Beauty Shot (Hope Parish Novels Book 5) Read online

  Yeah, right. There wasn’t a chance in hell.

  #

  Minnie

  “Verity, I’m so glad you called,” I said. I was so looking forward to her visit.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked. “You sound exhausted. I should take off right now and help you.”

  “No, you’ve got your darling little Duel and your darling big Boone to worry about right now. Everything is under control. I’m having a bit of a problem sleeping. I usually do before Fashion Week. Once everything comes together, I’ll be right as rain.”

  “If you’re sure. It’s been utter chaos here. Braxton, River Pearl, and her brother Chase were almost killed last week.” She hurried on as I gasped. “They are all okay. But it was scary to see him in that hospital bed. Brax is so tough and contrary. I was very worried about him.”

  “What happened?”

  “River’s cousin went too far to protect their family name. It’s really complicated, but that’s the bottom line.”

  “My God that is awful.”

  “I’ll say. But, like I said, they are doing great now. Brax and River are now together. Have you heard your show is to be her last? She’s giving up modeling.”

  “I had heard a rumor, and I’ll miss having her model our clothes, but I’m glad she’s following her heart.” I leaned back in my chair. “It’s been a busy summer for you and your friends. It seems you’ve all found love.”

  “We have. Even Boone’s momma found herself a new man, and it’s River’s Uncle Winchester. I think we’re looking at another marriage soon. I never thought I could be this happy. Are you sure…?”

  “Yes, worrywart, everything is brilliant. You’ll be here in a couple of weeks. That’s soon enough. I’ve sent you the lineup and some male models for you to approve. I’m not a hundred percent happy, but I had to make a decision. Let me know what you think.”

  “I don’t think Boone is going to want me staring at gorgeous men. That’s what I think.”

  “Just the perks of the job.”

  “I don’t think he sees it that way,” she said the sarcasm clear across all the miles.

  “Tell him it’s business.”

  Verity chuckled. “I’ll tell him it only makes me hot and bothered for him.”

  “There you go. How’s everything else?”

  “Aubree and Booker moved to New Orleans last week.” Her voice was subdued. “I’m going to miss her a lot. She started pre-med, and is rarin’ to go. I’m happy for both of them. He gave her the ring, and it’s gorgeous. You will make it for their wedding, right?”

  “Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “Well, I’d better go. It’s almost time for Boone to be here for lunch.”

  “You two are too cute.”

  “I know. We’re sickening.”

  “Ta, darling.”

  “Bye. Oh, wait. I forgot to tell you. Deke is on his way to New York. To Columbia. I thought you’d be interested.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Oh, Minnie, you’re not your momma.”

  “Damn right, I’m not.”

  “Well, it’s a heads-up, then. He’ll be in the City.”

  “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll talk to you soon.” I had no intention of ever seeing Deke West romantically. When he got here, and if he attended Fashion Week activities, I would keep my head level and on straight. I would not be ridiculed or thought unprofessional or—God forbid!—pitied like Angela.

  Chapter Two

  Deke

  “Deke!” a female voice called out. It was the third time it had happened during the time it took for Travis Blackwood, Emmie Harp and me to walk across Columbia’s Low Plaza to study on the steps.

  I stopped and turned, sighing. Travis rolled his eyes and Emmie smirked, saying under her breath. “Geez, can’t we get through this bitch-in-heat gauntlet in peace?”

  I couldn’t help it. I laughed and nudged Emmie. She was all about sarcasm, and I enjoyed the bite of her humor.

  And damned if that book Booker gave me didn’t invade my thoughts. I read it again as soon as I got settled in the dorm and after I’d planted my seeds, which were already tiny green shoots. Booker wouldn’t have given it to me if it didn’t have meaning, and here I was, already benefitting from one of its lessons. Don’t judge.

  I tried to live by that. Especially where Emmie and Travis were concerned. Neither of them were monsters, obviously, but they did have barriers. Travis’s shyness and Emmie’s tough girl act were both about protection.

  And, Tiffany Moore, who was even now streaking across the quad toward me? Like a hideous monster, beauty was just as intimidating. It might be the opposite of ugly, but it kept people at bay just as easily as being ugly did. It also could be a formidable weapon in the wrong hands. I’d experienced it before and still did.

  Some gorgeous girls liked to jerk boys around, and I’d been on the receiving end more than once. Tiffany was a perfect example of a guy-jerker. They had what we wanted, and we wanted it a lot. Made us susceptible to being jerked around and not in a good way. Our libido was a constant, unrelenting pressure that dogged us from the moment we woke up with heavy morning wood to the craving for a warm, soft body when we went to bed.

  Tiffany was rich, spoiled, and striking. Except she knew it. It was an out-there attractiveness enhanced by makeup and high-end hair products, not like Emmie’s understated beauty.

  Before I had decided to save myself for someone special, I was just as horny, just as girl-crazy as any teenaged boy. But even though my momma hadn’t meant to, she showed me how important it was to wait for something meaningful. Her relationship with my stepfather convinced me. Her patience and understanding were also a big influence in my life.

  “Hi, Tiffany,” I said as the brunette sashayed up to me.

  Tiffany had set her sights on me the moment she walked into my English class, and just would not believe I wasn’t interested. No matter what I said, she persisted. And that no-judge rule? Until I got to know someone, there would be no judging, but by now I was sure Tiffany was a product of her upbringing. She’d learned her greedy, all-about-me behavior because it was rewarded. I didn’t have to indulge her, though.

  “Are you going to the game?” she said. The moment she got close enough, she had her hands on me, smoothing her palms up my arms. This familiar touching was starting to grate on my nerves.

  I stepped back and her eyes flashed, lips going pouty. “Oh, come on, babe. Say you’ll go with me,” she whined.

  “I’m hanging out with my friends, here, and we’re going to study for an upcoming test, so I’m going to skip the game, but you have fun.”

  Her eyes flicked to and dismissed Emmie, but lingered over Travis. “How about the party afterwards at Delta?”

  “Nope, I don’t usually attend frat parties.”

  “Oh, Deke, why not? It would be fun.”

  “Listen, Tiff,” Emmie said, her voice anything but friendly. “Dekey doesn’t have time to screw you,” she said in her best babycakes voice. “He’s too busy having his way with me. I give him all the sex he needs.”

  Beside me Travis stiffened, his head whipping around to stare at Em.

  Tiffany’s face tightened and her eyes narrowed. “In your dreams, harpy.”

  “Don’t call her that,” Travis said, his voice low.

  Tiffany studied Travis and gave a little sigh, as if she thought his protective stance about Emmie was somehow a come-on to her. She gave him an air kiss, which only made him frown more. “I hope to see you there, Deke. Bring Travis, too.” Tiffany said, giving me one more confident look. “Bye.”

  “Em,” I said, laughing. “That isn’t helping.”

  “I’m sick of her always after your tail.” She giggled and gave me a whack. “It’s a nice tail, but she’s as deep as a coat of primer. Not your type at all.”

  I was glad I had followed my instincts and befriended this shy, laconic cowboy and sharp-witted, needle-tongued nerdette.
r />   Travis and I were roommates. He hailed from Texas and was as out of place as I was. We were the same height, six feet four, but he had black hair cut short on the sides and longer on the top, dark blue eyes, and a bit of facial hair on his upper lip and chin. He wore a cowboy hat and boots I’m pretty sure he rode and roped in.

  With his black Stetson, it made him look like an outlaw. Since I was quite comfortable with Outlaws, we hit it off. We shared a double room in John Jay Hall. Being a social person, I didn’t want a single. Travis, on the other hand, hadn’t wanted a double. But I think he was happy he’d ended up with me for a roommate. We shared a bathroom with our other suite mates, the love of rocky road ice cream, and enjoyed the view of Manhattan from our windows.* What we didn’t have in common was our choice of music. He was a little bit country and I was all rock and roll. Thank God for earbuds.

  Emmie I met in my Computer 101 class. It was a nuts and bolts intro, but the girl already knew all there was to know about the basics. I suspected she was a world-class hacker.

  She had long dark hair that was currently up in pigtails with yellow bands, thick, black-framed glasses way too big for her face, and a Batman T-shirt over baggy jeans. Her favorite superheroes were the caped crusader, of course, and the web slinger. She liked them because Batman was all about gadgets and Spidey was a nerd. She was smart, acerbic, and knew her stuff. But she wasn’t all over me, and she actually talked to me like a human being instead of an object. And we won’t even talk about her music. It was…strange. Stuff like sitars and gongs. Very Zen.

  We made the stairs, and Emmie picked a spot that wasn’t occupied and sat down. “Ever since you stepped on this campus, you’ve been hounded. You know why that is, right?” she said pulling off her backpack and opening it.

  I looked at Emmie and smiled. “My looks.”

  “Nope.” She shook her head and gave me a smart-aleck look. “That’s what attracted them in the first place, but contrary to popular belief, looks do not guarantee success with the female demographic.”

  “What is it, then?”

  She raised her brows and tilted her head. “It’s the allure of ‘maybe.’ I’ve seen you do it. There’s a promise you might engage and that keeps them coming back for more.”

  “Is that so?” I said opening up my own backpack.

  “I know your secret, Deke.”

  “You do? Huh. What is that?”

  Her look intensified. “You have women gunning for your loins because you’re a nice guy and you don’t want to hurt their feelings.”

  Travis and I both burst out laughing at the “gunning for your loins” comment.

  She leaned in and grabbed my chin. “And, you know something?” Emmie said. “It’s the part I like most about you.”

  “Travis is a nice guy, too.”

  She turned those gray eyes on Travis and smiled. Nudging his shoulder, she said, “I might go into a diabetic coma, here. But I really like that about him, too.”

  “Aren’t we here to study?” Travis said, and Emmie let go of my chin with a smirk.

  Travis looked more disgruntled than I had ever seen him before. He was usually an easygoing guy, a man of few words, but when he talked, it was because he had something to say.

  “You look like you could use a coffee and a chocolate chip muffin,” Emmie said to him, giving me a what’s-up look. I shrugged.

  “No thanks,” Travis said.

  “I’m buying and I insist. Be right back.” She rose and looked at me. “Deke?”

  “Coffee, black for me.”

  “Got it. Easy, country boy.”

  Travis huffed. “Since you’re being your usual pushy self, I’ll have…”

  “I know what you’ll have, Travis,” she said.

  As soon as Emmie was out of earshot, I turned to Travis. “What’s up, son?” He gave me a noncommittal look and opened his book. “Travis?”

  “Nothing.”

  “It’s something. What?”

  “I just guess I thought everything would be different here. I mean, high school is shit, especially for someone who has smarts. This is an academic institution, a place of higher learning, and it’s the same ol’ bullshit. I expected the people at Columbia to be…”

  “What? Above petty garbage? People are people, Travis. It’s always about popularity and looks and money. Those don’t change.”

  “I guess. I don’t like the way people treat Emmie, like she’s some kinda ugly duckling. I think she’s beautiful.”

  “Agreed. I think she is, too.”

  Travis scowled and buried his nose in the book, and I had to wonder if it was only how Emmie was treated that had him riled up.

  That morning I planned to get up early.

  Verity and Boone were already in town. Boone had texted me the night before that Fashion Week was kicking off today, and Verity and Minnie’s collection was showing this afternoon at two. I wasn’t going to miss a chance to see Boone and Verity, and, as a bonus, Brax was here with River Pearl, who was walking the runway in their show.

  But more important, this would give me an in with Minnie, too. She was screening my calls and avoiding me, I was sure of it. That wasn’t going to last, and she had to know they would invite me to attend. Of course she’d be busy with the runway show, but I was pretty sure I could get backstage and make my move.

  As soon as my alarm went off, I was out of bed. Travis was buried beneath the covers. He didn’t have a class until ten, but I had my eight o’clock English class. I headed for the shower and turned on the water, slipping under the spray. All of a sudden, I felt two soft hands on my back, then molding over my butt. Without hesitation those hands came around and curled over my junk.

  I was so surprised I breathed in water through my nose, burning my nostrils, and started coughing. Swinging my head around and away from the spray, I cleared my eyes. It was Tiffany, buck-assed naked, with her hands on me.

  “Have you lost your ever lovin’ mind?!” I bellowed, and her face went from dreamy to alarm. “Get your hands off me!”

  She backed up, but it was too late. I was fit to be tied. “You have no boundaries, girl. I’m not interested in you, Tiffany. I can’t say it any plainer than that. I’m a flesh and blood man, and I get to decide who gets to touch me, and when, and why.”

  I wasn’t going to waste my first time on her. All she really wanted was my body. She knew nothing about me. “I’m not ruled by my dick, if that’s your play. Don’t ever touch me again without permission,” I said through clenched teeth. “If you do, I’ll report you to the Resident Assistant. Now get the fuck outta here.”

  She looked off-balance and more surprised and upset than I had ever seen her. Then she grabbed a towel and her robe and bolted out of the bathroom. I was shaking with anger—and it took a lot to rile me up. This kind of thing had never happened to me before.

  Girls in Suttontowne didn’t ambush me in showers, and they didn’t take liberties with my body or touch me when I hadn’t consented. It was a violation, plain and simple. I had been pursued by girls, yeah. I’ve had to handle that my whole life. And I had been cornered a couple times in high school by aggressive girls. But here the aggression was far more overt, and it was something I hadn’t quite been prepared to handle. It made me feel violated. My privacy breached.

  Back in my room, Travis took one look at me and said, “What’s wrong?”

  I sat down on the bed. “Tiffany snuck up on me in the shower.”

  “What? She was in the guy’s shower? Shoot, boy. What did she do?”

  “She put her hands on me. On all of me.”

  “Boy, howdy! You going to report her?”

  “No. I made it clear. Should have made it clear to her sooner, but she didn’t get the hint, Travis.”

  “No, sir. I don’t think she did. She got it now, though, right?”

  “I think so.”

  He walked over his blue eyes concerned. “She’s just hot for you and doesn’t like no for an answer, but
that doesn’t give her the right to touch you.”

  I rubbed my hands over my face and into my wet hair, wishing all of a sudden that I was back in Suttontowne working for Boone. It had been a much simpler life. People in Suttontowne respected me. Here it was something else. I didn’t like it.

  “Thanks, Travis. It’ll be fine. I better get to class before I’m late.”

  He nodded.

  The morning slipped by, and I found myself on the 1 Train, exiting at Lincoln Center. There were so many people, a teeming mass of humanity. Wasn’t sure I would ever get used to these crowds. Or would care to.

  I’d only been in New York City for three weeks, but navigating wasn’t too hard. It surely was intimidating, dirty, and crowded, very different from Suttontowne, but I’d been prepared for that.

  Verity had sent a special badge to get me backstage. I found a sign that said T&O Designs, the name that Minnie and Verity now used as their main brand name, and credentialed my way past the Door Nazis and into the room.

  The room was set up with a pretty cool long stage with different colored lights. I’d been very curious to see a fashion show. Whenever Verity showed me what she was working on, I’d always thought it was pretty cool.

  As soon as I walked through a door, a woman swore at me and grabbed my jacket sleeve. “You are late! I’ve already called your agency. It’s a good thing you’re gorgeous, or I would fire your fine ass right now.”

  After the shower scene this morning, I was a bit speechless. The petite Asian girl growled at me. She actually growled. Then she dragged me over to a rack of clothes. There were a bunch of guys already there…naked guys getting dressed. I haven’t seen that much male skin since the high school locker room. Some were in chairs getting their hair spiked, some other people were running around grabbing small bottles labeled Cristal. A person brushed past us and offered me a bottle, but I shook my head. I didn’t need to be buzzed while all this was going on. Where were Verity and Minnie?

  “The clothes are numbered. 1-10. All you have to do is follow the numbers. You can count, right?”