Chapter 10
Dmitri
Carol’s Closet is the kind of store I would never have looked twice at. The front windows display mannequins in stylish, feminine clothes. Danica mentioned this place to me once. She said it has price tags that made her wallet “shrivel up like a dead leaf.”
The sign says Closed , but Gage knocks anyway.
“What are you doing?” Leah tries to tug him away. “They’re closed. We can go somewhere else.”
Gage gives her an indulgent smile. “They’re closed to the public, but not to us.”
“I—what?” Leah blinks in surprise.
A dark-haired man inside the shop unlocks the door and holds it open for us. He gives us a respectful nod and greets us by name. “Welcome. I’m Charles, and I’ll be assisting you today.”
He steps back and allows us into the shop, then locks the door after us. The closed sign remains in place.
“Right this way, please.” He leads us through a showroom lined with dresses. Some hang on racks, while others are displayed on headless mannequins. Leah gawks at everything, eyes wide, lips parted. Gage watches her with an indulgent expression.
He’ll buy her every fucking dress she touches, I can already see it. And I don’t blame him, because I want to spoil her in the same way.
We follow Charles to a small sitting area with some flimsy-ass chairs. Their wooden arms and legs are trimmed with gold paint. A low table sits between them. On it are a bottle of champagne, three glasses, and a pitcher of orange juice. There’s also a plate of cookies.
“Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll be right back.” Charles hurries away.
“Would you like a mimosa?” Gage asks Leah.
She grins. “Maybe a tiny one.”
He pours her a drink, which she carefully sips.
Charles and another woman come from the back of the store with two racks of dresses. Leah’s mouth falls open in surprise. “Those are all for me to try?”
“We’ll be working in the back so you can have some privacy.” Charles gestures to the racks as the woman pushes each one into a dressing room. “These are all in your size, Leah. Let us know if you need anything.”
Leah’s eyes fill with tears, but she’s smiling. She marches over to Gage and wraps her arms around him. “Did you arrange for us to have the whole store?”
Gage kisses her forehead. “Given our recent unwanted publicity, I figured this would be more comfortable.”
Damn. The fucker’s pretty thoughtful. I’d like to believe I would’ve thought of something like this. But the truth is, it never would have crossed my mind.
Maybe this kind of thoughtfulness comes more easily to people with money.
I’m not struggling—the fund my grandfather set up assures that—but I’m also not throwing around thousands without planning ahead of time.
And the truth of it is, I don’t want to spend Granddad’s money. It’s dirty, and it makes me feel dirty.
Leah’s auction was different. For the first time, I was ready to throw away everything in my account. I even considered asking Granddad for a loan before I realized Gage was never going to stop bidding.
I wonder what would’ve happened if I had won?
But something about her spoke to him, just like it speaks to me. He never would’ve let her go once he saw her.
And now here we are.
Leah goes into her dressing room, and Gage and I stand looking at each other.
“Shall we?” Gage gestures to the stuffy-looking chairs.
“You went all out.” I snag a cookie and ease into one of the chairs. I half expect the seat to splinter beneath my weight. When it holds me, I try to relax.
Gage pours himself a glass of orange juice and adds a tiny bit of champagne. “It’s important. She’s important.”
Nothing to argue with, there.
“Do you have a tux for the benefit?” Gage sips his mimosa.
I see what he’s doing—he wants to make sure I’m well-dressed and that I won’t embarrass Leah. If I didn’t have anything, he’d be offering to either buy it, or spot me the money. Luckily, my parents sent me to a charity thing last year. I had to get a tux for that. “I’m set.”
“A rental won’t?—”
“It’s not a rental, asshole. It’s a bespoke Rubineri. Chill.”
He raises his eyebrows so high they reach above his glasses frames. “It seems I don’t know you as well as I thought I did.”
“Does the fancy tux make me cooler, somehow?” I can feel my frown deepening.
He laughs. “ Chill . It doesn’t make you cooler. I hope I’m not that shallow.”
A couple of seconds later, Leah’s dressing room door opens. She steps out, and I forget how to breathe. The chair’s toothpick arm creaks in my fist as I lean forward.
Her dress is a shimmery, rosy gold. The top is fitted, with thin straps and a low neckline. The fabric at the skirt is see-through up until mid-thigh. A pattern of sequins makes it all sparkly and shit.
It’s fucking perfect on her.
“That one.” The words come out strangled. I can barely speak. I don’t even want to blink. I don’t want to miss a millisecond of seeing her in this dress. “That’s the dress.”
“Dmitri, seriously.” She laughs and smooths her hands over the shiny fabric. “This is the first one. There are, like, fifty more to try.”
“Doesn’t matter. This is the one.” I look to Gage for back-up.
“It’s a very nice gown. Very flattering.” Gage gestures toward three mirrors angled around a raised platform. “Why don’t you hop up there, little girl? Get a good view so you can decide.”
“The fuck?” I stand and point at Leah. “This is the best dress to exist in the history of dresses. Look at her—she’s a motherfucking goddess in this dress. That’s the one dress to rule them all and I will die on this hill.”
Leah turns on the raised platform and presses her lips together as if she’s trying not to laugh. “Noted.”
I gesture at the spread of cookies and drinks. “I mean, I don’t know why we’re sitting around. Unless you want some juice and cookies. We could buy this one and go, right?”
“Sit down, Dmitri.” Leah returns to the fitting room with another laugh. “There are a lot more dresses to try. I’ll put this one in the maybe pile.”
A maybe pile? There’s a maybe pile ? I glower at her closed fitting-room door.
She puts on several more dresses, venturing forth to model each one in front of the giant, three-way mirrors. She looks amazing in every dress she tries. I mean, it’s Leah, so of course she looks great. But I know the gold dress is the best one. Leah must know it too.
I clear my throat when Leah’s behind the door.
Gage arches an eyebrow as he turns his attention to me.
“You think the gold one is best, don’t you?”
His lips turn up at one corner in a half-smile. “Surely it’s up to Leah, whichever one she thinks is best?”
I want to throw up my hands in frustration. “Yeah. But it’s obvious which one is best.”
“The one you like.” He sounds so patient, I want to sock him in the jaw.
I try to behave myself through several more dresses. I like them all. If there weren’t such a clear right choice, I’d say any of these would work.
Finally, the racks are empty. Leah emerges from the dressing room. She’s wearing the gold dress. Thank fuck she came to her senses.
Except…she’s holding another dress in her hands. Cherry-red, strapless. The complete opposite of the shiny perfection on her body.
“So, after thinking about it, I’m going with this one.” She holds up the strapless gown.
I fold my arms across my chest. “I notice that isn’t the dress I liked.”
“Nope. I wasn’t feeling the gold.” She glances down at it dismissively, but her lips twitch.
Suddenly, I realize—“You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”
Gage and Leah both burst out laughing.
“Sorry,” Leah says through her giggles. “But yeah. Of course I’m picking the gold. Although if you like it so much, we should ask Charles if they have it in your size.”
“I’ll ask right now,” I retort.
“Good, do it.” She gives me a sassy little smile. “I can’t wait to see how the straps frame your shoulders.”
Gage tilts his head toward me. “She’s being rather impertinent. Are you going to let that little girl get away with this?”
I stand up, tempted to kick the flimsy chair behind me. “Leah, you need help in that dressing room.”
“Nah, I’m good.” She starts to close the door, but her movements are extra slow.
She wants me to burst in there and take what I want.
The little brat is trying to control the scene.
I reach the door before she can close it all the way, gripping the edge with my fist.
Leah gasps in mock surprise. “What are you doing in here? This is my dressing room.”
“Don’t act coy. You practically invited me in here.”
The dressing room is a lot bigger than I expected—not a tiny stall like we’d find in a department store. It’s almost the size of a bedroom. “Fuck, it’s like fucking Narnia in here. How far back does this room go?”
Leah shakes her head. “Not that far.”
I watch her reflection in the mirror, and I can see myself as well. A moment later, Gage appears in the open doorway behind us.
“You were teasing me about the gold gown,” I say. “That was very naughty.”
“I didn’t mean it.” The words sound contrite, but she’s still trying not to laugh.
“There’s a phrase for this.” I unzip her gown. “Topping from the bottom. I’ll stand for it this time, but next time? You’ll get spanked so hard it’ll hurt to sit down.”
“What—what are you doing?” She reaches back to block me from the zipper. “Dmitri, we can’t do this here .”
“Can’t we?” I pull her hand away.
“Dmitri, we’re in a store .”
I glance dismissively around the room. “And?”
“It’s…it’s embarrassing. It’s wrong.”
“How about you let your daddies worry about what’s embarrassing or wrong?” I want to ravish her in this dress, yank up the skirt, pound away while the fabric bunches around her waist.
She looks past me at Gage. “Gage, are you going to let him do this?”
In the mirror, Gage shrugs. “He’s your daddy, too, baby girl. He can discipline you just like I can.”
“Discipline?” She shakes her head and pouts. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“You pushed, and pushed. This is what you get for trying my patience.” I get her zipper all the way down and wait for her to step out of the dress.
No bra. She’s standing before me in a tiny little thong. Yeah, this thong won’t survive what’s coming next.
I reverently hang the dress, then return to stand in front of her.
I trace one of her nipples with my knuckle.
Leah sucks in a breath and meets my gaze. “We’re really doing this? Here?”
I trace her other nipple. “You want me to stop?”
“Don’t stop.” She leans into my touch.
I bite the shell of her ear. “You don’t have to pick the gold. I mean, I’m buying it for you, one way or the other, but you don’t have to wear it to the party, baby. You can wear what you want.”
As far as me buying it—yeah. Gage doesn’t get to pay for this one.
She squirms against me, teasing my dick. “I know. I preferred the gold dress, too. It’s gorgeous.”
“So you were messing with me.”
She laughs. Gage, still in the fitting room doorway, chuckles.
“Turn around.” If Gage is going to pay to have the store closed for this private shopping trip, I’ll use it to my advantage. “Put your hands on the mirror.”