New Sensation Read Free Page B

him?
    "Quitting her job…"
    "And…"
    "Travelling the world," I giggled. He leaned forward and placed his hands softly on mine. Tiny bolts of electricity shot through me and I felt my nipples harden beneath my little black dress.
    "What about dating a rock star? Is that too crazy even for you?"
    Suddenly, my defences fell away. "I'm open to anything," I smiled. "Life's too short not to take risks." I felt tears well up in my eyes as I thought about the awful year I had just had. Rick took my palm in his hand, his soft touch feeling so comforting, so right.
    "What's wrong, Amy? Was it something I said?"
    "No," I replied, embarrassed. He handed me a napkin and I used it to wipe the tears away from my cheeks. "When I was a little girl, my parents didn't have much. My dad would work such long hours and get so little in return. I always thought it seemed so unjust. But no matter how poor we were, we always did things as a family. They always made time for me. On weekends, my dad would take me out with this camera – an old Hasselblad that his father had passed down to him – and we would walk for hours. We would take photos of whatever we could find that was remotely interesting. The way the light passed through a particular tree branch, the brutal decay of a dilapidated building. We found beauty in everything."
    "Is that what inspired you to become a photographer?"
    I nodded. "My dad would take me in the darkroom and we'd make pictures from chemicals and liquid. I'll never forget the first time I put a blank piece of paper into a mixing tray and saw this image I'd taken – it was something silly, like a rusty old lock or something – suddenly appear. It was magical! Just magical. Life seems so cynical now. There's little magic these days."
    "Come on, let me walk you home. I'll get the bill and we can talk some more with nobody else around."
    As we made our way down darkened London streets, Rick held me close. I felt completely at ease, as if I could sink into him. The warmth of his hard, muscular body made me feel like I had found some magic in my life again. Magic that had been lost all those years ago when my dad finally locked up his darkroom once and for all.
    "My parents lost their house this last year," I explained. "They had been ripped off many years ago by an investment plan that should have paid off their mortgage. Instead, it left them desperately short. I tried to do everything I could to help, even selling my car a few months ago. But it was too late."
    We stopped and Rick turned to look at me. "I'm sorry, Amy. Sometimes life just sucks ass. Where are your parents living now?"
    "The council gave them a little flat. That's an apartment to you Americans. You couldn't swing a cat in there, but they 're holding it together, pretending everything is all right. But I see the sadness in their eyes. Life shouldn't be this hard when you've worked all your life like that."
    "And now you don't even have a car? How the hell are you getting around?"
    "Public transport and my feet," I laughed. "This is my place. Do you want to come in for a coffee?"
    Rick looked up at my apartment building and softly stroked my cheek. "I'd love to, but I'm going to be the antithesis of a rock star and treat you with the respect you deserve. I'm going to say goodnight, go back to my hotel and think about you. I will warn you, I may masturbate.”
    I rolled my eyes in mock disgust.
    “Okay, too much information. Then, tomorrow, I'm going to send a limousine to pick you up."
    "A limousine? What… What for?"
    He looked straight into my eyes. "I'm flying to the south of France tomorrow. I own a recording studio there and I'm going to finish off production on the album. I want you to come and photograph the process. Then, when you quit your job, you're going to sell those intimate images of me on the verge of becoming a solo artist to the highest bidders."
    I didn't know what to say. "Rick… But you don't have to…"
    "Just say yes, Amy. Leap off