Cara’s first wardrobe change goes perfectly, and she changes quickly into her second with Carlos’s help. The second change goes just as well. Neither she nor I nor Carlos likes the third outfit, but we take some shots all the same just in case and finish up a half an hour ahead of schedule.
“Thank you so much, Mike!” Cara says as I walk her to the door. She leans in and whispers, “And remember, if you ever need anything.”
I nod and smile, trying not to be rude. “Thank you, Cara.” I turn to Carlos and shake his hand. “And thank you for all your great work today, sir.”
Carlos grins. “Always a treat working with people you love to work with.”
I smile and let them both out the door, sigh with relief, then turn back to Ivy, who looks just as relieved as I feel.
“So when’s the date?” she teases.
“Next Saturday.” I roll my eyes.
“Well, I should get going,” she says. “Unless you need me for anything else.”
I watch as Ivy gets up from her stool and goes over to one of my lights to start disassembling it and packing it away, and as she raises her arms up, stretching her body in a way that simply accentuates her beauty, a lightbulb goes off in my head.
“Actually, yes I do,” I say slowly. “You know, I wasn’t kidding when I told you you were sexier than the girls I shoot on a regular basis.”
Ivy scoffs and laughs, “Stop it, Mike.”
“I’m serious,” I say, going over to her. With one hand, I take her by the arm and guide her over in front of the backdrop. When she realizes what I’m doing, she starts to protest. “Oh, no. Mike, no!”
“Oh, yes.” I nod, positioning her right where she should be standing. “You’ve been my assistant, Ivy. But I think it’s time for you to be my model.”
Ivy’s face breaks out into a blush so red that she looks like she’s just been splashed with watercolor.
“I-I can’t,” she stammers. “There’s no way—”
“Of course you can,” I reply, stepping back to my usual position. “You’ve seen what the other girls do. Just imitate that, look right here, and—”
“Mike, look what I’m wearing!”
“Then I’ll get some headshots first.” I smile. “And then we’ll just take off your clothes, and it won’t matter what you’re wearing.”
Ivy looks at me and bites her lips. I see the hesitation in her eyes. She wants to do it, but she’s also nervous as hell. It’s crazy that a girl as gorgeous as her would be nervous to have her picture taken, but I also understand. She’s never done a shoot before, and she’s never dated. She’s never built up the confidence needed to believe in herself, but if anybody’s going to help her with that, it’s going to be me.
“All right,” she says after a moment. “You’ve already got me to do things I swore I never would do, why not this?”
We both laugh, and I motion for her to take her first pose as I raise my camera to my eye. “Just relax, look right here, and don’t overthink it.”
“Sure, that will be easy,” she says sarcastically.
Of course, as it turns out, Ivy is much more natural in front of the camera than I’m sure she expected. Maybe it’s because she’s not trying super hard like many girls do, or maybe she’s just that good, but the first batch of headshots I take of her come out absolutely incredible.
Because she’s not wearing a prearranged outfit for a shoot and hasn’t had a professional makeup job done, she looks like a supermodel who just had a casual walk on the beach and then decided to have her picture taken. They’re incredible, and I feel electrified as I take them. I haven’t felt this passionate about a shoot in years.
“Look at these,” I tell her. “Come here.”
“Oh, God,” she groans, plodding over to me. “Are they horrible?”
“Horrible!?” I laugh as I show her the back of the camera, thumbing through the recently taken shots. “Babe, these are incredible! See? What did I tell you? You’re an absolute natural. You should be a model.”
“Oh, shut up…” she starts to protest, but as she sees the shots, her voice tapers off.
“You see? You look like a supermodel.”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far,” she replies, her voice barely a whisper. “But…”
I can see from the look in her eyes that she’s actually starting to accept her beauty. Sometimes all it takes for a girl to understand is for her to see herself as others see her, and clearly, that’s never happened to Ivy.
It’s been less than two hours since I was inside her in the back room, but I’m still starting to get a bulge in my pants as I watch her. And I know that after what comes next, I’m only going to be even hornier.