Chapter 29
CASSIE
The dressing room was more like a luxury walk-in closet, as big as my living room in the apartment over the coffee shop, and I quickly got lost in a flurry of silk and satin, feathers and lace.
There wasn’t a single bad dress, and I got used to standing in my underwear sans bra waiting for Meredith to choose a different size or style from the racks in the sitting room, and sometimes from the store beyond the private space where the Hawks had taken up residence.
The labels were a blur: Oscar De La Renta and Elia Saab and Jenny Packham and Balmain.
There were no price tags on anything, which was probably a good thing because I felt a little sick thinking about the Hawks buying me one of the dresses, all of them beautifully made of expensive fabrics and crafted with hand-sewn detail, something I wouldn’t even have known if Meredith hadn’t pointed it out to me.
I went out into the sitting room wearing each new dress, letting the Hawks weigh in. At first I was self-conscious about the fact that I was accompanied by not one but three huge tattooed men, only one of whom — Jagger — looked like he belonged anywhere near such a restrained environment.
But Meredith was brisk and friendly, without a shred of judgement or criticism, and she seemed as at ease with the Hawks as could be expected, although she did tell Vigo to please refrain from swinging the three-thousand dollar handbag that was in his hands when I emerged from the dressing room wearing a sequined cocktail dress with a bustier top and big gold rosettes across the skirt.
By the time I exited the fitting room in a halter dress with a keyhole cut out under the bust I was starting to wear down. The dress flowed over my body in a waterfall of black satin, pooling at my feet even in the Christian Louboutin heels given to me by Meredith.
“I think this is made for someone tall,” I said, looking down at the fabric puddling on the floor.
“We’ll have it tailored,” Jagger said, his arms folded over his chest, biceps pronounced in the starched fabric of his button-down as he studied the dress with a critical eye.
“Absolutely,” Meredith said behind me. “Tailoring is no problem.”
I looked at Hawk who had turned away from the window and was now staring at me with hooded eyes, his gaze raking my body in a way that made my pussy clench with desire.
Like I was naked. Like he was thinking about all the things he wanted to do to me.
Vigo had moved to the sofa, his leg thrown over the side, swigging from a bottle of Veuve Clicquot, a silk scarf tied around his neck like he was an eighty-year-old shipping magnate in a smoking jacket.
“It doesn’t look like you,” Vigo said, reaching for a canapé from a silver tray of food that had somehow appeared on the coffee table.
I looked down. “It doesn’t feel like me either.”
“Then you need another dress, mouse.”
I returned to the dressing room and Meredith handed me a midi-length dress in deep purple lace, so dark it was almost black.
“I think this might be just the thing,” Meredith said.
I wanted to ask her what brand of makeup she used because her face looked as polished as it had two hours earlier when I’d started trying on dresses and her lipstick looked freshly applied.
I slipped the dress over my head and it dropped all the way to my waist.
“It’s strapless,” Meredith said, looking clinically at my bare chest. “I’m happy to bring you a bra from lingerie but I don’t think you need it.”
“I’ll try it without.” Strapless bras always made my boobs look weird.
I pulled the bodice up over my tits, and Meredith zipped me up.
It was a perfect fit, sexy in a demure kind of way, the fitted neckline cutting across my chest high enough to leave something to the imagination, the plum-colored lace nipping in at the waist before flaring at my hips.
The skirt ended mid-calf and Meredith bent to tie the silky ribbon at the waist.
“The boning in the bodice is all hand-sewn of course, and the lining is one-hundred-percent silk.”
I didn’t know whether it was standard protocol to give these details about the clothes or if she was trying to justify the unseen price, but it was interesting to learn about the craftsmanship of the clothes, something I’d never thought much about since my Blackwell Falls uniform consisted of jeans and shorts, T-shirts and blouses, and my coffee shop apron.
“It’s beautiful,” I said, studying my reflection in the mirror.
And it was. The dress was flattering to my figure, accentuating my waist and skimming my hips, and the color made my eyes look bright green.
Best of all, I felt like myself in this dress.
I opened the door, stepped out into the sitting room, and knew immediately I’d found the dress.
Jagger’s blue eyes heated with appreciation, and Hawk licked his lips as his molten gaze traveled the length of my body.
“That’s definitely the one,” Vigo said, popping something into his mouth.
I looked at the silver tray on the coffee table and realized the canapés had been replaced with something else while I’d been changing.
“Are those… nachos?”
Saks didn’t seem like a nachos kind of place. Then again, I hadn’t known Saks was any kind of food place. I had no idea where all this food was coming from.
“Obviously,” Vigo said. “Want some? You can take off the dress to eat. Or we can feed you so you don’t spill.”
Jagger closed his eyes like he was at the end of his rope.
“I’m good,” I said.
“It’s a size too big,” Jagger said.
Meredith’s fingers grazed my back as she checked the tag. “It’s a twelve.”
“Too much fabric in the waist,” he said. “She needs a ten in this one.”
Meredith nodded and looked at me. “Why don’t you take that one off and I’ll bring you a ten?”
I dipped back into the dressing room, tried to unfasten the zipper in the back, and realized I couldn’t reach.
“Can one of you help me with this zipper?” I called out.
The door opened and Hawk stepped inside the dressing room.
I offered him my back and felt the zipper slide open, my back exposed to the air in the room. I held the front of the dress against my tits, waiting for him to leave so I could change.
But instead of leaving, he slid his hands around my waist from behind.
His lips touched the base of my neck and I sighed when his tongue darted out to taste my skin.
“Let go of the dress,” he ordered.
“Meredith— ”
“i don’t give a fuck about Meredith. Now let go of that fucking dress, mouse.”