Total pages in book: 107
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102071 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 510(@200wpm)___ 408(@250wpm)___ 340(@300wpm)
I glanced in a few doorways, noting the layout of the house. If I were a safe, where would I be? “Do you know?” I whispered to the cat.
The pretty animal stretched its front legs, downward dogging it. The collar jingled, then shone in the light. Jade was her name. The jewel theme ran strong in Eli. What a coincidence that he’d found my mother, a woman who’d named her daughter after a jewel too.
“Any idea where it could be, Jade?” I asked again.
She yawned.
Well, then. The cat wasn’t going to turn over. Not a surprise.
Opening one of the doors that lined the hall, I leaned in and scanned the shadowed room.
When I straightened and closed the door, footsteps sounded behind me.
I jumped, like a teen camp counselor in a horror movie. My pulse did too, and I put my hand flat over my chest. It was the sex-toy mistress, who’d been coming down the hall from the living room. The cat was gone.
“Hi, Ruby,” she said.
“Hi…” I fished in my memory for her name.
“Monica,” she supplied with a smile. “I was just getting some more goodies from my car. I didn’t expect them to sell so quickly.”
“I guess you can never have too many pearl-encrusted dildos,” I said, somehow keeping a straight face.
Monica smiled. “If you decide to buy something, I’ll happily give you a discount, as you’re the daughter of the house.”
“Stepdaughter,” I said reflexively. “But thank you. I’m good though.”
We stared at each other for a long moment, each clearly waiting for the other to move.
“Were you looking for the bathroom?” Monica pointed to the door across from where I stood. “It’s that door there.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t have a reason to delay, so I ducked into the half-bath, taking my time, giving the saleswoman an opportunity to get to her car and back to the living room.
But when I opened the bathroom door, Monica was there in the hall, waiting to walk with me back to the party but this time, she was holding a large white box in her hands.
Did she think I couldn’t find it on my own?
“Here,” the woman said, reaching into the box and taking out a black velvet bag. “A party favor for you.”
I shook my head. “Oh, no. I can’t.”
“Please,” she urged, staring at me intently over her glasses. “Willow wants everyone to have a gift.”
Like her fiancé. They were both big gift givers, evidently. And it seemed easier to accept than to protest. “Thank you.”
“You’re very welcome. Enjoy,” she said. “Ready to go back to the living room?”
“As ever,” I replied faux cheerily, because what else could I do? Together we returned to the throng of women.
Bianca stood up when Monica came in and asked excitedly, “Did you bring it?”
“I did,” Monica said in a sex-kitten voice. Setting the cardboard box on the table, she took out a smaller one that looked distinctly like the box that had held my diamond when Eli had given it to me. I perked up with interest when she popped open the velvet jeweler’s box.
All the guests gasped. Was Willow giving out diamonds as party favors? What kind of world did Eli inhabit?
“Oh, it’s gorgeous,” one of the women said.
Blinding was another word that worked. The stone glittered in the overhead light. And it was bigger than the jewel around Willow’s neck.
But it looked fake.
Because it was fake—rhinestone studded and shaped like…
Willow pulled the item out of the box, squealing happily. “Oh, I’ve had my eye on this one.”
Ugh. Three over-shares and you are out.
Or rather, I was out.
I smacked my head as if remembering something. “I forgot I have a late-night dive. Must go.” Not waiting on anyone to tell me goodbye, I rushed out of there like my tail was on fire.
I marched down the stone path and around the front of the house, and walked smack-bang into a firmly muscled chest.
Jake steadied me before I stumbled backward. “Did you find the jelly beans?” he asked with a teasing smirk.
“No,” I huffed. “Willow hijacked me into a TMI party with a gaggle of women in bandage dresses shopping for dolphins, rabbits, and butt plugs. When I managed to get away, I was stymied by a sex-toy mistress, who followed me to the ladies’ room—”
“She didn’t join you in there, did she?”
“No, but she waited outside to give me the most awkward incentive gift ever.”
Jake raised his eyebrows. “Tell me more.”
I shoved the velvet pouch at him. “Go ahead. Look inside.”
He opened the drawstring, took out the item, and held it up to the light spilling from the house. “That’s what we call sneaking in through the back door.”
Despite my frustration, I laughed. “For a minute there, I thought we’d uncovered where the diamonds were. On…butt plugs. But this gem is fake.”
“I’m fascinated to know that someone is making gold-plated dildos and jewel-encrusted vibrators.”