Page 107 of Silent Comrade
Britt figured the best tack was to fess up.“Sorry. I was resting my eyes for a moment. Show’s coming up thisweek. Retooling my collection.”
The professor pushed glasses up his nose.“You’re going in a different direction for the fashion show? Lastminute?”
“Yes. I … changed the collection I was goingto present a week ago.”
“Why?”
Do not look at Jenna. Do not look ather. “It became obvious that I needed to take some risks andstay true to my vision. The result is way better than what I hadoriginally planned. You could say that I was inspired.”
Now she could glance over at Jenna. Thewoman looked like she had sucked an entire lemon. Good.
“Well, we all look forward to sharing inyour vision,” the professor said. “Until then, I do need you to payattention.”
“Yes, sir.” Not much else she could say.
Pinching herself on the leg and biting theinside of her cheek when sleep threatened to overtake her, Brittremained awake for the rest of the lecture. Couldn’t rememberanything the professor said, but at least she did the courtesy ofnot dozing off again.
When she dragged her sorry butt up to thelab, she stopped short a few feet inside. Red bumped into her frombehind. Following too closely.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
Pointing, she breathed, “Wow. What’sthat?”
There, on her table space in the corner sata massive bouquet of flowers. Red and white roses burst from thesparkling crystal vase.
She turned to the few classmates present.“Did you see who brought this?”
Head shakes and shrugs.
Strolling to her work area, she set herbackpack on the floor. “Did you do this?”
“No.” His brows drew together. “Wish I’dthought of it.”
Well, then. “Maybe my sisters sent it sincethey couldn’t come to the show.”
Red’s posture went rigid and his eyesnarrowed as he swiveled his head. He grabbed her hand as shereached out. “Don’t touch it.”
“Ow.”
“Sorry.” He rubbed his thumb over her wrist,sending inappropriate tingles up her arm. Weren’t they past thisresponse? They had both moved on. “May I?” He examined thearrangement. Plucked the card out of the gold holder.
The envelope had a foil seal onit—not the usual for a commercial floristdelivery.
She studied the beautiful flowers and thevase. Britt wasn’t a fine arts major, but the vase looked fancy.Really fancy. Wouldn’t surprise her to see a Waterford acid stampat the base. If true, the vase itself could be worth nearly athousand dollars.
Something was dead wrong. A tilt of vertigohit her.
Red opened the envelope and they both peeredat it.
All the best for the spectacle. What is thetrue price of fashion? I look forward to finding out. Yours,Beau.
The air left the room.
Red caught her with an arm around her waistand pulled her into his solid chest, holding her up and turning hisback so the other students wouldn’t see her reaction. “Damnit.”
Stars crowded her vision. Breaths rasped hotin her throat. Too harsh. All the security had been wasted. She’dbeen so confident they could pull off this event. Things had beenso calm and safe, especially with the additional help.
Then Beau or his underling simply waltzed inhere and dropped off a giant floral arrangement. Taunting the tightsecurity in a move meant to shake her to the core. The moveworked.
