There was a soft gasp from beside me, but I froze completely still. To be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking at. We’d found it in the dress section—so that had to be what it was—and yet...I had never seen anything like it.
Let me start by saying this: it looked like something a glad
iator would wear. If the gladiator had a penchant for silks, gems, ribbons, and happened to be a princess.
It was every shade of iridescent silver I could imagine—darkening to shimmering charcoal hues when I twisted it in the light. The entire thing was about as light as a feather, and covered just about as much—with a jagged crystal strap that laced around my thin shoulders before widening into a bodice that plunged all the way to my stomach.
But there’s a reason for that...
With a little smile, I reached into the jewelry box, and pulled out the necklace—ignoring the way Stacy swooned again beside me. It was a testament to how hard I was trying to put that day and its string of unanswered questions behind me, that I hadn’t taken the thing out before to gawk at it in the privacy of my own room.
It was beautiful.
A chain of pure diamonds that hung all the way down to my navel, a length that happened to fit perfectly with the dress. At the end, dangling there like a little drop of heaven, was a diamond pendant. Shaped like a half-moon teardrop. Glistening in my open palm.
“Abigail,” Stacy murmured, taking a deep breath to steady herself, “I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to give me an honest answer, okay?”
I looked up in surprise, wondering what she was thinking.
“When did you start sleeping with Nicholas Hunter?”
When did I start...what?!
“Excuse me?!” I cried, leaping to my feet. “What the hell are you talking about?!”
She stood up slowly beside me, completely immune to my indignant rage.
“This stuff...” her eyes swept each item laying out on my bed, “...all of it. It’s worth about as much as this apartment building.”
I glanced down as well, wishing I’d saved the necklace until after she’d gone.
“Yeah, so?”
Her eyebrows shot into her hair, arching in sheer delight.
“Yeah, so?” she quoted. Then she threw back her head and laughed. “I seriously can’t believe you just tried to brush this off with a yeah, so.”
I bristled defensively, trying to think of something to say.
“I only meant...this is nothing to Nick. You know that.” A rather good explanation, if I did say so myself. “He drops money like this all the time. Couldn’t care less.”
Stacy’s lips curled up in a knowing smile, not taken in for a single moment by my hasty excuses. “Yeah, except it’s not about the price, it’s about the items themselves. The garter?! You said he picked these out himself? No help from the saleswomen?”
A stab of nerves hit me deep in the stomach, and I felt the sudden need to back-peddle.
“I actually might have been wrong about that,” I muttered quickly. “Come to think of it, I think there was a woman helping us. Rhonda, or Rosy, or Rudolpho—something like that.”
Stacy ignored me, trailing her fingers appreciatively over the fine silk. When she was finished, she glanced up like she was going to come at me with something else—but she stopped instantly upon seeing the look on my face. She looked twice between me and the necklace before her eyes softened. The next thing I knew, she was helping me to my feet.
“I’ve been with Nick for a long time.” Her eyes twinkled as she gave me a rather peculiar smile. “And I think this is more than an acting gig. I mean, he could’ve picked me and I could’ve played the part very well. But he chose you. And I catch him looking at you, too, and I think there is something more going on here. Your boss is seducing you.”
I chuckled. “Nah, it’s just an acting gig, nothing more.”
She laughed. “Keep telling yourself that, sweetheart.”
And with that—she proceeded to help me get ready. Transforming me, as only someone like Stacy could, into a woman I hardly recognized. A woman who not only would light up whatever room she walked into, but looked as though she should be sitting on a throne. A woman who looked both beautiful and dangerous all at the same time. A woman who looked ready for whatever the world had to throw at her—come hell or high water.
Of course...that woman hadn’t taken into account the icy New York breeze.