doing last night?
Had she really had sex with him?
She winced a little as she wiggled into a pair of cotton panties. She much preferred to wash them before wearing, but beggars couldn’t be choosers at this point. She turned in the mirror and stared. She stepped closer until the pink marks came in clear.
What the hell was that?
She brushed her fingertips over the abraded skin.
Oh, God were those?
She slammed her eyes shut and quickly turned away. It had been a damn long time, but she remembered whisker burn a time or two in her life.
Dammit. She just couldn’t think about that. No how, no way. Once she didn’t look like a freaking hobo, she stuffed his clothes in her shopping bag and left the store.
The ring store was easy to spot.
Big and gold and sparkly.
Had it been that big the last time she’d been in?
She twisted her fingers together, the smaller engagement ring Snake had given her clicked against Michael—no, not Michael’s ring. Her mistake ring. One that she should return.
She lifted her chin and walked through the large, gilded doors.
“May I help you?” The woman was young and botox injected. Why on earth would someone do that to themselves? Or maybe it was just one too many chemical peels?
Turn off the bitch mode.
“Is Nathan available?”
The woman’s eyes cooled as her lips pursed. “Yes.” She pointed to the back.
“Thanks.” Chloe made her way back to the case. Déjà vu slapping her soundly as she got to the case. She wasn’t sure if it was from her day with the girls, or with…no. No, she just wouldn’t have.
“Miss Chloe! I didn’t expect you back so soon.”
“Hi Nathan.”
“I must confess, I was surprised you came back last night. Your young man was very insistent we stay open ten more minutes so we could get your ring.”
She didn’t remember any of that. Not a single—the quick flash of lips at her neck and a large palm at her lower back was there, then gone.
“What time was that?”
Nathan’s eyes turned worried. “Oh, that doesn’t sound good.”
“I don’t quite remember what happened last night.” She wiggled her ring finger. “But I woke up with this and definitely did not start out the night with it.”
“You didn’t seem that out of it last night to be honest. You two were very affectionate, but nothing untoward.”
Untoward. Well, at least there was that.
“You two were quite charming. Even asked us to print out your license. I had no idea you were thinking about getting married when you’d come to see me.”
Please God, she hoped her eyeballs weren’t quite as cartoon alarmed as they seemed to be in her head. “That’s because it wasn’t in the plans.” She swallowed. “In fact, would you happen to have video or something…” She looked around. “You have cameras right?”
“Oh, Miss Chloe. There wasn’t something going on with your young man was there? He was perfectly polite, if perhaps a little…” Nathan shrugged with a little color in his cheeks. He cleared his throat. “He was very much into you is all I’m saying.”
She gripped the edge of the case. So not good.
“Come with me.”
She followed him to a doorway.
“We don’t usually bring people back here. Well, not unless we’re proving some sort of theft.”
Chloe’s cheeks flamed.
He turned back to her. “Not to worry my dear.” He opened his arm to bring her through another door. “Just sit there for a moment. Shouldn’t take me but a minute to cue it up since it was the end of the night.”
She slowly lowered herself to the office chair. There was an entire bank of screens. All of them were flipping back and forth between different sections of the store and cases. No corner had been left unwatched.
“All right. Here we go.”
Her gaze snapped to the screen in the center. Nathan’s smiling face and a redhead leaning against a very tall, very broad shouldered guy with a messy fauxhawk. Michael. There was no denying the man was Michael Shawcross. Their fingers were linked in a careless intimacy that made her stomach churn.
She’d never touched anyone like that. Even with Snake, she’d been a little reserved. Not really interested in public displays. Not that they were slobbering all over each other or anything. If anything they were completely innocent, save for the proprietary hand on her back as they both peered into the case.
He made some comment that made her punch him in the arm, but then he was holding the ring and slipping it onto