Were they the same duplexes that Dax lived in?
A happy sort of excitement raced through me.
I’d actually gotten my brother to give me information on those duplexes. I was supposed to go by later and possibly sign a lease.
In fact, that’d been my next stop after the police station.
Now I was going to have to go home…
Maybe.
I could possibly talk Dax into…
“All right,” Dax, the man I’d just been thinking about, said. “Where do you want me?”
The slam of the door had us both turning to see Dax standing in the doorway.
The closed doorway.
Dax’s eyes went to my head, then to Avery who was touching my head still.
“Am I interrupting something?”
I grinned and shook my head.
“No, we were just talking about things that I can do to hide this.” I pointed at my head.
He grunted out a sound and then walked farther into the room.
“Maybe you can do something to hide my tattoos so the chief doesn’t ream my ass,” he suggested.
I looked at the black shirt that was covering them, then looked at Avery.
“You can hide tattoos?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Mostly. It takes some creative lighting, but yes.” She paused. “We can also pose him so that the majority of them are covered up… but dude, there’s no way you’re getting out of taking your shirt off. That’s what’s going to make these puppies be adopted.”
I agreed with her wholeheartedly.
“Yeah.” I eyed the shirts. “They’re gonna have to go.”
Dax’s eyes flicked up to meet mine. Then over to Avery.
“You are legal, right?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes.
It was common knowledge that she was.
“I even have insurance and everything for my business,” she said. “But yes, I’m nineteen. I was held back a year after my mom passed after going through some shit. At this point, I’m only taking two core classes and that’s it. It’s a waste of my year.”
“You should take some college classes,” I suggested as I sat on the edge of the bed.
I ran my hand over my bald head and wondered if it would all grow back in fast, or if it’d grow slow as molasses like it usually did when I cut it.
Dax started stripping off his shirt, starting with the top SWAT one.
I felt my mouth pool with drool at the way the tight compression shirt clung to his body.
See, the thing is, Dax was huge.
He had biceps as big as my head, forearms bigger than my calves, and a chest that most body building competitors would die for.
And man, the high and tight haircut he was sporting along with his neatly trimmed beard? Holy shit, it really did things for me.
Was it hot in here?
I moved from rubbing my head to fanning my face.
Dax looked at me with an expression on his face that I couldn’t quite decipher, then reached down for his compression tank.
“I’m going to college, yes,” Avery said. “Wow, that’s a lot of tattoos.”
It was.
He didn’t have that many on his chest, but he sure did have a shit ton on his arms.
Each of his arms were completely filled with tattoos. There wasn’t a single spot of skin that was blank from wrist to shoulder.
Even his hands had tattoos on them.
There was a skull on one hand and a deck of playing cards on the other.
But those were seriously the tamest of all of them.
“Yeah,” Dax said, propping his hands up onto his trim hips.
And oh, God.
He had a six-pack.
Oh, and the V.
Jesus Christ almighty, he had the V.
And not just a little hint of one, either.
He had a full-blown, my cock is this way, V.
I swallowed hard so that I didn’t look at his lower region any longer, trying to get myself under control.
Rowen, you don’t know this man. You might’ve seen him as a kid, but you seriously don’t know him.
“How tall are you?” Avery asked, sounding contemplative.
“Six-foot-four,” Dax answered. “Why?”
Avery tapped her cleft chin with one finger as she studied Dax.
She wasn’t studying him like I was studying him, though.
She was studying him like one would a project.
“I’m thinking that the backdrop is gonna be a no for you,” she gestured to it. “I didn’t bring the extender poles. And six-foot-two is about where I’d want to stop on those.” She paused. “How about the bed? That way I can cover up that tattoo right there.” She pointed to the one that was his mother’s most hated tattoo. The woman with her tits hanging out. “And then I can photoshop what I can’t cut out with creative positioning.”
Dax shrugged and walked over to the bed.
“Get under the covers,” Avery suggested. “You can leave your pants on.”
Oh God.
I’d literally combust if she’d asked him to take those off.
Holy shit.
Dax crawled under the covers, leaving his boots, belt, and pants on.
Sadly.
“Hey, Row?” Avery called. “Can you go over to his other side and help me lift these covers? I want to position it like he’s naked in bed. Just stop it right there… perfect.”