“I’m telling you,the golden dress was stunning on you,” Wyatt said, coming to a halt and spinning to face Mia, finger pointing at the general direction of Mia’s face. “The color brings out the purple in your eyes.”
“That cut was unseemly,” Mia answered with a revolted expression.
“Unseemly?” Wyatt laughed, pulling Mia after him into the next store and holding the door open for her. “Are you going to tell me how Ivexyou next?”
“Well, you do.”
“And I quite enjoy it.” Wyatt winked before turning to the dresses on display. “Alright, let’s find you aseemlydress, Doctor Bissonnette.”
“Same as last time?” Mia asked, rolling her shoulders and neck.
“Five minutes, three dresses each,” Wyatt affirmed the rules of the challenge. “Starting… now!”
They sprinted in different directions, each trying to locate the perfect dress for Mia. It was a silly competition he often played with Kylie back home, but it was an entirely different matter to engage in such a game with Mia.
It was a game based on honesty, on having full trust that the person in front of you will give their candid opinion even under the threat of losing. So, when Mia didn’t hesitate to play, he had a small but significant affirmation that she trusted him as well.
An excited “Ha!” from an obscure part of the store snapped him out of his over-romanticized thoughts. Mia had found a dress she deemed perfect. She was in it for the win, not for the show of confidence, a cruel reminder to Wyatt that she still viewed their relationship as a fleeting pastime and he was bound to get his heart broken. Still, that didn’t mean he’d let Mia best him.
With a few choice superlatives, Wyatt hurried to look through the available garments, when a soft reflection of the lights shimmered at the corner of his eye. He rushed to the source of it, grinning when he saw the beckoning gown.
Taking two additional random dresses, Wyatt returned to the starting point where Mia was waiting with a grin of her own.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Let’s do this.”
Wyatt followed Mia as far as he could before she disappeared into the fitting rooms with her six dresses. One after the other she promenaded the various choices. The first four were clearly the least successful of the pile, which meant Mia was underwhelming him to enhance the effect of her dress of choice.
Smart. Not that it came as a surprise, but it was a pleasant reminder of one of Mia’s most appealing traits. It also meant she had known which dress washispreferred, a sure sign she was noticing things about him, bothering to learn him and his character.
“Ready?” Mia’s voice once again cut his wishful thinking short.
“Just get out here, no need to over dramatize the whole thing.” Wyatt was smiling, trying to convey an air of banter, but his sensibility was at war with his heart, and the former was building tension in his chest that was splintering the enjoyment of the moment.
“You’re no fun,” Mia said with a huff, swaying out through the velvet curtains in a burgundy red dress that hugged all her slender curves with shimmering strands running through it.
“Oh, wow.” She was breathtaking, heartachingly beautiful.
“The winner?” Mia asked with a triumphant grin.
“You still have one more to try on,” Wyatt answered with a wave of his hand in the general direction of the dressing room.
Mia shrugged, returning to the dressing room with a twinkle of victory in her eyes, but Wyatt knew he still had a fighting chance. When Mia exited with the golden silk gown caressing her body with every step and a stunned expression, Wyatt knew he had won.
He stood from the cushioned stool and walked behind Mia, his fingers trailing down her arms as their eyes met through the mirror.
“You don’t require elaborate or shiny, ma Figue de Barberie,” he whispered in her ear, inhaling her scent. “You need a dress that allows your beauty to shine uninterrupted.” Mia’s breath left her body with a shuddery exhale, her eyes fluttering shut as Wyatt’s fingers feathered up to her neck and down her exposed back, tracing the lattice of fabric adorning her shoulder blades. “You’re so beautiful, Mia.”
“Are you trying to convince me that your dress is thechosen one?” Mia asked with a quirk of her lips.
“You were convinced before you came out here,” Wyatt answered with a smirk. “But I do adore how you never make it easy for me to compliment you.”
“One mustn’t take flattery at face value until one is sure such flattery is made with the purest of intentions.”
Wyatt laughed. “You need to stop reading so much Julia Quinn.”
“Never.” Mia gasped, spinning to glare at Wyatt in horror with her hand on her chest. “For you to even suggest such a scandalous thing…”