Page 104 of The VIP Doubles Down

“Your dress is so perfect for a ball on the beach!” Chloe picked up the skirt of Allie’s dress. “I love the sparkly starfish.”

Chloe’s and Miranda’s dresses hung beside it on a display rack in the walk-in closet attached to Chloe and Nathan’s bedroom. Their huge stone beach house was on its own island, reached by a private causeway. Allie had been invited over so they could all get their hair and makeup done before the gala that night. Gavin had driven her over—in a Ferrari, just for fun, he said—and stayed to talk with his friends. She had been nervous about coming until Chloe and Miranda had swept her and her dress upstairs, chattering as though they were teenagers before the prom.

“Gavin has a problem with the neckline,” Miranda said. “It was such fun to see him scowling when Allie modeled it for him.”

“Gavin scowls a lot, so that’s not news,” Chloe said.

“It wasn’t the scowl,” Miranda said. “It was the reason for it. He was feeling possessive.”

Chloe raised her eyebrows.

“He’s just worried that I’ll embarrass him by falling out of the dress,” Allie said. She couldn’t allow herself to think anything more than that. “Your dress is fabulous,” Allie said, admiring Chloe’s sea foam green sheath with a short tulle train and beaded straps. “The color looks like the water out here when the sun shines on it.”

Chloe heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Once Nathan told me I couldn’t wear shoes, I kind of lost interest.”

“Cinderella here has a shoe fetish,” Miranda said. “You should see her closet in New York.”

“Honestly, Nathan bought most of the shoes in it,” Chloe said. “He sees something he thinks I’ll like and brings it home in my size. I don’t have the heart to tell him I don’t need any more Louboutins.”

Allie’s heart twisted at the sweetness of the CEO shoe shopping for his fiancée.

Miranda turned to Allie. “Did you find the right jewelry for your dress?”

Allie blushed slightly. The night before, Gavin had undressed her slowly and deliberately in front of a full-length mirror. Then he fastened the necklace around her throat and made her come using only his hands as he stood behind her. He said he wanted her to see how beautiful she looked with just his hands and the jewelry on her. It was the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced. “Er, yes. I have it in my purse. What are you wearing?”

Miranda opened a velvet box on Chloe’s bed and showed her a pair of long, dangling ruby-and-diamond earrings. “Luke bought them to go with the red of my dress.”

“You are very lucky, both of you,” Allie said. “You found really good men.”

Chloe and Miranda exchanged a look before Chloe said, “We think you’ve found a good man, too.”

“Me?”

Miranda nodded. “Luke says he’s never seen Gavin so relaxed.”

“He’s still snarky, but it’s funny instead of having a bitter edge,” Chloe chimed in.

Allie shook her head. “He’s relaxed because he’s writ—” Too late, Allie remembered Gavin didn’t want anyone to know that his creativity had returned.

“It’s okay,” Chloe said. “Luke and Nathan know he’s back to Julian again.” She plunked down on a chaise longue and drew Allie down beside her. “Miranda and I both know about the intimidation factor.”

“She’s engaged to a genius, and I’m married to a sports legend,” Miranda said with a crooked smile. “But you have to get past the labels to the living, breathing men. They bleed, they have dysfunctional families, they get lonely. They need love just as much as us average folk. Maybe more so.”

As soon as she heard the wordlove, Allie held up her hand. “It’s not like that with Gavin and me. He needed help with the physical symptoms of his writer’s block. Now he’s broken through it and ...” Allie shrugged.

“So you don’t feel anything deeper for him?” Chloe asked.

Allie looked at the woman gazing at her with such concern and realized she couldn’t lie. “What I feel for him is different from what he feels for me.”

“Sometimes you have to push the issue a little,” Miranda said, leaning her hip against the dressing table. “We don’t mean to pressure you, but we’ve been in your position, so we want to help.”

“So you’re saying that I should tell Gavin that I’m, er, fond of him.”

Miranda’s laugh pealed out like a tinkle of silver bells. “I might phrase it a little more strongly.”

Chloe snorted. “What she’s saying is that you have to hit them over the head with the obvious.”

Miranda sobered. “We just don’t want you to let his money or his career stop you from saying what’s in your heart.” She crossed her arms. “Gavin is one of Luke’s best friends, so I’d like to see him happy.”