Page 84 of Say It Isn't So

Knox touched the space between my brows. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours? You look like you’re hard at work thinking in there. I can practically see the gears turning.”

I shrugged casually. “I was just thinking about how you make me feel.”

Cupping my cheek, he looked into my eyes. “I hope it’s good. You deserve to feel good.”

“Amazing, actually,” I confessed.

He touched my lip with his finger and silenced me. “I feel the same way. But anyway, about this afternoon, I’ll walk around, sightsee a bit, and then you can meet me back at the hotel.”

I gave him a lopsided smile. “But,” I started, dragging the word out. “You came all this way and I really don’t want to see you walk away. Maybe you can come with me.”

Okay, so maybe that was a dumb idea. Why would Knox want to go to a store where a bunch of influencers were trying on clothes?

To my surprise, though, he nodded. “Sure, if it means you’ll go and not feel guilty for doing something for yourself, then I’ll go with you.” He swung his arm around my shoulder as we started walking again to meet my driver.

“You know me so well.”

* * *

Knox

I’d never understood the phrase “organized chaos” until now.

How could I best describe what I’m witnessing?Hmm, how about this: you know when you drag your boyfriend to the mall to accompany you on a shopping trip and he only later finds out it’s worse than he ever imagined because there’s a big blowout sale and everyone’s scanning everything on the racks, holding the clothes up to themselves and trying to snag it before someone else grabs their size? That was what standing in this particular store was like—worse than I could have ever imagined.

Only I felt like the paparazzi was here, too, because everyone had their phones out, taking pictures of this and that.

One influencer was actually doing a live, talking so loud I could hardly hear the song that was playing in the store. Ironically enough, the song was a low classical number, which didn’t seem to go with the otherwise high-strung, on-edge atmosphere.

Put a bunch of chicks in a store filled with next season’s designer clothes and what else could you expect?

Naturally, no guys were allowed in the back, so I was waiting for Bianca to come out and model whatever it was she’d chosen to try on. They didn’t have much in the way of seating, so I stood there like an idiot, moving around as women milled around, flitting from one area to the next, taking clothes off the racks.

It was made only slightly better when employees started assisting some of the influencers.

The next thing I knew, Bianca came out of the back, her head down as she adjusted her top, trying to pull it up as though afraid it would fall down at any moment.

I cocked a brow and let my eyes roam over her body appreciatively before—

Okay, her top potentially, maybe falling down was the least of her worries. She’d clearly been drinking, because she wasn’t wearing any goddamn pants.

“Oh, Knox.” Her words came out sounding slightly muffled by the sound of my blood boiling. She had just looked up and realized I was standing right in front of her. She should have been so lucky that it was me she practically ran into coming out of the dressing room. “What do you think of this? It’s their most popular item, a denim corset cropped top,” she explained.

Who cared one iota about the top when she was missing an article of clothing? A very pertinent article of clothing, if you asked me. I walked toward her, trying my best to cover her with my body and coat. Seriously, what was she thinking? Clearly she wasn’t thinking at all. “I think,” I started through gritted teeth, “that you’re not wearing any pants and that string isn’t doing anything by way of properly covering you.”

Bianca’s eyes were filled with laughter, an emotion I couldn’t empathize with at the moment.

“You think this is funny?” I asked pointedly. “These people are taking pictures and posting them all over social media. Do you really want your. . . you know, lower half online for every man to ogle?”

She didn’t even hesitate, she just started laughing. “All right,” she gave in, though. “I didn’t see the big deal, but I’ll go back and put something on.”

“Good,” I replied, softening my expression.

I tried covering her as much as possible until she finally disappeared into the back again.

I raked a hand through my hair.What’s the matter with her?

When we’d shared my room she’d acted all coy at the prospect of me seeing her in her pajamas when she’d come out of the bathroom, but this, this she had no qualms about?

---