Chapter 95

Tessa was a bit disconcerted with the mirrors that layered the corner like wallpaper behind her. She really didn’t need to know every aspect of her ass, especially since she didn’t have a shaper on to smooth out the rough spots.

She gave a quick jolt when Daria stuck her head over the screen as she was yanking down the copper column of a dress. “Well hell, Red. You got a rockin’ body underneath the JC Penny’s wear.”

Tessa blinked up at her. “I’m sorry?”

Dare angled her head at the cotton sweater hanging on the hook. “That rag you call your clothes.”

Tessa arched a brow. “Just because it’s from a department store, doesn’t mean they’re rags, Miss-“

“Oh hell, don’t stand on ceremony. If you want to swear at me just call me Daria, Red.”

Flustered, she adjusted the straps on the coppery dress. Not exactly what you’d call customer service. “When you live on a bookstore owner’s salary you get Macy’s sale racks,” Tessa said simply.

Dare tsked. “But with your bone structure and body you should be letting Jon buy you a new wardrobe.”

She wrestled with the straps of the intricate back and yelped when Dare came around and tugged them until it was tight to her body. The dress left no doubt about her shape and the curve of her breast. Hell it showed every imperfection.

“Stop fussing,” Dare ordered.

Blinking, she let her hands fall to her sides.

Dare maneuvered her to the mirror. “I use these mirrors because they are honest. I don’t want some funhouse mirror making you think you look good and leave my shop looking like shit.” She flipped the ribbon until it lay smooth along her back. Tessa gasped when Dare shifted her breast until it fit snugly into the barely noticeable cup of the dress. “Oh relax. I don’t want your tits for myself, though they are very nice.”

“Umm…thanks,” she said uncertainly.

“I know Jonny’s going to like it.” She leered over her shoulder into the mirror and met her eyes. “It’s nice to see him so alive again. You done good.”

“I-“

Dare waved her off. “Don’t say anything, Red. Just let me…” she trailed off and fussed a little bit more. “I know he’s going to bring you to Marianne’s place and you’ll find really nice stuff there too. I hate the bitch, but she’s talented as hell, but this is the dress. Let him buy you stuff at Marianne’s, but you wear this and shock him.”

Tessa cast a critical eye on herself and decided her Pilates had paid off. She had a decent enough body for the dress. It pushed up the right parts and sucked in the bad. “It is impressive.”

“Thanks, it’s from my Fall Line.”

She turned around. “You designed this?”

“Most of the stuff in here is mine.”

“What in the blue hell am I going to wear for jewelry?” she found herself asking.

“Not a damn thing. Play up that Irish skin of yours and leave the rest naked. You’ll need a girlfriend to help you with the ribbons.”

“I have one.”

“Good, just find some sparkly drops that dust your shoulders and sprinkle on a little sparkly talc along the underside and upper curve of your boobs. He’ll eat his Armani suit to get you out of it.”

She couldn’t help the smirk that pulled up the corner of her lip.

“Yeah you like that thought don’t you?”

Tessa pressed her lips together. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Dare started pulling at the laces gently and left Tessa in her thong less than a minute later. “Jesus,” she muttered.

Dare just grinned. “Honey I work the runway, you ain’t got nuttin’ I haven’t already seen. Get dressed, I think you’re done in my shop. I’ve got a perfect pair of stiletto strappy heels for you to wear with that.”

She couldn’t do anything but nod and snatch her shirt off the screen. “Thank you,” she managed to say and held onto the tiniest scrap of her modesty before she walked away.

“Doin’ okay back there, babe?”

“Yeah, I’m just about done. Why don’t you go check out.”

“You sure you’re okay, Tessa?” he asked doubtfully.

“I promise I’m fine. We better get a move on before Maryanne’s closes.”

“Alright, I’ll meet you out front.” His voice faded with the sound of his boots on the hardwood.

She quickly dressed and fingered the silk wraparound blouse, but left it on the hanger. It really was lovely she thought as she made it nearly halfway through the shop. Swearing under her breath she ran back and snagged it and the stovepipe pants and brought them to the desk.

He grinned over his shoulder. “Finally letting me spoil you a little?”

“Don’t get used to it. It’s a moment of weakness,” she huffed.

He snapped his American Express on the shabby chic countertop and leaned into her. The kiss was soft and held only the barest hint of heat. “You looked amazing in that green dress. I’m not sure I can handle you in public with it.”

“Are you telling me not to wear it, Jon?” she asked teasingly, their lips barely an inch apart.

“Would you wear it only for me if I asked?”

Her lashes fluttered down as she stared at his mouth. She wasn’t one to be dictated to when it came to clothes, but for him she might be tempted. “Perhaps,” she said vaguely.

His eyebrow quirked along with his lip, “If I asked nicely?”

“I’d consider it.”

The kiss held a harder edge when he closed in on the space between them. Her breath felt trapped in her chest as he flicked his tongue along her lower lip before he stood and accepted the receipt from Dare.

“Anytime you’re done with him, Red, I call dibs.”

Tessa couldn’t stop the smile, even if she did forget the woman was in the room. The man scrambled her brains better than a line cook at a diner. “There won’t be anything left of him when I’m done,” she heard herself say before she could shut her mouth.

Jon let out a laugh and hooked his arm around her waist. “Well she told you!”

Tessa met Dare’s eyes and could have sworn she saw…approval? She shook it off, what a silly notion. She was nobody significant to her, but the approval felt strangely important for reasons she couldn’t name.

Jon flipped open his phone and quickly shot off a text. She peered over his shoulder at the quick fingered keying of a man that did it often. She learned something new about him almost every day. “Non-techy my ass,” she mumbled.

“Did you say something?”

“Nope,” she smiled up at him and pressed a kiss along the dip in his chin. “Nothing at all. Ready for the next shop there Daddy Warbucks?”

He laughed and splayed his fingers over her lower back, cutting dangerously low on her dress pants. “You only get to call me Daddy if there are pigtails involved.”

“I’ve got the red hair doesn’t that count for something?”

He buried his nose into her hair and pulled her in. Her face flamed as he whispered just what he’d do with her pigtails if she ever wore them. He stepped back as the Town Car pulled up.

She wasn’t entirely sure her thong could hold up to that kind of image and stay dry. She stepped into the plush car and after a few words between Henry and Jon they were headed into the heart of SoHo.

Marianne’s was an elegant boutique. Perfect in style, elegance and color, a direct contrast to Daria’s place. Jon helped her from the car and the discreet jingle of a tiny bell was the only outward sign that they had entered her establishment.

A statuesque bombshell met them before they could reach the first display. She was elegance and sophistication wrapped in silk, followed by a scent that screamed class. Everything that Tessa was not. This time it was Jon who pressed a possessive hand along her back.

Tessa shot him a quick look before the woman greeted them. With the tips of her fingers, she barely gave him a squeeze. “Hello, Jon, it’s been a long time.” Her velvet blue eyes drifted from Jon to her, and the long elegant fingers enveloped hers and the grip lasted just a touch too long. “And you must be Tessa. Jon’s told me quite a bit about you. He forgot to mention how stunning you were.”

Tessa felt her eyebrow quirk before she could stop it. “He did, huh?”

“Well he did mention words like amazing and all sorts of manly words of love, but didn’t discuss your looks. I was ready for another,” she paused and smiled serenely at him, “Dorothea.”

“Um, thanks, I think.”

“As positively, drippingly gorgeous as Jon is, he rarely identifies people that way. Must be the curse of the beautiful to look for something else in a person. Not always, mind you, but Jon is a rare man.” Marianne’s eyes touched on his face then slid back to hers. “I’m pleasantly surprised to find you’re as beautiful as you are interesting. Based on Jon’s descriptions of course,” she finished with a smile that could only be called predatory.

She couldn’t figure out why she felt uncomfortable with the praise. She’d said all the words correctly, yet something felt off. When Jon’s fingers laced with hers she leaned into him. “Well he certainly talked me up, he was fairly non-descript about you I’m sorry to say.”

“Oh I’m sure he was.” She gently detangled their hands and tugged her into the showroom, leaving Jon to follow. “I can’t wait to dress you.”

She felt an itch between her shoulder blades and turned back to Jon. His face was unreadable, but she caught the gleam of something in his eyes. She hadn’t seen it before and didn’t know what to call it.

Marianne selected a few things as she worked her way through the room. It wasn’t put together like a typical boutique. It really was a showcase with unobtrusive racks that never detracted from the look of the design or the outfit she put together for the displays.

She held up colors to her skin and turned her around to measure her waist with her hands. Nothing about her touch was sexual, but there was something…Jon strolled over to her side and held out his arms as Marianne laid garment after garment over across his forearms.

“Alright, I think it’s time for the dressing room.” Marianne gave him a sweet smile. “Why don’t you go and enjoy a glass of wine while us girls do what we do best.”

Jon stared her down. “I think I’ll stick around to help her. She’ll be on my arm on the red carpet after all.”

Tessa looked from Jon to Marianne and back again. What the hell was up with them? “I think I can dress myself,” she said and took the pile from Jon and closeted herself into a large room. A chaise in a classy crème color angled from the corner and a discreet hook was nearly hidden between a pair of sconces. The mirror was full length and she simply shook her head at the strange course of events. She hung her own sweater on the hook and lifted a silky black camisole to try on.

The door opened and Jon slid inside. That look was still in his eyes blended with heat as his eyes raked over her bra. “Get out of here, Jon. I don’t know what’s gotten into you but,” she paused when he flicked the lock on the door. She swallowed. His jaw was tight and her gaze dropped to the bulge at the front of his jeans.

The periwinkle lace suddenly felt too small as her breasts swelled and her nipples peaked. He came up behind her and cupped her, watching in the mirror as his thumbs rubbed over each tip, back and forth over the lace.

Her head fell back on his chest. “You shouldn’t be in here,” she whispered as he flicked his thumbnail over her left nipple.

“I needed to come in.” She lifted heavy lids and met his gaze in the mirror. “I needed to touch you. Here and now I…” his words trailed off as he dropped his mouth to the space between her neck and shoulder. His tongue licked over a spot just along the back strap of her bra and she gasped as he plucked her nipple with his thumb and middle finger. “I need you.”

A soft moan escaped her lips as he continued to watch her in the mirror as he kissed her shoulder, scraping his teeth over a patch of freckles that started down her arm. His fingers lowered to her stomach and into the small gap in her pants.

He flicked the button open and nudged her zipper down with a knuckle. She couldn’t see his fingers, but she certainly felt them as they slid past the elastic of her thong until he found the thin line of hair and between her lips. Her mouth fell open as he slowly circled the bud inside of her. “I didn’t like the way she looked at you,” he said.

Her head jerked up as a callous along the tip of his finger rasped over her engorged clit. She tried to fight her way out of the fog of pleasure. “What?”

He stroked her a little harder, his touch sure and on point. He knew her body almost well as she did. His teeth moved from her shoulder to her ear. “I’ve heard things about Marianne, but I’ve never seen her do it first hand.”

She was lost, both distracted by his touch and the deft tug of his teeth along the back of her ear and down behind it with a swipe of his tongue. “I don’t understand.”

“She wants you,” he said into the mirror. His blue eyes were dark and finally she understood the emotion brimming in his crystalline blue eyes. Possession. “She can’t have you.”

The misplaced jealousy both aroused and angered her. “You don’t need to mark me like a dog, Jon. I’m yours.” Her head tilted back as he tucked two fingers inside opening her, readying her. “I’m yours,” she said again as her body swelled around him, sucking his fingers deeper.

He shucked her pants and thong and lifted a knee up on the chaise, opening her for him. He quickly unbuckled his jeans and plunged inside of her. She cried out as she took all of him in one smooth stroke. He opened her legs and she bent forward, gripping the arm of the chair as he gripped her hips, plunging again and again. Their bodies taut with need, flushed with hunger and both of their eyes locked on one another in the mirror drove them to peak quickly.

The slap of skin and swell of a heady dose of lust left her primed but it was his eyes in the mirror that finished her off. Intense, possessive, wild. She coasted on his emotions and broke over the wild, thrusting back against him, watching him disappear into her again and again.

His hand slid up and over her back into her hair. He pulled her head back around and swallowed the scream she wanted to release as her body viced around him. His tongue reached inside of her and gentled the roar in her head as they both slumped into the chaise.

“Well fuck,” she said on a gasp.

“It certainly was,” he said and kissed her shoulder.

She turned in his arms, hooking her thigh over his denim clad hip. “What the hell got into you? And what did you mean she wants me?”

Amused blue eyes met hers. “You aren’t that innocent, Tessa.”

“I know what you meant, but why would she want me?”

“You really don’t know do you?”

She tucked her head into the curve of his bicep as he gathered her in, “Evidently not.”

He sighed and smoothed his hand over her hair. “There’s something about you, Tessa. You draw people in and make them want to be around you, want to be with you. Marianne sniffed it out in you in a second.”

“I thought you two were…” she trailed off.

“Oh we were lovers.”

Tessa pushed against him until he released her, uncomfortable with the thought of that woman touching him. Even more uncomfortable with the fact that the same woman wanted to touch her the same way. She sat up, feeling the thick coating of their mixed juices along her inner thigh. She certainly couldn’t try on clothes now.

She shimmied into her thong and pants, doing up her buttons and zipper. He reached for her, but she slipped away. Her emotions were too jumbled to deal with him touching her too. “If you were lovers than what does she want me for?”

“Marianne dabbles in a little bit of everything, but it’s women she falls for. I could see her brain spinning as soon as she saw you.”

“Well it can spin right back away from me. I don’t play for the pink team, Jon.”

He sat up and adjusted himself back into his jeans with a laugh. “I know you don’t. Hell, she knows you don’t, but she’d try to persuade you. It made me a little nuts. I know, first hand, how persuasive she can be.”

“Didn’t need to know that,” she said and unhooked her bra. At least she could try on the shirts. She lifted the camisole off the pile that had hit the floor and dropped it over her head. She met his eyes in the mirror and smacked his hand as hit slid under the silk. “You’ve had enough.”

He grinned, “I’ll never have enough.”

“Sweet talk isn’t going to work this time buddy,” she said and tugged the camisole down. It felt good against her skin and would look sharp with the plum colored jacket. She lifted the fitted blazer and shrugged into it. Her nipples were still rock hard from their….well, whatever it had been. She watched his eyes heat as she pulled the jacket closed. Unrepentant he only grinned as she buttoned it.

“It’s hot,” he said playfully.

“What?” she looked over his shoulder. “You’re fine now that you’ve branded me like a dog in heat?”

He didn’t look the least bit offended as he stretched out on the chaise. “Yup.”

She only rolled her eyes and took off the jacket. She set it aside as well as the black silk. She leaned down and found another few shirts. She felt slightly wicked dressing and undressing for him. They talked a little about the party and his past with Marianne, but he never stopped watching her.

She found herself putting aside the articles of clothing that made his eyes heat, and discarding the ones that gave no reaction. She’d never dressed to please a man before and found a power in it she’d never felt before. She discarded all the pants, unwilling to try them on in her current state.

She nodded behind him for the dresses on the hook. “Hand me the red one, please.”

He didn’t move at first. “I think you should take the rest off first.”

She sighed and walked over to the wall. “You are incorrigible.”

He slid his hand into the half-unbuttoned shirt and pressed a kiss to her stomach. “I just like you naked.”

She slapped at his hand when it rose to finish unbuttoning, “Hands off.”

“I’m just helping,” he said with a lazy grin.

“Why don’t you help me by going out into the waiting room and keeping the barracuda at bay?”

“Barracuda?” he said with a laugh.

“Yes, she makes me,” she cut off when a knock came at the door.

“Alright in there?” came Marianne’s sultry voice.

“We’re fine!”

“Why don’t you open the door so I can let you know, woman to woman?”

“Why don’t you go find another plaything,” she muttered and held up two dresses, a slinky grey and another slinky black.

Jon laughed and rose. He pressed a kiss along her neck. “I’ll go keep her company.” He stopped at the door. “I like the black one, by the way.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just go, you’re distracting me.”

He laughed and closed the door.