Blindsided (30 page)

“S
o, he’s your boyfriend.”

“No. We’re dating, I guess, but he isn’t my boyfriend.”

“There isn’t a difference,” Macey sighs.

“Sure there is.” I pull a red dress from the rack then put it back. “Dating is, like, going out on dates and stuff. Boyfriend-girlfriend is when you do everything together.”

She looks at me. “Like eat-together, sleep-together, go-watch-him-practice kind of together?”

I open my mouth then close it again. Crap. “We’re just doing it backward. That’s all.”

“Well, duh.” She hangs a pair of jeans over her arm. “I thought you hated him.”

“I never hated him. Just severely disliked.” And now, my heart hurts at the thought of him leaving. Go figure.

“So you’re in love.”

“No. I’m in lust. Very severe lust,” I add.

Macey’s face transforms from a frown into a big grin. “You finally fucked him!”

“Please say it a little louder. I’m not sure the whole store heard you.”

“Oh my God. I’m dying. I’m so proud of you. My baby finally decided to hump it without a love declaration?”

I shift uncomfortably. “Well. I mean. He’s hot,” I finish lamely, shrugging.

Macey laughs. “Hell yeah, he is! I can’t believe it took you so long. Was it good?”

“Do we have to talk about this here?” I give her a stern look and glance at the sales assistant, who is listening with a little too much interest. “I’m used to seeing my yoga-pants-clad butt all over the media, but I don’t want anything else there.”

Macey rolls her eyes. “Okay, okay. Did you find a dress?”

I shake my head.

“Okay. Lemme get these jeans and then we’ll go find your dumb expensive stores.”

I smile. She can say what she wants, but she loves swooning around the designer stores. Maybe one day, she’ll find someone who’ll buy the shop for her.

“So what about you and Jack, hmm? You tapped it more than once,” I say when we step onto the sidewalk.

“Eh. Don’t get me wrong. The guy is a fucking magician between the sheets. But Mitch has really put me off dating for a while.” She adjusts her sunglasses. “Would you believe my aunt sent me an ultrasound picture on Facebook?”

I wince. As if her ex-boyfriend’s knocking up her cousin while they were on a break weren’t enough, her aunt sends ultrasound pics? Ick.

“Pssh,” she carries on. “He’s welcome to her, to be honest. I hope he enjoys her mommy-body and remembers my non-mommy-body.”

Sometimes, I forget that she’s a bitch.

I lead her into Chanel and one, two, three… Macey happy sighs. I knew it. Every time.

I scan the rows of clothing one by one, trying not to focus on the fact that this date tonight will change everything. Not between me and Corey, not whatever we have, but everything else will be different. Every time we step foot outside, we’ll be stalked and snapped. We won’t be able to do so much as buy a coffee without being big news.

And, yes, it scares me, but I know Corey’s right. I know something has to give, and while I’m a private person, he’s very much in the public eye. He likes it that way, but I just…don’t.

“I like that,” Macey says when I pull out a black, knee-length dress.

I turn it to see the back—or, rather, lack thereof.

“I don’t know. It’s kind of…fleshy…” I hedge, looking at it.

“Try it on. Now.” She turns me and frog-marches me into the dressing room.

I sigh but hang the dress up. I know I can’t leave here until I have tried it on because I can see her feet beneath the door. Yep. She’s on guard duty.

I strip and grab the dress from the hanger. It’s tight, and I really have to wriggle to get inside it and get it to sit right. I do after a few agonizingly long minutes and then look in the mirror.

Oh, now it makes sense.

The high neck gives security for the girls. I’ll need a little tape for the sides and an invisible bra to stop any nipple mishaps, but they’re firmly encased in the fabric. The plain material hugs my body perfectly, stopping at my knees, so I turn. The back dips down, ruffling at my lower back. Another inch lower and my butt would be on show. It’s risky, but I really, really like it.

“Holy motherfucker!” Macey pokes her head in the door. “If I were a guy, I’d be ripping that off and fucking you before you could say hello.”

“Thanks.” I laugh, turning slowly. “Okay. I’m gonna get it.”

“Want me to take it and have them put it on your mom’s account?”

“Please.” I pull the dress over my head, put it on the hanger, and hand it to her.

She shuts the door, and I dress quickly, fluffing my hair afterward. It’s all static from the friction of pulling the dress over my head.

“Oh. I don’t know,” Macey says, looking around.

“What’s up?” I ask, coming up next to her at the register.

“Um. Was there anything you needed to get?” Her eyes widen and she shakes her head just barely.

“No…” I answer as confidently as I can. “Not today.”

The sales assistant smiles at me, and I recognize her.

“Ms. Veronica,” she greets me.

“Hi,” I say brightly. “What’s going on?”

“Ms. Kelly was just requesting her dress be put onto the Veronica account, but we had a call this morning from Mr. Jackson requesting that any purchases she makes go onto his account.”

“Mr. Jackson?” I cough and knock my chest. “Did he give a reason?”

“No. Just that any and all purchases made by Ms. Macey Kelly are to be charged to him.”

I look at Macey slowly.
What the hell is he playing at?
“Charge it to him, then.”

“Very well.”

“What the fuck?” Macey mouths at me.

I shrug and watch as the sales assistant folds the dress and puts it into a box.

“Might as well get some shoes,” my friend mutters, raising a questioning eyebrow at me.

I shrug again. “I…I guess.”

Macey walks over to the shoe section. A few minutes later, she reappears with a bright-blue stiletto. “Do you have these in a seven?”

I fight my smile.

My size.

I tug the dress down over my butt and look in the mirror. My hair is curled and falling free over my shoulders, stray locks tickling my bare back. My hands are shaking, and I wish I knew why.

It’s not like I don’t know him. It’s technically not even a first date. I’m trying to blame it on the fact that my ass is about to be hounded for a quote or a picture or something.

Really, I’m just afraid that everyone will be finding out, and that pressure might be too much. It was for my parents. My dad couldn’t take it. He couldn’t deal with the media scrutiny every time he and Mom stepped outside the door. He left when she was pregnant, and I’ve only ever met him a handful of times. Figures he couldn’t handle being there for me either.

I’m not entertaining the thought that Corey and I will grow old and have babies and stuff, and it’s different because he’s famous, but still.

The scrutiny will, and has, destroyed a lot of relationships. Sometimes, the pretense is just too much for people, the needing to put on a smile just to run to a grocery store after a fight lest their whole relationship be torn apart on front pages.

If I’m pissed off, I kind of like going to the grocery store looking like a raging bitch and not worrying that my whole life will be dissected in an article.

“I bought that, right?”

I bring my eyes up in the mirror to Corey’s blue ones. His darkening, blue eyes, which are crawling across my body like he’s never seen a woman before.

“I wouldn’t know. Only purchases for a Ms. Macey Kelly were charged to your account.”

“Mhmm.” He clasps my waist and kisses my shoulder. “And I’m guessing you two figured it out.”

“Yes, we did. Thanks for the warning, by the way.”

“You’re welcome.” His lips travel across the top of my back. “I didn’t want to spoil the surprise.”

“Surprise? I was so shocked I nearly had a heart attack. Corey Jackson doing something romantic!”

He looks up and grins. “Smooth, huh?”

“Very,” I acquiesce. “But how did you know I would go to Chanel?”

“I didn’t,” he whispers by my ear. “I actually left an hour early for practice, and I called every store I could think of just in case.”

I pause. “Seriously? You did that?”

He nods. “I told you. I’m a gentleman.”

“Okay. I’ll give you this one. This time.” I spin in his arms. “Thank you. It was very sweet of you.”

“Sweet?” he grunts into my kiss. “It was fucking amazing of me. I deserve boyfriend of the year for that stunt.”

“Boyfriend, huh?”

“Yeah. I figured, since we’re about to be the media’s new plaything, we should probably get the status of our relationship straightened out. I decided you’re my girlfriend.” He trails his fingers across my bare back. “So I’m your boyfriend.”

“How very high school of you.” I grin and step back so I can see him.

He’s wearing a white shirt, the top button undone, and it’s tucked into black dress pants. The black shoes on his feet are shiny, totally clean, and the pants are pressed to perfection.

“You clean up well,” I tease, running my finger up the buttons.

He snatches my wrist. “I believe this is where you tell me I’m the most handsome man ever created.”

“You’re pushing it, cowboy.”

He pulls me close to him. “Say it,” he breathes, “and I promise not to smack your ass all night. Which, it should be noted, is incredibly tempting in that dress.”

“You are the most handsome man ever created.”

“Babe, you could at least pretend to mean it.”

I laugh and skip into the bedroom, where my shoes are sitting at the end of the bed in their box. I lift it onto the bed, sit down, and unwrap them.

“Shoes, too?”

“Ms. Macey Kelly really took advantage of your account.” I slide the blue heels on and stand up. “Good thing she did. These are hot shoes.”

“They’re fuck-me shoes,” Corey laughs, taking my hand. “Get your purse and get downstairs or we’ll be late, and I know how stressed you get when I don’t feed you.”

“I do not get stressed!” I huff, grabbing my black purse and making my way downstairs.

He follows me to the front door and opens it for me. Then, by his car, he opens the door there, too.

“Well, damn,” I mutter. “Who swapped Hugh Hefner with Romeo?”

Corey’s laugh rings out through the car, loud and low and rough, and I shiver. “I’m a Texan, darlin’. I’m a dickhead, but I have more Southern charm and manners than you can shake a stick at.”

“Do those manners extend to the bedroom?”

His eyes flick to mine. “First rule of being a gentleman: never, ever be a gentleman in bed.”

“Seems legit to me. I mean, who wants a gentleman in bed?” I roll my eyes.

He grins. “Precisely. Don’t worry, babe. I’ll treat you like a gentleman. Then, at the end of the day, I’ll fuck you like a porn star.”

“Oh, baby. Romance me!” I giggle. “Your powers of seduction are second to none, Corey Jackson. Really, they are.”