Chapter 25
Lucy had been in her office looking over some of her most recent work when a pair of hands covered her eyes.
"So help me God, you better damn well be Owen acting stupid or you will have my teeth sinking in your wrists and you'll be lucky to get those fingers back."
"Does that include me?"
Her tone changed at the sound of the man's voice behind her. "Paul?!"
"Last time I checked, sweetheart."
Lucy turned around. "What are you doing here? And how did you get in without me hearing you? You usually sound like a team of horses."
"I made sure Shelly was quiet and didn't make a fuss." He lifted his leg. "Just having a little trouble again. I'm off for a few."
"I'm guessing someone rushed back to work too early?" Lucy gave him a shame-on-you look.
"I love my job, okay?"
"I thought something was odd when I watched Raw the other night when you weren't moving around very much. You guys were great, by the way."
"Wait, you actually watched the show? I thought you didn't like wrestling."
"Shelly suckered me into watching. I'm glad I did, though. May I add that high definition does you no justice; you're much more sexy in person."
"Thanks…I think," Paul replied, blushing a little. "So what have you been up to lately?"
"You mean when I'm not photographing sexy men in my studio or having one in my office?" she smiled at him. "By the way, you're working that longer hair well. Even the pictures from our 'little project' show it."
"Uh….no one has seen those, right?"
"They've been for my eyes only," Lucy smiled again.
At least for now, she thought, having a few ideas in mind but hadn't really acted on them yet.
"Okay. And the other thing we talked about the last time….still thinking about it?"
"Actually, Owen has some contacts in Austin. He's going to see if they can throw some stuff my way; he flew down last week and showed them some of my work."
"Are you serious?" Paul was beaming.
"You would be surprised how many contacts Owen has in both this country and overseas. I'm not going to rely on him too much, but I can use all the help I can get to get started since I'm going to be treading in a strange land, to say the least."
"Well, I'm certainly backing you all the way."
"I certainly hope so, Paulie Boy. This was all your idea to begin with, remember?"
"You inspired me," he replied, winking. "So are you free tonight?"
"For you, always. I just can't believe you come back and forth all the time when you're so far from home."
"Again, you inspire me. It isn't like I'm not used to traveling so much. A guy has to have some travel for pleasure once in awhile, and I can't think of any better pleasure than what's sitting in front of me right now."
Lucy just smiled in response; she just hoped this 'inspiration' would continue once he had the birthday surprise she was planning for him in hand.