Bound Temptations: Stories of Temptation and Submission (6 page)

Another voice called out for
seventeen hundred.

She breathed deeply, or as
deeply as the lacings on her corset would allow.

Staring at Rocki standing on
the stage, Cole told himself he wasn't going to do it. He'd just
broken up with his fiancée. She was still grieving over her
husband. It was a bad thing all around. Right?

But that didn't keep him
from taking a few steps into the restaurant, getting just a little
bit closer. His blood pumped hard and fast as he got
closer.

The bids were at two
thousand now, but fewer people were involved. As he reached the
bottom of the stage, he said loudly, "Three thousand."

Rocki looked down,
startled.

Her eyes met his, wide and
dark...so dark, he felt lost in them.

Screw the bad things. He
wanted this woman, damn it. Maybe just having a simple date would
prove that she wasn't everything he had convinced himself she was.
Besides, this whole thing was for charity...a good
cause.

"I've got three thousand
here," Lacey called out, delight evident in her voice. "Do I have
thirty-five hundred?"

Another voice said,
"Thirty-five hundred."

Because he was standing so
close, Cole saw the minute way Rocki's shoulders tightened, the
flash of something in her eyes. Was it fear? What was it...? It
didn't matter.

"Five thousand," he said,
still staring at her.

She lifted a brow. "Five
thousand?" she mouthed.

Silence fell through the
room, and this time, nobody offered another bid.

Lacey grinned down at him.
"She's all yours, Mr. Stanton. For a night, at least."

Chapter Four

Five days later, Rocki was
breathing easier. No more cards came. No more photos. She'd almost
forgiven Lacey for what she'd done, too. It helped that Lacey
wisely stayed away from the store, giving her time to cool
down.

She was feeling pretty damn
good about life in general, with the exception of the fact that she
had a date with an engaged man hanging over her head. She could
handle that, though. After all, it was just a date. She even had a
plan in mind. They'd go ice skating, if it was her choice. Ice
skating, if somebody wasn't used to it, was exhausting enough that
he'd be a boneless mess by the time they were done, she figured.
Pizza first, maybe. Nice, fun, easy. Not remotely
romantic.

She could handle this. She'd
handled touchy situations before, after all.

She could handle Cole
Stanton.

All she had to do was get
through one date. Of course, it would help if he would call and set
up the date. But that was a problem for later. Right now, Rocki had
customers.

"There is just no way." The
petite, curvy little blonde stood in front of one of the display
tables, holding up a red silk corset and shaking her head. "It's
gorgeous, Miley, but there's no way one of these things would fit
me."

Rocki studied the blonde and
made a rough guess at her waist size. The woman had roughly the
same body type as Rocki, although she was somewhat shorter. Of
course, there had been times when Rocki thought baby giraffes were
shorter than her. On her way over to the table, she selected one of
the corsets that she thought would work.

"Hi. Is there anything I can
help you with?"

Miley, the blonde's friend,
looked at Rocki. "Do you have anything that would fit my
friend?"

"You bet." She smiled at the
blonde. "We need to measure your waist, but I imagine you're 36
inches or so. I definitely have things in stock that size. Perhaps
this...?"

Rocki held out the corset
she had picked up. It was similar to the red one the blonde had
been admiring, but was designed for women with a shorter torso. The
blonde looked at it and then looked away, jerking a shoulder in a
shrug. "It's not so much my waist I'm worried about. If things fit
my waist, they don't fit my boobs. If they fit my boobs, they don't
fit my waist. I've tried these things before and they just don't
fit. The hooks never line up right."

"Why don't we give it a
shot?" Rocki smiled. "Something tells me you were trying something
more along the lines of a bustier, not a true corset. The laces in
the back make it a lot more customizable than you would
think."

She managed to talk the
girl—her name was Lara—into slipping her blazer off and trying the
corset on over her T-shirt. "The first few times you wear one of
these, it takes a bit longer to get it on," Rocki warned. They
stood sideways in front of one of the mirrors so Rocki could show
them both the proper way to lace the corset up. "Always make sure
the laces are loose and hook the front first, just like I showed
you."

Lara squirmed a little as
Rocki started tugging on the laces. "Are these safe?"

"Yes." Rocki grinned at her
in the mirror. "The problem with old-fashioned corsets was that
many styles went against a woman's natural body type. Mine don't.
Another problem was that they would remove ribs to make the waist
even smaller. We're definitely not doing that. Other issues come
from lacing it too tight or wearing them too often."

Lara was gaping at her.
"They would remove ribs?"

"People do strange things in
the name of beauty." Rocki shrugged as she smoothed down the laces.
"Okay, once you've got all the slack out, you tie it in a bow at
the center. See here? You don't tie at the bottom but in the
center. Got it?"

When she'd finished, she
rested her hands on Lara shoulders and turned her toward the
mirror. "What do you think?"

Lara simply stared. "Oh."
With a tentative hand, she touched the rich red fabric of the silk
and stared at her reflection. "Wow. Really, wow."

"Told you." Miley stood next
to Lara, grinning. "Damn, Lara. You could have given Anna Nicole
Smith a run for her money. Look at you."

Rocki smiled. "You do look
amazing."

"I love it." Lara turned
around, staring at the back for a second before turning to look at
her profile from the side. "Granted, I think it would look better
without the T-shirt. Probably works better on its own."

Rocki shrugged. "Well,
T-shirts under corsets aren't typical, but I wear bodysuits under
mine sometimes. Or a camisole, that sort of thing. Especially in
this weather. The corset itself is warmer than some people would
think, but it only covers so much. Those uncovered bits get cold
fast."

Lara bought the corset,
along with a black camisole to wear beneath.

As she was checking out, she
asked, "What did you mean about people doing weird things for
beauty?"

"Well, they do." Rocki
passed the receipt over to Lara and then leaned back against the
counter. With her arms crossed over her chest, she said, "Think
about it. It's not a new thing; people have been doing it since
time began. Mayans and other ancient peoples would bind the skulls
of their babies. Chinese people would bind the feet of their female
children. At one time, makeup had arsenic in it. Then we had women
who would remove ribs to make their waist smaller."

She sighed. "And today is no
better—Botox, plastic surgery, fad diets that are ridiculously
unhealthy." Shaking her head, she shoved off the counter. "You've
got teenaged girls who starve themselves or make themselves puke
because they think that in order to be considered beautiful, they
need to look like the women in magazines. It's not even a teenage
thing, really. How healthy are the women who are constantly on
diets? Then you've got women like me who aren't exactly
unhealthy–I'm not, just ask my doctor. I won't ever be the ideal
vision of beautiful for ‘society'—and I'm fine with that. A lot of
women though, and even men, are so focused on the society-created
image of beauty, they do crazy things to their bodies. They aren't
healthy. They aren't happy. And they do it all in the name of
beauty. Yeah, to me that's weird."

"But you sell corsets and
sexy lingerie for a living." Lara shook her head. "Isn't that sort
of the same thing?"

"I don't see it that way at
all. I sell things to make a woman feel good and feel better about
herself. If you feel better about yourself, if you feel beautiful,
then you are beautiful. Screw what society thinks."

At that, Lara smiled. "I
want that on a bumper sticker." Then she glanced down at the
burgundy bag she carried and smiled. "And, I gotta admit, I felt
pretty damn beautiful wearing this."

"That's because you are."
Rocki lifted a brow. "Beauty doesn't have anything to do with the
size of your clothing."

"Thank you." Lara looked
down, a blush creeping over her cheeks. "You have no idea how badly
I needed to hear that."

"You'd be surprised. We all
need to hear that sometimes."

Just then, the bell over the
door sounded. And in walked Cole Stanton.

Shoot. Reprieve
over.

Customers, Rocki could
handle. Nervous customers, unsure customers, bring them on. Cole
Stanton—that was a different matter entirely.

Bullshit.
You can do this. You can handle him
. She
made herself look at Lara and Miley and smile. "I hope to see both
of you back. Please be sure to call or e-mail if you have any
problems or questions."

With her heart in her
throat, she turned to look at Cole as the two women left. Her heart
did a little slam dance in her chest and she was no longer quite so
sure could handle him. Well, she could...but the way she wanted to
handle him was totally unacceptable, considering his situation—the
engaged one.

Why in the hell did he have
to be engaged?

Cool
, she told herself.
Keep it cool
.

As the door swung shut
behind Lara, Cole smiled at her. "I'm not chasing customers away,
am I?"

"No. They were done." Her
palms were sweating, she realized. This is stupid. She hadn't let a
man get to her like this since...well, not since Brant.

Shit. Oh,
this was bad. Very, very bad
. She needed to
get him out of here.

Like now.

Screw the date. But...damn
it, he had already paid for it.

"I don't think you should be
buying dates when you're engaged,"

Rocki blurted out. Shit. So
not cool.

He lifted a brow at her, a
slow smile curling his lips. "Well, I generally don't buy dates.
But it was for a good cause. I couldn't help myself."

"Couldn't help yourself?"
Huffing out a breath, she crossed her arms over her chest and
leaned against the counter at her back. "You frequently lose
control at charity events, is that what you're saying?" Absently,
she caught a lock of hair, tugging on it as she studied
him.

Damn, he was
pretty.

"Oh, no, that's not what I'm
saying at all. I don't lose control, Mrs. Monroe. It's just not my
style. I saw you standing there, though, and I just had to do it.
What can I say? You tempt me to do very weird things."

Rocki stared at him. "Excuse
me, but I didn't do a damn thing. Look, you have to realize this
isn't exactly right." Way too pretty, she amended as that smile
widened. Gold eyes glinted at her, full of amusement and
humor.

"Because I'm not your type.
I'm the taken type."

"Right."

"And if I wasn't the taken
type? Would that make things better?" He stood in the middle of her
store wearing a thick, cable knit sweater, faded jeans and heavy
boots—excellent gear considering the steady snowfall they had
coming down outside. Golden blond hair tumbled into his eyes, and
she had the urge to move out from behind the safety of the counter
and push it back from his face. His hair looked wicked soft...she'd
just love to...

Taken! He's taken,
remember...

Setting her jaw, she shook
her head.

"If you weren't the taken
type, then you'd be the rebound type. Still not ideal." She gave
him a wry smile. "And besides, you are taken, so let's keep that in
mind. I really don't want to get into a fight with your beautiful
bride-to-be." She smirked and added, "I'd break her in
two."

"I don't know. Mara's meaner
than you."

"Don't bet on it." She
stared at him. "So, let's just not push that button,
okay?"

"Okay. Look, it's a date.
One for a good cause." He flashed that smile at her again and she
felt her knees go weak, her heart skipping. "A date." He ambled
forward and leaned over the counter, elbows braced on it. "Not a
lifelong commitment. But for the record, I should probably tell you
..." His voice trailed off and he looked down, staring through the
glass countertop, although she doubted he was seeing anything
inside the display case. When he looked back up, his eyes were
serious. "I'm no longer the taken type."

Rocki blinked.
"What?"