Surprise narrowed Tessa’s eyes as she glanced at her mother.
Ella was outraged, though she was careful to keep that knowledge from the young woman whose eyes flashed with pain and whose expression filled with quiet pride.
Tessa had unintentionally hurt her, but they had watched Chase carefully. He was cool to the women who approached him at that club, where he was rarely cool to any woman. Chase gave all the signs of a man involved. And even James had been smirking the night before the dinner that Chase was falling for the Rutherford girl. And James was rarely wrong.
“Well, we’re all prone to mistaken impressions,” Ella told Kia. “Go. Shower. Breakfast will be in an hour, and we’re leaving soon after. The sales won’t wait for us.”
“Perhaps this isn’t a good day.” Kia stared back at them, all that hurt pride hidden beneath that cool little voice.
“It’s the perfect day,” Ella informed her. “And I won’t be leaving without you. To get rid of us, I guess you’ll just have to go shopping with us.”
Kia felt as though her chest was going to erupt with the ache inside it. Already people were forming impressions, placing her with Chase. It was going to appear as though he had rejected her. As though she wasn’t enough woman to hold his attention any longer than it had taken him to fuck her.
Her fists clenched as she turned and strode from the kitchen. Shopping was the last thing she wanted to do. Especially with two women who were witnesses to the fact that she couldn’t even hold Chase’s attention long enough for dinner with friends.
Damn her own stubborn, stubborn need for a man who obviously had no need for her.
She showered because it was the only way to release the tears building inside her. Because she was furious with herself and with Chase and with the damned society she couldn’t seem to hide from, no matter how hard she tried.
Gossip had never bothered her. But her pride was always her downfall. It always had been. She would get ready, she would go shopping, and when it was over, she would decide for herself exactly how she would show Rebecca Harding how little her opinion mattered. And once she did that, then she would try to cure herself of this strange addiction to Chase Falladay. Before it destroyed her.
“Mom, are we the only ones under the impression that Chase Falladay has a thing for her?” Tessa asked after Kia was safely in the shower.
Ella gave her short sniff. “Not hardly. Cameron told James last week that Chase was so torn over the girl that he was walking backward.”
“He hasn’t even taken her to dinner?” Tessa whispered, shocked. “They aren’t involved?”
Ella shook her head, glancing back at the door as she frowned in concern.
“Courtney says Chase was yelling in Ian’s office over that stupid ex-husband of Kia’s, Drew. Chase never yells over anything.”
Ella glanced toward the bedroom. “It doesn’t matter. Whether she’s Chase’s or not, she’s hid long enough.” Then she smiled. “But I know how to find out if she is Chase’s.”
“Oh, Mom, what are you going to do?” Tessa’s eyes widened, but Ella was proud to see the amused trust in her gaze.
Ella shrugged. “There are ways, Tessa.” She made a shushing motion and pointed toward the sounds in Kia’s bedroom. “Trust me, there are many many ways.”
It had been too many years since Kia had gone shopping with the girls. By the time they were half an hour into the excursion, two others had joined them, Kimberly Raddington and Terrie Wyman. Within another hour, Courtney Sinclair and Jaci Wright, Chase’s brother’s fiancée, were there as well.
The crowd of women was met eagerly by each store manager, and Kia was certain a small fortune was spent in those shops.
Kia found herself drawn back to her own favorites. The lingerie stores that specialized in the wickedly erotic items she had treasured before her marriage. Before Drew had systematically destroyed the confidence she had in herself.
Chase had loved the panties, bras, and stockings she had picked out to wear with her gowns, though. What would he do if he saw her in the lacy corset she found, the panties barely there, the stockings inset with tiny, sparkling decorations?
There were the camisole sets, silk and lace, wicked and erotic. And as she looked at them, she remembered Chase’s expression both times he undressed her. The pleasure in his face when he tore aside the sexy panties.
She picked up more than she should have. With each piece, she thought about whether Chase would see them, if he would enjoy them.
There were sleep sets and underclothes sets. And with each one, she knew she was spending money on pieces of frippery that might never be seen by the man she was buying them for.
She was unaware of the looks the other women gave her, the way they examined each piece she placed in her basket, and how Courtney used her cell phone to catch several pictures of her. Just so they could be sure that certain parties would overhear them discussing the articles when they met at Courtney’s later that evening.
They talked her into a pair of heels that made her look like a sex goddess with her petite figure, and a pair of boots to match a too-short dress that she knew she would never wear.
The black boots hugged her legs and went over the knees. Three-inch heels and a hidden zipper. They went very well with the just-below—the-thigh deep violet dress that she blushed at the thought of wearing.
So why had she bought it? Because she looked at it and saw the woman who hid inside her. And she bought it because that woman desperately needed something as wild as she wanted to be.
The dress was more tease than reveal. But it was a dress a woman knew would draw looks, a dress guaranteed to stimulate interest.
By the time they collapsed in their chairs around the table one of the more exclusive restaurants had held for them, Kia was exhausted. Her feet were throbbing, and the wine she had with her meal had her smothering a yawn.
“I’ve had enough, Ella,” Kimberly moaned as she sat back in her chair and stared at her empty wineglass balefully. “If I have one more drink, or have to enter one more store, Jared is going to have to leave the office and cart me home. He won’t be pleased, you know.” Her nose wrinkled mischievously. “Maybe.”
Kia smiled at that knowing addition to her declaration.
“I’ve had it, too.” Jaci glared at Ella. “Cameron didn’t tell me you were worse than a drill sergeant when you went shopping. He’s supposed to know these things.”
“Cameron knows.” Courtney laughed. “Ian sent him and Chase to tag along several times last year when the negotiations on some piece of property got nasty. They swore the next time Ian drafted them as bodyguards, they were quitting.”
“Oh, but they were definite eye candy,” Kimberly drawled. “Dark and fierce, and oh so sexy.”
“Hey, one of those dark, fierce, oh-so-sexys belongs to me,” Jaci protested with a good-natured laugh. “How the hell am I supposed to look him in the eye without cracking up when I get home if you sit and sigh over him? Sigh over your own hunks.”
“That, dear, is the fun in shopping with us.” Ella reached over and patted her hand playfully. “You get to snicker when you get home, and he’ll wonder exactly why you’re so amused. It keeps them on their toes.”
“Yeah, and we get to watch Ella blush every time we talk about James’s hard abs.” Courtney laughed back at the older woman. “We managed to get pictures when he was working out at the club pool one day.”
And Ella did blush, to the roots of her hair. “You girls are evil,” she hissed playfully. “Evil.”
Laughter filled the table then.
“I love it when we manage to slip something on them.” Kimberly’s low laughter was fond, affectionate. “They’re such men.”
“James did not love it when he found out about those pictures,” Ella moaned. “He pouted for weeks.”