Page 46 of Bracing The Storm

He must be wearing boots.

With the storm wreaking havoc outside, they’re probably the sensible choice of footwear, but I can’t believe he’s wearing theminsidethe house, probably spreading caked mud all over the polished floors. I make a mental note to talk to him about that…right after I deal with the parcel.

I jump out of the bed and open the door a few inches, staring left and right to make sure the enemy, aka Patrick, is nowhere to be seen. But just to be on the safe side, I squeeze my leg through the opening and use my toes to pull the parcel through the gap.

It’s heavier than the previous ones so it can’t be lingerie or rose petals. The next step might be sex toys. I definitely draw the line at that.

I open the lid and stare at the most gorgeous pair of high-heels I’ve ever seen. They’re black with a thin strap encrusted with tiny rhinestones holding them in place around the ankles, and so high I get dizzy just looking at them. They look so darn expensive, I don’t even need to check the designer label to know they could easily cover my rent for a month back home.

They’re the kind of shoes you wouldn’t walk around in doing your grocery shopping. The kind you don’t buy for yourself; you let a guy with a lot of money buy them for you and then let him watch you wearing them in the bedroom, right before you wrap your thighs around his hips.

Needless to say, I’ve never owned anything resembling fuck-me heels, let alone walk in them. I’m about to put the lid back on when I spy the little note almost lost amidst a mountain of delicate tissue paper. The message is written in silver fonts on a shimmering white background and reads:

Wear them tonight.

As with the other packages, there is no sender details, but I can already guess who my admirer is. Only two people know of my plans for the night. One of them is Sinead and I doubt she would ask me to wear high heels for her.

That leaves Duncan.

I take a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly. I should have let the guy off the hook rather than keep silent in the hope he’d sense my lack of interest in any kind of romantic entanglements. Now it’s too late.

They’re just a pair of really beautiful shoes.

I peer at the gift again, unsure what to do. I can’t just meet him downstairs and toss the box into his outstretched hand without turning the evening and probably the rest of our business relationship into one awkward mess. I can’t pretend this isn’t happening either.

Damn it, Lori. They’re just shoes!

I can basically hear Mia’s voice whispering in my ear, and it doesn’t take a magic ball to prophesy what she’d advise me to do.

She’s a bad influence, even hundreds of miles away. My hand shakes slightly as I lift one shoe to admire the designer’s work.

They are gorgeous and would go well with anything, from a little black dress to a tight pair of jeans and an over-the-shoulder top. They would probably make the jeans look like a million bucks.

Live a little,Mia would say.

I groan and mutter, “Fine. But only a little, and only because I’m in the middle of nowhere. No one knows me and I’ll be soon gone anyway. They probably don’t even fit me.”

Chapter Fifteen

“They fit like a glove.” Mia coos and squeals with delight. “It’s like they were made for you.”

“I doubt the designer made them specifically for me bearing in mind the balance of my credit card.” I turn the speaker volume down before the entire population of Ireland can hear her gushing, and then proceed to remove the straps from around my ankles with one hand while holding my cell phone up with the other.

“So, what’s the plan?”

I hesitate because I still haven’t made up my mind. Wear them. Not wear them. Return them. Keep silent and end up with who knows what Duncan’s coming up next.

Maybe there won’t be a next time. Maybe the night will go so badly that he’ll be put off for good. He’s bound to realize I don’t live up to the fantasy image he has of me, whatever that may be. Given that we haven’t spoken more than a couple times and those few exchanges didn’t even extend to exchanging information on favorite foods, he’s bound to have a very distorted picture of who I am as a person.

“I think I’ll just go to the pub tonight, see what happens. You know how my dates usually go.” I only realize my blunder when it’s too late.

Mia doesn’t know anything about the pub or my date with Duncan. She doesn’t even know he exists.

Unfortunately, nothing ever escapes her attention.

“What pub, Lori? What date? You didn’t mention anything, unless it all happened since the last time we last spoke, which was last night. Have you been keeping secrets from me?”

Busted.

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