“I don’t.” My small smile caught in the corner of his eye and the tension leaked out of his body second by second.
“Are we doing this thing?” He rubbed his hands together. “Going out there and showing your sister’s friends how the FU crew does it?” His tough guy voice made me laugh.
“Yeah, let’s do this.” I stared at the garment bag like I’d somehow be able to transform it into a pair of comfy sweatpants and a long sleeved t-shirt with my mind.
“Did you want to change first?” He lifted his chin toward the open bathroom door.
“Sure, might as well get it over with.” The laughter leaked out of my body with each step toward the garment bag. I threw a weak smile to Berk over my shoulder and unhooked it from the door, disappearing inside the bathroom.
Taking a deep breath, I unzipped the bag. A moment of relief that it wasn’t a mini skirt was quickly replaced by horror. My eyes bulged at the neckline. Weren’t people back in the 20s prudes? What fresh hell was this?
Doing a few ‘you’ve got this’ mantras in my head, I took off my glasses and set them down on the counter. I hefted the dress off the hanger. The silky champagne underlay was covered by long strands of shiny material that added about ten pounds to the thing. I slipped the dress on. It was long sleeved, at least, only slightly pinching. It seemed Mom didn’t want me to totally embarrass her.
But the front. The neckline plunged way down, showing off the girls like I should be on stage in Vegas. With my arms raised over my head and fingers grazing the top of the back, I spun in circles for at least eight minutes trying to snag the zipper to pull it up. Turning toward the mirror, I stared at my reflection. Finally, using a bit of ingenuity and the shower stall handle, I contorted myself and grabbed the zipper, tugging it up.
Holy hell. My girls, the ones I usually kept well under wraps, were singing to the heavens. So much cleavage. The lacy fringe on the cups of my bra peeked out from the neckline. I looked like I should've been staked out on a stool at the fanciest hotel in Philly trying to drum up business from unsuspecting businessmen.
Shoving my glasses back onto my face, I stared at myself, every bit of me, in excruciating detail. The glasses weren’t time period appropriate, but Laura would have to deal.
Berk knocked on the door. “Do you need some help?”
“No,” I shouted way too loud. They’d probably heard me out by the stables. Collecting my clothes, I clutched them against my chest. My fingers shook as I undid the latch to the bathroom. He was going to laugh at how ridiculous I looked. I could picture it now, Berk rolling on the floor with tears of laughter in his eyes.
The door opened and I stepped back into the room with my clothes cradled in my arms.
I looked up at him and my eyes widened. Had they taken his measurements before we got here? His outfit looked fantastic.
He struggled with the buttons of the white vest. The material of his dress shirt bunched as he pushed at the buttons. The pants hugged his trim hips and stellar ass.
“I can get into my uniform in six minutes flat. These buttons are bullshit.”
Pinning my clothes to my chest with my chin, I knocked his hands away and slid them through the navy silk-lined arm holes. “So hard,” I teased.
“It’s not my fault.” He pulled the bottom of his vest down, straightening it.
I spun away, keeping my clothes tight against my chest, aware of how close he’d come to getting an eyeful of me, not that I’d have a choice unless I walked around with my clothes against my chest for the rest of the night.
“I’m going to make us a drink. Top shelf booze doesn’t deserve to be all alone at times like these.” He cradled the bottles, swaying them back and forth like a doting parent slash total lunatic. Bottles and glasses clinked together.
I crouched to pick up one of my dropped socks. Gathering everything, I turned to dump it onto the bed. Maybe things would be okay. He wasn’t freaking out and I wasn’t freaking out, so far so good. I could wear this outside of the room.
“Might as well start now.” I turned to him and our gazes collided.
He coughed into the glass he had up to his mouth. Wheezing and spraying his drink all over the place, his eyes got anime character wide before he barked out a, “Holy shit.”
11
Berk
If you were here with me now, I’d wrap my thighs around your face and let you eat me until I came on your tongue, screaming your name.
Holy shit! The soda water burned my lungs and I coughed, bent over at the waist. There was no saving this and playing it off cool. Water dribbled down onto my pristine white and insanely expensive shirt. At least I hadn’t opened one of the bottles of wine sitting on the mini-bar.
Jules stared at me, frozen in her crouch with some of her clothes bunched up in her hands like a deer in the middle of the road with a Mack truck barreling toward her.
I liked Jules. I’d always liked Jules. She’s funny and sometimes she lets a little bit of her potty mouth slip out between her unique personality of the next Martha Stewart and a cute anime character. She’s not flashy, except when it comes to everything that comes out of her oven.
I’d looked at her so many times and liked exactly what I saw. But I didn’t let my thoughts stray to her in any way other than as a friend too often, mainly because she’s Elle’s best friend and if I went near her with anything other than my friendzone lanyard hanging around my neck, Nix would’ve mailed my balls back to me and made me pay for the shipping.
She was wiped off the radar before I met her with a glare from Nix and a promise of retribution if I screwed up what he had with Elle in any way, shape, or form, but that’s not to say I didn’t appreciate Jules’ quiet beauty. The kind you found yourself sneaking a glance of when she smiled because it was so completely pure and unworried about being anything other than real.
Or the times I’d sit at her kitchen table and talk for hours about our favorite comic book movie. I’d chalked it up to the fact that I hadn’t spent much time around many women who didn’t want anything from me. Not status, or a false idea that I had cash to splash around, or any number of reasons. With Jules, I could just be and so could she. It gave me that warm feeling that drew me to her time and time again, but I knew going in it couldn’t go further.
I’d never really been just friends with a girl before, and I liked it.
She was kind and I’d never heard her talk shit about anyone or be anything other than awesome, which is why the fucking rack on her showcased with a plummeting, glittering ‘look at me sign’ that was that dress made me want to bite my knuckle and run around the room like a damn animal.
Who in the hell knew she was hiding all that under those clothes? I was five seconds away from going full wolf-whistle-in-a-nightclub cartoon parody over here. There were those movies where the girl with the glasses gets the makeover and all the sudden everyone looks at her differently. It was like that, except she was still wearing the glasses and was way hotter than any movie star because she was real and two strides away from me.
“Jesus, Jules.” I leaned in, trying to keep the need to lick her out of my voice. This was straight up not fair. She was sweet as hell and now I wanted a taste.