When your job is to dress beautiful men, no one will blame you for enjoying it a little too much

There’s something intoxicating about a beautiful, well dressed man. Our heroine Sinna is dressing five of them in the first installment of my upcoming Asian series “Saints and Sinnas.” Naturally she falls in love with one, but you know it can’t be an easy ride. That would be too much like right. There’s her internal angst because he’s younger and Korean, some external drama a la crazy wannabe girlfriend with delusions of damn near everything. But you know me! The cute and sexy will prevail, they just gotta go through the erotic romance fire first. *winks*

In this unedited snippet, which picks up where last week’s left off, Sinna is fighting her very natural inclination to enjoy her job a bit too much. Let me know what you think! Oh, the picture is of K-pop group Super Junior’s Choi Siwon. That pretty face almost doesn’t seem real does it? Oh well! Romance readers and K-drama fans – he’s an actor too; check him out in She Was Pretty – of the happy ever after aren’t known for our love of realism are we?

XOXO,

SS

Sinna had only felt this kind of attraction once before. She dated that man for three years, and throughout most of the relationship she loved well, loved hard and enjoyed every moment. That made the end when he left her for someone else that much harder.

He didn’t leave her because the passion between them faded, or because they weren’t getting along. He left her because he wanted to be with someone more beautiful, richer and better connected. She hadn’t made it yet, and he was ambitious in that “let me take a short cut, and ride on somebody else’s coattails” type way.

It was a character flaw she never saw coming, and it killed something in her, and she hadn’t felt the need for a man since. Not until she met Tan. But Sinna believed in patterns.

Her ex had a lot of things in common with the idol: extremely sexy and beautiful in a stop and stare before you trip and fall kind of way, the intense feelings he inspired in her belly, breasts and nether regions, kind, though in the case of her ex that kindness could be selective. Add these to work and cultural differences, it was more than enough to make her stay away.

Saint thought she was allowing one bad relationship to sour her for all others. But that wasn’t it. She hadn’t closed the door on men. She just wasn’t interested until Tan.

That made her cautious.

So, every time she looked at him with delight, or found out something that made her like him a little bit more, she dismissed it in favor of business. The desire she ruthlessly ignored. Or, she simply rubbed it away herself when it was dark, and everyone else was asleep.

But it wasn’t easy. The more she was in his company, the more she realized he was a truly great man. He wasn’t just smart and talented and sexy, he helped people constantly, and sincerely expected nothing in return.

He’d even give his food away, and she knew he was hungry because Saint and Cressida had taken to sharing their snacks with him, and he never said no. It hurt her heart whenever he seemed grateful. That waist watching ass manager of his was on her shit list for real.

She kept telling herself the cracks would start to show soon. They always did, but this time, unlike with her ex, she’d pay attention. She wasn’t a fan. She refused to romanticize him. He was simply a man who took advantage of his opportunities and talent – as he should.

She knew that he and Cong wrote and produced many of the groups’ songs. Sometimes she saw them composing off to the side while the others romped during rehearsal breaks. She’d also seen him working with an app and with Bik to improve his English. But instead of being impressed by his drive, when she was asked for the third time to manage his wardrobe for an outside appearance, she negotiated a higher rate.

“This is outside the scope of our initial agreement,” she told Saint, who was there when she and Tommy discussed how to broker the new deal. “It’s business.”

It wasn’t that she disliked dressing him. On the contrary. She’d been mentally chastising herself for weeks for enjoying it too much. It wasn’t even that much extra work. They were getting so much product in from people who wanted 501K to wear their stuff, the boys had mad overflow for their day to day needs.

Sinna wasn’t entirely successful at controlling herself though. The subtle print or color blocked shirts she chose for Tan’s broad shoulders invited unnecessary smoothing. She even caught herself about to tuck in his shirt for him – and if the smile he wore was any indication he had no plans to stop her.

Old pervert, she told herself. It didn’t help.

His lean waist occasionally required the grip of her fingers as she changed out belts. She had to indicate with a pinch of her fingers at his narrow hips where one of the seamstresses needed to alter something. She and Saint were using a lot of elegant mixed media pieces to emphasize his masculine beauty; it wasn’t hard. Chiseled face, full, pouty lips, and those big, slanted golden brown eyes atop a body that rivaled the David, Tan rarely looked bad in anything.