Nero (Made Men 1)

Maria held up another one. “What do you think?”

Elle squished up her nose. “It’s awfully pink…”

Maria put it back. “You’re right.”

Elle shook her head, laughing. She watched Maria flip through some more before she stopped.

Maria sighed and mumbled something under her breath, then she went to the very back of her closet and pulled out a white dress.

Elle’s mouth dropped. “You own that?” The dress was plain white yet made from expensive-looking fabric. The thing that shocked Elle was it was extremely short and tight-looking.

Maria walked up to her. “Try it on.”

Elle shook her head no. There’s no way I could fit into that.

“Come on, Elle. I just want to see what it looks like on you. Please?” Maria gave Elle puppy eyes.

Ugh. “Fine, I’ll attempt to fit in it.” Elle snatched the dress from her.

Maria laughed and walked out of the closet to shut the door. “Oh, you can’t wear your bra and panties with that dress.”

What? I thought I was just trying it on. Elle threw off her clothes and, to appease Maria, she stripped all the way down. Elle stuck her legs in the dress and shimmied it up then put her arms through the straps.

She smoothed the dress down, noticing it wasn’t too short. Short enough. However, on Maria, it would have been lucky to cover her ass. Elle wondered how in the world she’d managed to keep the dress hidden from her brothers.

“Okay, come in.”

Maria opened the door a second later. “Oh, my God. It’s perfect!”

Maria ran over and took Elle’s hand then dragged her over to her vanity and sat her down.

Elle saw the glint in her eyes. Oh, Lord.

“What are you doing now?”

“Elle, I have been dying to dress a girl up. Just let me have my fun.”

Elle looked at Maria’s puppy-dog eyes again. There was no way she could say no, and as a result, Elle decided to be a life-size Barbie for Maria to play with.

She sat in the chair for what seemed like hours while Maria curled her hair and did her makeup. When that was finished, Maria made her put on some white, strappy heels. Elle then stood up so Maria could see her creation.

Maria clapped her hands, giggling. “He is going to love me for this.”

“What?” Who’s he?

Maria took Elle’s hand and pushed her in front of the mirror for the first time—she had been careful not to let Elle see—so she could appreciate the final product.

Elle gasped at her reflection. Her hair was curled in almost-messy waves, giving her hair a lift. Her makeup was perfectly done with a bold, winged eye and pink lip gloss. Maria couldn’t resist. The dress was it, though.

Seeing it now for the first time, the scoop neck revealed the tops of her breasts, held up nicely with the thick straps. Elle understood now why she couldn’t wear anything underneath; the dress was a second skin. Although the material wasn’t see-through, you could see the outlines to anything underneath it. Elle had never looked or felt this beautiful in her whole life.

“You look gorgeous, Elle,” Maria complimented.

“Thanks to you and the time you spent to do so. Well, time to pull it off—”

“Wait, what time is it?” Maria looked over at the clock. “Eleven forty-five!” Maria grabbed Elle’s hand and dragged her to stand in the middle of her bedroom. “Wait right here.” Then Maria disappeared.

Um, okay…

* * *

Nero opened his bedroom door. “What the fuck, Maria?”

“Sorry, Nero. I needed her for something,” Maria tried to calm him.

“I told you to distract her for thirty fucking minutes, not the whole damn night. We just told her you wanted her here to fucking get her here.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, you can thank me later.”

“For what? Fucking stealing her from me?”

Maria started laughing, “All right, I’m leaving with Lucca. Elle’s in my room.” Maria started walking down the hall. “Oh, don’t be mad at me for the dress. I never actually got to wear it.”

What?

Chapter Thirty-Six

How Does It Taste?

Eleven forty-five? Elle hadn’t even realized how late it was, though she had known it was late when she had come over. Yeah, but dang, time flew.

Elle looked around Maria’s bedroom, wondering how long she was going to take. She tried waiting right where she’d told her to, but she spun around the room, bored, until she heard the bedroom door fly open.

Elle turned back around to face the door. “Final—” Her mouth stopped forming the words when she saw Nero standing in the doorway. She thought he looked just as stunned to see her as she did him.

Nero slowly started covering the distance between them, and Elle tried to move back. She thought Nero looked too much like a wolf trying to stalk his prey right now, and she started to feel uncomfortable with the way she was dressed.

I’m going to kill Maria. “Uh-uh, what are you doing here?”

Nero stood right in front of her. “I live here, remember?”

Right. Elle wondered where Nero had gone to tonight. He looked a bit sexier than he usually did with his buttoned up shirt that was a dark gray this time. It made his emerald eyes dance and gave him a more deadly and sexy appearance. Elle licked her lips from them suddenly starting to feel dry.

Nero reached out and took her hand, pulling her toward him. “You look fucking beautiful.”

Elle’s heart started beating as Nero leaned down to kiss her lightly on the lips. When he pulled away, he started pulling her out of the bedroom.

“Um, where’s Maria?”

“She left. Remind me later to thank her and kill her for that dress.”

Left? Elle’s heart began to race as he headed toward his bedroom. She suddenly felt like this whole thing might have been planned.

Nero smiled as he opened his bedroom door for her.

Elle looked into his room and saw a small table and two chairs had been placed by his balcony door. He did this for me?

Nero’s hand came to the small of her back and he gently pushed her into the bedroom before shutting the door. Then he guided her toward the table and pulled out a seat for her. Elle stared at the pink cupcake and strawberries on the plate in front of her as Nero sat down beside her.