Page 77 of Slumming It

Suddenly, I was reconsidering my clothes. I'd thought they were cast-offs, scrounged from heaven-knows-where. But now I wondered otherwise.

Morgan turned beaming eyes on the billionaire holding my hand. "I betyougave her that shirt, didn't you?"

"Forget the buyer," he said, turning to give me a long, sexy look. "Doesn't she look great?"

My breath caught.Oh, my God.If he ever looked at me like that for real,Iwould be wanting a quickie in the car.No wonder the guy had such a reputation.

Morgan gave me barely a glance before replying, "Sure. Iguess." She hesitated. "I mean, if you go for that sort of thing."

I almost laughed out loud. It was vintage Morgan. Even when she gave a compliment, it was sprinkled with contempt.

Reese gave her a hard look. "Are you dissing my girl?"

"No, of course not. I was just thinking of, well…"She perked up. "My dad."

Her dad?

What the heck?

When Reese replied with nothing but lifted eyebrows, Morgan started to babble. "See, the thing is, I wanted my dad tobuymeone – a Lareena shirt, I mean – but he got all pissy about it." She deepened her voice to mimic her father. "I'm not gonna pay two-thousand dollars for a stupid T-shirt."

I spoke without thinking. "Wait…did you say two-thousand dollars?"

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but it's a total exaggeration. I mean, the shirt was sixteen hundred at most." But then she did a double-take and zoomed in on my chest. "Oh, my God. Yours is signed."

Was it?I looked down. Sure enough, just above my left boob was an inked something-or-other that might've been a signature with a big, loopy "L" and illegible scribbles behind it.

I'd noticed the ink when getting dressed, but I'd figured it was the random doodle of someone who'd been too drunk or high to find the nearest scrap of paper.

Morgan looked back to Reese and asked, "Are you and Lareena friends? Youmustbe. Did you catch her summer show in New York? It was super-exclusive. I tried to go, but…" Morgan gave a little shrug. "I was pretty busy, anyway." She brightened. "But I betyougo to those things all the time, don't you?"

I almost laughed out loud. Reese Murdock was into real estate and fast cars. I had a sneaky suspicion that he would rather be gored by a wild boar than sit through any fashion show.

Proving my theory correct, he replied, "Not if I can help it."

Morgan laughed like her funny bone might explode. Soon, Nikki joined in, laughing like a crazed hyena as Reese stared in quiet contempt.

When he didn't even crack a smile, Morgan's laughter faded to silence, and Nikki tried to disguise her own laughter as a series of coughs.

Reese looked to Morgan and said, "I'm still waiting."

She looked perplexed. "For what?"

"For you to ask my girl the question."

She hesitated a suspiciously long time before asking, "What question?"

He gave her a look. "If you've gotta ask, you're not as smart as you think you are."

She stiffened. "Did you just call me stupid?"

"I dunno," he said. "Did you forget the question?"

Her gaze darted briefly in my direction before she asked Reese with obvious reluctance, "You mean, how can I make things right?"

He gave a single nod. "That's the one."

"Yeah, about that…" Morgan gave him an apologetic smile. "I already explained about the VIP thing, and we've got this policy – even if someone's a really good friend – that we, uh…"