Photographer 54 (Patreon)

“And, this is the third floor, mostly used as offices and other comfortable features,” Carol said as she gestured elegantly, doing her best to replicate a seasoned real estate agent. Admittedly, the way she walked us around was certainly believable. 

I suspected she had a lot of practice, though more likely showing the guests around her own house rather than making random trips around. 

“A bit boring, isn’t it,” Nicole said, making Carol look frustrated. Not that I blamed her, as I lost count of the times Nicole found a fault in what Carol showed around. Carol didn’t say anything. First, as a real estate agent, antagonizing the customer was never a good idea. More importantly, Carol clearly assumed that Nicole was a spoiled model, acting like spoiled models do whenever they weren’t hanging around with rich people. 

That was wildly inaccurate, of course. Not that the models didn’t act spoiled, but the way they acted out was often far more annoying. 

Constant hunger didn’t work well with the nerves. 

Nicole, on the other hand, reminded me more of a hard-to-please teacher going through the project of a student she didn’t particularly like. A personality that fitted her unique brand of beauty far more. She certainly had the assets to look like a teacher who tortured every teenage student with her sheer presence.

Maybe I should have a private shoot dressing her as a teacher. It would be fun. 

“It’s better to be boring. It means we can we don’t have to work hard to decide what to keep and what to give away. We will just renovate the place completely.” 

“Makes sense,” Nicole said, though as I set up the light, she walked forward without my prompting, and gave me several sexy poses. They were helpful for me to better understand the lighting of the rooms, but Nicole pushed far more intensely than necessary. 

Another tool to further annoy Carol. 

For such a calm and kind woman, she could be surprisingly vindictive when she found the opportunity to strike back — albeit, I knew that was only happening because I was with her. She lacked the personality to push her like this alone. 

Fascinating. 

Finding a new studio was important, and I shouldn’t have let things go that far, I really shouldn’t. But I couldn’t help. 

Watching Nicole like that was too entertaining. 

“And, that was the last room,” Carol said. “What do you think?” 

“I don’t know, it feels too much work. There’s a lot of renovations required. Do we have time to do so?” 

I smiled, ready to intervene. As much as I wanted her to see her act out a bit, I had no intention of turning down the warehouse. It looked rough, but the building itself was strong and clean. The building was ugly, extremely so, but that was not exactly a problem with all the shoots happening in sets. 

“It’s not a problem. I can handle the renovation myself,” Carol offered. 

“Really,” Nicole said, not bothering to hide her dismissive glare. “You?” 

“Y-yeah, I have an undergraduate in interior design, and my roommate is a contractor. Together, we can renovate this place far better than any design company … and for cheaper,” she offered. 

Nicole seemed ready to reject, but I caught her gaze and subtly shook my head. It might be fun to tease her relentlessly, but we needed a team quickly, and I was willing to test her. 

Whatever the reason, everything about her told me that she was desperate for work, and such people would often do better work than the alternative. More importantly, there was no pesky infrastructure work to be done, meaning her tastes as a rich person would surely be useful. 

And, if I were being honest, I was also curious about her circumstances, and it might allow me to dig a bit more. 

“Maybe,” Nicole said as she looked at her. “But do you even know what kind of unique needs for a photo studio. Why shouldn’t we hire an expert.” 

Not a bad point, but unfortunately, we weren’t in New York or LA, and finding a contractor expert on building sets was impossible. Yet, before I could say anything, Carol answered. 

“Don’t worry, I have done some modeling. I’m not a complete newbie.” 

“Prove it,” Nicole said, which was surprising enough, then she turned to me. “Give me the camera,” she asked. 

I passed to her without worry. First, because she wasn’t Penny, therefore I wasn’t afraid of her dropping it immediately. Also, even if she did, it didn’t matter. Our next destination was an electronic shop in the nearest decently large city to buy a complete set of new equipment. 

With money finally flowing, I needed some real equipment. 

“Now, give me a simple pose, relax your shoulders,” Nicole ordered, doing her best to sound confident and commanding. 

She was clearly trying to copy my attitude. Unfortunately, it didn’t work on her as well as she had hoped. It looked too fake. 

Carol clearly didn’t miss that, or the fact that I was the real decision-maker. She followed Nicole’s command and posed. 

To my surprise, it was not half bad. I watched from the side as Nicole gave a few more orders — mostly parroting the kind of commands I used during her shoots regardless of their fitting — and Carol followed those with a smoothness that surprised me. 

It makes me wonder exactly how good she would be in a proper set. 

However, I didn’t make an immediate offer. I could simply observe her during the renovation. 

I said nothing, more than willing to waste some time to keep Nicole happy. Unfortunately for her, Carol didn’t share that opinion. More importantly, she was clearly sharp enough to catch that I was mostly indulging Nicole during the whole process. 

Meaning, she could strike back. 

It started with a naughty smile as she got rid of her strikingly bright blazer, leaving only her blouse, which fit her well despite the signs of fraying at the edge. However, even when she leaned forward to enhance her cleavage, Nicole didn’t realize she was being played. 

Only when she reached and pulled her bra through her cleavage, Nicole realized it might not be the best way to take revenge. Carol caught that, her instincts were clearly sharp from all the position jockeying the rich people committed as a lifestyle, attacked to prevent Nicole from preventing that. “You don’t mind that, do you, miss model? I know you need to have various outfits to better understand the behavior of the light.” 

It was not necessary, but Nicole didn’t know that. “Y-yeah, of course,” she said, moving around with the camera, her movement displaying her beautiful legs perfectly. “Go ahead.” 

“Perfect,” Carol said as she turned her back, and pulled off her shirt with one smooth move, showing her naked back to us. I had to admit, she looked absolutely beautiful. Enough that, with the competency she had been displaying, I marked her with another potential model. 

Nicole realized things were going too far in a number of ways. When she made Carol pose, she was hoping to hold the upper hand, thinking that she would effortlessly find the same balance I managed to conjure. 

Big mistake. 

A bigger mistake was not saying anything when Carol put on her red blazer once again without saying anything, assuming that it would be enough. 

It wasn’t.

When Carol turned toward us, her blazer was barely able to cover her areolas. “What do you think? An interesting picture, right?” she asked. 

“Y-yeah,” Nicole blushed, realizing that she was losing control. And, lost in her thoughts, she missed the smug, confident grin she shared with me. However, it wasn’t the kind of grin that shared amusement, but one that conveyed superiority. 

A part of it was clearly her rich personal habits, which were clearly not that far back. But, the moment she hit me with that grin, I realized that she had misunderstood my interactions with Nicole. I had been playing along with her demands to foster a little aggression. 

Carol clearly assumed that it was because I had a weaker personality. 

How interesting. 

Then, something even more amusing happened. She started walking toward me, her steps making her blazer shift a bit to give a glimpse of her areolas. When she reached for me, she grabbed my hand and dragged me to the center of the room. “Having two people creating shadows is a much better way to assess the lighting of a room,” she said as she turned to Nicole, not even asking for my opinion. 

Nicole looked at me, but I shook my head subtly, telling her not to intervene and just play along. A flash of jealousy passed through her face, but Nicole was far too submissive for that to prevent her from obeying. 

Carol assumed it was her desire to win that kept her going. A dangerous assumption. 

I wasn’t going to intervene in their little fight for power … but since Carol decided to involve me…