by M. S. Parker
“All you need now are the shoes, babe,” Tao said after a critical study.
“I know just the pair.” Tarja pulled out her phone and after a few seconds, showed me.
The price made my eyes go wide. “I can’t spend that on shoes.”
Hell, that was more than most of my shoes had cost all combined. Plus, she’d already told me what she was charging for the dress, and while it was a little over my budget, I knew she was practically giving it away. Besides, I had less problem giving my support to a local independent designer than some high-end store. But the shoes?
“Let your prince buy them,” Tao suggested.
Tarja swept around us, pretending not to hear as she adjusted this or tugged that. I argued with him and let her turn me this way and that. But just as I was about to tell Tao to shut up, she caught my chin.
“Go get the shoes. Sounds like you’re getting a fairy tale night. Let the guy be your fairy godmother since he can't be your prince.”
“I…” I opened my mouth, closed it.
Then I looked at the picture of the shoes again.
Fairy godmother it was.
6
Jal
If there was a time when I’d had this much trouble with my stupid cuff links, then I couldn’t remember it. I also couldn't remember a time when I'd looked forward to an event this much either, and I knew the reason for both was one singular thing. One person.
Allie.
I was going to see her tonight, and I couldn’t quit thinking about it.
After some prodding, Thomas had told me about how yesterday had gone, and I was both irritated and amused by the fact that she’d bought her dress from some woman in a train car. She’d invited Thomas to take a look so he could tell me that her choice was appropriate, and he’d assured me she looked lovely. I'd been a little annoyed that she hadn't just let me buy her a dress, but she had given in and gotten a pair of shoes on my account.
At my insistence, he gave me the name of the designer and I’d looked her up. The name had sounded vaguely familiar, which meant it was probably someone Paisley had talked about, although I couldn't see my fiancée having gone to a train car for a dress.
It wasn’t the designer, however, that kept bugging me. It was how Allie had ended up with the designer in the first place. When I'd pressed the matter, Thomas had said Allie's…friend had recommended the woman. The pause had made something inside me twist uncomfortably.
I knew this friend was a guy without asking.
I couldn’t push for more because it shouldn’t matter that Allie had a guy friend. Boyfriend, some sly voice mentioned in the back of my mind. He’s her boyfriend. And what should that matter? I was engaged. It wasn't as if I'd asked her out with romantic interests in mind.
“Doesn’t matter,” I said out loud as I finally managed to get the second cufflink into place. I shot a last look at my reflection, pushed a hand through my hair, and headed out the door.
My evening driver was waiting and greeted me with a smile. “Hello, sir. How are you?”
“Doing well, Eli. How's traffic looking?” Eli was a little older than Thomas but had only been my driver for the past couple years. He was nice enough, and professional, but I didn't have a connection with him like I did with Thomas.
“I’ve been checking. Shouldn’t be much of an issue. I’ve already got the route planned out, and it shows just the typical traffic delays.”
“Good.”
He held the door open, and I slipped inside, noting the wine that had been opened and the glasses set out. No champagne. I’d been specific on that. Wine was a courtesy. Champagne was romantic. There was a cheese and fruit tray out as well, and while I hadn’t had time to eat much since breakfast, I wasn’t hungry. I wanted to see Allie.
I hadn’t been this excited to see a woman since…I couldn’t think of a time.
A few times in high school, maybe. The time when I’d asked out a junior even though I'd only been a sophomore, and she’d said yes. She’d also said yes when I slid my hand up her skirt, then inside her panties. I’d lost my virginity in the backseat of her car, and we'd dated for the next six months.
That first date was the only time I could remember being excited like this.
I knew I should feel guilty for feeling this way, and I supposed that, in a way, I did.
But I wasn’t going to cancel the evening. I'd keep all of this to myself. I’d keep my hands to myself. I’d be friendly and polite, do nothing that could be considered inappropriate.
I couldn't ignore the fact, however, that I was going to spend an evening with a woman who made me laugh and think and…feel.
That was the problem, I realized on the drive to the address Allie had given Thomas. The minutes whisked away in silence as I turned the new knowledge over in my head. I hadn’t felt anything with a woman in so long that it was a shock to do so now. I could feel pleasure with Paisley if I was fucking her, but even that was only a physical connection, not emotional. And I’d been surprised, then thrilled at the idea of a baby. But that wasn't even about her. It wasn't the idea of she and I having a child together that excited me. It was becoming a father. Paisley almost felt like an afterthought.
I knew that was a horrible way of thinking about my fiancée, but it was true.
It didn’t matter to me if she was going out of town for a few days. If she was spending a few hours at the salon for a “massage.” I suspected she was getting “personal” service from her preferred masseuse, Daniel, but I didn’t care enough to ask. Paisley would never risk what she and I had by not being careful. Case in point, she'd already scheduled a paternity test after her fourteenth week to assure me that the baby was mine. Not that she'd been faithful, but that I was the one who'd gotten her pregnant.
And I still couldn't bring myself to really care about whether or not Paisley had another lover.
Allie, however, made me smile when I thought of her. I wanted to spend time with her, talk with her. Get to know her.
“We’re here, sir.”
This wasn't the best neighborhood in Philadelphia, but it wasn't the worst either. I looked up at the old three story building we'd parked in front of. I knew the type. I owned more than a few, and this one was in good shape although it was getting a little shabby.
Allie lived with her family, didn’t she? She hadn't said whether that was in an apartment or a house.
“You sure this is the place?” I asked Eli.
“This is the address she gave Thomas.” He exited the car and came around to open my door.
I was halfway out of the car when Allie came outside. She glanced back over her shoulder, talking to someone. I couldn't hear her, but I saw her lips moving. Her lips.
Her…everything.
Letting my eyes slide down her body, my heart began to race. The blue-green material drifted around her, and when she turned back, smiling toward me, my heart did a stuttering two-step in my chest.
Beautiful…
She started down the steps and was already on the third one before I managed to move toward her. Holding out my hand, I tried to find something casual and easy to say, but there was nothing casual or easy in mind.
Actually, I couldn’t come up with much of anything.
My brain had turned into one giant void, and the only thought I could summon up was so simplistic, so not me, that I was better off not saying anything.
Allie put her hand in mine, smiling slowly. She’d slicked her mouth with a deep, wine red color that made me wonder how long I could kiss her before the color was gone...and then kiss her some more...
No. Idiot. Engaged. She’s not yours.
But damn if I didn’t want her to be.
I started to lift her hand to my lips but stopped just in time.
“You look…” I searched for anything that wouldn’t be bordering on inappropriate, but I couldn't lie to her. “You look beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Her lips bowed up in a curve. “I hope you did
n’t give Thomas any trouble about the dress debacle.”
My eyes dropped to the dress again. The bodice had a faint shimmer to it, something that sparkled under a thin mesh of fabric, and when she shifted, even when she breathed, those sparkles caught the eye and held it. “If this dress is the result, trust me, nothing was a debacle. You look lovely.”
“Again, thank you.” She glanced down and held out a foot. Like the dress, her shoes shimmered. It looked like she was walking on nothing more than air and crushed diamonds, the heel a clear material that I could see straight through. “You bought the shoes, if it makes you feel any better.”
“They look like glass slippers.”
“That’s what I thought.” She laughed and rotated her ankle, watching as they sparkled in the slowly fading light.
I wanted to kiss her.
I wanted it so bad, I could all but taste her already.
“We should go,” I said gruffly, standing off to the side.
As she moved in front of me, my gaze slipped to her back. Her bare back. Naked, dusky skin that my hands itched to touch.
What in the hell had I been thinking?
7
Allie
Taken…he’s taken, I told myself again as Jal topped off my glass of wine.
We were still in the limo, waiting in line in front of the event venue, and while things were moving slowly, I didn’t mind the wait. In fact, I was having more fun being stuck inside the limousine than I really had a right to. When it was just the two of us like this, I could almost forget about how different we were.
When Jal asked me more about the dream I had for opening my salon, I wondered how he’d even managed to get me to talk about it in the first place. I never talked about it. My mom didn’t know. Tao didn’t even know. It had been one of those things I'd always kept hidden away.
Until I'd somehow let it slip while talking to Jal.
“It’s just a dream, Mr. Lindstrom,” I said, offering a polite smile.
“Call me by my name, Allie.”
“Okay, Allie,” I parroted back easily.
Calling him by his name made things too easy, too intimate. He gave me a sigh of mock exasperation just as the car came to a stop and the door opened. I hoped I'd be able to get away without him asking again. Just the feel of his name in my mouth made my stomach twist.
There was a flash of cameras as I let him help me from the car, the brilliant lights enough to almost distract me from the feel of my hand in his.
“Steady,” Jal murmured as he wrapped my arm around his. “Just smile and walk. Don’t stop to talk to anybody and it will be over soon.”
That sounded a lot of like smile and think of England, I thought. My mom had told me that story once, and it'd always made me laugh. Now was no different, and I felt the laughter bubbling up again. I managed to stop it before it came out, knowing it would just sound hysterical, and that was the last thing I wanted.
Several people called his name and a few times, we stopped for pictures. Every time we stopped, the questions got worse, but he was gifted at being able to move along without giving them anything.
“You do this a lot?” I asked quietly as we kept walking.
“Not too often,” he said. “There are more reporters here than usual because there’s a rumor that a movie star's supposed to drop by to endorse TomorrowU.”
We stopped just inside where he spoke quietly to somebody at the door, then shot me a smile.
The warm tingles that went through me were entirely out of place, but I told myself it was just a reaction to the right, or wrong, kind of stimulation. It didn’t mean anything other than a completely normal physical reaction to an attractive man. I'd do the same if any other good-looking guy had smiled at me.
Except I knew that was a lie.
When we started to move again, he put his hand on the small of my back, and I felt the electricity shoot straight through me, down to the tips of my toes. I wasn’t imagining it either. My toes curled inside my shoes and goose bumps broke out along my flesh. The dress left my back naked almost down to the base of my spine. Until his fingers rested there, I’d never realized just how sensitive that skin was.
“Are you cold?” he asked, bending his head down to murmur in my ear.
“No.” I pretended a rapt attention on a piece of art that had been placed on a pedestal. There was a card placed next to it, with some information about a student. “This is nice.”
“Would you like to have it?”
“No!” I shot him a surprised look. “I’m just making conversation.”
“Well, it’s for a good cause.” He grinned at me. “Students from various schools who benefit from the charity have pieces up for auction. Whichever student pieces sell, the money goes into a fund for a scholarship for him or her, and it’s matched by the foundation.”
“Really?” Impressed, I studied the piece with renewed interest before turning to look for others. They were all amazing, but some of them were just staggering. “High school students did these?”
“Yes.” Jal picked up the card and read it. “This was done by a ninth grader. I think I like it. It would look good in my office.”
He looked up then, and that was when I noticed a young woman in a discreet black dress standing behind the sculpture. She smiled at him and held out an iPad. He punched something in, and then gestured at me. “Shall we?”
We made our way through the crowd, and from time to time, we’d stop and study a painting, or some sort of mixed media piece, or another sculpture. We were about halfway through when one caught my attention...and took my breath away. I wanted it so bad, it hurt, but there was no way I could afford anything here. I’d already splurged on the dress – the one I’d never really have a reason to wear again.
It was yet another reminder of the wide gap between people like me and people like Jal. They could buy pretty much whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted. Denying themselves something they wanted wasn't a notion they understood.
“Allie.”
I turned, automatically smiling.
“This is Benedict Chambers – the brain behind TomorrowU.” Jal indicated the man next to him.
Benedict Chambers was a black man, his age hard to determine, but I guessed he was in his fifties. He was tall and broad, with a face that looked like it had been hit – repeatedly – by a semi-truck. His tux was every bit as sleek as Jal’s and when he spoke, his voice was rich and deep. “Hello…Allie, was it?”
“Yes, pleased to meet you, Mr. Chambers.”
He covered my hand with his. “Jal was telling me that your brother and I have something in common.”
“Oh…?” I shot Jal a quick look, confused.
“I went to the same school he attends.”
“Ah…” I eyed the tux, trying to adjust the idea of a man who wore a tux like that attending a school anywhere that didn't require perfectly pressed blazers.
He chuckled, and I knew he’d followed my train of thought. “Let’s just say I had some luck in life. That’s part of why I started TomorrowU. Life has given me a lot. I believe in giving it back.” He gestured toward a table tucked off toward the side. “Why don’t you two join me for a drink? I must say, it’s been a while since I’ve actually been in school and things have changed…”
* * *
“I think you’ve made a conquest,” Jal murmured in my ear as he took me into his arms on the dance floor. In my sky scraper heels, the top of my head actually came to his shoulders.
I told myself the dance was the sole reason my head was spinning.
Although, it might have something to do with the fact that I’d had some wine in the limo, then a glass of the most amazing champagne, and very little to eat. My nerves had destroyed my appetite most of the day, and now that the alcohol had dealt with the anxiety, I was too giddy to feel hungry.
With Jal's hand on the small of my back and his body warm against mine, I smiled up at him. “Mr. Chambers? Yeah. It’s too ba
d he’s married. Otherwise I might try to make him mine.” I gave a low laugh. “He’s a sweetheart. He wants to go in and talk to the kids at TJ’s school. I gave him the name of the current principal.”
“On a first name basis with him?” He shot me a teasing grin as he swept me around the dance floor.
His thighs brushed mine, and I shivered a little, wondering what it might be like to feel him moving against me, without clothes...without the complications of a fiancée.
“No. I’m on a first name basis with her,” I corrected him, hoping he assumed the blush in my cheeks was exertion and drink. “We talk often. There are…issues, sometimes with TJ.”
“And you handle them? Not your parents?”
I shied away from explaining what it meant to be a CODA – a child of deaf adults. Jal knew that my mom and step-dad were deaf like my brother, but he didn't understand what that meant. Guys always acted differently once they knew, and even though Jal and I weren’t involved like that, I liked how he treated me right now. I didn’t want that to change.
I didn't want him thinking badly of my parents, so I kept it simple. “Communication with me is just easier.”
“You do a lot for your brother.” His fingers slid across the base of my spine in a caress, and it sent a shiver of awareness through me.
The song came to an end, and I eased away, curling my hands into fists to keep from reaching for him. “No. I’m just being a good sister.”
Looking around, I licked my lips. My mouth was terribly dry, and even though it was stupid, when a passing server paused by us with a tray of champagne, I took a flute, downing half of it in a single swallow. The bubbles tingled my nose, tickled the back of my throat.
“It’s part of being a family.”
He took my arm and started to lead me back to the small table that had been set aside for us. My head went wobbly, and I held up a hand. “Whoa…I think that might have been a bit too much champagne.”