Page 139

“Come here,” I croon, opening my arms. “We’ll find something.”

“I never go anywhere fancy,” she groans, stumbling into my arms.

I hold her tightly, breathing her scent in.

“I would be happy to stay in and lay in bed while watching rom-coms,” I say honestly. “But I will also look through your closet to help.”

“That’s the sweetest thing you could ever do,” she mumbles against my chest. “Mm. You smell good.”

“Thank you. Have you eaten anything recently?” I ask, kissing her temple.

“Lunch, hours ago,” she confesses.

I gently sit her down on the bed and then poke my head out the door.

“Ci!” I yell. “Will you grab a protein bar or something from the kitchen for our girl, please?”

“On it!” he calls out.

“Okay, let’s find you something to wear,” I muse, entering her closet. Ci, Dray, and I are all wearing suits, which means a dress should suit fine.

“Is there anything particularly wrong with the dresses here?” I ask, trying to find a direction to run in. I can solve the problem, as long as she wants a solution for it.

“My compression socks clash with it all,” she explains. “I can’t wear combat boots with the dresses I want to wear to dinner.”

“Fuck it,” I snort, looking through the options. “Okay, let’s look. Do you have any of those tights that will work like compression socks?”

I walk deeper into the closet so I can’t hear her response. I do, however, find a pretty scarlet red dress.

“Woah,” I whisper, coming out with the dress. “I missed what you said, Noor. I’m sorry.”

Her eyes are on the dress in my hands and her lips twitch at the sight.

“I bought that at a vintage thrift store with Emil recently,” she says, waving something at me. “I haven’t had a chance to wear it yet. I forgot I had any compression pantyhose until you asked about them. I just found them at the bottom of my underwear. They’re supposed to work the way that compression socks do. I can make this work, thank you.”

“I just jogged your brain a little,” I grin, handing her the dress. She holds it up to her body, and I almost swallow my tongue. It has a deep heart cleavage cut out, long sleeves, and it’ll hit her mid calf. Fuck. It’s perfect. “What do you want?”

“I have some black flats I can wear.”

Turning, I point toward the closet, grinning as she nods. I find myself humming as I rummage through the closet, trying not to get lost looking through it. They say you can find out a lot about a woman by exploring her closet. All too soon, I place the black flats beside her once I locate them. Ci holds the protein bar out to me through the crack in the door a moment later, and I lift that from his fingers, ready to tempt Noor with it.

“Take a bite please,” I say, holding it in front of her lips. I enjoy the look of annoyance in her eyes before she takes a bite, and then I exchange the bar for the compression pantyhose. “Point your foot for me and let’s get you dressed.”

“Seriously?” she grins, laying back on her elbows and presenting her pretty toes.

“Oh yeah,” I reply, gathering the pantyhose leg in my hands until I get to the toes. “I’ve never put one of these on in my life, but I can handle it.”

I pretend to bite her toes to make her laugh, and then I feed the material up her leg. I do it with the second side as well, and then brush my lips against hers to leave her to finish.

“Please finish your bar,” I tell her.

“If I must,” she sighs, taking another bite. Standing, she shimmies the pantyhose up her body while I drink her in like a man dying of thirst.

“Atta girl,” I snort, walking toward the door.

“Alastair?”

“Yeah?”