JADE
“A little more at the corner of your eye,” Brooke instructed me as she watched me apply my makeup in the mirror via an Internet video chat.
It had taken some doing, but I’d managed to get my laptop set at an angle where she could help me figure out all this makeup stuff.
I flicked the brush lightly in the corner of my eye. “When did makeup become a damn science?” I asked her.
We’d gone through a painstaking process of doing an evening makeup job, and I wasn’t sure I liked it.
Sure, I occasionally put on a little lipstick, and maybe some mascara, but for the most part, I wore nothing because I was outside in the middle of nowhere in all different kinds of weather. Generally, none of the stuff I was piling on my face worked in my usual environments.
Brooke laughed. “Honestly, I don’t usually fuss with that much makeup, either. But one of the local ladies had a class at the rec center, and I learned a lot. I’m trying to share my knowledge with you. You said you wanted to look good.”
Brooke talked me through the rest of the process, and when I finally stepped back, I was reasonably satisfied. “I guess this is as good as it gets,” I told my twin.
“Turn,” she requested.
I turned around and took off the towel I was wearing like a bib to keep any stray makeup off my dress, and then stepped back so she could see me.
“Perfect,” she said. “You look beautiful, Jade.”
I moved to the desk, put the computer down, and sat in front of the screen. “Are you sure? Don’t you think it’s a little over the top?”
Brooke made a face. “Absolutely not,” she argued. “Not everybody can rock that dress the way you do, and it’s a dinner and cocktail party full of rich people who are going to dress up. You look amazing.”
Skye had talked me into the black cocktail dress. She said it was sexy without being slutty. It was fitted, so it clung pretty tight to my body, but with the round neck and the cowl that hung down low in the back, it was also elegant. I loved the black lacy sleeves that were snug on my arms, but not too tight. The hem hit right above the knee.
“I’m not used to wearing a dress,” I told Brooke.
“You wore one at my wedding,” she reminded me.
“I did that for you,” I mumbled.
“Then wear this one for yourself,” she insisted. “Or are you doing it for Eli?”
“Maybe a little of both,” I conceded. “He pulled all this together for me. I want to look nice.”
“Sister, you look better than nice,” Brooke answered. “He’ll be drooling all night.”
Did I want Eli to drool? Yeah, it was quite possible that I did.
“He’s barely touched me since the accident,” I admitted. “I guess maybe I want to get his attention, too.”
“Oh, Jade. You already have it,” she assured me. “If you could have seen how upset he was when you were hurt, you’d know that. The guy hardly ate or slept.”
“I know. I could see that after my drugs wore off. But he’s been different, Brooke. I don’t know how to explain it, but he’s . . . distant.”
“You were recovering from some major trauma,” she pointed out.
I couldn’t exactly put a finger on the difference, but it worried me. “I hope you’re right.”
“Do you love him?” she asked in a rush. “No, wait. I’m your twin. I know you do.”
I nodded slowly. “I do. I’m not sure when it happened, but it scares the hell out of me.”
“I know he feels the same way, so I’m not worried. The fear goes away, Jade,” she said softly. “I promise.”
“He made it clear that he wanted me in his bed, Brooke. But emotions weren’t part of the deal. He’s not the type of guy who wants any commitments. He already told me that.”
“He’s full of shit,” Brooke answered. “Eli Stone is so in love with you that he can’t think straight. Maybe this all started as a game or a fling, but somewhere along the way, everything changed.”
“For me it definitely did,” I confessed.
“For him, too,” she insisted. “Things don’t always work out the way you plan them, but that’s the best part of life. The surprises.”
“Like Liam?” I asked with a smile. I adored my twin’s husband, but I couldn’t help but wish that he had lived in California.
Brooke’s face softened, and her eyes danced just from hearing his name. “Liam and I shouldn’t have worked out at all. But somehow I think I always knew that he was the only guy I was ever going to love. It starts as lust, and then . . . bam! I couldn’t live without him anymore.”
“He makes you happy,” I said.
“I really want to hate him because he took you across the country from me, but I can’t,” I told her.
“It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We’ll always be there for each other. When you got hurt, Liam was the one who packed the bags while I freaked out. But there was no question as to whether or not I was going. He gets that, and he wanted to be there, too. Liam is special that way. When I need him, he’s just there without question.”
“At least getting to see each other isn’t an issue when we have access to private jets,” I joked.
“Exactly,” she said. “And now that I’m back from traveling, we’ll talk to each other all the time. I miss all of you.”
“We miss you, too,” I said tearfully.
“Don’t start crying,” she warned. “All that makeup will run.”
I blinked furiously to keep from leaking any tears from my eyes. “I’ve got it under control.”
“Have fun, Jade. And enjoy your night with a really hot guy. You’ll be the envy of most single women around the world.”
I groaned. “Oh, God. I never even thought about that.”
To me, he was just Eli. To everybody else, he was the most eligible bachelor in the world.
She laughed. “Don’t think about it, then.”
We kept things light before we finally said good-bye.
And for the first time, I ended my conversation with my twin without being really sad.
Yeah, sometimes I felt Brooke’s absence, but I knew that no matter how many miles separated us, we’d always have that twin bond that could never be broken.
And we could breach that distance any time we needed to see each other or spend time together.
Our inheritance had made flying across the country pretty easy.
“Hey, you ready?” I heard Eli’s baritone ask as he came through the sitting room.
I stood, feeling nervous as hell in a skin I wasn’t quite used to.
“Oh, my God,” I said breathlessly as he appeared in the small powder room.
I’d been so busy being self-conscious that I hadn’t even thought about the fact that Eli would be nicely dressed, too.
I already knew he was breathtaking in a suit.
But I wasn’t prepared to see him in a tuxedo.
“You look . . . perfect,” I murmured.
Eli reminded me of a certain sweet that a person craves. You know it isn’t exactly good for you, but you want it just the same. He was pure temptation, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to not take more than just one bite.
He wore a tuxedo just like he wore a custom suit. He looked comfortable in formal wear, and he wore it with an elegance and sophistication that most guys could never quite pull off.
“Jesus, Jade,” he said in a raspy, low voice when he came to a stop in front of me. “Are you trying to kill me?”
“No,” I answered honestly. “I was trying to make sure I looked good on the arm of the hottest man at the party.”
“You look beautiful,” he said, his tone not completely happy. “What did you do to your hair?”
I turned, showing him the upswept style that Skye had taught me to do. “Cocktail-party hair.”
It was a fairly easy pattern that was held in place by a giant silver clip, and left some tendrils curling along the side of my face.
“It makes me want to pull it out so I can feel it,” he said hoarsely.
I turned back to him. “I think that’s the idea,” I responded lightly.
“And that dress is going to fuck with my mind all damn night.”
“I’m covered,” I said, secretly adoring the look of lust in his gorgeous, stormy eyes as they moved covetously down my body before they traveled up again to my face.
“Let’s go,” he rumbled as he took my hand.
His statement was abrupt, but I didn’t take offense as I grabbed my little black bag. I smiled as I followed him as fast as my stiletto heels would allow me to move, knowing my objective of looking good on his arm had been achieved.