Page 35 of Madness Becomes Her

My heart pounds. So rapidly, I can scarcely hear anything above it.

Finlo’s right outside the curtain; I know he’d help me. What I don’t know is if it’s appropriate to ask him.

Dropping my arms to my sides, I inhale a deep breath. “Fin?”

“Yes, Tiger Lily?” comes the reply, and it has my belly thrumming with an ache I really need to shut down.

Shoving the curtain aside, I lock eyes with him. “I need help. I’m stuck,” I whisper.

His eyes widen, and it takes a moment before I realize I look naked behind the curtain because the perfect black dress is strapless. The way it hangs before me gives the illusion that I’m trying to lure him into my dressing room with dark intentions.

Aren’t you?

I kick the inner thought away as I tug the curtain aside. “I can’t get the zipper down.”

“Need anything?” Esmerelda pipes up, and her appearance has Fin on his feet.

“No. We’re fine,” he says, moving toward me.

I step back into the dressing room, my heart running away at the idea that he wanted to be the one to help me. He could’ve let her help get me free, but he decided to do so himself.

I can’t help but think it means something.

Finlo shuts the curtain behind him, some of his dark hair coming from beneath his hat and curling over his forehead. “Lift your arm and turn. Let me look at the zipper.”

I do as I’m told, sighing as Fin drops to a knee and his breath skims over my side. Goosebumps pepper my flesh, and my nipples harden.

Keep your shit together!

The way his proximity affects me is madness, but thisisWonderland, and that’s the entire point of this place.

Part of me still thinks that this attraction to him is contrived and one-sided when I feel the zipper slide down past my hip, and Fin stands, hovering closely as he looks down at me. “Got it.”

“Thank you.” My breathy reply has Fin leaning down.

His hand lifts and tucks some of my fallen hair over my ear. “You’re welcome.”

“I meant nothing I said earlier,” I blurt.

“I know.”

“You do?”

“You’re the kindest person I know, Eleanor.”

The way he’s said my name…

I swallow, nodding. It’s all I can do.

I turn toward him, grasping the dress by its front. I’d forgone a bra, wanting to see the dress in all its glory and how my breasts would hold it up.

Fin backs me to the wall behind me, looming over me with an overwhelming presence that makes me feel madder by the second.

It feels damning.

Like, if this goes any further, I’ll be stuck in Wonderland because there’ll be no going back.

“You’ll save this dress for something special?” he asks, his fingertips finding the open gap and trailing along my side, doing nothing for my racing breath and hardened nipples.