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“She does?”
“Sort of hired eye candy.”
I snort. “Yeah, she’s good at that. It’s probably a mutually beneficial arrangement, too.”
“Very much so. Trust me, she doesn’t want to be banned from my club. She was curious about you anyway. She said she didn’t affect you. That doesn’t happen a lot. She wanted to meet you again. She’ll be good, and I’m sure she’ll know exactly where you can find a dress.”
I sigh. “I’m sure she will. Okay, go ahead and call her. But I only have until seven. I have to meet Parker and get him all caught up.”
Terrance raises an eyebrow at that but doesn’t say anything. He pulls out his cell phone and calls the succubus.
Truth be told, I’m nervous to see the seductress again, but I genuinely have no clue about dresses. I couldn’t find a store that sells them, and even if I could, I’d have no idea how to pick one out. I need her help.
I’m still fretting when Terrance hangs up his phone. “She says two hours isn’t enough time to go shopping, but she should have something in her closet. I’ll give you her address. She’s not far. She says she can help with your hair and makeup, too.”
Terrance laughs when I cringe. “Oh, come on now, Trouble, you’re a beautiful woman; don’t be so afraid to show it off.”
My grimace turns into a scowl. “Remember what I told you about self-preservation? I’m not afraid of my looks, I’m just not stupid about them.” Terrance’s confused frown doesn’t surprise me. He doesn’t understand yet, but he’ll learn. “Nothing good will come from me in a dress all dolled up with hair and makeup done.”
Terrance doesn’t believe me. His grin is positively wicked when he says, “I can’t imagine it, so I told Cecile to bring you to the club when she’s finished with you.”
I shake my head and do my best not to laugh. “Am I going to a party or the prom?”
T-man’s eyes start to sparkle. “Cecile won’t know the difference.”
I sigh. This is going to be a long night.
. . . . .
Cecile lives in one of the few high-rise apartment buildings downtown in a penthouse suite. Let’s just say it’s so nice I feel like I lower the resale value when I step through the front door. “Nora!” Cecile cheers, clapping her hands together when she sees me. “Welcome, you beautiful woman!”
I smirk. “So I’ve upgraded from vapid human, then?”
Cecile slices a hand through the air as if to wave off my sarcastic comment. “Bygones, darling, bygones. I can’t tell you how excited I was when Terrance told me what you needed.”
I’ll bet. She hasmakeover addictwritten all over her. She’s wearing black leggings and some kind of baggy shirt that reaches to her mid thigh and hangs off one shoulder. She looks tall, leggy, and willowy, like some kind of wispy, delicate faerie, and yet I know she’s got a set of voluptuous curves hidden somewhere. I never knew clothes could change a person’s looks so much. Still, either look works for her. The woman is flat-out gorgeous.
“You’re such a natural beauty, you know. I didn’t realize it the first time I met you, but you are. I’m excited to give you a proper makeover.”
My stomach flips, and not in a good way. “Let’s not get too crazy now. I just need to look acceptable for a sorority party over at Wayne State. This isn’t a wedding or anything.”
“So we need fun, flirty, sexy. Got it.” She looks me over from head to toe in an appraising manner, chewing her bottom lip as she thinks. “I think I know what we want to do.”
She cocks her finger in a come-hither manner and heads across her apartment to her bedroom. Her room is everything I’d imagine a queen of the night’s bedchamber to be. And I usebedchamber, because that’s what it is.Roomjust doesn’t cut it. The four-poster canopy bed with draping curtains is the focal point, but there’s a lot more going on in here. If I wondered before, stepping into this room, I now know Cecile likes to bring her work home with her. I shiver as she leads me into a walk-in closet.
The closet is almost as big as the bedroom and looks like something you’d see on TV in a rich person’s house. There’s a padded bench in the middle—drawers, shelves, and racks galore—and several kinds of lighting options. Cecile goes for a brighter light setting and directs me to sit on the bench seat.
While she sorts through a rack of dresses, I fumble for something—anything—to say. I can’t think of a thing. I’ve never been good at being a girl. Cecile glances over her shoulder with a smirk, as if she knows what I’m thinking. She pulls down a green, a blue, and a pink dress from the rack and tosses them beside me. “Okay, honey, level with me,” she says as she continues to hum and haw through dress after dress. “I know you’re downplaying the looks on purpose. You do everything you can to hide from the world. Why, when you are so gorgeous with that shiny straight hair and that hourglass figure?”
She brings over a ruby red dress and snaps her fingers as if she wants me to stand.
“I just don’t like attention,” I say, rising to my feet. “I get too much of it.”
She sighs wistfully as she holds the dress up to me, then spins me around and holds it up to my back. “Is there such a thing as too much attention?”
“When you aren’t strong enough to defend yourself?” I ask, voice hard. “Yeah.”
She turns me back around, dress forgotten, and stares deep into my eyes as if trying to peel back every layer I have and figure me out all the way to my soul. I decide to save her the trouble. “There’s something…off about me. I’m cursed. I draw men to me. The stronger their attraction, the more they tend to lose their sense of reason. And they generally don’t take no for an answer. I’ve had admirers, stalkers, and abusers my entire life. I don’t know what it is, but I know I’m not imagining it.”
