Tempt Me - By Shiloh Walker Page 0,14
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