The Arrangement (unenhanced Edition) by AnnaRCase (books to read now .txt) 📖

Things went quiet after, and Leo seemed to realize he’d made things awkward. He stammered something about it being his jam and quickly turned the radio up again. Amberleigh looked out her window as he murdered another song. Her stomach was still in knots. She wished Grayson made her feel this way. Wished he made her feel something at all rather than anger, frustration, annoyance.

Luckily, she didn’t have too much time to dwell on such things as Leo breezed up to the curb near a ritzy boutique in Downtown. The kind of place you needed an appointment, which in turn meant you needed money and connections. The kind of place Amberleigh had never set foot inside, but merely saw on reality shows and such.

The valet opened her door for her, and even took her hand to help her out of the Porsche. Leo tossed him the keys, before he joined her on the sidewalk. She gazed at the brownstone, the kind which needed no fancy displays in the windows to sell clothes, but rather only the designer name etched on the frosted glass.

“I pulled a few strings and got you a booking with Angelique Grimaldi. I hear it’s almost impossible to do and the waiting list is like five years. No big deal or anything.”

Amberleigh grabbed onto his arm, “Are you fuckin serious? Angelique made Fashion Week her bitch! What’s the occasion?”

Amberleigh knew this was a pity fitting, Grayson way to try and buy her and make up for his dickery. Well it was fuckin working alright!

“Does there need to be an occasion to take a beautiful girl to pick out a custom made designer dress?” he said as his lips upturned at the corners.

“Yeah, kinda,” she countered, “And Angelique don’t come cheap like me.”

But Leo didn’t seem to find any humor in the self-deprecating joke, “Don’t sell yourself so short Miss Dubois. Your worth so much more than you know…But actually we’re here to have Angelique design your gown for Grayson’s Halloween Soiree.”

“And I’m just hearing about this thing a week before Halloween? Are you sure I’m even invited?”

She bit the inside of her cheek. Grayson wouldn’t want her rubbing elbows with his family and friends, to people that actually mattered to him. She was his dirty little secret. She would probably be shoved in a closet like Harry Potter and expected not to make any noise and pretend like she didn’t exist. That was essentially her childhood when her mother had a party.

“Oh you’re invited Miss Dubois. And you’re going to make all those snooty bitches jealous. It’s a masquerade. You’re going to show my man Grayson, and every man in that room, what the fuck he’s missing out on. Deal?”

He held his arm out to her again. An invitation, an expectation. She looped her arm around his.

                “I’m in.”

He nodded and led her up to the boutique. She had some extra bounce in her step, and held her shoulders nice and high, tits forward. It was time for her Pretty Woman moment. Too fuckin bad she couldn’t achieve those Julia Robert’s nineteen nineties curls, but she certainly had the hooker boots. And she totally rocked that shit.

She totally intended to rock this Halloween Masquerade. Maybe finally catch the billionaire’s attention for a change. Make sure she was the only girl in his head, the only one he saw, at least for a night anyway.