Chapter Twenty-Six
Amelie
We arrive at the hotel together in a limo, and the first surprise of the night is Kalen telling me he’s booked a hotel room for us all to share.
“All of us?” I ask, quirking a brow at Sawyer, who grins ruefully back at me from across the car.
“Yes. Didn’t have a lot of say in it,” he grumbles but I see a reluctant smile tugging at his lips. I grin wide at him, excited.
“Good.”
We check in and follow Kalen to the lifts and up to our penthouse suite. My jaw hangs open at the impressive display of opulence. It’s all black and gold and marble and shiny shit. Honestly, it’s so dazzling my eyes don’t really know where to look first.
“And here was me thinking we’d be top and tailing in one big bed between us.”
“Oh, sis, you haven’t seen anything yet.” Kalen winks at me, crosses over to one of the many doors off the main living area which must be a bedroom, and flings the door wide with a flourish. “Ta-dah!”
I burst out laughing. The entire bedroom has been turned into a giant blanket fort, complete with floor cushions, fairy lights and snacks. It’s genius and I love it.
“What the fuck, dude?” Slate complains, looking over my shoulder at the space.
“Where the hell are we meant to sleep?” Onyx gripes.
“I’m so glad I booked a backup room,” Sawyer adds with a chuckle. I spin to face him.
“Hey! No ducking out on me.” I pout. “This is fun. I love it. It’ll be like camping but without the cold.” The others all groan except Kalen, who cackles and bounces with barely contained glee. “What?”
“We hate camping. Our dad used to take us and it was the worst.”
“Really? Because I’m pretty sure the dress I’m wearing later – that I’ll need a hand unzipping by the way – will more than make up for the disappointment of roughing it, outback style.
” I don’t miss the way their expressions change from sullen to heated.
“Besides, Kalen can take the sheets and things down later, we’ll still be able to sleep. ”
“No can do, sis. I asked them to remove the beds.”
“What? For fuck’s sake, Kalen!” I snap.
“What? A minute ago you liked it!”
“Yeah, when I thought a cosy super king size bed was hiding under there. I’m not sleeping on the damn floor.”
“I kept the mattresses,” he whines.
“Fine. Whatever. Just save me some good snacks. No doubt we’ll only be served damn rabbit food at tonight’s event. I’ll be starving later.”
“I love your appetite,” Sawyer whispers in my ear, snaking an arm around my waist and pulling me in close for a kiss.
“Thanks. But if you’ll excuse me, I have a real life Cinderella ball to get ready for.”
“Where are you going?” Kalen pouts.
“Elsie’s room. Us girls are getting ready together.”
“But I wanted—”
“See you later, Kalen!” I wave cheerily, blow them all kisses and make my escape. No way am I getting ready in a hotel room – no matter how lavish and plush – with four guys. I need me some girl time, and Elsie has promised to work her magic on my hair and makeup as usual.
Cap follows me down to Elsie’s room, where I knock once and she promptly answers the door in a silk nightgown, her hair in curlers. I walk past her, and Adrianne is sitting in a chair with a scowl on her face. Cap waits outside. He says he’ll be right there if I need him.
“Thank god you’re here, she has waxed and plucked me within an inch of my life! I can feel a damn breeze on my coochie! It’s fucking bald! I’m a pre-teen again!”
I suck my lips inwards to stop a laugh from escaping.
“She wouldn’t even leave a landing strip!”
“It was a mess down there, a hedge trimmer was needed to regain control of that bush. You’re lucky I was here to help with that,” Elsie chastises her.
“Lucky?! Is that what you call lucky? You pinning me to a bed with your damn head between my legs checking out my damn pussy lips? It was weird! I don’t even know if I can look you in the eyes anymore. That has to class as second base for sure.”
“Stop being a drama queen, you will come to love it and I promise, next time you can have your landing strip. There was no saving it this time.”
Elsie turns her attention to me and smiles evilly.
“Oh, bloody hell,” I mutter, going full-on British in my moment of panic.
“Please let me send a photo of her between your legs to Kalen,” Adrianne begs. “It can be my Christmas present and birthday gift for the next few years.”
“Do you really want Kalen and the twins to knock the door down? For completely different reasons I might add. Kalen would want to join in and the twins would murder you both for seeing me naked.”
“You’re right. I will just save it and pull it out when I need it,” Adrianne promises with a laugh.
Elsie finishes setting up some towels on her bed. This isn’t the first time she has given me a Brazilian, the first time was horrendous and embarrassing, but now I can just pretend my best friend isn’t looking at my lady bits.
“On the bed,” she instructs with a clap of her hands and a wicked glint in her eye. I swear she gets off on causing pain.
“Okay, that's my cue to shower. Elsie seeing my coochie and me seeing yours are two vastly different things,” Adrianne says to me, making her exit towards the shower.
Elsie hands me a towel, and I strip from the waist down and lie on the bed, where she has her wax pot set up on a chair right beside it.
“Ready?” she asks.
“As I’ll ever be.”
She smears the wax on and flattens out the strip, and I brace myself. I take a huge breath in as she tautens the skin.
Rip.
“Son of a bitch!” I seethe between gritted teeth. “I thought you said it gets less painful each time.”
“It does, you’re just a wimp.”
“You’re just evil.”
“Suck it up, we’re about to go again.”
She laughs as I flip her off. This would make a great torture technique and I mentally catalogue it to tell Baxter. He should add this to his bag of tricks for sure.
After ten minutes, she’s completely done and starts to pluck my eyebrows. She rambles on about how perfect tonight is going to be.
“I have to tell you something,” Elsie confesses mid-pluck. “But you can’t get mad.”
“Spit it out already.”
“I kind of switched out your dress for a new one.”
“You what? Why?”
“I saw how much you loved the red lingerie that you brought, and I had to go back to the shop to get a new set of underwear for myself, as mine met an unfortunate demise. And this amazing dress was on display and it was perfect for you.”
“There was nothing wrong with the blue one,” I argue.
“No, but one, you can wear it to another event, and two, you only bought it to annoy me in the first place. Who buys the first dress in the first store, Amelie? No one.”
“Fine, but this dress better be amazing and blow me away.”
“It is,” she vows, jumping from the bed and rushing to the closet. She returns with a dress bag and a massive smile on her face. She pulls the zipper down, and the most gorgeous red cocktail gown floats out. I gasp.
“What do you think?” she asks, her eyes wide with anticipation.
“It’s perfect Els, you know you’re amazing, right?”
“Who is amazing?” Adrianne asks, coming out of the bathroom in the underwear she bought when we were dress shopping.
“Elsie,” I answer. “I have a new dress.”
“Cool,” Adrianne replies, uninterested, and unzips her own garment bag to take out the trousers and slip them on. Once she’s dressed, Elsie gives her a once over.
“It’s lacking…something. Can we try something?” she asks cautiously and Adrianne shrugs.
She digs through her suitcase – yep a damn suitcase for one night. Why does she need that many clothes? I don’t ask, afraid of the answer. Knowing her, she will have a good reason.
“Ah ha,” Elsie cries, holding up something that is supposed to be a T-shirt but looks more like a black bra under a sheer material, with ribbing and diamonds.
“Take off the white shirt and try this.”
Adrianne doesn’t argue, she takes the material from Elsie and turns around, removing her shirt and sports bra. Once she manages to pull on the top, she replaces her jacket and turns to look in the mirror with a huge smile on her face.
“This looks fan-fucking-tastic,” Adrianne gushes.
“I know, now get your ass in this chair so I can do your hair and makeup first. Amelie, go and shower.”
I salute her and leave her to it, finding a shower cap on the vanity that Elsie would have left for me. I know she’ll want to straighten my hair, so there’s no need to wash it.
I try to take my time in the shower, so that I don’t have to listen to Elsie and Adrianne bicker for half an hour. But after fifteen minutes I’ve run out of things to wash, so I turn the taps off and step out of the shower, drying myself down and then wrapping myself in a second fluffy towel.
Opening the bathroom door, I step out to Adrianne admiring herself in the mirror. Her hair is slicked back into a low ponytail with a side part, her eyes are a smoky black, and she looks damn incredible.
“You look...wow,” is all I can mutter. Elsie claps and jumps on the spot.
“Doesn’t she look amazing?”
I nod. “She does.”
“Your turn.”
Elsie gets to work on my hair and makeup, she straightens my hair and then adds curls, so that my unruly natural curls are turned into something beautiful. Elsie also attaches the diamante hair piece that I picked out, even though it was for my other dress it still works with this one.
She does a white eyeshadow with silver glitter and a smoked outside edge and adds fake eyelashes.
She finishes off the look with red lipstick.
I think she really should do this for a living.
While she has to complete the mandatory time working within The Order, after that she’s free to pursue whatever she wants to do, and I think this should be it.