Read Just One Night. Part 1 for Free Online

out and touch this man. I’m afraid if I do, one of two things will happen: either he’ll disappear in a puff of hallucinated smoke or he’ll be real and I won’t stop touching him until we’re both naked in that damn display window. I’m so ready to get freaky right now. It’s not my fault, though. It’s the accent. I can’t be held responsible.
    “Okay, fine. As long as it’s no strings.”
    He nods his head and then backs away as Claudia comes up behind me.
    “Come along,” says Claudia in a tone that brooks no argument. “I believe I have some things selected that you might find appropriate.”
    I follow behind the old woman in a state of half-consciousness. This is a dream. It has to be. This doesn’t happen to normal people. Wasn’t this guy just calling me Medusa? He hadn’t even seen a picture of me first and he already planned this? He’s either completely crazy or the most generous, fun, exciting person I’ve ever met. Please, God, let it be door number two.
    She’s speaking again, dragging me out of my thoughts. “Because this is a breast cancer research benefit, I thought we should go along with the theme and add some pink, but I didn’t want to overdo it because then you’ll just fade into the crowd and we can’t have that for Stratford Investments, now can we?”
    William is too far away to hear us talking. I’m suddenly bitten with the desire to interrogate this woman who obviously knows my date way better than I do. I chew my lip as I consider the dress she’s holding up. I’m not really looking at it so much as I’m trying to decide whether giving her the third degree is ethical when the agreement I have with William is to walk away at the end of the night.
    “What do you think, dear? Yay or nay?”
    I reach out and touch the dress. It’s so soft. My hand runs down the side of it and stops when it hits a tag. I turn it around so I can read the number written on it in looping script and almost have a heart attack. “Oh my god! This dress costs two thousand dollars! ” I can feel the blood draining from my head.
    “Don’t pay attention to the tags. The Stratfords get a special client discount, and in any case …” she leans in and whispers in my ear, “…they can afford it.” She shakes the dress to grab my attention. “This one, or shall we try another?”
    I can’t speak.
    “Okay, how about this one?” She holds up another, but I’m too terrified to look at the price tag. This all seemed like innocent fun when I put up the ad and even when I was talking to him by phone. Now I’m wondering what exactly I’m going to have to do to work off a two thousand dollar dress. He’ll definitely expect anal. I hope he’s not planning on making a snuff film. I’ll be really pissed if I have to knee this guy in the balls later and run out of a hotel room naked and screaming.
    “Okay, not that one. How about … this one?” Claudia’s beaming from ear to ear as if she’s just uncovered a secret treasure.
    And to be fair, she has. I have never seen anything so beautiful in all my life. My fingers go up on their own and touch the diamond-like sparkles that cover the top of the strapless gown. The bodice goes from silver at the top to deep pink at the waist, and the broad skirt is in black tulle with tiny sparkles sprinkled here and there randomly.
    “These are all genuine Swarovski crystals in both the bodice and the skirt. I’ve left off any under the inner-arm area so you don’t need to worry about your skin being irritated.”
    I can’t keep my hands off it. “Are you sure it’s not too … princessy?” The black skirt poofs out much more than any dress I’ve worn, at least since prom, anyway.
    “For a charity ball? No. Believe me, you’ll fit right in. This is the main event of the year where people get to play at being one of the royal family. In fact, perhaps this isn’t quite enough.” She reaches over to pull the rack closer, her plan to hang the black