JieMi struggled over the fly, stuffing his hard, aroused cock down into his jeans and pretended not to care that they remained in the room as he dressed. Idiot. He cursed in his head, biting his lips as his heart pounded in his chest. She wouldn't be looking, not at an asshole like him.
Still he turned his head, hoping to catch her gaze but the strange spark in his chest fizzled away when he saw her in Hikaru's arms. Her head tilted as she listened to Hikaru's soft words in Japanese as he combed his fingers through her hair. They were in their perfect little bubble, one JieMi could never hope to penetrate.
He whipped his head back to the wall, tears pricking at the back of his eyes. He was such a loser. He swallowed thickly, pleading for strength. He'd cried too much these days that crying had become so dreadfully easy. He was afraid that he might weep again in her presence but he managed somehow. He managed to pick up his camera and follow her to her room, managed to talk about homework and homework only. He managed to stay stiff and cold despite the mess in his heart.
Entering her room was much more painful than he expected it to be. With the memory of what he had seen fresh in his mind, he was filled with a strange feeling that he couldn't quite describe. The sheets were cleaned, he'd seen his brothers changing them that morning, and the room was aired, no longer sweet with the scent of her and musky with the scent of sex. But the sight of his best friends on the bed, rolling about, content and lazy made his heart squeeze.
Were they even best friends anymore? They seemed to hate him too.
"Sweetheart," Sieon called, dragging her down into the bed and into a kiss that made JieMi avert his eyes away. He couldn't bear to look, not with the older guy openly laying claim on her like that. He was doing it on purpose and JieMi knew that. His fist clenched; jaws tightened as his muscles flexed.
"We're doing homework Eon," she explained, stroking his hair with small hands.
Homework. The word sounded like an excuse to JieMi's ears. It was as if homework was the only reason he was here and—He bit his lips. Oh, what was he thinking? Homework, was the only reason he was here. Amber went to her wardrobe, kneeling down to pull at a shelf then turned to him with a painfully lacy bra in her hands, one that made his head spin and his body hot.
"Will this do?"
"Amber! Why are you showing him your underwear?" Sieon gasped, looking painfully stricken. "Not that one!" She licked her lips, looking at it up and down and poking her fingers at where her nipples should be. Her digits gave way, the pink of her flesh obvious through the mesh. She would look lovely in that pair, black lace and see-through fabric that would give him a teasing view of her hardened nipples—
"I guess, I should pick a swimsuit," she said sheepishly, folding it and placing it back into her collection.
"This is for your school, right? You might be displayed in the gallery?" Oliver hummed, frowning as he spoke.
"Yeah…"
"Then pick another one! Something for the public."
Oliver crouched beside her, searching through her wardrobe as if he knew it like the back of his hand. He did, of course he did, the others had worked on her room, packing her things when she had been in coma. If things were different, JieMi would have helped with the room too.
"This one!" Oliver raised a full piece that looked a little too much like a swimmer's outfit with its bright blue and lime green stripes and sleeves. It was hideous, but nothing she couldn't pull off. In JieMi's head, Amber could pull off anything but he couldn't say that to her. No, never.
"I'll fail with that one," JieMi sighed, letting a huff through his teeth as he twisted the lens of his camera. But inside he was shaking, his fingers trembling and quivering with the imagery of her in that lacy black lingerie in his mind. Fuck that, her clothes were just fine. "Take off that outerwear, leave on the shirt, the pants go too." He pretended to fiddle with the camera, but he glanced up at her from underneath his lashes.
She did as he asked, pulling off the white long sleeved, revealing the thin camisole that clung tight to the swell of her breasts. Then she dropped her sweats, exposing long creamy legs that stretched for miles. It was a simple getup, hardly anything erotic. And yet it made his cock throb; twitching in his pants and digging against the zipper of his fly.
"Lie on the bed," he instructed, his voice tight as she obeyed. The soft glow of the morning sun on her skin was heavenly, it turned soft pink into a rich warm honey. A colour that reminded him of the sweet, juicy flesh of a peach. "Look out of the window and relax." She chuckled low in her throat and his mouth went dry at the sound.
"I know what you want," she said, her voice oddly husky and she turned her head, twisting her hips. "You don't have to direct me, just take the pictures."
The soft fabric had ridden up her belly, revealing contracting muscle and the dip of her ribcage. The sight enraptured him, his gaze captured by the sway of her plump exposed ass, begging to be bitten, and the teasing flash of white panties. He snapped the picture quickly before he lost his head. But the sight did however, send a jolt of longing straight to his cock.
"Are you sure? Because this is—"
"I know what I'm doing. My cousin had one taken with a professional." Her eyes were gemstones, hewn from raw rock and soft mineral. "Trust me."
She twisted her body, stomach rolling with the fluidity of rippling silk in the wind. And JieMi lost another breath of fresh air when her stomach tautens and her fingers find themselves at the edges of her panties that she knots between two thumbs. A drag and more skin was revealed, a little more and the nub of her clit would be too. One that he spotted between the dip of fabric that clung to her netherlips, the swollen bump that revealed itself with the switch of her crossed legs.
Amber ran her fingers down her breasts, feather light touches that echoed along the length of his cock and his mouth dropped when they ghosted over her nipples. She arched her back then, pushing out her breasts with a flexibility that threatened the gasp from spilling from his lips. Her body was perched, legs crossed and outstretched in a position that he could only describe as erotic as she flung her head back, closing her eyes to an invisible lover.
And the light drenched her, covering her skin and outlining every little bump with shadow. He could see everything. The curve of her breasts, the tight strap of her bra, the dip of muscles along her abdomen, the column of her throat. But more importantly, perhaps were the tips of her breasts, twin peeks that hardened in the air. She seemed naked in that position, in that darkness, for nothing much could be seen or hidden from the sharp rays of the sun.
And JieMi wanted nothing more than to curse, to drop the camera and run to the bathroom so that he could pump his cock with his hands and take him to release, to ease the suffering of his tightening balls. But he continued pressing the button like a maniac, unable to stop his hands from moving, from capturing the scene and burning the image into data.
The urge to touch her was so strong then that his chest blossomed with pain, so powerful that it momentarily distracted him from his lust. A ripple that consumed him whole, the monster chewing his bones and his flesh between sharp teeth and spitting him out immediately. The pain left, leaving him winded, numb, lost.
The final attack was the slip of her knees to the bed, her body snaking down against the duvet and her plump ass revealed themselves behind her. Two round globes of erotic flesh that did things to his heart and his pulsating cock. She froze for him, wriggling about from instability from a weak core and he was finished. Utterly, irrevocably mesmerized by the sight of her beautiful skin.
And her eyes met his as he took the last picture, eyes that were sharp gold in the sun, eyes that were lava and moonstone, geodite and agate. One that he struggled to capture not because she was a bad model, but because he was a shitty photographer with quivering hands that refused to cooperate. And his heart took off, sky rocketing into the unknown. He closed the camera without another word, stepping back with a sharp nod. A retreat from the challenging enemy.
"Done." He couldn't say anything else, not with his heart in his throat. Not with her eyes reading his form, not with her beauty bedazzling him.
"Good, I was starting to get sore," she stretched, joints popping and the ripple of her skin was tantalizing, like ice cream to a dehydrated child. "Send the final copy to me before you email it to Professor." She sat on her ass; knees locked, rubbing her head with her fingers.
"Yeah," he said, nodding dumbly. He stepped back. "I'll go. See you at school."
"Sure, you don't want breakfast?" She raised a brow, cocking her head to the side in question and he nibbled on his lips. The offer was tempting, so tempting that he considered it. He considered watching her eat, watching the smile on her lips. It wasn't for him, that smile, but it was a fine substitute for what he could not have and JieMi wanted it. He wanted that smile.
"He can get breakfast outside, JieMi has work today," Sieon told her, waving his hand dismissively.
And JieMi jerked, his feet missing a step or two as awareness rushed back to him. He'd forgotten they were there, forgotten that the world didn't just consist of him and Amber, but him and—He noted the look in his brothers' eyes. The lust and heat that reflected his own as they watched their soulmate. Go, Sieon's eyes said. Go and give us our space. His eyes narrowed and JieMi knew then and there that they wanted to kiss her, they wanted to release the tension in their bodies from her photoshoot. They wanted to make love to her, show her things that JieMi couldn't that JieMi wasn't privileged or lucky enough to have. JieMi fled before his body could stop him, before his soul took control over rationality.
And as he ran, and ran, and ran. The tears that flowed came naturally. But he couldn't stop running, he couldn't help it. Not when it was the only thing he could do now, not when he was afraid, not when he cared for Amber.