Message received. "Insurance papers?" he knew the routine, his father's business did more car magazines than fashion, but Carlitos didn't say no to good business. Tom saw nothing wrong in the paperwork, hearing enough music and noise from inside to remind him of the failed rally party.
He signed, pocketed a copy and let the gopher take his keys. Nate had said to go enjoy the honey and Tom was just in the right frame of mind to do just that. Inside was as much chaos as the noise had hinted, a sea of people trying to accomplish things while already two hours behind schedule. The Mustang was already being placed on set, flanked by a series of bikes worth their weight, and one sad looking orange Camry. Getting the gear adjusted to the new colour palletes, the huddled mass of people that knew how to use the gear in the middle of the room all argued with each other and were in fact louder than the section where actual music was playing from.
Over there he saw the honey pot of models getting ready to work, and his keen eye found one very worthy sight. The model was stretching, oblivious to how it looked from this angle. He could only really tell that her ass was made for those leather pants, and those pants needed to meet the floor of his bedroom soon. The high spike heeled boots she had on added length to legs that filled the pants as nicely as the ass did, and Tom shamelessly watched as she arched back up, arms over head in a spine wiggling stretch. She had on some kind of silver crop top that left strips of skin bare on her back, and even with hair hiding some of it the skin shown made his hands want to wander.
And then Tom realized he was going to have to take his thoughts out back and beat them to death because the model turned slightly and he recognized Adrianna.
She hadn't spotted him yet and Tom hesitated, wondering if it'd be better to have her see him or just go show her that he was here. And damn Nate for not warning him the brat was here, his own thoughts were making him uncomfortable. Tom looked away but stayed put, trying to focus on finding Nate while giving Dri the chance to spot him and come over.
"Tomas?" her voice sounded surprised, and closer than he thought she'd been.
Tom looked over, acting surprised to see Dri there, and caught the flash of concern in her eyes as she looked him over. It was a quick assessing check, like she expected him to have been in a fight. He was now ignoring her outfit, but felt safe focusing on how the makeup around her face looked odd to him. And he noticed when she looked past him to see the Mustang, comprehension on her face. And she hadn't even really asked anything, Tom realized she'd just deduced it. And now he really wanted to know if she could play poker.
"Nate needed a car that didn't suck." He confirmed, seeing her smile for keeping up with her.
"At least this means we can get this going, at this rate we'll be here until two am again." She sounded relieved but Tom was still trying to see if he was right about her making being off.
If he didn't know better, he'd say she was covering up a fresh black eye.
Tom looked around at the other models, absently noting that not all of them were women but most lacked the brat's curviness. More importantly, none of them had the same puffiness around an eye like Dri did.
"Tom!" Nate called, grabbing his attention and sparing the brat his question. "You're a life saver. They're moving the Camry and then we'll get going."
Adrianna had slipped back to the other models and Tom let Nate pull him into the bubble of photography, comforted with knowing that there was no way the brat had gotten hurt with her brother here. It was strange to see his friend help run the show; normally he was easy going to a fault but the temper Tom knew was a family trait came out a few times as Nate had to deal with idiots. And then he was watching the vision Nate had in his head come together through the series of pictures he was taking.

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High Card Bluff (House of Cards Series 5)
RomanceTom Guerrero is used to working in the mechanic shop for his father and running the odd job for his mother's private investigator business when he isn't trying to lead his own life, but one job for his mother is pulling him in too deep. He is trying...
(3) Assumptions vs Expectations
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