Total pages in book: 106
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 491(@200wpm)___ 393(@250wpm)___ 327(@300wpm)
“Oh, are you kidding? It’s Harvard. They were pissed I dropped out, and even more pissed that I made something of myself after dropping out. It was proof that no one needs that expensive piece of paper from them to accomplish what they want.” He shook his head. “College is archaic in more ways than it’s relevant, unless you’re in medicine, I suppose.”
“I don’t know,” I mused. “I enjoyed my time there.”
“But did you learn anything of value?”
I cocked my head. “I think so. I learned more about the craft, the rules, the theory of photography.”
“And let me ask you this,” Theo said, stepping into me. My breath caught in my chest at his proximity, at the way the little boutique suddenly shrank to the size of a shoebox. “Your best photographs… the ones that you’re most proud of… do any of those follow the rules?”
I swallowed, looking up at him through my lashes. I couldn’t quite decipher why, but I liked when he looked down on me like that, when he towered over me, when his power and presence was all-consuming. “Some of them, yes.”
Theo narrowed his eyes like he didn’t believe me, but then he tilted his head with a knowing smirk. “Rules are made to be broken — haven’t you heard that old saying, Miss Dawn?”
Heat rushed over me, from where my hair fell over my shoulders all the way down to the leather straps of my sandals on my feet.
“You should try that on.”
I blinked at the subject change, taking a deep inhale when Theo stepped back, giving me space to breathe again. He nodded at the clementine maxi dress I hadn’t realized I’d still been touching.
“Oh…” I turned away from him, looking the dress up and down. The price tag was tucked away, nowhere to be found, which told me without even hunting for it that it was way too expensive for my measly travel budget. “No, that’s okay.”
But Theo reached his arm over my head, grabbing the dress from the rack. I turned back to him just in time to see him merely look at the young woman behind the counter. She jumped like he’d snapped his fingers, coming over immediately with a brilliant, toothy smile.
“Try this one, yes?” she asked, her English lilted with an Italian accent.
“Sí, e quello,” he said, pointing to an olive green one-piece swimsuit.
The woman grabbed the maxi dress from his hands, retrieving the swimsuit next before she followed him around the store. He walked slowly, appraising each item, his hand absentmindedly rubbing the scruff on his chin. Every now and then, he’d point, and the woman would scoop up the item he’d selected, draping it over her arms.
“Theo…”
“Anche questo,” he said, pointing to a pair of yellow sapphire stud earrings in a glass case on the back wall. “Grazie.”
The woman nodded, and then she deposited the clothes into one of the dressing rooms, holding back the curtain with a smile aimed at me. “Earrings last,” she said simply.
I blinked at her first, and then at Theo before I looked back to the woman again.
“Please,” she said, gesturing inside the dressing room. “For you.”
I gave Theo a cautioning look, shaking my head. “I can’t… I don’t…”
“I want to see every single one of them,” he said. Then, with an air of confidence I’d only seen this man possess, he took a seat on the plush couch in the middle of the boutique, smiling at me as he crossed one ankle over the other and kicked back like he owned the place.
I let out an incredulous laugh. “Just who do you think you are?”
He shrugged, making an arrogant expression that suggested I already knew the answer to my own question.
And I had no choice. I shook my head on another laugh of disbelief, and then I let the salesclerk — Evelina — guide me into the dressing room. She smiled, pointing out each of the outfits she’d arranged, and then she closed the curtain behind her, leaving me alone.
I didn’t have to look at a price tag. I knew without hesitation that I was in a tiny dressing room with at least a couple thousand dollars’ worth of clothing. But curiosity got the best of me, and I took down the maxi dress first, fishing the price tag out of where it had been tucked into the back.
One-thousand five-hundred and ninety euros.
I blanched, nearly dropping the hanger from my hands. “Theo,” I said, pushing the curtain open to show him the price tag. “I can’t—”
But he just pointed at the dressing room with a grin, his brow arched in a way that told me I wasn’t getting out of this — no matter how I tried.
“Ugh, you’re incorrigible,” I groaned, snapping the curtain shut.
“You have no idea,” he mumbled in response.