* * *
It w
as like no clothing store I’d ever been to. For starters, no one else was there. Just a suede couch and spotlit mirrors surrounding us. I didn’t even see any clothes.
I turned to West. “How do we…shop?”
His lip quirked up a little, in on some secret I didn’t know. Then they appeared, the women—or clones, I should say. All dressed in the same form-fitted eggplant uniform with their hair pulled back in a tight bun, the only difference among them their hair colors. Blonde, brunette, and darker blonde.
“Mr. du Lac,” said the blonde one, who appeared to be their leader by the way she stood at the tip of the triangle. “Good to see you again.”
“We need daytime, nighttime, evening wear.” He rubbed his forehead, sparing me a glance. “We need everything.”
The changing room was as large as my bedroom, with a couch and table. Nothing like the cramped cubicles I used to change in. The women came in with me and helped me get dressed, the same as I had done for years with the Crownes and Lottie.
The first outfit they slipped me into was a satin number similar to the one Abigail had stolen for me. When I came out, West’s eyes narrowed on my bare shoulders, on my chest. He turned to the woman behind me with a smile.
“Perfect.”
I shifted.
It didn’t feel like me at all, and a spearing thought stabbed me: Grayson would have hated it.
We did this for over an hour. Without showing any emotion, the clones stripped me and dressed me, stripped me and dressed me, until we finally found one. It was a camel dress with a straight neckline that covered my collarbone and capped my shoulders.
They were getting ready to send me out, and I stopped them.
“We don’t…we’ll just set this aside. I like it.”
They ripped me out of that camel dress, and I was thrown into another one West liked. Then they tried on jacket after jacket. At least it was winter and the jackets would cover me.
When we finally finished, my heart was in my throat.
“We’ll take it all,” West said.
The blondest clone smiled. “We’ll get started on tailoring.”
West opened his wallet.
“I have money. I can pay.” I was sure a wardrobe like that would cost at least in the hundreds of thousands, but I did have the money now.
West gave me a look like I’d just slapped him in the face. He handed a black card to one of the girls, and she disappeared.
Then it was silence.
I swallowed the lump in my throat at being cared for. At West being the one to do it.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” I asked quietly.
“I’m trying to win you back, Angel.” He wrapped his arm around my waist, dragging me closer. His other hand came to my neck as he dipped his head, shadowing our faces.
“How am I doing?” he whispered against my lips.
Butterflies sprang in my stomach without consent.
“Um—”
He crashed his lips on mine, cutting me off.