Page 24 of Enchanted

How had Ethan been able to capture their love? The commitment that shone through every pixel?

He was an artist. It was as simple as that.

An artist who was going to be staring at me for the next several hours through a camera lens. “Are you sure I should be topless?”

Sam snorted. “Yes. Even if shirtless models weren’t the biggest commodity on the market, don’t you want to bring every weapon in your arsenal?”

“What do you mean?”

He shook his head with a laugh. “Come on, Rami. You might not do it for me, but you know you’re hot.”

Theoretically, I knew I was. All supes were physically attractive, it was one of the ways we lured humans in when needed. But in reality? It had been so long since anyone had looked at me twice that I wasn’t too sure.

Ethan called you hot.

“Trust me, your mate will be happy.” Sam swept a critical eye over me. “All you need to do is flex your ridiculous muscles and flash him that cheeky grin, and he’ll be putty in your hands.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” He laughed again. “Wow, I thought Zeke was bad.”

“Sorry,” I said sheepishly. “I just want him to like me, you know?”

“He will.” He patted my arm. “He’d be crazy not to. Everyone likes you, Rami. Now, you go out there and show him why, okay?”

I nodded, Sam’s pep talk once again hitting all the right notes. “Got it.”

Just then, the bond tugged. Ethan’s emotions came through clearer than ever. He was nervous. Excited. And a little bit…sad?

My muscles tensed. Why was he sad? I didn’t like that. Not one bit.

I took a deep breath. “He’s almost here.”

Sam beamed and clapped his hands. “Then let’s get this show on the road.”

Chapter 7

Ethan

Ihefted my equipment bag higher on my shoulder, once again questioning my sanity in refusing Sam’s offer of a driver.

What was I thinking? I lived in London, for fuck’s sake. Taking the bus here with all my lights, lenses, and camera had been a stupid idea.

To be fair, I hadn’t expected to actually need to take the bus, but here I was. Wished I could be surprised that Dave had let me down at the last minute.

I was wishing for a lot these days. Seemed daft. You’d think I’d been given everything I could possibly want with my all-clear, but that wasn’t the case. Suddenly having my life handed back to me had me more aware than ever of just how…empty it was.

Dave had been fully supportive of my attempt to restart my career. It wasn’t a decision I’d made immediately. The first few days following my appointment with Dr. Hall had been spent in a daze. I think, maybe, I’d been waiting for a call to say there’d been a mistake. That they had confused my results with someone else’s.

But time passed, and the call never came.

More than that, I felt…healthy. Better than even before I’d been sick. Without medical appointments and illness filling my days, I’d realised I couldn’t sit around forever. What’s more, I didn’t want to. I’d been given a second chance, and I wasn’t going to squander it. Who knew how long I had? All it would take was not paying attention when I crossed the road and it’d be curtains for me. Heavens knew it was only a matter of time before that happened. I was hardly the most attentive person when it came to shit like that.

So I knew I had to get moving. To do something with the unexpected gift I’d been given.

Problem was, I had no idea what.

On the surface, it was an easy decision to pick up my camera again. I knew my heart and talent lay in photography. Making a career of it was my dream. Problem was, in LA, I’d made barely enough to scrape by.