Chapter 1
“Foxxy, Foxxy, please give us some emotion!” Jimmy, who was the photographer, pleaded.
Foxxy Jacobs gave an internal sigh and smiled once more, trying her best. Only it seemed her best wasn’t good enough. All the photographers she worked with complained that she didn’t show enough emotion anymore.
Perhaps she had no more emotion to give! It could be she was downright tired of being Foxxy Jacobs, the international lingerie model! Now she was more than ready to be Melissa Fairington, a nobody!
After a few more shots, Jimmy moved away from his camera with a frown.
“Okay, enough for today! But tomorrow you need to smile without looking like you’ve recently had a root canal!” Jimmy exclaimed with a loud sigh which showed how irritated he was.
Foxxy let her shoulders slump as Lisa, her assistant, and friend laid her robe over them. This covered the red lingerie, she wore. Once she had shrugged the robe on, she spoke. “No, Jimmy, not tomorrow because I can’t do this anymore. I didn’t renew my contract again for that very reason. So, I’m taking a much-needed break, and tomorrow I’m going away.”
“Going away to where?” Jimmy asked, his loud voice echoing around the room.
“It doesn’t matter where I’m going Jimmy,” Melissa hedged. She then told him, “I bought the property six months ago and had a house built. They told me it was ready three days before my contract with Sexy Array was up. So, I didn’t renew the contract and now I’m a free woman.”
“Why?” Jimmy asked, looking shocked. “I thought you loved this job, loved being a model? You always seemed to enjoy it, as if it were your lifeblood.”
“I did, I do, but I’ve been modeling nonstop with no real breaks since I was eighteen years old, Jimmy,” Melissa informed him. “I’m twenty-five now, and I’m tired. Don’t worry though, I’ll think about returning sometime in the future before I’m too old.”
“I hope so, you’re my favorite to work with,” Jimmy said with a nod. “If you do wait for gray hair though, you’ll still make a beautiful older model.”
“You flatter me, Jimmy,” Melissa said with a smile. “Thank you though, you always make the shoots enjoyable.”
Jimmy gave her a nod and a hug before walking away, a camera in his hand.
Sitting down in her chair, Melissa closed her eyes for Lisa to begin removing her make-up.
“So, are you seriously going to do it? You’re truly going to leave, but will you come back?” Lisa asked softly.
Melissa felt Lisa brush her face with a soft cleaning cloth, as she said, “Yes, I truly am going to leave. If I’m honest though, I don’t know that I’ll ever come back. I suppose only time will tell about that.” Then, after a slight pause, she added in a whisper, “The thing is, my animal side is growing more and restless, Lisa. She needs to be free, free to run, and that’s something we can’t do much of while globetrotting.”
“I’m going to miss you,” Lisa told her.
Melissa opened her eyes to see Lisa looking at her with a sad face. So, she told Lisa, “You’re my friend Lisa, my sister, and my door will always be open to you.”
Lisa grinned then before saying, “Thanks.”
Melissa nodded, and once more closing her eyes, she allowed Lisa to finish removing the heavy makeup.
Two days later Melissa had watched the last of the boxes in her flat hauled out leaving it empty. It had then been put on the market to be sold.
Her personal belongings were on their way to Idaho by a moving company, and she had boarded a plane headed for her new home. Her life as Foxxy Jacobs had officially ended, at least for now, and her new life as Melissa Fairington was starting.
Her acquaintances knew she was leaving, but she’d not told any of them where she was going. Lisa was the only one she’d trusted enough to tell. She had decided that, at least for now, she didn’t want to be found. So, since very few people in the industry knew her by anything but her modeling name, Foxxy, she had gone back to using her birth name.
She was now Melissa Fairington on all her important papers. This included everything from her driver’s license and passport, to the land deed and house she now owned. Fairington was her mom’s maiden name, Melissa was the name given to her at birth. She had wanted to keep her last name of Jacobs since it was all she had left of her father, his last name, but she had feared it would make it easier for the press to track her.
Having everything changed over had been relatively easy, mostly because she had the money to do it quickly and quietly.
She gave an almost silent snort, sometimes, it’s good to have money. She sighed then as she sat back in her airplane seat. Sometimes though, having money can create nothing but heartaches, and isn’t so good.
Take Chad for instance. She’d thought she’d found the perfect man. He had been such a gentleman toward her when they’d first met. He was so good about opening doors, pulling out her chair, things of that nature, in many ways he’d treated her like his queen in public and in private.
They’d even gone as far as becoming engaged and she’d been happy. Then, two months ago she’d heard him on his cell phone. He had been telling someone that he’d have their money, to just give him a little more time. He’d said, “the little rich girl is wrapped around my finger and I know she’ll give me the money without question”. He’d then gone on to tell the person on the other end that all he had to do was make up a charity or something to get it.
Melissa had been heartbroken when she’d realized the “little rich girl” he was talking about was her. It had angered the wolven side of her to the point she’d wanted blood! So, she’d told him right then and there that it was over and had walked out on him.
Chad hadn’t taken her leaving him well. Melissa had ended up having to get a restraining order on him because he kept showing up everywhere, she went. She had also had to block his number because he kept calling. At first, it was begging and pleading for her to come back to him, then it had become threats that had become so vicious it had scared her slightly.
So, maybe getting away was a good thing, maybe she’d finally find some peace away from him.
Melissa’s wolven let out a growl in her mind at the memories of Chad. Her wolven had never liked him and quite often growled at just hearing his name. Maybe I should have paid more attention to that fact. If I had perhaps, I wouldn’t be in this predicament now, she thought solemnly.
She’d become so lonely though over the years spent by herself. She had just wanted someone to hold, to love, to love her. Sure, she was always working, but more often than not she had felt alone even in the crowd. This thought of her constant loneliness, her days and nights filled with it, caused her wolven to whine. The whine was enough to make her wonder if her wolven side was even lonelier than she was.
So maybe this change would be good for both of them. Maybe, just maybe, she would meet a male who completes her.
“Miss, may I bring you a drink?” A male voice asked from next to her seat.
Melissa looked up to find a very nice-looking brunette-haired man, with green eyes and a flirty smile. Giving him a slight smile in return, she answered, “I’ll have a bottle of water please.”
The male steward nodded, then started to leave, only to look back and ask, “Are you that model, Foxxy Jacobs?”
Melissa pushed down the guilt of having to lie because she was an honest person at heart. She couldn’t afford to have people knowing her identity though and knowing where she was headed. So, smiling at him, and an innocent look, she lied saying, “No, sorry. I get that a lot though.”
The steward walked off, after gazing at Melissa for just a moment more as if he didn’t believe her.
Melissa sighed relief when he was out of sight. Her boss, well ex-boss now, was going to give a public announcement of her leaving at two o’clock today. She knew that as soon as that happened the press would then be out looking for an exclusive, which would make her a wanted woman.
“Perhaps it’s time for a make-over, something that will make me unrecognizable,” she muttered with a huff.
“Here you go miss, your water,” the male steward murmured when he returned.
“Thanks,” she murmured back as she took it.
“Anything else?” He asked politely.
“Nope, I’m good,” she informed him, and he left.
