Wilde at Heart (Wilde Security, #3)(31)
Maybe she should come clean about everything to Reece. Except if Jason found out, she’d never escape him. The thought turned her stomach.
“Shelby, are you okay?”
She started and looked up into Libby Wilde’s concerned face. She’d been so busy wallowing, she hadn’t heard her approach. “Yeah. Sorry.” She swiped a hand under her nose and forced a smile. “Allergies.”
Libby glanced in the direction Jason had disappeared. Yeah, she didn’t buy that excuse for a moment.
Shelby kept the smile firmly in place and pulled open the store’s outer door. “So, dresses?” She walked straight toward the dress department, putting a bit too much bounce in her step. “You’re here to help me look like a passable Mrs. Reece Wilde, so work your magic.”
Libby followed, a frown drawing her perfectly sculpted brows together. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
Shelby gazed over the rack of clothes at the woman who was technically her sister-in-law. How strange to have another sister, even if only for a little while—well, she did have several other blood related sisters, but she didn’t know any of them except Eva. And this was different somehow. Libby couldn’t be more her opposite—a lawyer with a level head and calm disposition—and yet, in the short time they’d spent together, Shelby already felt a strong bond with her. “What do you mean?”
Libby chewed her muted pink lipstick off her lower lip as she browsed through the dresses, then shook her head. “It’s none of my business. Forget it.”
“No, tell me. I want to know.”
She said nothing for several seconds, obviously waging an internal debate. Then she stopped fiddling with the dresses and met Shelby’s gaze. “Changing who you are to please someone else never works. Just ask my husband. He’ll tell you. Jude did it for years, and he hurt us in the process. We missed out on eight years together because he wasn’t true to himself.”
“Really? Jude always seems so…comfortable with himself.”
“Well, he is now. But you have no idea how much misery we went through to get to that point.” Libby gave a little laugh and returned to browsing through the rack. “And the thing is, Reece is a great guy, but he has a tendency to steamroll over the people around him when they don’t conform to his standards and…I guess I’m saying I don’t want to see you lose yourself.”
Libby was worried about her? A sweet ache bloomed in her chest. So close on the heels of Jason’s surprise visit, the emotion nearly overwhelmed her. She found herself blinking back tears for the second time in less than ten minutes. It would be so easy to open her mouth and tell Libby everything, such a relief to have someone to confide in…
But, no, she couldn’t. Libby would feel obligated to tell her husband, and Jude would tell his brothers. Cam would tell Eva. Reece would find out…
And it’d all blow up in her face.
“I’m not changing for Reece.” She turned away from Libby’s searching gaze and picked up a black dress with long lace sleeves. “Will this one work?”
Libby regarded her with knowing eyes but, thank God, let the matter drop. She adjusted her stylish glasses on her nose, then turned her attention to the dress. “Modest, but with just the right amount of edge. It suits you. I approve. But what about this one?” She held up a long, sleek black number with a plunging V in the back held together by delicate chains. It was gorgeous, something Shelby would totally wear, but…
She winced. “It’ll take too much makeup to cover my tattoos.”
Libby frowned, obviously still not 100 percent on board with this whole ugly duckling transformation thing, and thrust the dress into her arms. “Well, try it on anyway. And the lace one, too.”
Shelby accepted the silky gown and grinned. Here Reece had wanted Libby to go shopping with her to help tone down her style, but Libby was doing just the opposite. The curvy blonde was no wilting flower, and Shelby decided in that moment she’d still count Libby as a sister even after she and Reece annulled their marriage.
She found the nearest fitting room and wiggled into the lace dress first. It fell to mid-thigh, and the sleeves were soft rather than itchy like she’d expected. There was a bit of sparkle in the lace, too, that caught and threw light in subtle ways when she moved. The dress fit like it was tailor-made for her, which was so hard to find straight off the rack since she was petite. She usually had to hem everything. “Oh, Libby. I think I’m in love.”
“Are you going to let me see it?”
She smiled at her reflection before unlocking the door and stepping out for Libby’s inspection. Having someone to shop with was fun, a nice change of pace from Eva, who would only set foot in a mall if she were forced at gunpoint.
Libby twirled a finger in the air, indicating Shelby should spin. She complied, and Libby clapped her hands, gave a little squee of excitement. “It’s perfect. I wish I could be there to see Reece’s reaction. He’s going to swallow his tongue. And probably want to peel you out of it first chance he gets.”
“You think?” Warmth gathered in her belly and spread downward as she studied her reflection again in the three-way mirror. She pictured his long, graceful fingers pulling down the side zipper, his lips tracing the line of flesh he uncovered. Oh, the man was a god with those lips but, despite last night, he was still too restrained. He was still holding back from that darkness she so desperately wanted to see him unleash.