Page 73 of I Choose You

“Is this all like a been there and done that feeling?” I asked. “Once you’ve survived one waxing, you can handle it again?”

“Come on. Try it.” Rena grinned. “Get a wax and surprise your man.”

“He’s not my man.”

She rolled her eyes. “Your fake man.”

Now that she’d said it, I couldn’t get the idea of it out of my mind. If we could have another garden tour, would he be shocked? I rubbed the slight whisker burn on my cheeks. He didn’t have a full beard but that just-right amount of stubble that gave such a delicious friction. If he were to rub his face against—

“Ooooh.” Rena giggled, fanning at my face. “I can only imagine what you’re imagining. Come on.”

I winced. “I’m not a fan of pain.”

“And what?” she said, flicking her finger at my tattooed arm. “Are these all temporary stick-on things?”

It was a good point. “Fine.”

Some decisions were best made impulsively.

“Go tell her before I can chicken out.”

Rene shot to her feet and made a grabby hand at me. “The wardrobe card, please.”

I grinned and handed it over.

My nerves rose as the wait continued. After Rena checked me in—lucky me, they had a slot right after her—she tried to distract me with banal chitchat. I heard not a single word of it, running through several different arguments why this was such a bad, bad idea.

But maybe it wouldn’t be so horrible. I’d never know unless I tried.

Old, quiet Brooke never took risks. The woman I was today, that bold garden nymph who Kaden had filled his release with, she could try a new trick here and there.

Waiting without Rena was worse. I stood and paced, but then sat, worried that walking would somehow warm me up too much. Should my skin be cold? Hot? I glanced at the informational poster. Another woman who’d come in and sat waiting sighed at me reading it again.

“It’s over before you know it,” she said in a sage, veteran-of-baldness voice.

We’ll see about that.

When Rena came back out, I studied her, expecting her to walk like an old western girl who’d ridden on a horse’s saddle. Her stride was normal—no sign of pain. She cringed when she sat, but I think that was because she’d gone to Brazil.

No one was trespassing that far anytime soon. So maybe I wouldn’t have to worry about that.

“You ready?” the tech said.

“Yes,” I said as I shook my head.

“Take care of my girl,” Rena called out as I followed the stout woman to a room. “She’s a virgin.”

The tech turned around and raised her brows at me before I spun to gape at my friend.

She rolled her eyes. “Virgin of waxing. Sheesh.”

The other woman in the lobby told me it would all go fast. It did. Nerves played with my mind and warped my sense of time. One minute, I was walking toward a chamber of doom. The next, my bare ass was lying on the table.

“First time goes quick,” she advised. Her tone was matter-of-fact and dull, like she couldn’t wait to go home.

“So I’ve heard.”

I bit my lip as she spread the wax on, and as I stared at the ceiling, I held my breath.