Instead, she turned back to Tommy. “Same ground rules as when we shot the skin-to-skin earlier. You remember?”

He nodded seriously. “Of course. I know I’ve done my fair share of joking, but you’ve been amazing here today. On my honour, I respect your boundaries.”

She smiled faintly. “Thank you.”

“The shot is exactly the mix of drama and romance we need,” Talia agreed, “but who’s going to tell Brian?”

All around them shoulders sagged.

“Will he really not allow you to reshoot?” Caroline asked with an adorably naive expression. “Won’t he want to make the most of the shot, no matter who came up with it?”

“No,” Sophia sighed, “but he will if I make him think it was his idea.”

Talia grimaced apologetically but made no move to dissuade her.

So, steeling her nerves and gritting her teeth, Sophia slipped back into character, not the one she’d been hired to play, but the one she’d learned to play over years of working with petty egos and perverts. For the first time in a long time, her stomach roiled at the switch, but she managed to inject a bit more saccharine into her voice as she called, “Brian, would you mind sharing your artistic expertise with us for a moment?”

He sauntered back into the stable, a suspicious glint in his eyes. “What now?”

“It’s nothing major. I was just telling the others that as much as it pains me to admit, you may’ve been right about the need for a more creative angle on this scene.”

He furrowed his brow. “It does come across a little flat, but that’s what you wanted.”

That hadn’t been at all what she wanted. In fact, she’d suggested something much more complex, but she swallowed the retort and stepped closer. “I know, and I’d like to make it up to you. Would you like to get some shots from the rafters, you know, a full panorama of me on my back, to weave together with the shots you already got?”

“The rafters?” He raised his gaze as if realizing they weren’t talking about the same thing at all. His mind had likely returned to his wretched suggestion of the up-skirt shot.

She rushed to reel him back in. “Exactly the kind of bold cut you were always asking for, right? If you really wanted, I’d even be willing to redo the shots where you zoom in on my face, but from that angle, your more creative one.”

He frowned, then nodded slowly. “I didn’t want to push it, what with all the hard feelings, but I do think we need something more dramatic here. If you don’t mind going back to my angle, let’s get someone harnessed up and in the rafters.”