He kept his eyes on her, eyes that were letting her know he liked what he saw. “She’s always been beautiful. You had nothing to do with that. But I do thank you for the primping and pampering. Time to go now, sweetie, we have another appointment.”
She tucked her hand into the elbow he extended, holding the bag of complimentary shampoos and toiletries in the other. “Where are we going now? We can’t stay too long. I need to go to work in another hour.”
He waited until they were on the sidewalk before he spoke again. “Actually you aren’t going into work tonight.”
“I’m not…wait did you get me fired?” No, that didn’t make any sense. You couldn’t get fired from being a slave and she hadn’t paid Moreno back yet. Although Eddie had. She pushed that thought aside remembering it was her birthday and it was supposed to be happy.
He chuckled. “No, although you weren’t too far off when you suggested I might have thrown you into the pot last night at the game. Moreno lost big time so I made a deal. Let him off the hook for the two grand he owed me and you got another day off this week.”
“I got…wait, I’m worth two grand a night? Cool.” She grinned smugly then realized what he’d said. “Hold on, if I’m worth two grand a night then I would have been paid off after being there a month. I’ve been there nineteen months now. How come I’m still nowhere near being through?”
He slid his hand on her shoulder and pulled her tight against him. “Remember we said no talking about work.”
She was about to argue again when he lowered his head and uttered, “And I think you’re worth way more than two grand a night.”
Reveling in the warmth of his arm and the words he’d spoken, she kept quiet. When they entered a fashionable and expensive boutique, she remained speechless. The staff however did not. They rushed over, immediately gushing all over Chris, who had apparently made an appointment ahead of time.
“Oh, she’s lovely,” cooed one platinum blonde who had to be twice Meg’s age but dressed like she was a teenager. “And her figure is perfect. We’ll have no problem finding her something, Mr. Martin. If you’ll have a seat in here we’ll get started.”
Meg looked around, her eyes wider than ever. Three women hustled them into a back room where they indicated a cushy love seat for Chris to sit on. She was about to join him when one of them pulled on her arm saying, “Oh, no, you come with us.”
For the next hour she was stripped, clothed and reclothed numerous times. Each time she was made to parade in front of Chris in whatever outfit they’d selected for her. He’d look up from the newspaper he was reading, gaze at her thoughtfully and nod in approval. At one ridiculous outfit Meg actually stormed over to him and grabbed the paper.
“Are you serious, muffin,” she huffed pointing out the feathers that hung off the shoulders of this outrageous creation. “I think I could actually fly in this one. You seriously want to be seen with me in this?”
His crooked grin broke out as he peered at her from top to bottom. “Hmm, okay, not that one. We do need a dress for tonight though. How about something elegant and classy; maybe in blue to bring out the color of her eyes.”
He addressed the ladies waiting on them and they immediately set about digging through racks pulling more clothes for her to see. She’d had enough of this. How did rich people do it all the time? She’d hate it.
Taking a deep breath, she marched over to the racks to see for herself what they had. In short order her gaze fell upon something that grabbed her attention.
“This, I want to try this on.”
Two of the ladies shooed her back into the dressing room while the older one had a discussion with Chris. What could he possibly be talking to her about? He was a guy. And he hadn’t seemed all that interested in what she’d been wearing. She sighed. All still part of the illusion they had to keep going; even on a day where they weren’t supposed to talk about the case. It was tiring.
She wasn’t tired of this dress though. It was a deep-blue slip with an open-work crocheted lace overlay that clung to her curves in all the right places. It was still conservative, at least compared to her waitress uniform, but sexy at the same time. And it did make the blue of her eyes stand out even more.
“I like it. How much is it?”
“Oh, Mr. Martin said we weren’t to tell you any of that. He said it’s your birthday present so you couldn’t know how much he’d spent. Why don’t we go show it to him now?”
Meg balked. First, she had a right to know what he was spending on her. This place was hardly a thrift shop. Second, she didn’t want him to see it right now. If he was surprising her with where they were going then she could surprise him with what she was wearing.
“Nope,” she insisted. “Just wrap it up. I want it to be a surprise. Although I will need some shoes to go with it. I can hardly wear those.” She pointed to the canvas sneakers she’d worn here.
Minutes later she was sliding her feet into a variety of matching shoes seeing what went best. She completely ignored any with a heel over an inch and instead finally chose a pair of dainty ones with numerous straps that crisscrossed then met in the middle with a jewel encrusted ring. The heel was small but they were still elegant. She nodded to the ladies again then swiftly stripped to put her own clothes back on.
Chris was still reading the paper when she came out. He looked up smiling but paused at her outfit.
“You didn’t find anything?”
“I did and you’ll see it later. When you finally tell me where we’re going.”
He laughed, standing to nod at the older woman again. “Let’s go then, we don’t want to be late.”
She made a face, not sure how she felt about leaving the area. “Mr. Moreno might not like me going too far. He got real pissed one time when he found me taking a bus to Tina’s house. Thought I might be skipping out on him. I don’t need him mad. He’s not particularly pretty when he’s mad.”
Chris started the car letting the air conditioner cool the inside. He turned and took her hand. “First, I don’t want to talk about business today. It’s your birthday. But to relieve your mind, Moreno knows I’m taking you away for the night and that I’ll return you later. I gave him the impression I was taking you to a kink club. He seemed intrigued.”
