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And the klutzy librarian would be ancient history after their date tomorrow night.
Chapter Five
Oh crap. Crap-oh-crap.
Allison stared at herself in the mirror, scrunched her face, and bit her lip. Mrs. Keller had been no help at all. She had gone pleading to her landlady about what to wear for the ball, and Mrs. Keller had told her to wear whatever she wanted.
Didn’t Mrs. Keller know that, left to her own devices, this is what she would come up with? First, out of sheer defiance, she decided the grandsons were not worth the cost of a new dress that she would never end up wearing again. After this one, how many balls were in her future? None. Zero. Nada.
Second, she had already established numerous times before that the Keller men were going to get what they saw, and what they saw had been her at her worst, so literally anything was better, even just a pair of underwear, would be a vast improvement.
Finally, she rummaged through her closet and pulled out a dress she had worn to the graduation. She decided not to overthink it, quickly showered, and scrubbed at her skin and hair until both gleamed with cleanliness before she donned her favorite set of underwear.
So what if she was a quintessential cliche? The librarian who wore demure tweed skirts and long-sleeve blouses but with a panache for lacy underwear. She liked feeling feminine under her clothes, and no one really got to see them anyway.
She slipped into her dress, then her shoes—medium-heeled white pumps—and then checked her makeup once more. She had watched a YouTube video on how to apply makeup, but she must have misunderstood something because she ended up looking like a clown.
Again, what did it matter? A dash of blush, a slathering of mascara, and lipstick would serve as a vast, vast improvement from wearing mud on her face, which is how they had seen her for the first time.
At exactly 7 p.m. on the dot, a knock sounded on her door. She peered outside, and the sight of a limousine taking up half the street where she had a private entrance to her cottage sent a bunch of butterflies in her stomach.
It was fine. All four of them were doing this to appease one woman with all the power in her court.
A few hours at the most.
The chauffeur, though polite, remained quiet while she spoke nonstop all the way to the Davenport mansion. He opened the door for her, and with her legs like jelly, she stepped out of the vehicle and nearly dove back into the car when she caught sight of Zac Archer, Gage Miller, and Reid Flemming waiting for her at the foot of a set of stairs that would take them into the Davenport house.
Dressed in tuxedos that naturally cost an arm and a leg, Allison fought with her lungs for air. Okay, they'd looked immaculate at their grandmother's the other day, so this was nothing new, but she knew what the problem was. It was because she had convinced herself that they weren’t as good-looking as she had led herself to believe.
They were, so she put it down to a slight setback but she was back on firm ground again. Their handsomeness had shocked her a little bit, that was all.
“Oh fuck.”
Allison had been 100% sure she had heard them all three murmur the expletive at the sight of her.
Well, it wasn’t a walk in the park for her, either. She could be home in her pajamas already, stuffing her face with all forms of granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and high fructose corn syrup while she got lost in her latest reading binge.
“Let’s get this over with,” Zac said immediately and turned around.
“Well, hello to you too,” Allison muttered as she ascended the stairs and managed to nearly trip only once, which forced Gage to reach out before her chin made contact with the marble stairs and set her back on her feet.
Whatever. She was a walking disaster. It shouldn’t be news to them.
The Davenport’s grand hall was nothing like what she had seen before. As vast as the eye could see, with massive chandeliers hanging above her head, the room looked like something from a fairytale.
“We have some business to take care of. Don’t leave this room,” Gage said as three men started to come toward them.
“Look, I don’t expect you to babysit me the whole time,” Allison said quickly. “We’re only doing this because we were kind of blackmailed into it. I’m sorry that my dog got us into this situation in the first place. And I’m sorry you were forced to bring me to the ball, but just pretend I’m not here at all. After this, we don’t have to see each other ever again. So go do your thing, and I’ll do mine at the buffet, and we’ll call it a day.”
She strolled off as soon as the other men arrived, not waiting for a reply from the Kellers as well. They were probably sighing in relief that she wasn’t their problem anymore.
The truth was that the impact of their nearness had singed her skin repeatedly, and the douse of their cologne on her senses had begun to play havoc with her panties.
She couldn’t understand why her clit chose them of all men to flutter over, considering they were the grumpiest people she had the misfortune of ever knowing.
She couldn’t name half of the delicacies on the table, but that didn’t stop her from trying them out.
“You must be new around here.” A good-looking man crept up behind her, forcing her to swallow the little round biscuit, topped with some cured meat, she had taken a bite of and to turn around to face him.
