Page 14 of Homebody
At least it would be according to thecommitteeof women in charge of her life right now.
Tessa picked through the selection of tops she’d brought home. She’d definitely feel better with a shirt long enough to cover all that hip and asshugging. Unfortunately, Red hadn’t provided any tops long enough.
She picked up the graphic T-shirt Red had selected for her. The most casual of everything, it would be her choice if it wasn’t cropped way too short. And if it didn’t have a pair of giant lips printed on it.
Another shirt, gray with a black pattern all over, was longer but cut way too low in front. She wasn’t up for baring her cleavage tonight on her inaugural run as seductress.
Yet another shirt was so tight it showed the outline of her bra’s cups and back strap through the fabric.
Tessa sighed. At least she’d convinced Red that she needed tops that actually allowed her toweara bra because she needed one. No strapless or backless styles for her C-cups.
Feeling like Goldilocks, she could see nothing they’d sent her home with wasjust right. Too short. Too low. Too tight… and don’t even get her started on the dresses!
Fine. The shirt that was too tight would just have to do.
It was garishly bright, featuring a funky seventies throwback pattern of concentric circles in pink, orange, white and black.
There’d be no missing her in this. It was like wearing a neon sign. Dean would have to be blind, or at least color blind, to miss her in this thing. She imagined the committee would like that.
Maybe she could just leave her jacket on the whole time. Since nights were cool and they planned on her going out on a lot of night dates with Dean—she rolled her eyes at the confidence they had but that she didn’t feel—Red had provided a beautiful black leather jacket.
Soft. Supple. It was the one thing Tessa actually liked and wished she could keep when this was all done. Maybe she would splurge. Treat herself and use some of her payment from Susan to purchase the jacket from Red after this whole mess was over.
That wasifshe wasn’t such a horrible failure at seduction and playing the bad girl that Susan wanted a refund.
Oh well. They couldn’t blame her for failing to look like a bad girl. She had warned them she wouldn’t be able to pull off the vibe they wanted. Going from nerdy to naughty just wasn’t in her DNA.
Her protest had fallen on deaf ears.
They’d chosen this outfit and all the rest, basically dressing her like she was a Barbie doll and they her over-grown-little-girl overlords. Dictating her appearance, not to mention her existence. At least for the next week and a half while Dean would be in town and exposed to the evil temptation of his ex-girlfriend.
His ex-girlfriend…
Juniper would have no problem wearing any of these clothes. She’d not only wear them, she would look amazing while doing it. She’d no doubt feel amazing in them too.
Juniper would strut into the bar and right up to Dean. All bouncy boobs and bubbly butt. Irresistible to any man and probably some of the women in the place.
And Tessa, at his mom’s beck and call, was to prevent their reunion?
How the hell was she supposed to do that?
Tessa was up against Dean and Juniper’s long history together. She’d have to combat their past—and most likely present—physical attraction to each other.
Judging by the look of Juniper today when she’d stopped at the salon, how could Deannotbe attracted to her? She was like sex on heels. Meanwhile Tessa was lucky she didn’t fall off the chunky sole of her slippers.
She looked at the footwear Red had forced upon her.
Thank goodness among the bag of impractical shoes and sandals she’d upended onto the floor of her bedroom, there was one pair of low-heeled boots. She could probably pull those off tonight without breaking an ankle or falling on her face.
So it was settled. She had an outfit.
What she didn’t have was any idea of what to say or do when she got there… or even how she was getting there since she was currently without motorized transportation.
She could take her bike to the rendezvous a mile away at the MRI. But since it was an old rusty bicycle with a basket in the front andnota Harley, she didn’t think it would convey the idea of the seductress she was supposed to be.
She could walk. She might even be able to make it in the boots without getting too big of a blister.
Maybe pretending she’d hitchhiked there would fit the persona she was trying to portray.Pretendingbeing theoperative word. Tessa would never really hitchhike. That was a good way to end up onDatelineas a missing or murdered person.
