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Peeling my eyes slowly open, I peered at Lucas, who was crouched in front of me. "I'd think you're beautiful even if you were bald, okay?"
My hands shot up to my hair. "Oh my God, am I bald?"
Lucas chuckled. He stepped sideways, revealing the mirror behind him.
I didn't even recognize myself. The stylist had added sun kissed highlights to my dirty blonde locks. Instead of a cheap trim to chop off dead ends—my usual go to—I now had an actual haircut, complete with layers that framed my face, accentuating my cheeks, and making my eyes pop.
"Damn."
Lucas grinned. "Told you." He squeezed my hand. “I need to go meet with Jessie, but I have a stylist waiting for you, and then I'll have my driver pick up Claire so she can meet us at the press conference.”
"Actually, I'd like to pick her up. I swore to myself that I would never become one of those moms who sends a driver or a nanny to pick her up."
"I get that. At least let my driver take you, okay? It's just easier that way."
I smiled at him. "Compromise it is."
What I had thought would be a quick shopping trip for one outfit turned into a scene out of Pretty Woman, the one where Julia Roberts is given an unlimited credit card. The only difference is that I looked nothing like a movie star. Quite the opposite.
Yet, my stylist, a petite brunette named Cathy, treated me as if I was royalty. With each measurement she took, she threw in unnecessary compliments that made warmth rush to my cheeks.
The clothes were a combination of casual and dressier ones, of high heels, flats, and sandals. Cathy offered me the complete freedom to choose whatever I wanted, and while the more relaxed outfits were easier to choose, I took her guidance for the dressier suits.
My head was spinning after what must have been the twentieth outfit, but my smile was also growing. I'd never owned enough clothes to fill a closet, not even the tiny cramped one in my old apartment, and Claire had only had a combination of six outfits or so. Not only that, they were all hand me downs from thrift stores or second hand shops.
I couldn't stop feeling the material of each piece. Most were smoother than anything I'd ever touched. Even the smells were intoxicating. Standing in the dressing room, I stared at the mirror, entranced by my appearance. I was wearing a pair of high-waisted pale yellow slacks, a white tank tucked inside them, and bold blue stilettos. My new cut hung softly on my bare shoulders.
This looked nothing like me...and yet, I could get used to it. A smile grew on my face.
Anyone would kill for this life, but I was still planning to run. Would that be a mistake?
Giving up the clothes, the money, the freedom...it would suck, but I wouldn't miss it because none of this felt like mine. How could I miss something I'd never really had?
But there was something I'd had before—ten years ago, to be more precise. And now I had it again.
I touched my lips, still raw from Lucas's kisses and the brush of his beard. I could still smell his cologne on me, and as I closed my eyes ,I returned to the last night we made love, to the feeling of him growing and throbbing inside me.
My eyes popped open. I couldn't remember the last time I'd addressed sex as making love. It stirred a discomfort in my chest that I didn't like.
On the bench in the dressing room behind me, my phone buzzed. I grabbed my phone and saw a text from Adam pop up. We still hadn't spoken, and although I was still angry at him for lying to me and hiding my pregnancy from Lucas, I couldn't deny that I missed my brother.
However, when I opened my phone, my stomach sank.
Adam had sent me a link to a news article, and when I saw the name of who'd written it—Jake Hall—I knew it wasn't going to be good.
The title alone made that clear.
Family of billionaire Lucas Wilson accused of ruining high-school ex-girlfriend's reputation. Could current girlfriend, Olive Winters, be next?
The photo beneath the title showed me and Lucas sitting in the park, his arm draped over my shoulder, his lips kissing my cheek, a wide smile on my face.
"Are you fucking kidding me?"
Outside the dressing room, Cathy cleared her throat. "Everything okay in there?"
"Yep."
My blood started to boil. So this was why Adam had lied to me in college? To protect me from something that happened to Lucas's ex in high school?
