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Aelin
“What do you mean the photographer canceled?” Aelin could see several heads on the sidewalk swiveling to stare at her and Lysandra, who were seated outside at their favorite café in Rifthold, but couldn’t bring herself to care when her world was quite literally about to end.
Lysandra cringed. “At least she returned the deposit.”
“No, no, no, no” Aelin put her face in her hands and smacked down on the table, willing herself to wake up from this terrible nightmare. She was the CEO of the biggest wedding planning business in Terrasen, Kingsflame Weddings, but had traveled to Rifthold to plan her best friend Dorian’s wedding and as of now, was sure that her career and life were about to end. “The gods must hate me.”
“Now, don’t be dramatic. We still have time. The wedding isn’t for another 24 hours. Me and Elide can get started on making some calls.” Lysandra offered, taking out her phone and shooting off several rapid fire texts.
“Yes, but the rehearsal dinner is in-”, Aelin looked down at her watch, 11:23am, “-6 hours and Dorian and Manon wanted pictures from tonight!”
“Fuck, ok. I minored in photography in college, I can-”
“Excuse me” said a deep, accented voice from behind Aelin.
She turned around and found herself looking at the most beautiful man she had ever seen. Despite the fact that he towered over her seated form, she saw his silver hair glinting in the sunlight, the tips of a tattoo peeking out from the collar of his leather jacket, and the most brilliant green eyes. Green eyes that were now crinkling at the corners as he realized Aelin was blatantly checking him out.
She arched an eyebrow, “What?” she snapped with more force than she meant.
“I couldn’t help but overhear your predicament and wanted to offer my services. I own a photography business and am not currently booked so I am happy to step in if you need a photographer. I don’t have much experience but I’ve held a camera since the moment I was born and-”
“Since the moment you were born?” Aelin interrupted. “Listen dude, thanks so much for offering but this isn’t some random wedding where we can scrape by with a half rate photographer. I have Vogue, Harpers, and Gods know how many others bidding on these shots. At this point, I’d need a miracle to fall down on my lap from the sky to salvage this.” She began to turn back when something fluttered into her lap.
A business card. Aelin picked it up and read it: Rowan Whitethorn, Portrait Photography.
“There, a miracle falling from the sky” the man replied, putting his wallet back into his pocket.
Aelin let out a small laugh. She had to give it to him, Rowan, he sure was persistent. She stood up, so she wasn’t eyelevel with his crotch, though even at full height in her stilettos, she barely reached his eyes. “Ok Whitethorn, I’ll bite. Show me your portfolio.”
“My studio’s just around the corner, I can show you everything there, as well as introduce you to my team.”
Aelin nodded and grabbed her bag. “Lys I’ll be back soon, can you and-”
Lysandra grinned. “Yes, yes I got it handled, you go work this-” gesturing to Rowan, who was facing away from them and making a quick call, “-all out,” waggling her eyebrows for emphasis.
“I hate you” Aelin mouthed before walking away.
“Love you too bitch” Lysandra shouted when they were halfway down the street.
Rowan
“You’re not taking me to a seedy alley to murder me are you?” the woman asked, walking assuredly beside him.
He glanced toward her; how she managed to not fall flat on her face in those sky-high torture devices on the cobblestone streets of Rifthold was a miracle. “If I was going to murder you, I wouldn’t do it in broad daylight with half the city on the busiest intersection with 50 CCTV cameras around, not to mention your associate back there who has my name and address.”
“That’s a lot of detail for someone who is, supposedly, not going to murder me right now.”
“I’m a photographer. My life is in the details…And here we are.” He said, pointing to a small storefront sandwiched between a chain supermarket and a lingerie store. “It’s not much, but it’s my everything.”
As he led her inside, he sent a silent prayer that his call to Fenrys 10 minutes ago meant that they guys had gotten off their asses and made sure the studio looked presentable. He could tell from the woman’s clothes and designer bag that she was used to things being a certain way.
The studio was sparsely furnished, on account of their just having moved in the week before. But he spotted his team seated at their desks around the studio. To the random observer it probably looked like everyone was the picture of productivity, but Rowan knew better. Lorcan sitting at a desk? Fenrys not leaning back in his chair with his feet propped up tossing a tennis ball against the wall? The world was probably about the end.
“Did you take this?” the woman asked, standing in front of the giant black and white print of two hands reaching for each other that graced the wall behind the front desk. It was Rowan’s favorite photo he had ever taken.
“Yes, that’s from a shoot I did earlier this year.”
“It’s…absolutely stunning. The way you juxtapose the hands with the raw beauty of the desert background is perfect.”
Rowan blushed. He knew he was a decent photographer, but to receive such a great compliment on his work was something he didn’t think he’d ever get used to. “Thank you. That means a lot.”
“You’re welcome” she replied, coming back to stand beside him and looking across at the rest of the team scattered across the studio.
Of course Fenrys was the first to jump out of his chair and walk up to them. He reached for her hand and kissed it. Rowan resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the theatrics.
“Rowan, you forgot to mention that our new client is the most beautiful woman to ever walk this Earth.”
The woman, he still didn’t know her name, let out a small laugh but didn’t move to take her hand out of Fenrys’.
“Oh I like him” she said.
“Of course you do” he muttered under his breath. “This is Fenrys, he’s our AV editor. That’s Lorcan, Connall, and Sellene” he added, gesturing to the three others who had finally joined them in the front.
“Pleasure to meet you, I’m Aelin Galathynius, owner of-”
“Kingsflame Weddings, holy shit!” Fenrys exclaimed.
“I see my reputation precedes me, which is unfair because I know next to nothing about you all. I can tell from your accents that you’re not from around here.”
Rowan nodded. “We’re from Doranelle. Moved over recently to make a fresh start.”
“And how’s that going?”
“As well as can be expected for a new company in a new place.”
Sellene walked up next, holding a large binder with some of my previous work.
“Rowan asked me to show you his portfolio. Our website has the complete edited collection, but here’s some raw photos from a couple of events we did earlier this year in Doranelle.”
Aelin grabbed the binder and started flipping through it. Rowan found himself staring at her face as she did, searching for any sign of her reaction to a large part of his life’s work. Her face betrayed no emotion, but her eyes were innately expressive. Even from the corner, he could see them widen as she flipped through the shots of the cliffside elopement he had shot last month.
“Rowan, these are stunning.” Aelin whispered, looking up and meeting his eyes which were already looking at hers.
Rowan let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He felt moisture gather in his eyes but quickly looked down at his feet and blinked rapidly to clear them. Gods, a beautiful woman compliments him and he was a wreck. But it wasn’t her words that struck him, it was the look in her eyes. She looked at him in a way he hadn’t been looked at in a long time, not since…not since that day. She didn’t pity him, didn’t look like she was waiting for him to fall apart. No, she looked at him like she could see through all the walls he’d built around himself and was staring at his naked soul. Rowan didn’t know what to do with that.
A soft chuckle broke him out of his reverie and he looked up to see Aelin smiling as he looked at him. “Not used to getting compliments?”
Rowan let out a wry smile. “No, no it’s not that.”
She arched a brow and waited for him to continue but Rowan couldn’t think of a single thing to say. It was like every rational thought had left and in its place was an image of Aelin, standing tall in the mid-afternoon light of his studio, blonde hair haloed by the sunlight that filtered in through the sunroof so it looked like a glimmering sheet of starlight.
“I think what Rowan’s trying to say,” Sellene began, shooting Rowan a wink, “is that this business, it’s all still new for him, for all of us.”
Aelin glanced back at him, like she knew that wasn’t the full truth but she didn’t push it. She nodded and handed the binder back to Sellene.
“Ok, based on what I’ve seen, we’d love to have you on board as the photographers for the Havilliard-Blackbeak wedding. The rehearsal dinner is tonight at 6 and I know the couple will want to meet you before tonight and do some test shots. Rowan, are you free for that?”
“Yes absolutely. I’m ready to go now.”
Aelin turned to face the rest of the team. “Here’s Elide’s number, she’s my assistant and will meet you on site to direct you where you need to go when you get there. Don’t be late.” Aelin scribbled a number and handed it to Lorcan.
After they finished going over the rest of the details and signing the contracts, Aelin and Rowan left the team to finish packing up the equipment. Rowan grabbed his personal camera, thanking his forethought to have charged and cleaned it earlier this week so it was ready to go.
As they walked back to Aelin’s car, they passed by the lingerie store and Rowan looked over at the displays in the window. They were beautiful and Rowan wondered what it would be like to have a woman wearing those, to have Aelin wearing those. At the thought of Aelin, he whipped his head away, he could not fuck up the assignment that would literally make or break his entire career by daydreaming about his, sort-of, boss.
But it was too late, he looked over at Aelin and she was smirking at him. “So Whitethorn, which one’s calling out to you?”
“Pardon?” he asked, feeling the blush creep higher on his face.
She pointed at the displays, stopping beside the window. “Green? Blue? Oh is it this red one? I think that’s my favorite, maybe I’ll pop in and add it to my collection. What do you think?”
Rowan’s mind was absolutely roaring but he couldn’t bring himself to say a word.
“Cat got your tongue Whitethorn? You telling me you’ve never seen women in scandalous nightclothes?”
“My encounters with women don’t usually involve lingerie.” He offered with as much bravado as he could muster.
“Oh?” Aelin cocked an eyebrow. “What kind of clothes do they involve then?”
“None.”
Aelin’s face burst into a wide grin. Oh, she was toying with him. “That’s a shame, you’ve been missing out.”
“Are all your nightclothes like that?”
“So curious about my negligees, and we just met an hour ago!” She laughed. Rowan didn’t think he’d ever tire of hearing that sound.
“You’re a menace” he scoffed, making to walk past her. But she grabbed his arm and forced him to stop.
“Is there a specific color you had in mind?”
“Hmm?”
“Color. I can see I’ve properly scandalized you with this conversation, so I feel like it’s only fair that I hear you out.”
Rowan just stared at her as they stood outside. His eyes darted from her mouth to her eyes, which were the most brilliant shade of blue. But against the bright sunlight behind him, he could see the ring of gold around them and it took his breath away. Gold. Real metallic gold, not yellow. He thought.
“Oooh, you’re out of luck. I would never wear something so ostentatious.” Aelin smirked, stepping away and into the store.
As he stood outside, the lingering smell of her perfume making the spot where she had just stood, he realized he had accidently said it out loud. He groaned and turned to look into the store where he saw her chatting with a woman at the counter. Aelin turned to look outside and caught him staring. She gave a quick wink before disappearing into the back.
Rowan walked swiftly away, going to stand outside another store, this one boasting “antiques” from the Southern Continent, to attempt to calm himself down. He felt like a hormonal teenager around Aelin. There was no denying that she was beautiful, but in the time since he had met her, he realized that she was also an incredibly capable businesswoman and a thoughtful friend for all the effort he was putting into her friend Dorian’s wedding.
20 minutes later, Aelin walked out with a large bag. “What a great store, I’ll have to remember to stop by every time I’m in Rifthold.”
Rowan suppressed a groan. He was in deep, deep unending shit.