Free Werewolf Romance: Wolfess’s Desire (Paranormal Invasion Abduction Contemporary Werewolf Shifter Romance) (Fantasy First Bad Boy Billionaire Comedy Mystery Seduced by Alpha Shapeshifter Short Stories) by Ethel Venters

stop and come home to have some time together to unwind before Andy headed off for his scuba diving adventures.
     
     

*****
    It took days for me to recoup from all of that traveling and to truly feel at home again. I was home for days further, but happily so, on my ‘womanly vacation’. After a week of playing homebody and lounging around I was ready to get out and enjoy the new spring air. What a better way to feel at home than to shop for something perfect to wear on my birthday? A spring birthday always suited me and this year I was determined to truly go in for a really good time as it would be the last weekend Cash and Andy and I would all be together before Andy went away.
    There were enough hot and steamy hotel nights on our trips and so for this birthday I had the idea to go in for more of a girly theme, and treat myself to feeling special and womanly. The guys had surprised me with tickets to a symphony, four of them, so my mom could come too which I thought was just perfect. We were planning on throwing a little party back at the Penthouse after. Dinner would be first, of course, and I requested we go to our old standby, Restaurant Daniel.
    Knowing where we’d be going and how it was somewhat of a last hooray, I just had to find the perfect dress. I already knew that for my birthday, I wanted something light and pretty. I didn’t want black, too sexy and formal. I didn’t want red, too sexy and well, sexy. I didn’t want a solid color at all really, not even gold or silver and that left a whirlwind of other choices from prints to patterns. It was a lot harder to shop for a dress with an occasion in mind, in my opinion, than it was to let a gorgeous number strike you with the anticipation that would drive you to a destination.
    There were floral prints of all sorts all over town but I didn’t want too old or too young, I wanted princess for the night, lady of the evening, presenting the birthday girl, Miss Holly. I wanted to feel like a delicate cake topper, or like the flowers myself, not be decorated in them.
    I bypassed pleats and stripes and dots and tie dyes and boho and fruit and tropical and embellished and flirty all over town for a week in search of something I began to feel I might not find. My mother, my friends, my boyfriends… they would all love me no matter what I was in. I didn’t have to look perfect or so I began to tell myself, but after stops for recharge-lattes or lunches, I trudged on.
    I ended up back at Saks, an all time favorite of mine, though it was where I started. I perused again, this time trying to pay attention to anything I might have missed zooming through. Carelle was working at the store that day and she smiled me over for a chat.
    It helps to be friendly and spend loads of money because you get to know the right people, and though I couldn’t begin to describe my own style, Carelle had somehow managed to grasp it and I trusted her. But what happened there that afternoon was sheer magic. We smiled and laughed and had a few jokes but then I told her with a pout face that I was back around because I still hadn’t found a dress to wear on my birthday. She knew Andy was going away, and since Carelle and I had grown quite close, she would also be attending my little birthday shindig as well.
    She pursed her lips to one side and her eyes rolled up and to another as she gave it a quick thought. Just then out of nowhere a beam of light struck across her face as her mouth opened completely wide, her eyes just as so, with a big smile.
    “Oh, my god,” she said, looking straight into my eyes, “we just had a new Chloe gown arrive!” She was talking in the most excited whisper. “It’s not supposed to debut til Saturday, I think we’re going to do it at nine thousand.” She kept her surprised look but changed to more serious and looked around. “I wonder if I could show it to you.”
    Carelle had been with Saks for years but she was no top-dog, and there was definitely a