Page 102 of Taming Grumpy Dr. Beast

I turned to view my image in the mirror. Jess hadn’t steered me wrong so far, but this dress was nothing like what I’d have picked out for myself. It was far too formfitting for my comfort level. Jess arranged my hair over my shoulder and then stepped away from the mirror. As I slowly lifted my gaze up the length of the tri-paneled reflective glass I gasped.

Holy crap! Is this really me?

The gown featured hand-stitched gold sequins from head to toe and a plunging sweetheart neckline held together by a sheer scrap of mesh.

I sighed, admitting defeat. “You win.”

Jess grinned.

“How does this top not only push my breasts together, but support them at the same time?”

“Alden’s sister is a wonder with design.”

I loved how the dress ruched to the side and a few inches down from where it gathered, a split started down the entire side of the dress. When I walked, my entire leg was visible. My favorite part of the dress, though, were the sleeves. They were tight enough to hold in my arms, but not too tight I couldn’t move. Jess was right. It was like this sparkly design had been made just for me.

“I knew you’d love it.”

I winked at her. “It’s not terrible.”

“Jax is going to want to throw you into the nearest closet and fuck you senseless.”

I blushed and set free an embarrassed chuckle. Jess might not be too far off.

Jess called to Alden’s sister for a pair of shoes. She quickly returned with a set of sparkly metallic heels that matched the dress perfectly. Jess didn't seem to care how they fit or if I could walk in them.

“We’ll take them." She handed the shoes back to Alden’s sister after I confirmed they were my size.

I realized I never looked at the price. “Oh wait, Jess, I should see if I can afford this one.” I spun my body to look for a tag. Puzzled, I stared at Jess.

“You won’t find a tag. I had her take off the ones on the dresses we brought in here.”

“Why?” I was too stunned to say anything else.

“I had a feeling you might try to weasel out of this if you knew what it cost.”

I had a sinking feeling it was more than a few months of our mortgage payment.

“Chop, chop, Lily. We’ve got a hair appointment in the next twenty minutes.”

I carefully stepped out of the gold dress and handed it to Jess. She shut down my protests of paying for it myself by taking off and marching to the front of the store. I quickly threw my clothes back on and hurried out of the changing area, only to find that Jess had already paid for everything.

She reassured me it wasn’t much and then asked me to drop it.

We were now sitting in our respective stylist’s chairs. I still felt uneasy with Jess's generosity. Curious, I looked the dress up online and almost choked. My gown for tonight, the one more gorgeous than anything I’ve ever owned, retailed at $3,000.00.

THREETHOUSANDDOLLARS.

With shaking hands, I grabbed the glass of water the stylist had brought me and chugged it. I was not used to a world where $3,000 was ‘no big deal’. If this was what Jess spent without a thought, what were the other people like that I’d be meeting tonight?

I didn’t want to embarrass Jaxon. I already felt like a science book masquerading as a romance novel going into this charity event.