Best Man With Benefits (McCade Brothers 3)

ed dancing in public the same way she avoided public speaking, but heck, if she could scale a rock wall, she could handle a two-step, couldn’t she?

Her gaze snagged on a flash of crimson in a shop window. A slinky dress with a neckline that plunged low and a flirty skirt that ended mid-thigh. Open-toed red lace stilettos completed the ensemble. The outfit whispered, “Give me a twirl,” and a whole lot more.

Show up in that and nobody’s going to notice your dancing skills.

Did she dare?

“Amazing dress, Sophie. You should try it on.”

Sophie whirled and came face-to-face with Kady. “Oh, hey.” She glanced around, unaccountably nervous that her brother might be nearby and, somehow, reading her mind. “What are you up to?”

Kady wiggled her fingers. “I’m on my way to get a mani-pedi, but I’m way early.” She grabbed Sophie’s hand and pulled her into the shop. “I’ve got plenty of time to help you decide whether to say yes to the dress.”

“I was just window-shopping. I’m not in the market for a new dress.”

“Please. A girl is always in the market for a perfect red dress, and the dance lesson tonight is reason enough, if you really need an excuse.”

When a pretty blond saleswoman approached, Kady said, “Do you have the dress in the window in…what do you wear now, Soph? 8P?”

“We do,” the saleswoman answered, before Sophie could do more than nod. “Let me get you set up in a fitting room and I’ll bring the dress to you.”

“Thanks,” Kady said as they made their way to the back of the shop. “The shoes, too. Seven and a half.” She settled herself into one of the two dainty Queen Anne style chairs just outside the fitting rooms.

“Of course,” the saleslady replied. She unlocked a room and gestured Sophie inside. “Be right back.”

When the door snapped shut Sophie eyed her reflection in the mirror. Don’t just stand there, the Sophie in the mirror admonished. Lose the workout clothes. There really didn’t seem to be anything else to do, so she started stripping down. Within minutes the saleswoman knocked. She peeked out at the smiling woman.

“Here’s the dress.” The woman passed it through and then offered a stack of two shoe boxes. “I brought the shoes in seven and a half, and eight, because you never know with heels. I thought this might also interest you.”

Sophie blinked as the clerk handed her a black satin bra with lace edging. “It works perfectly with the neckline of the dress, and don’t let the prettiness fool you—this little wonder can handle anything. It’ll boost your cleavage so you look like you stepped off the cover of Cosmo.”

Sophie felt her face turn as red as the dress, but she murmured a thanks and took the frilly scrap. In the privacy of the fitting room she wriggled into the bra and paused for a moment to check herself in the mirror.

Wow. The woman was not kidding. While putting her chest front and center went against every deep-seated instinct she’d obeyed since middle school, she remembered how incredibly appreciative Logan had been of those particular assets last night, and deep-seated instinct gave way to a desire to watch his eyes widen and fill with lust—ideally before he ripped the satin-and-lace miracle of engineering right off. She lifted the discreet tag looped around the underwire between her breasts.

Holy crap, $120 for a bra? Maybe he wouldn’t rip it off her after all. Maybe she’d shrug out of it carefully, fold it, and tuck it in the room safe.

“Don’t leave me in suspense,” Kady piped up. “Get out here and show me how the outfit looks.”

“One sec.” Sophie turned around, pulled the dress over her head, zipped it up, and stepped into the shoes. Too anxious to look in the mirror, she held her breath and walked out of the fitting room.

“Oh my God. Sophie, get a load of you.”

“What?” She looked down at herself but she couldn’t force her gaze past the unprecedented amount of cleavage on display. “Do I look like a hooker?” The shock on Kady’s face had her cringing and backing into the fitting room. “I do, don’t I? Like a cheap hooker, which is really funny because I’m wearing a hundred-dollar bra.”

Kady got up and took her arm to stop her retreat. “Get your chicken-butt out here.” She spun Sophie toward the three-way mirror at the opposite end of the room. “Look.”

She looked, and nearly stumbled at the sexy stranger in the glass.

“That dress is made for you,” Kady declared. “It’d be a crime if you didn’t have it.”

In a daze, Sophie reached for the price tag hanging from her right side, and drew in a quick gasp. Au contraire. It would be a crime if she did have it, because the dress cost even more than the bra. She couldn’t even think about the shoes.

Did you not just get a promotion and a raise? Blow the cobwebs off your Visa and buy the outfit.

She turned to the saleswoman hovering nearby. The blonde nodded encouragingly.

“I’ll…um…that is…I’ll take it?” The words came out more like a question than a statement.