Free The Agreement (An Indecent Proposal) by J. C. Reed, Jackie Steele

Sorry, I meant sleep tight.

 
    A few breaths later my phone pinged again.

 
    What panties? I think I might have lost
them. No worries. I’ll gladly buy you a whole drawer of them and watch you try
them all on. I’ll even help you pull them down.

 
    My breath hitched as my core clenched with delicious
anticipation.

 
    Won’t happen. Unless we call the whole thing
off or get divorced.

 
    Before he could continue our little game, I turned off my
phone and crept under the covers with a huge smile on my face that I knew
wouldn’t vanish for a long time. Closing my eyes, I begged sleep to come. When
it finally did, Chase’s face haunted my dreams.

 

Chapter
8

 
 
 
    “Wake up,” Jude sang, as she knocked on my door a second
before it was thrown open. “It’s time to go buy a dress.”
    I groaned, but didn’t stir in the hope she would go away. I
knew she wouldn’t, but at least I could pretend to not hear her. The thing with
Jude was, she didn’t take ‘go away’ for an answer; not even silence or a
person’s need for privacy could motivate her to back the fuck off. As if
sensing my thoughts, she jumped on my bed, and began to sing the national
anthem in the most cringeworthy voice one could possibly imagine, knowing all
too well how much I despised noise.
    Come on.
    Couldn’t a girl get some sleep?
    Under usual circumstances, Jude had a pleasant voice. The thing
was that the moment she started singing, she sounded like a cat screeching
through a pipe. Jude had no talent for singing. None whatsoever. But the
knowledge didn’t stop her from trying at every opportunity. In fact, it had
become her weapon whenever she wanted to wake me up.
    “Please, shut up,” I whispered, and pulled the sheets over
my head again. I had managed to get all of two hours of sleep. Two hours of
dreaming of Chase, his gorgeous body, my hands touching him all over, right
before he was shot by an assassin and died in front of my eyes.
    My subconscious was definitely trying to tell me something.
I just didn’t know what exactly.
    Needless to say, I was tired, eager to close my eyes again
and snooze through the rest of the day and get back to more pleasant
dreams—anything that would remove last night’s nightmare from my memory,
or at least get rid of my sleep deprivation.
    “Come on, Laurie. It’s after lunch.” Jude pulled at my
sheets. “Time to buy a dress, so drag your lazy ass out of there. If you’re
really getting married, we better make it look damn convincing, which involves
dressing the part.”
    I groaned and slammed a pillow over my head. “Can you give
me half an hour?”
    “No, make it fifteen.” She yanked at the sheets, and they
landed on the floor in a messy heap. “Coffee’s ready. I’ve already called the
bridal shop and made an appointment. I’ve heard it’s the cheapest in town, and
they have a sale.”
    Trust Jude to always find a bargain.
    Who’d say no to a bargain?
    Not I, and particularly not when I was strapped for cash.
    “Okay.” I groaned and pried one eye open, watching Jude
disappear out the door.
    Eighteen days to go.
    With a deep breath I forced my tired body out of bed.
Changing into a black shirt with jeans, I told myself that there was no need to
stress out. It was just a dress. It didn’t even have to be a pretty or
expensive one. Only one that would do the job.
    As I brushed my hair, my gaze fell on my dresser. One of the
drawers was ajar. I always closed them.
    Frowning, I walked closer and opened it, inspecting the
personal things I kept inside. Among them was a brown wooden gift box in which
I kept a necklace that once belonged to my mother. I lifted the box and opened
it, my fingers itching to touch the last thing my mother wore—a reminder
of her presence.
    My breath hitched.
    The box was empty. I rummaged through the drawer, then
tossed everything onto the floor until it was empty. There was no trace of the
necklace.
    “Jude!” I shouted. Her steps