Chapter 4 #2
“Stand up straight,” Tiffany said, making a full circle around the other woman. “Well, glory be! You have breasts!”
Patty blushed from her chin to the roots of her hair. “So?”
“That bra is all wrong. I’ve got just the thing. Wait right there.” She returned a minute later with one of the best push-up bras money could buy. “Thirty-four C, right?”
Patty glanced at her, astounded. “How did you know that?”
“Since breasts are gonna be my business, I figured I’d better study up.”
“How does one study for such a thing?”
“You’d be surprised,” Tiffany said, nudging her back into the changing room. “Don’t look in those mirrors.”
“I won’t.” This time when she emerged, Tiffany could see right away that she’d been spot-on with the bra. It made all the difference, and, judging from the cleavage she was now displaying, Patty would have more boyfriends than she could handle.
“Almost perfect,” Tiffany said.
“What’s wrong? What does it need now?”
Tiffany released the top two buttons on the dress to show off more of Patty’s ample breasts. “Now it’s perfect.”
“Can I look yet?”
“You sure can.”
Patty spun around and let out a shriek when she got her first view of Tiffany’s handiwork.
“Oh! Oh, my God! Is that really me?” She ran her hands over her hair and face, as if she were touching a stranger.
Then she turned and hurled herself into Tiffany’s arms. “I don’t know what you did, but you’re some kind of magician or something. ”
Laughing, Tiffany returned her hug. “I took your own natural assets and made the most of them. You have a gorgeous face, gorgeous eyes and gorgeous breasts. Time to show them all off.”
Patty released her and spun around for a second look. “No one will believe this is really me.”
“It’s still you, just a new-and-improved version.”
“I’ll definitely get a boyfriend now!”
“I have no doubt.”
“Thank you, Tiffany.” Patty’s eyes were shiny with tears. “This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”
“It was my pleasure.”
And it had helped to kill a too-quiet morning in the store, Tiffany thought, but didn’t say.
The bells on the front door jingled, and the two women exchanged glances. A customer?
Tiffany smoothed her hair and went out front to find Blaine skimming his fingers over one of the lace teddies.
Watching his fingers move and remembering what he’d done to her with them made her entire body hot with longing.
He looked up, their eyes met, and Tiffany’s mouth went dry from the heat that blazed between them.
She cleared her throat. “Patty,” she said. “Take a break. Take a nice, long break.”
After Patty scooted out the front door, Tiffany took a calming breath and turned to Blaine. “What brings you in here?”
Silk spilled through his fingers as he examined a floral robe. Why was it that everything this guy did screamed sex? Or maybe that was the effect he had on her. She could only hope he didn’t have the same overwhelming effect on every woman he encountered.
Since he wasn’t working until later, he wore brown leather flip-flops and cargo shorts with a white T-shirt that offset his deep tan. It was official. He was equally sexy out of uniform.
“I was curious.” He gave each item of clothing he looked at the same undivided attention he’d given her the night before. “And, if I’m not too late, I’d love to be your first customer.”
“Unfortunately, you’re not too late.”
His eyes took a long perusing journey from her face to her breasts, where his gaze lingered. “Business will pick up.”
Her nipples tightened, and she turned away from him. “I hope you’re right.” She refolded a stack of camisoles, just to have something to do with her hands. “Is there something in particular I can show you?” she asked, glancing at him.
His grin was nothing short of predatory.
“Anything in the store, that is.”
“I have this friend,” he said. “About your height and size. I’d like to get something for her. Something special.”
Playing along, Tiffany said, “Is she a new friend or an old friend?”
“Newish.”
“So you don’t want anything too racy.”
“On the contrary. The racier the better.”
Is it hot in here, or is it me?
Tiffany sifted through the racks until she found the lacy black bustier with matching thong panties that were among her favorite items in the store.
Pink satin ribbons ran through the ensemble, which was sheer in all the most important places.
“I’m somewhat partial to this myself, but your friend may have different taste. ”
Blaine took it from her and studied it from every angle, running his fingers over the tiny scrap of fabric that made up the thong. “She’d love it. I’ll take it.”
“Shall I gift wrap it for you?” she asked, flashing a coy grin over her shoulder as she headed for the register to ring up her first sale.
“That’d be nice. Thank you.”
His reply threw her off stride. Tiffany began to wonder if she understood the rules of this game they were playing.
Did he have someone else? Would he really come to her store to buy something for another woman?
When it came right down to it, she knew nothing about him other than what he did for a living, he was a good friend of her brother-in-law’s and he was a god in bed.
Beyond that, he could be just another sleaze for all she knew.
She tugged a sheet of tissue paper from the shelf behind the register, snipped the price tag from the bustier, wrapped it in the pink paper and sealed the package with a gold N&N sticker before slipping it into one of the red-and-white striped gift bags she’d designed herself.
His warm hands captured hers, startling her and stopping movements that had become jerky as she’d pondered the possibilities.
“There’s no one else, Tiff, so stop wondering if I’m screwing with you in more ways than one.”
Startled by how accurately he’d zeroed in on her thoughts, she pulled her hands free. “I wondered no such thing.”
Laughing in that gravelly, sexy way he did so well, he said, “If you say so.” He nodded to the beaded curtain that separated the main area of the store from a smaller second room. “What’s in there?”
Tiffany swallowed. “Other stuff.”
“Ah, the good stuff. Help me out, will you? I may have some questions. In fact, I’m sure I will.”
Was he serious? Apparently so, since he stepped through the beads into the more intimate area of the store.
“Well, well, well. What have we here?”
Tiffany’s entire body felt like it was on fire as she followed him through the curtain. Surely he didn’t mean to quiz her on the various items she’d stocked there, did he?
He picked up a multipurpose vibrator and examined it from every angle. Turning to her, he raised an eyebrow. “What’s this one’s claim to fame?”
Tiffany didn’t know what to do with her hands, so she crossed her fingers and squeezed. A riot of emotions and desires cascaded through her, tying her tongue into knots. “Um, the usual stuff. It, ah, vibrates and rotates.”
“Rotates, too, huh? That’s clever.”
She would’ve killed him for putting her through this torturous exercise except for the pesky fact that he was chief of police.
He pointed to the vibrator’s smaller arm. “What’s this little doohickey do?”
“That’s for the, um, back door.”
Blaine’s eyes widened with understanding. “You don’t say.”
To Tiffany’s enormous relief, he put the toy down and moved farther into the room to study the wide array of dildos, lubricants, vibrators, handcuffs, massage oils and other sensuous delights.
He zeroed in on the display of butt plugs the vendor had talked her into stocking against her better judgment.
“Speaking of the back door,” he muttered. “What’s the difference between these two?”
One was shorter and fatter, the other long and thin.
Tiffany wanted to expire on the spot. She’d never been more embarrassed or more aroused.
The sound of his voice alone was enough to turn her on, but watching his long fingers touching and caressing the toys on the shelf had her soaked with desire.
She had to fight off the urge to drag him to the floor and have her way with him.
Determined to answer at least one of his questions without stammering, Tiffany said, “One is for stretching, the other for stimulating.”
He scratched at the stubble on his chin. “Isn’t that interesting? I didn’t realize there were two different kinds.” Turning to her, he studied her with those eyes that seemed to have only one setting: intense. “Which do you recommend? Stretching or stimulating?”
“Oh, well, that’s an individual preference.”
He curled a lock of her hair around his finger, brought it to his nose and inhaled. “What’s your individual preference, Tiffany?”
“I, um, well…”
“Have you ever played with any of these toys?”
A flush of heat traveled from her face to her breasts to between her legs. “Of course I have. How else could I sell them?”
He gestured to the shelves of goodies. “Which ones?”
“I don’t recall,” she said haughtily.
How was it possible that her very first customer was discovering her deepest, darkest secret? After all the hours she’d spent studying the manuals that came with each and every item, that she could be found out so easily was unnerving, to say the least.
Blaine stepped even closer to her, so his face was an inch from hers. He was so close she could smell his cologne and feel the heat of his breath on her face. “Are you a sex toy fraud, Tiff?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about. I answered all your questions.”
She turned, intending to return to the main room, but his hand on her arm stopped her.
“Which one do you find most intriguing?”
She couldn’t possibly say all of them, could she? Jim would’ve died before he would’ve allowed any of the items in this room into their bedroom.