Fox
Yes?
Cleo
I have questions about your decision making skills. At what point did you think it was appropriate to buy me these things?
Fox
When I had you in my arms with your lips on mine.
Cleo
I made a mistake.
Fox
Make more.
Cleo has blocked you.
I shake my head and start running back to the house. Tonight is going to be interesting.
CHAPTER 30
HONOR
The things you can find on the internet…
I’m living with a certifiable psycho. That’s the only explanation for his decision to purchase a bouquet of sex toys and leave a note like it’s a normal housemate gift.
Only you can own your pleasure.
I glance at the clock. I have a couple of hours to get ready for the disaster date, and there’s no way I’m wearing the pinkandthe black. I drag my lip between my teeth and shut the box before opening the closet, ready to toss it inside. I assume one can’t return unwanted sex toys, so I guess they’ll gather dust until I leave. Then Fox can have a party with them, perhaps with Amalee.
My heart twists. Amalee Cage is perfection—the sort of woman Gideon wanted to shape me into. I could never understand why he didn’t just marry someone more suited to him. It’s not like he was short of offers.
I freeze as I open the closet, finding a familiar red dress hanging next to the black one I picked out. My fingers trail over the note punctured through the hook.
Nobody can steal your fire and light unless you let them.
My lips twitch as I find another note tacked on the black dress.
Are we attending a funeral?
My eyes drop to the box in my hands. Wildly inappropriate? Yes. But now the note makes a little more sense. Fox is trying to give me the tools to fight my way back to the woman I once was. It’s a shame she’s dead. You can’t be in a marriage like mine and not have it alter your brain chemistry. I drag in a breath and let it out slowly. But I’m barely living now. I’m not sure I will ever stop looking over my shoulder, but I can grasp onto the rays of light whenever I see them. That’s what this dress is, a slither of sunshine in the darkness. And the toys are the inky darkness that make the contrast all that much sweeter.
Let’s do this. I grab the red dress and lay it on the bed next to the box. Time to introduce Fox Alderidge to the real Cleo Williams. I hurry out of the pool house and find Helen curled up with a book and Duke on the sofa.
“I need your help,” I say as I wring my hands together. It’s been so long since I wore even light makeup.
Helen smiles and closes her book as she rises. “About time.”
I blink at her. “What?”
She ushers me up the stairs and toward her bedroom. “You are going to make him speechless.”
“Sam is never speechless.”
