Tragic

"Exactly," he comes back with. We enter a small hallway near the stairs and walk to the end of it and turn a corner to find a double door. It has a keypad and Ronin punches in his code, which I notice is the same one that opens the outside doors. The same one he gave me the first day I met him.

"That code of yours works a lot of stuff around here. You should maybe not hand it out to just anyone."

"I didn't." He grins and pushes against the frosted glass until the doors begin to open automatically. He waves me into the room and then flicks on the lights.

I gasp.

"Welcome to the Chaput Studios wardrobe and dressing room. You may choose anything you want from this side of the closet." He points to the largest area where racks are overflowing with clothes. There must be thousands of outfits here. "Those over there," his gaze goes to the smaller section, "are for the next week's shoot. And these right here," he says, pointing to a large chest of thin drawers, "are undergarments. These are all new, so take what you want."

"Am I allowed?" I ask, stunned.

"Allowed what?"

"To take this stuff."

"I just said you could."

"But won't Antoine or Elise get mad that I'm pilfering your stuff?"

"I run the girls, Rook. That means I run the closet too. This is like my little kingdom."

I laugh again. Shit, this guy has me laughing like an idiot this morning. "You're the King of the Closet?"

He bows. "The one and only."

"And you have spare panties for me?"

"Just shut up and pick some clothes, you goof."

"I don't know where to start, honestly. I've not had a lot of opportunities to shop."

He looks over at me as I take seat on a long bench in the middle of the room. His expression is a little sad. "I'm not going to ask, because I know you've got things you're not about to reveal to me, not after three days anyway. But I'd just like you to know, that is not right. Whatever you've been through, whatever it was that made you so… sad. I'd just like to say you deserve better."

I swallow down some old hurt and mumble out a, "Thank you."

Chapter Fifteen - RONIN

"You're welcome, but you're definitely getting clothes today. This closet is bursting with shit so I'll tell you what, you look through the bras and panties and I'll bring you clothes. I have excellent taste anyway."

I go off to find her something comfortable. I pass by the sexy stuff, then grab a pretty nightie just in case, and continue on and find the casual wear.

Rook's clothes aren't that bad. I mean, she looks hot as hell to me. I don't look at that shit at all. Now her body, that's something else. I look at her body. But I work with girls every day. Beautiful girls. The most beautiful girls in the world, actually. And I know that when they wear pretty things, they feel pretty.

So I get Rook just about every pretty thing I can find, whether she needs it or not. I flip through the rack of jeans for some soft ones and grab several pairs. She must like jeans because that's the only thing I've seen her in, and besides, I like her in jeans and I'm the one choosing. If she doesn't like what I get, she can come shop for herself.

I grab some t-shirts like she's been wearing, but also some other stuff. Frilly things, tailored things, a few skirts, some shorts, tank tops, I grab all of it.

I catch myself grinning as I round the corner and come out of the circular closet behind her. "Here you go."

She spins around from the drawer of underwear, startled, like I scared the ever-loving shit out of her. And it hits me. Something very bad happened to this girl, and it wasn't that long ago from the way she acts.

Slow down, Ronin.

"Here, try these on."

She takes the handful of clothes out of my arms and I back away. "I'll be out in the studio if you need anything, OK?"

To my surprise she comments to me on everything I brought, yelling out as she tries them on one at a time.

"How'd you know what size jeans I wear?"

We only have three sizes, and if she wasn't one of those sizes, she wouldn't have gotten past the door. She's not all bones like some girls, so the small size is out, and she's bigger up top than any of the models I've seen come through here, so I figure the larger of the three sizes is safe.

I say none of this out loud, I ignore that question altogether. That's a trap if ever there was one.

"Nice try with the nightie!"

Now this topic is safe. "I picked it because it's blue and I thought to myself, Ronin, that girl out there has the prettiest blue eyes, wouldn't she look spectacular in this little slip of see-through fabric that is a shade or two lighter."

She walks out of the dressing room as the last few words are coming out of my mouth.

Wearing the nightie.

I'm speechless and I'm pretty f**king sure my mouth is hanging open.

"I thought since you went to the trouble and put all that thought into it, you at least deserved to see it on."

"You are very bad, Rook. Very, very bad."

She laughs all the way up to her eyes and my heart is filled with… something. Something weird. Heat flushes through my body and I almost lose my train of thought when she begins to turn away.

"Hey!" I call. "Come back here a minute, you distracted me and I missed some parts."

To my surprise she turns back around and stands there, her hip jutting out, one hand practically caressing the wall and an unreadable expression on her face.