Tempt Me (6 page)

She lifted a brow. “Five
thousand?” she mouthed.

Silence fell through the
room, and this time, nobody offered another bid.

Lacey grinned down at
him. “She's all yours, Mr. Stanton. For a night, at
least.”

C
hapter
Four

Five days later, Rocki
was breathing easier. No more cards came. No more photos. She'd
almost
forgiven Lacey for what she'd done, too. It
helped that Lacey wisely stayed away from the store, giving her time
to cool down.

She was feeling pretty
damn good about life in general, with the exception of the fact that
she had a date with an engaged man hanging over her head. She could
handle that, though. After all, it was just a date. She even had a
plan in mind. They'd go ice skating, if it was her choice. Ice
skating, if somebody wasn't used to it, was exhausting enough
that he'd be a boneless mess by the time they were done, she
figured. Pizza first, maybe. Nice, fun, easy. Not remotely romantic.

She could handle this.
She'd handled touchy situations before, after all.

She could handle Cole
Stanton.

All she had to do was get
through one date. Of course, it would help if he would call and set
up the date. But that was a problem for later. Right now, Rocki had
customers.

“
There is just no
way.” The petite, curvy little blonde stood in front of one of
the display tables, holding up a red silk corset and shaking her
head. “It's gorgeous, Miley, but there's no way one of these
things would fit me.”

Rocki studied the blonde
and made a rough guess at her waist size. The woman had roughly the
same body type as Rocki, although she was somewhat shorter. Of
course, there had been times when Rocki thought baby giraffes were
shorter than her. On her way over to the table, she selected one of
the corsets that she thought would work.

“
Hi. Is anything I
can help you with?”

Miley, the blonde's
friend, looked at Rocki. “Do you have anything that would fit
my friend?”

“
You bet.”
She smiled at the blonde. “We need to measure your waist, but I
imagine you're 36 inches or so. I definitely have things in
stock that size. Perhaps this...?”

Rocki held out the corset
she had picked up. It was similar to the red one the blonde had been
admiring, but was designed for women with a shorter torso. The blonde
looked at it and then looked away, jerking a shoulder in a shrug.
“It's not so much my waist I'm worried about. If things fit my
waist, they don't fit my boobs. If they fit my boobs, they don't fit
my waist. I've tried these things before and they just don't fit. The
hooks never line up right.”

“
Why don't we give
it a shot?” Rocki smiled. “Something tells me you were
trying something more along the lines of a bustier, not a true
corset. The laces in the back make it a lot more customizable than
you would think.”

She managed to talk the
girl— her name was Lara—into slipping her blazer off and
trying the corset on over her T-shirt. “The first few times you
wear one of these, it takes a bit longer to get it on,” Rocki
warned. They stood sideways in front of one of the mirrors so Rocki
could show them both the proper way to lace the corset up. “Always
make sure the laces are loose and hook the front first, just like I
showed you.”

Lara squirmed a little as
Rocki started tugging on the laces. “Are these safe?”

“
Yes.” Rocki
grinned at her in the mirror. “The problem with old-fashioned
corsets was that many styles went against a woman's natural body
type. Mine don't. Another problem was that they would remove ribs to
make the waist even smaller. We're definitely not doing that. Other
issues come from lacing it too tight or wearing them too often.”

Lara was gaping at her.
“They would remove
ribs
?”

“
People do strange
things in the name of beauty.” Rocki shrugged as she smoothed
down the laces. “Okay, once you've got all the slack out, you
tie it in a bow at the center. See here? You don't tie at the bottom
but in the center. Got it?”

When she'd finished, she
rested her hands on Lara shoulders and turned her toward the mirror.
“What do you think?”

Lara simply stared. “Oh.”
With a tentative hand, she touched the rich red fabric of the silk
and stared at her reflection. “Wow. Really, wow.”

“
Told you.”
Miley stood next to Lara, grinning. “Damn, Lara. You could have
given Anna Nicole Smith a run for her money. Look at you.”

Rocki smiled. “You
do look amazing.”

“
I love it.”
Lara turned around, staring at the back for a second before turning
to look at her profile from the side. “Granted, I think it
would look better without the T-shirt. Probably works better on its
own.”

Rocki shrugged. “Well,
T-shirts under corsets aren't typical, but I wear bodysuits under
mine sometimes. Or a camisole, that sort of thing. Especially in this
weather. The corset itself is warmer than some people would think,
but it only covers so much. Those uncovered bits get cold fast.”

Lara bought the corset,
along with a black camisole to wear beneath. As she was checking out,
she asked, “What did you mean about people doing weird things
for beauty?”

“
Well, they do.”
Rocki passed the receipt over to Lara and then leaned back against
the counter. With her arms crossed over her chest, she said, “Think
about it. It's not a new thing; people have been doing it since time
began. Mayans and other ancient peoples would bind the skulls of
their babies. Chinese people would bind the feet of their female
children. At one time, makeup had arsenic in it. Then we had women
who would remove ribs to make their waist smaller.”

She sighed. “And
today is no better—Botox, plastic surgery, fad diets that are
ridiculously unhealthy.” Shaking her head, she shoved off the
counter. “You've got teenaged girls who starve
themselves or make themselves puke because they think that in order
to be considered beautiful, they need to look like the women in
magazines. It's not even a teenage thing, really. How healthy
are the women who are constantly on diets? Then you've got
women like me who aren't exactly
unhealthy
–I'm
not, just ask my doctor. I won't ever be the ideal vision of
beautiful for ‘society'—and I'm fine with
that. A lot of women though, and even men, are so focused on the
society-created image of beauty, they do crazy things to their
bodies. They aren't healthy. They aren't happy. And they do it all in
the name of beauty. Yeah, to me that's weird.”

“
But you sell
corsets and sexy lingerie for a living.” Lara shook her head.
“Isn't that sort of the same thing?”

“
I don't see it
that way at all. I sell things to make a woman feel good and feel
better about herself. If you feel better about yourself, if you feel
beautiful, then you are beautiful. Screw what society thinks.”

At that, Lara smiled. “I
want that on a bumper sticker.” Then she glanced down at the
burgundy bag she carried and smiled. “And, I gotta admit, I
felt pretty damn beautiful wearing this.”

“
That's because you
are
.” Rocki lifted a brow. “Beauty doesn't have
anything to do with the size of your clothing.”

“
Thank you.”
Lara looked down, a blush creeping over her cheeks. “You have
no idea how badly I needed to hear that.”

“
You'd be
surprised. We all need to hear that sometimes.”

Just then, the bell over
the door sounded. And in walked Cole Stanton.

Shoot. Reprieve over.

Customers, Rocki could
handle. Nervous customers, unsure customers, bring them on. Cole
Stanton—that was a different matter entirely.

Bullshit. You can do
this. You can handle him.
She made herself look at Lara and Miley
and smile. “I hope to see both of you back. Please be sure to
call or e-mail if you have any problems or questions.”

With her heart in her
throat, she turned to look at Cole as the two women left. Her heart
did a little slam dance in her chest and she was no longer quite so
sure could handle him. Well, she
could...
but the way she
wanted to handle him was totally unacceptable, considering his
situation—the
engaged
one.

Why in the
hell
did he have to be engaged?

Cool, she told herself.
Keep it cool
.

As the door swung shut
behind Lara, Cole smiled at her. “I'm not chasing customers
away, am I?”

“
No. They were
done.” Her palms were sweating, she realized. This is stupid.
She hadn't let a man get to her like this since...well, not
since Brant.
Shit
. Oh, this was bad. Very, very bad. She
needed to get him out of here. Like now.

Screw the date.
But...damn it, he had already paid for it.

“
I don't
think you should be buying dates when you're engaged,”
Rocki blurted out. Shit. So
not
cool.

He lifted a brow at her,
a slow smile curling his lips. “Well, I generally don't
buy
dates. But it was for a good cause. I couldn't help
myself.”

“
Couldn't help
yourself?” Huffing out a breath, she crossed her arms over her
chest and leaned against the counter at her back. “You
frequently lose control at charity events, is that what you're
saying?” Absently, she caught a lock of hair, tugging on it as
she studied him.

Damn, he was pretty.

“
Oh, no, that's not
what I'm saying at all. I don't lose control, Mrs. Monroe. It's just
not my style. I saw you standing there, though, and I just had to do
it. What can I say? You tempt me to do very weird things.”

Rocki stared at him.
“Excuse me, but I didn't do a damn thing. Look, you have to
realize this isn't exactly right.” Way too pretty, she
amended as that smile widened. Gold eyes glinted at her, full of
amusement and humor.

“
Because I'm
not your type. I'm the taken type.”

“
Right.”

“
And if I wasn't
the taken type? Would that make things better?” He stood in the
middle of her store wearing a thick, cable knit sweater, faded jeans
and heavy boots—excellent gear considering the steady snowfall
they had coming down outside. Golden blond hair tumbled into his
eyes, and she had the urge to move out from behind the safety of the
counter and push it back from his face. His hair looked wicked
soft...she'd just love to...

Taken
!
He's
taken
, remember...

Setting her jaw, she
shook her head.

“
If you weren't
the taken type, then you'd be the rebound type. Still not
ideal.” She gave him a wry smile. “And besides, you
are
taken, so let's keep that in mind. I really don't want to
get into a fight with your beautiful bride-to-be.” She smirked
and added, “I'd break her in two.”

“
I don't
know. Mara's meaner than you.”

“
Don't bet on
it.” She stared at him. “So, let's just not push
that button, okay?”

“
Okay. Look, it's
a date. One for a good cause.” He flashed that smile at her
again and she felt her knees go weak, her heart skipping. “A
date.” He ambled forward and leaned over the counter, elbows
braced on it. “Not a lifelong commitment. But for the record, I
should probably tell you ...” His voice trailed off and he
looked down, staring through the glass countertop, although she
doubted he was seeing anything inside the display case. When he
looked back up, his eyes were serious. “I'm no longer the
taken type.”

Rocki blinked. “What?”

“
You heard me.”
He straightened up and pushed a hand through his hair, only to have
the thick blond strands fall right back into his eyes. “I broke
things off with Mara the night of the benefit, and just so you know,
it had nothing to do with you and everything to do with Mara and me.
Also, it happened before the auction. Well before. It happened before
I talked to you. And I don't think you could even consider me a
rebounding type. Things between us having been...hell. Gone. They've
been gone for a long time. I just wasn't seeing it. Mara
couldn't, either.”

Rocki studied him. “I'm
sorry.”

Cole shrugged. “Don't
be. It needed to end.”

“
Whether it needed
to or not, it always sucks to end something. And that sounds really,
well...sad. You were going to marry her. There must have been
something there.” She studied his face, and knew she was right,
even if he didn't say anything. There was the echo of something
in his eyes. She could see it. “You don't strike me as
the kind of guy who'd start a relationship that casually. If
you'd asked her to marry you, you must have had feelings for
her at some point. Losing that, whether it's fresh or not, has
to bother you.”