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I stepped out of the fitting room.

Cleo’s face lit up. “Hell yes. That’s the one.”

“You think?”

“I know.” She stood and walked around me, examining the dress from every angle. “It’s perfect. How do you feel in it? That’s what matters.”

I turned back to look at myself in the mirror. I barely recognized the woman staring back at me. Not because I looked different, exactly. But because I looked softer. Like maybe I wasn’t about to bite someone’s head off.

“Beau!” Cleo called out. “Get up here!”

The elegant designer was just a normal sister hollering for her brother.

Beau appeared a minute later. He froze when he saw me, making me suddenly very self-conscious. I looked down to make sure one of the girls hadn’t fallen out.

All good.

“Oh shit,” he said quietly. “That’s perfect.”

I felt heat creep up my neck. “You think?”

“That’s exactly what we need.”

“See?” Cleo said. “I told you we’d find something.”

Beau nodded. “Make sure you wear diamonds,” he said. “Something from Corwin Gems. Represent your business.”

I rolled my eyes. “Obviously.”

But even as I said it, I knew if he hadn’t mentioned it, I probably wouldn’t have thought of it. I would have been so focused on the dress and my hair and not tripping in heels that I would have forgotten the most obvious marketing opportunity sitting right in front of me.

“I’m changing,” I said, anxious to get away from his gaze.

I put on my armor and carried the dress out, draped over my arm. Cleo smiled at me. “Want to look around for anything else?”

“No. Thank you, but enough shopping for me.”

She laughed softly. “For today.”

7

BEAU

Ipulled up to Darcy’s Bel-Air address in the back seat hired town car. I adjusted my bow tie one last time and stepped out of the car. “Two minutes,” I told the driver.

The house was not what I expected for the ice queen. It was very Snow White and surrounded by enough greenery to create the illusion of privacy in a city where privacy was a luxury most people couldn’t afford.

I didn’t make it to the front door before it opened.

Holy shit.

Darcy Corwin walked out of her house and I forgot how to breathe for a second.

The dress looked even better on her than it had in the store. The royal blue hugged her curves before flowing down to the ground, elegant and feminine and alluring. Diamonds glittered at her throat and ears. Corwin Gems, obviously. The stones caught the evening light and sparkled like stars.

But it was her hair that stopped me cold.

Her platinum blonde hair was down for the first time since I’d met her. It fell in soft waves past her shoulders. The effect was night and day. I would almost believe this was her twin sister. She looked like a completely different person. Softer. The kind of woman I would absolutely approach and flirt with.