Page 27 of Prognosis Temporary

Sexy. Slinky. Suggestive.

One shimmy of her hips and it’d pool at her feet in a tempting puddle of purple.

She looked at the tag and sighed. ‘It’s too expensive.’

‘Some things are worth it.’

Callie rubbed her hands along the silky fabric knowing he was right but...it was just a dress. She didn’t need it. It’s just a dress. Maybe if she recited it enough she’d actually start to believe it.

‘It’s just a dress,’ she said. Out loud this time.

‘Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?’

Callie was temped. Very tempted. After all, she was never going to buy it, but admiring herself in the mirror there was a tiny female part of her that yearned for someone else to see her in it too.

Yearned to see a man’s reaction. Even the man outside the curtain who she should definitely not be indulging.

But...screw it. Taking a breath she reefed the curtain aside and stepped out.

Callie flushed as his thorough gaze travelled all over her, lingering in all the places he already well and truly knew. Her nipples hardened at his frank assessment and, predictably, in a dress that clung like a satin glove, their arousal didn’t go unnoticed.

His gaze zeroed in on her breasts and her breath stuttered to a halt. Standing, he shoved his hands on his hips. ‘Wow.’

Callie would be lying if his close attention and the hushed awe of his wow didn’t go to her head a little. But that still didn’t negate the practicalities. ‘It’s six hundred dollars.’

He nodded slowly, his teeth playing with his bottom lip for a beat or two. ‘Trust me, it’ll be the best six hundred dollars you ever spent.’

Callie tried really hard not to think about those teeth rubbing against her painfully tight nipples and failed. ‘It’s frivolous,’ she protested half-heartedly.

He shrugged. ‘What’s wrong with frivolous?’

There was nothing wrong with it, Callie knew that, but working where they worked, knowing what they knew about the harsh realities of life for so many people it seemed like an incredible indulgence. The heat and hunger in his eyes however, overruled all her sensibilities.

She turned to the shop assistant. ‘I’ll take it.’

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Sebastian knew theminute he walked into the function that night that Callie was already there. He couldn’t see her but the hairs on the back of his neck were standing to alert, just as they had that afternoon when she’d emerged from the fitting room.

And then the crowd seemed to part and he caught a flash of purple and there she was, her head thrown back, laughing in that all-out way of hers at something someone in the little crowd around her was saying.

His heart practically stopped. The deep purple suited her colouring and the dress hugged and flared in all the right places. She looked like a movie star on a red carpet or a model poised at the end of a catwalk.

He’d seen her in jeans and T-shirts, in tailored trousers and silky blouses - hell, he’d even see her naked. But this Callie was something else again. Yet another facet to the woman who seemed to have many.

Girlie Callie.

And girlie Callie was a sight to behold.

That afternoon in the boutique she had looked amazing. Tonight, with her eyes heavily kohled and her hair loose around her shoulders rather than bunched in a hastily constructed ponytail, she looked sensational.

It was hard to believe she had to be talked into the purchase and hell if Sebastian hadn’t been a hair’s-breadth away from telling her he’d pay for it. But he’d stopped. Deep in his bones he’d known it would be a very bad move. A woman who’d told him only a couple of hours prior she wouldn’t sleep with him certainly wouldn’t let him pay for an expensive dress.

Luckily she hadn’t been unable to resist the power of the dress either.

She tipped back her head again and laughed, one hand at her throat absently toying with a chain of sparkly baubles glistening in the magnificent crystal lights overhead. Chandelier earrings also dazzled in the light and drew his gaze to her neck.

To her bare shoulders.

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