"Well, here I am living out every girl's dream." Sarah dropped on the floor and arranged her skirt so it fanned over her legs.
"Are you serious?" Kyle sat too, leaning his back against the opposite wall.
"Probably not." She looked at her hands and then at him. "I just can't get over how different you are from the pictures."
That again. "Different how?"
"You're so... full of life."
"The real person is livelier than the photograph. Shocking."
She let out a laugh. "Stop doing that. I don't really want to like you."
"I'm sorry. I solely communicate in sarcastic quips and cheesy one-liners."
Sarah giggled and leaned her head back against the wall. "How can you be the same guy in that poster my roommate had in college?"
The air seemed to freeze around him even if the temperature in the elevator was steadily growing. "Wait, what? Did you just say poster?"
"And there's my next question answered," she mumbled. "I was about to ask you how you can pose like that."
"I never posed for anything in my life." He avoided everything involving the press like the plague. Sure, he couldn't avoid all paparazzi photos, but those were usually grainy or from bad angles.
"That makes a lot more sense." Sarah nodded and to her credit totally seemed to believe him.
"Are you sure it was me?"
"Yeah. Look." She started searching her purse, most likely for her phone. "I know we don't have any signal, but she sent me a photo the other day, showing me where she placed it in her new flat. She kept bugging me to introduce her to you, even if I told her I didn't know you. Just because my mom works for yours doesn't mean I know anyone." She took her phone out and started scrolling.
It took less then one minute for her to shove a picture at him. And the moment he saw it, he realized she was right. It really was him. And not only that, but he was naked from the waist up. He had jeans on, but nothing else and the photo was taken from an angle which showed him half turned, his face down as he focused on the t-shirt in his hands. What the actual hell?
His eyes scanned the background of the photo. It was blurred out, but he could still tell it was taken in the academy lockers, which made it at least two years old.
"What the fuck?" he murmured. It was also retouched and looked profesional enough.
"So I take it no consent for this?" Sarah asked.
"It was taken in the locker room at the police academy. Does that answer your question?"
"Yikes." She took her phone back. "Didn't figure it was that bad."
"Welcome to my life. It sucks." It was stupid and irrelevant, but the breach in privacy annoyed him more than he thought possible. "Damn. How did I end up a piece of meat?"
"Come on! With your looks, you must have been one in high school." Her eyes widened as if she'd just realized what she'd said. "I didn't mean it like that. Just that this hormonal teenager crap must be something you've dealt with before. Not that it makes any of this okay."
"Surprisingly, it wasn't. I was in a band in high school and on the basketball team so I was never just the hot guy everyone gawked at. I was always something more." And wow that came out conceded. "Don't get me wrong. Looks are totally irrelevant."
"Says the guy dating a model."
"That's not why I fell in love with her."
They both fell silent. The conversation had taken a sucky turn and he wanted out of that elevator more than ever.
YOU ARE READING
Lose Control (The Jewel Project #5)
Adventure"It's never going to end, is it? The rivalry, the hatred, the madness. Not even now. Not even after so many years." It has been three years since the last jewel was recovered, and the Agency seems to have put the project to rest. They have a new tar...
