Page 356 of Dark Love

Vex hands his card to the cashier and plucks mine out of her fingers. “I always pay.”

“Well, that’s just silly. I’m perfectly capable of paying for my own clothing.”

“Doesn’t matter. When you’re with me, I pay.”

The cashier hands him the receipt and me the bag. “You can use the first changing room on the left. I removed all the tags for you.”

It’s just not even worth the fight right this moment. I’m going to put on my clothes and feel like an almost normal person. “Thank you.” I snatch my bag from her hands before Vex gets any bright ideas and march off to the changing room.

Two little bits of satin and lace give me such a sense of normalcy. Though too much of my skin is still exposed under this coat, I don’t feel naked anymore.

Whatever happens, I can face this day!

Maybe not Vex… but the rest of the day. Is he as truly vexing as his name suggests, or is that just his way of trying to be sweet?

There’s no point in hiding from him anymore. I tighten the coat around me, pop my bag onto my shoulder, and stride out of the room.

Vex, the irritating man, is waiting just a few steps outside of the dressing room. He has the nerve to look calm and relaxed like he could stand there all day.

“I’m ready to go.”

Without a word, he takes my hand in his.

“Have a nice day.” I smile at the cashier as we walk out. Vex is just way too intense to smile at a stranger. He certainly isn’t smiling at me. I should be grumpy with him, but with his hand wrapped around mine…

The second the door closes behind us, he whispers, “You will never step foot in that shop again.”

Excuse me. “You can’t tell me where to shop.”

“You don’t belong in a place like this.”

It certainly wouldn’t be my first choice to shop here. “You can’t tell me what to do.”

“I can when it comes to this. You deserve beautiful clothing. A lady like you doesn’t shop in a…” His lips twist. “… place like this.”

How can he be so irritating while at the same time so sweet? Vex can’t tell me what to do, even if I don’t have any plans to ever come here again. “I’ll shop where I like.” This was definitely a better choice than going without a bra.

“Trouble. You’re nothing but trouble.” He squeezes my hand and starts towards the waiting cars.

That word would irk me even more if being this close to Vex didn’t turn my whole world upside down.

Why Here?

Dahlia

The car comes to a stop, and I gawk at the stores outside the window. This is not where I thought we would go when I agreed to go shopping with Vex. “This isn’t the mall.”

“No, it’s not.” He makes no move to exit the car.

“But how are we going to eat pretzels and wander around holding hands?” There’s no way I just said that. Even a child would know better than to just blurt something like that out.

“You do know we aren’t teenagers.”

It’s been a while since I’ve been a teenager, and I’m more than happy not to remember that stage of my life. Still — “So? Pretzels and company are the two best parts of shopping.”

“Does your whole life revolve around food? You have ‘thank you’ cookies and ‘shopping’ pretzels. Are there any other food rules I should know about?”

“They aren’t rules per se.”

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