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He grinned. “No need to worry about that, I have it sorted.”
Well, that wasn’t worrying at all.
Chapter 86
Stella
I walked out of the hotel bathroom rubbing my wet hair with a towel to find a dress on the bed, along with shoes. “What’s this?” I asked Harley, who stood casually leaning against the door jam.
“I knew you had nothing suitable for tonight, so I bought you something.”
“But I did have something?” I hesitated. “Well, kind of.” Tessa had lent me a cocktail dress, but truth be told, it wasn’t a great fit. Still, it had been an improvement on the jeans and Vans that were my first option. And since my budget didn’t stretch to a new outfit, my only option.
I picked up the navy-blue silk dress with a corset bodice covered in tiny twinkling crystals. From the quality of the material and workmanship, not to mention the designer label, it was clearly expensive. Like thousands of dollars expensive.
“Thank you, it’s beautiful, but how did you know my size?” I asked as I gazed reverently at the dress.
He pushed away from the door and spun me around, dress and all. “Easy, baby. I’m an expert on the female form.”
“Ugh, that’s so creepy. Now I’m picturing you leering at women.”
“Ouch, that hurts! The only woman I leer at these days is you,” he teased, trying to slide his hands inside the plush towel wrapped around my body.
I grabbed my towel before he could yank it off. “Gerroff!”
He huffed and released me. “Not fair. It’s been two days since we had sex.”
“And?” I tried not to laugh at the expression of frustration on his face.
“And I’m going to have a boner all night, which to be frank, isn’t a good look when we’re papped outside the gallery.”
My face fell. Fuck. I hadn’t considered we might be photographed. Harley noticed and tugged me back into his arms.
“Hey, I was joking. There will be a photographer there to snap photos of all the rich assholes, but we can avoid them. Don’t worry.” He tightened his arms around me, and I closed my eyes, happy to soak in his delicious scent. Knowing there wouldn’t be dozens of photographers waiting for us put my mind at ease. The last thing I needed was to be photographed at a gallery full of ridiculously expensive artworks when my dad was in prison awaiting trial for defrauding people of their life savings. The optics on that were horrendous.
We were supposed to be getting ready and if Harley didn’t let me get on with things, we’d be more than fashionably late. Brax and Quinn had disappeared into their room a while ago. I assumed they were getting ready. Harley had showered but he was still wearing jeans and a tee.
“Don’t you need to get changed?” I asked when he released me.
“Yeah.”
“Well fuck off then, I need time to transform from a frog into a princess.”
“Baby, you’re always a princess to me.”
He kissed me, his fingers threading through my damp hair, pulling me against the hardness in his pants. Despite being fully aware I had a finite amount of time to fix my hair and slap some makeup on, I couldn’t break the kiss. He was just too addictive.
My towel began to slip and common sense edged in. “Harley,” I groaned, pulling back slightly. “Stop!”
“But I don’t want to,” he complained, cupping my ass and grinding into me to remind me exactly what I was missing out on. And it was a lot.
As much as I wanted to take this further, I knew we didn’t have time. “OK, enough!”
Harley grumbled but finally took the hint. “Fine! I’ll leave you alone to get ready. I better get dressed too. Wouldn’t want to let the side down.”
I shoved him out of the door and closed it. Now all I had to do was turn an ugly duckling into a swan.
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