Page 54 of Now Their Starlet

“Oh,” she says quietly, averting her gaze.

I reach out and gently guide her to look back at me, with a hold on her chin.

“That doesn’t mean I don’t want to try to figure out whether we can work, okay? I need you to know that. I just... Now isn’t the time. You’ve already been through so much. You’ve gotta get out of crisis mode first.”

“Okay,” she nods, melting into the touch I have on her face. “Thank you.”

CHAPTER 13

Andi

“This is such a terrible dress,” Cleo mutters, running a hand through her pink hair before helping me fully unlace the corset.

We’re in the handicapped stall at the back of the bathroom. She and Juno are helping me hide the phone. It almost feels like they’re preparing me for battle.

Juno holds the dress as I step out of it and carefully throws it over the top of the stall. I hold an arm over my chest, a little self-conscious that I’m only wearing panties in front of the two younger sisters of one of the men I’m interested in, but they don’t make a big fuss about it.

“Don’t get me wrong,” Cleo says, digging through the makeup storage box one of them brought and pulling out a roll of boob-tape. “It’s super pretty, but the material is atrocious!”

“It’s pretty bad,” I say with a huff.

“Terrible to sit in. Scratchy. Ridiculously tight with the corset. Overall, it must be miserable to wear,” Juno, the calmer twin, says.

“You can say that again,” I nod.

Their dresses look far more comfortable, but no less stylish. Juno is in a deep midnight blue silk slip dress with an embroidered decolletage area, highlighting the pale skin of her collarbones and shoulders, in the way that a lot of trendy omega styles these days do.

Cleo is in a nude dress of sable and satin that cinches at the waist and drapes outwards in textured cuts with organza and lace panels strategically placed throughout. It’s a stunning piece, but it really draws attention to the brightness of her hair.

“You guys look so pretty in your dresses,” I murmur, suddenly feeling extra self-conscious that I’m practically naked. “I wish... I wish I could wear things that look good and aren’t simultaneously torture devices.”

“When our brother gets you outta here,” Cleo says, her expression going uncharacteristically serious. It highlights just how similar the two look, if you ignore Cleo’s peach-pink hair.

“Yeah,” I nod, swallowing hard past the lump in my throat.

She said when. Not if. I don’t think she understands how big a deal that distinction is to me.

The current plan is to tape the burner phone to my body, right along the side of my stomach, underneath where the corset compresses the most. There’s nowhere to really hide a phone this size, and the last thing we need is for Ezra and me to be separated before I get locked away in my room again, before he has a chance to get it to me.

The original plan was for him to try to snap photos and collect evidence before I got ready, but he never had an opportunity to be alone in that room with me.

It explains a bit of why he was so upset tonight.

I’ve been meaning to talk to him about it, but to be honest, I’d much rather soak in Cameron’s comfort than feel on edge around Ezra, even if he is stressed out for my sake.

“Thank you for helping me with this, by the way,” I mumble, standing straight as Juno presses the phone to my skin while Cleo tugs a strip of tape off the roll. It’s essentially a thick roll of bandage material. Because of the boning of the corset and how sturdy it is, the outline of the small touchscreen burner phone shouldn’t show.

“Of course!” Cleo says, her bright grin back in place.

“We’ve never seen Ever this...” Juno trails off, wincing slightly.

“Bat-shit insane?” Cleo pipes up.

“I was going to say concerned, but that works too.”

The easy conversation and casual mention of how Everett’s doing has my heart stuttering in my chest.

“Is he... okay?” I ask.