Hetta. Braeden felt his hands ball into fists as he watched Eric give Hetta a little hug and while his head was over his shoulder, give a little pretentious wink in Braeden's direction. He tried his hardest to keep his mouth shut, but as he saw Eric's hand slide down to rest far too low on her back as they walked by, he couldn't control himself.

"What the hell are you trying to prove, man?" he asked. Eric stopped their walk down the hallway and sighed loudly before turning to face Braeden.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's still in high school! Braeden said, "Don't mess with her just because I pissed you off."

"Don't pretend like you care about her or her feelings! You're the one who left her out in the hallway crying the other day," Eric said, trying so hard to sound like a good, caring guy, Braeden had to try not to outwardly gag. Hetta slid her hand into Eric's and started to pull him back down the hall.

"Let's go, Eric, we're going to miss our reservation," she said, refusing to meet Braeden's eyes with her own the entire time. When her back was turned, Eric gave Braeden the finger and then started to follow her.

"What's going on?" Savy asked as she stepped out into the hall to join Braeden.

"Fucking Eric is going out on a date with Hetta. That guy is such a douche," Braeden sighed.

"Well, there's not much you can do about it right now, so just come finish the movie," she said, smoothing her hand over his chest before pulling him into the room. He smiled at her and followed her inside, amazed at how fast she could take away his bad moods.

Troy sat uncomfortably at a table in the cafeteria with Chad, Greer, Piper, and Braeden the next afternoon. If only Braeden hadn't been there, Troy knew he would have felt less tense, but since Piper's brother was the only one at the table who didn't know about their frequent trysts, the tension remained.

"Piper, you look stressed. What's up?" Braeden asked, poking her in the arm with the blunt end of his fork.

"I have this massive photo project that's due by the end of the week and I don't know what to do about it," she sighed, slamming the notebook in front of her shut.

"What do you have to do for it?" Greer asked with concern.

"I have to do a black and white photoshoot of a subject I've never shot before," she said, "And you guys know me, I've taken pictures of everything."

"You could take pictures of Chad, he owes me," Braeden said and when Chad shot him a questioning look he replied with, "You took my bear, dillhole!"

"After you took my rabbit!"

"That was because you sent Hetta into my room!"

"Only because you stole my clothes in the bathroom," Chad said definitively, crossing his arms over his chest. Braeden sat there, trying desperately and obviously to come up with a retort.

"Well fuck," he muttered, giving up, "I guess Chad doesn't owe me a favor."

"In fact, I think you owe me one," Chad laughed, "And besides, I hate getting my picture taken." Braeden swore again and dug back into his lunch.

"You guys are no help at all," Piper groaned, "I can't take pictures of campus, or our apartment, or basically any inanimate object. I'm so screwed!"

"Why don't you take pictures of Troy," Braeden suggested.

"And break my camera? No thanks," Piper sassed. Troy rolled his eyes.

"Fine then, get an F, see if I care," Braeden spat back, "I just know that he's free tonight. I saw Jeremy earlier and he said practice was cancelled."

"It is?" Troy asked, suddenly feeling very excited. He hadn't had a night off in weeks.

"Well then, I'm sure he'll want to get in a work-out tonight. Wouldn't have time to help me out," Piper said, her double connotations not lost on Troy.

"I think I could probably fit it in," he replied.

"Well there you go. You can thank me later when you get an A," Braeden said.

"What makes you think I'll get an A?" Piper asked.

"Just look how pretty he is," Braeden teased, reaching across the table and grabbing Troy's face in his hands, smooshing his cheeks against his nose. Troy smacked his hands away.

"Shove it, Braeden," Troy said, tucking in to his food in order to avoid more awkward conversation and to mask the smile covering his face. If only Braeden knew what he had just done, and what would likely take place before, during, or after the photoshoot.

Troy did as instructed and wore a pair of worn blue jeans and a plain black t-shirt over to Piper and Greer's apartment. He couldn't help but feel nervous. His senior picture session had been strange and his parents had been right there in the room. He knew that working with Piper would be much more intimate and stressful since he knew that she had a grade riding on his performance as much as hers. And contrary to what Braeden thought, he did not consider himself "pretty" by any means.

Greer answered the door with her purse over her shoulder.

"Perfect timing, I was just leaving. Chad owes me dinner," she told Troy.

"Make sure you order the most expensive thing on the menu," Troy encouraged, patting Greer on the shoulder as he walked by.

"Troy, make sure you and Piper actually get something done. This is a really important project." Troy swallowed hard, his nerves multiplying instantly.

"Of course," Troy laughed nervously before heading into the house. He found Piper sitting in the kitchen drinking some coffee and flipping through a magazine.

"You look good," she smiled, "And you were very obedient. Me likey."

"I know this is an important project and I want to help," he told her, sitting down on a stool next to her.

"Well, I wasn't completely forthright about the project," she admitted, closing the magazine and taking a prolonged sip of her coffee before continuing, "I mean, everything I told you guys was true, but that wasn't everything about it. It's supposed to be a sensual black and white photoshoot."

"You could have just asked me to begin with," Troy said, immediately offended that she hadn't.

"No, because, then when my little brother came to see the display of sensual photoshoots in the gallery, he might have freaked out just a tad," she said. Troy mouthed the word "oh" and felt his typical guilt start to settle in. "You want a drink to loosen you up?"

While Troy would have normally turned down a drink on a school night, he now knew that the photoshoot had to be sexy and he agreed. Piper retrieved a beer for both of them out of the fridge. Troy watched her as she talked him through the process they'd be undergoing, but he didn't hear much of it. She was dressed simply in a white tank top and some jean capris and her hair was hanging loose around her shoulders, something he didn't often see outside the bedroom.

"What are you looking at?" she asked, sounding only mildly annoyed. Troy immediately flushed at having been caught and sipped his beer.

"Nothing," he started, "You just look really pretty."

"You're getting all red, are you really drunk off half a beer?" she teased. He laughed despite himself and shook his head. "Well good, finish that up and then we should probably get started." She took a long sip of her beer before tossing it into their glass recycling bin and he did the same with his own before following her up to the second floor landing where her black backdrop was usually located. In its place was a white drop, which she explained to him that she was going to do half with the white backdrop and then put the black one back up for the second half.

"We'll do some with your shirt on, but then you're going to take it off, okay?" Troy gaped at her until she rolled her eyes and repeated herself.

"I heard you, I just didn't know taking shirtless pictures was part of the deal."

"Well I told you that downstairs when you were staring at me like a creepass, so get over it!" she exclaimed, shoving him in the direction of the backdrop.

"What do I do now?" he asked, realizing immediately that he was whining, quite badly in fact.

"Stop making that face for starters," she told him, now holding an SLR digital camera, "Do you want me to put on some music so you can sway to it like the awkward white boy you are?" He glared at her and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Oh that's perfect! Don't move!" He froze in place, trying his hardest not to look awkward as he did so. Piper moved around him from different angles taking pictures quickly. The longer it went on, the more comfortable he got with moving without prompts from her. After about fifteen minutes, she stopped.

"Take your shirt off," she ordered, disappearing into her room only to emerge a few seconds later with a bottle of water in her free hand. "Can you kneel down on the ground for me? And pull your jeans down a bit, I want to see those hip bones." He sighed, suddenly feeling really self-conscious as she positioned him. And then without warning, she tipped the bottle of water upside down, its contents immediately spilling onto Troy's head and shoulders.

"What the fuck?" he exclaimed, looking down as the water continued to trail down, now sliding down his torso in cold trails. Before he heard the bottle collide with the carpeted floor, he heard Piper's camera click as she took a photo. A breath whooshed out from between her lips as she looked at the small screen on the back of the camera.

"Now that's sensual," she whispered to herself, shaking her head to snap her thoughts back to the task at hand.

"What do you want me to do?" he asked, ruffling his hands through his hair and shaking away the excess moisture. Instead of responding, Piper simply continued to take picture after picture, capturing every one of his movements on her memory card.

"Just shut up and pose," she said, "And don't try to look too sexy because it needs to be sensual, not porno." Troy nodded and tried his hardest to move, kneeling on the floor, shirtless, covered in water, and not looking too sexy.

"I feel stupid, do I look stupid?" he asked after awhile.

"If you looked stupid I would have told you, don't worry," Piper smiled, "But I do want you to lay down on your back." Troy sighed, doing as told. "Put one hand behind your head, yeah, that's it." Piper took several pictures walking around him, but finally sighed and gave in, stepping so that her feet were alongside his knees.

"If you wanted to straddle me, you could have just said so," Troy grinned, only to hear her take another.

"I wouldn't ask and you know it," she said, dropping to a kneeling position above his legs. Troy realized suddenly that he was pretty turned on, something he'd assumed Piper would have mentioned. He did have to admit to himself that Piper had looked damned sexy being so serious and taking pictures. Even when she was ordering him around, he had liked it, though he supposed that wasn't something particularly new for them.

"So has this been entirely awful for you?" she asked, scooting forward so she could sit on his thighs.

"Awful? No. A little weird? Yes," he replied honestly, "But, I'm helping you out so I'm dealing. And, I still get to spend time with you tonight, so that works, too."

"That's really cute," she said, and Troy had expected to hear a condescending tone to her comment, but found none.

"I want you right now," he said, taking the reigns for once. She raised her eyebrows at him before snapping another photo.

"Very good, keep doing that." He sighed and grabbed her hips, pulling her forward until she was sitting on top of his erection.

"No, Piper. I want you right now." He took the camera from her hands and set it carefully off to the side before pulling her down to him by the shoulders.

"But Troy, my project-" she mumbled against his lips.

"Can wait." Piper tried to gain control and struggled against him for a few seconds, but when he roughly grabbed the bottom hem of her shirt and pulled it off, she gave in. Troy had never allowed himself to be like this with Piper, so forward and not letting her have an opinion in what they were doing. He moved his hands to the back hook of her bra while grinding himself up into her, eliciting a loud moan from her lips. When he almost had it unfastened, the sound of footsteps running up the stairs halted their movements.

"What the fuck!" Braeden exclaimed and when neither of them answered him, "WHAT THE FUCK!" Troy quickly and gently guided Piper off of him and both pulled their shirts back on.

"It's a, um… sensual photo shoot," Piper managed and if Troy hadn't been so freaked out about getting caught, he probably would have laughed a little at the idea of her being unable to formulate a quick response to something.

"Yeah, I caught that," Braeden replied bitterly, "Not exactly what I was referring to, though."

"Look man, I don't know what to say," Troy said, standing and taking a step towards Braeden.

"Why didn't you guys tell me you were dating?" Braeden asked, and Troy realized that he now sounded hurt, not pissed off, "I was downstairs grabbing a soda and I heard part of what you guys were saying to each other before it got gross."

"Because we're not dating, Braeden," Piper sighed, as if the answer should have been obvious.

"But… then what the hell is going on?"

"We've just been… you know," Piper said, "Oh god, please don't make me say it to you."

"Fucking?" Braeden asked, turning to Troy, "You've been fucking my sister? For how long?"

"It's not like that, man," Troy lied.

"Oh yeah? Then how is it?" Braeden demanded. All three of them stood there in silence for a few seconds. "Yeah, that's what I thought." He turned and headed for the stairs.

"Braeden, come on! Don't just walk away," Troy shouted out.

"Why? So I can watch you violate my sister some more?" Braeden asked, "I can't fucking believe you, Troy." And with that, he ran down the stairs and slammed the front door shut on his way out.

"Shit," Troy muttered.

"I'm sorry about that. His temper sucks," she said, "I might be a bitch, but at least I don't fly off the handle like that."

"Well, I'm sure walking in on us making out and groping wasn't exactly what he was expecting."

"I just can't believe the little pervert was down there eavesdropping."

"Piper, I don't think it was like that-"

"Don't take his side because you feel bad, Troy. He'll get over it, I promise." Troy wanted to believe her, but when he remembered how severely Braeden had retaliated on Chad just for sending Hetta into his room, he shuddered inwardly at the thought of what the penalty would be for, as he had put it, violating his sister.