There was a lavender pantsuit that appealed to her, but since it was an evening reception with dancing, that seemed too casual. Finally she ended up with a pale yellow dress with a fitted bodice and full skirt, and the green two-piece.
Luke settled into an armchair while she disappeared into the changing room. She’d put on strappy high heels deliberately, knowing she’d be trying on things for the wedding. She also wore pretty lingerie, but if she was honest with herself, that was mostly for later. All this finery she’d hid under a stretchy purple cotton dress that pulled on and off with the ease of a T-shirt. She was doing her best to make this shopping excursion as effortless aspossible.
The green two-piece fit nicely.With the jacket it was perfect for the wedding ceremony; she could slip it off when the dancing started. She stepped outside and modeled it for Luke, rather enjoying the way his gaze took a long, lazy tour of her body in thedress.
“Take off the jacket,” he said. Did he have any idea what that intimate tone did to her? Probably, if he was looking in the direction of her chest, he did. If he said “Take off your dress,” in that same sexy drawl, she probably would. Right in front of the sales associates and the othercustomers.
He didn’t, though, only motioning her to turn around, which she did, hoping the dress didn’t pull at thehips.
“What do you think?” she asked him, when he’d finishedscrutinizing.
“I’m ready for the next choice. Don’t want to make any snapdecisions.”
She shook her head at him and slipped back into the dressing room. Her own feeling was that it wasn’t bad as first dresses went, but it hadn’t wowed her, either. However, superstitiously she believed a good first dress could be a sign that success was just around thecorner.
Maybe theyellow…
She stepped into it, feeling like a sixties prom queen. The full skirt was fun, the bodice fit perfectly. Out she stepped to stand in front ofLuke.
There was something almost erotic about posing and spinning while a man, relaxing in an armchair, stared at you. It felt as though she were being judged or auditioned for something. And the way Luke’s gaze traveled over her, there was no doubt that wedding finery wasn’t on his mind. He licked his lips as he looked at her, and the blatant challenge in his eyes made her heart jump. If he’d whispered, “Chapter seven,” he couldn’t have put her mind more firmly in tune with the promised activities he’d outlined forlater.
“Well?” she asked after she’d spun for him again. “What do youthink?”
He gave the thumbs-down.
“Why not?” She couldn’t help but wonder. The dress might not be the most fabulous thing she’d ever seen in her life, but it fit and was perfect for a wedding. He couldn’t know she’d sneaked a peek at the price tag and almost fainted. This was a great dress. Of course, she planned to look some more, but so far she thought she had a realcontender.
“Too dull foryou.”
“Dull? What do youmean?”
He shot a glance at the hovering saleswoman, who was busy giving him the evil eye. “I’ll take you for lunch and we’ll discussit.”
“Don’t you ever think about anything but food?” she asked him when she’d changed back into her own clothes and they’d left thestore.
“Sure. When I finish eating. Then I don’t think about food until I’m hungryagain.”
She let him drag her right out of the shopping center to a deli-café across the street. She ordered a salad and he ordered a clubhouse with frenchfries.
“What did you mean, that dress wasdull?”
He sipped iced tea, as though trying to find the right words. “I’ve never met this B.J., but based on all that uptight flowery stuff she wanted for wedding presents, I’d say those dresses would be perfect for her. But they’re not you. You wear bright colors and your clothes have…I don’t know,personality.”
Shari blinked at him. “It’s just adress.”
“Is it?” He gazed at her across the table, and she felt he was seeing more than she wanted him to see. “I have three sisters, and I swear they used to dress with some kind of code book in hand. Wear black on fat days, stripes one way to make your boobs look bigger, stripes the other way to make you look taller, and they had a whole other wardrobe forchurch.”
“Of course we wear clothes to flatter us. What’s wrong withthat?”
“Nothing. Women also send messages with clothes.” He glanced at her, with that telltale eye-crinkling. “Like wearing purple means you want to getlaid.”
She glanced at her bright purple dress and choked on a laugh. “Doesnot.”
He leaned closer. “I bet if I slipped my hand under that dress right now, I’d find you’re wet forme.”
All the air seemed to be squeezing out of her lungs. Five seconds ago, he’d have been dreaming, but all he had to do was look at her in that certain way, and the very idea of him touching her intimately had her squirming on the vinylbench.
He didn’t have to know that, however, and she wasn’t going anywhere until she had a dress for the wedding. “I dressed like this so it would be easy to try onclothes.”
