‘But—’ She stared down at the sexy shoe with the wicked heel. It was the most beautiful, extravagant, indulgent thing she’d ever seen. ‘I don’t wear heels. I can’t.’
‘You don’t have to walk far in them.’
‘It isn’t the walking.’ Her face was almost the same shade of scarlet as the sole of the famous shoes. ‘You may not have noticed, but I’m already taller than the average woman. If I wear heels, I look like a freak. Everyone will stare.’
‘After last night, they’re going to be staring anyway. They’ll stare harder and longer if you’re barefoot. Put them on.’ Without giving her the opportunity to argue, he turned back to the phone, leaving Evie to stare at him in exasperation, wondering what day it was. Had December nineteenth been designated Humiliate Evie Day and someone had forgotten to tell her?
Juggling the throw with the boxes, she struggled into the master bedroom and closed the doors. At least she wouldn’t be naked.
Feeling relieved to finally ditch the throw, Evie slung it back on the bed and slithered into the underwear. It fitted perfectly. Then she pushed her feet into the shoes, almost losing her balance as she teetered precariously on the vertiginous heels. She felt like a circus performer practising on stilts.
Risking a look in the mirror, she gave a moan of horror.
She looked like a circus performer.
She looked like a giant.
She was about to take them off when the door to the bedroom opened.
Rio’s gaze swept her from head to foot.
‘Maledizione—’ His eyes went dark with shock and Evie wanted to fall through the floor as she intercepted his look of stunned astonishment.
Embarrassment got her moving. ‘Get out,’ she shrieked, grabbing the throw again. ‘I’m getting changed.’
‘Does the phrase “shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted” mean anything to you? I’ve already seen you naked.’ Displaying not the slightest consideration for her feelings, he allowed his gaze to travel slowly down every centimetre of her body. ‘I’ve never seen a woman who looks like you.’
For Evie, already sensitive about her looks, his comment delivered the final blow to her crumbling self-esteem.
‘It’s your fault for getting me those stupid shoes when anyone with half a brain could have guessed they’d make me look ridiculous. And that’s before I put on the uniform. I always wear flats, OK? Ballet pumps. Court shoes with no heel. Get out of here! I’m fed up with being a laughing stock, although I suppose I ought to get used to it because it’s nothing to how I’m going to feel tomorrow when that photo is published—’ Pushed to the limit, she flopped onto the bed, buried her face in the pillow and sobbed her heart out.
/> Everyone was going to see her naked and her grandfather was going to be horribly, hideously ashamed of her. She’d wanted to make him proud, but the truth was all he really wanted was to bounce a great-grandchild on his knee and that was never going to happen.
She was a big, fat disappointment.
Lost in the nightmare of the moment, she gasped in shock as strong hands closed over her shoulders and Rio flipped her onto her back.
‘Stop crying!’ He sounded exasperated. ‘You’ll make your eyes red and that could ruin everything.’
‘Ruin what? Just go away. Stop mocking me.’
Astonishment lit his dark eyes. ‘When have I ever mocked you?’
‘You said you’d never seen anyone who l-looked like me,’ Evie hiccupped, ‘and I think it’s horribly mean of you to poke fun of me, even if it is partly my fault we’re in this mess. We’re not all supermodels and wearing supermodel labels doesn’t change that. I can push my feet into designer shoes just like Kate Moss but that doesn’t give me Kate Moss’s legs.’
‘Which is a good thing,’ he drawled, ‘because Kate would find it extremely hard to strut her stuff on the runway if you had her legs. For the record, I wasn’t mocking you. I was complimenting you.’
Evie, who had never been complimented on her looks in her life before, looked at him through eyelashes welded together with tears. ‘Pardon?’
His jaw tensed. ‘I find you attractive. Why the hell do you think I kissed you in the first place?’
‘Because you have an abnormal sex drive and you can’t resist anyone naked?’
‘I have a healthy sex drive.’ His dark gaze was unmistakably sexual. ‘I definitely don’t kiss women who try and pick me up. That’s a first for me.’
‘I wasn’t trying to pick you up—’ Still struggling to accept the unlikely fact that he actually did find her attractive, Evie sat up. ‘You don’t think I’m too tall?’
‘Too tall for what?’ That silky tone turned her insides into a quivering mass.