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ChapterFive
Penny sat in the hairdresser’s chair, wondering when exactly she’d crossed over into this strange alternate universe. Slipping through a portal into another worldHis Dark Materials-style was the only way Penny could make sense of her current situation.
“No,” Gage insisted. “That’s not what I want. No more than three inches off the back and then long layers.”
“But her bone structure, the shape of her face…”
Phillippe, the hairdresser, continued to rattle on, but Penny tuned it out. Phillippe insisted on giving her a blunter cut, angled around her jaw, but Gage wasn’t having it.
The debate had been going on for five full minutes, and not once had either man asked for her opinion. Not that she had one. The reason she’d requested this favor of Gage in the first place was because number one, she was clueless, and number two, she trusted him to know what would turn a man’s head. There was no way her boss didn’t live with a permanent case of whiplash, given his dating record.
Penny wiggled, wondering how much longer they intended to wage this battle. She’d already been here an hour, sitting and playing on her phone while Phillippe added the lighter highlights to her dirty-blonde hair. She studied her reflection in the mirror once more, shocked by how such a subtle change in coloring could make such a big difference. She loved it and couldn’t wait for Jess and the other girls to see it.
“Fine,” she heard Phillippe say, giving in with a heavy sigh.
Finally, she thought. She glanced at Gage through the reflection. He was standing nearby, as if daring Phillippe to stray one single strand of hair away from the script.
“You don’t have to hang around if you have something else to do tonight,” Penny said. “There’s no reason for you to stay since this is the last part. I can pay Phillippe once he’s done.”
“I’ve already paid him,” Gage said.
Penny scowled. “That wasn’t part of the favor. How much was it? I’ll pay you back.”
Gage shook his head, dismissing her without a word.
“Gage,” she started. “Seriously, I want to—”
He captured her gaze in the mirror and held it. “Not another word, Beaumont.”
If anyone asked her to describe her boss in one word, she would say easygoing. However, every now and then, she caught glimpses of a different side of him. Something that was the exact opposite of laid-back. Something more…God…feral? Primal?
While Penny struggled to put a word to it, she didn’t have a bit of trouble describing the way it made her feel every time he hit her with one of his infrequent deep-voiced commands.
Her stomach fluttered.
Her heart fluttered.
Her pussy fluttered.
Gage only had to give herthatlook, usethattone, say something wholly domineering, andboom. She was a fluttery mess.
She closed her mouth, the snipping of the scissors and the murmured conversations of the other people in the salon filling the silence that had fallen between her, her hairdresser, and Gage.
Forty-five minutes later, Penny ran her hands over her hair, speechless.
It was beautiful.
“Wow.”
Phillippe smiled. “I must admit defeat. You were correct, Mr. Russo, to insist on this style. It is gorgeous.”
Gage stared at her as she rose from the chair and turned to face him.
“I love it,” she admitted. “Thank you.”
Gage didn’t respond, and she feared perhaps he didn’t like it.
Phillippe handed Gage a large plastic bag, but before Penny could ask him what was in it, he said, “Thank you for your time, Phillippe,” and gestured toward the exit.
