Free Can't Buy Me Love by Amy Lillard Page A

need for you to do this, Paige. Please.”
    “ What do I have to do?”
    “ We’ll accept just a few engagements. The season always slows down during the summer months. Then, of course, in a few weeks we’ll have to have a birthday party for you.”
    “ Birthday? How did you—oh, never mind.”
    “ What’s it going to be, Paige?”
    She paused a moment not wanting to answer, not knowing how to answer. “All right,” she said against her better judgment. “I’ll do it.”
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Six
     
    On display. That’s how Paige felt two weeks later as she and Blake stepped into the ballroom at the Ritz-Carlton. Despite the floor to ceiling windows that offered a fantastic view of the city, all heads turned in their direction. Briefly Paige wondered if perhaps the fund raiser had really been held in support of the Chicago Opera, or merely so that everybody who was anybody could see her in the flesh.
    The group gathered in the ballroom was no less intimidating than the twelve-course, two- hundred-dollar-a-plate meal Blake had declined. The tuxedo-attired men were the epitome of debonair as they danced their ladies around the floor. And the ladies...they were like a fairy tale dream in their formal dresses, perfectly made up faces, and manicured nails.
    Paige had never felt as plain as she did in that moment. She had never been one to wear makeup or curl her hair or paint her fingernails. Frivolities like that had no place in the jungle. That fell into Lydia’s department. What was she, Paige Parker, doing here, an ugly duckling among these swans?
    She should have told Blake no, refused his heartfelt request to attend this ball. What did she care if people pitied her? In just under a year she was going back to Africa. Back where she belonged.
    But she hadn’t said no. So there she stood in a half-homemade dress wondering how in the world she had gotten in the door. Not that the dress wasn’t fabulous; it was, even if she said so herself.
    Once Blake had secured her acceptance, he’d handed her a credit card and told her he’d someone by with “some dresses for her to look at.”
    She might not know everything there was to know about fashion—being raised in the jungle could do that to a girl—but she had a sister who did.  Paige had taken one look at the dresses, channeled her inner-Lydia, then grabbed a pair of scissors and went to work.
    There were some benefits of being raised the plain sister. She had learned how to sew. She could make clothes out of scraps if necessary. And tonight she needed the confidence the garment could afford her.
    The dress was basic black—not exactly one of her best colors since its severity paled her ivory skin even whiter—and had a simple, form-fitting bodice. The skirt fell to the floor in full pleats that started a good six inches below her hips. Standing still the dress appeared merely black, but when she moved, the pleats opened and revealed the inlaid cuts of pearly-white satin strewn with iridescent sequins. When she moved, she shimmered.
    “ Smile,” Blake asided as they entered the room. A wide, false smile stretched across his lips. “Everybody’s looking.”
    “ I know,” she shot back. “This is a bad idea, Blake.”
    “ I know,” he said still smiling. He nodded to a few of the people standing at the fringes of the crowd, then took her arm and escorted her deeper into the ballroom. The crowd parted like the Red Sea for Moses.
    Paige inhaled sharply when he swept her into his arms and out on the dance floor amidst the other dancers.
    “Relax,” he whispered. “Loosen up and enjoy yourself. It’s only a dance. You probably weren’t even this nervous at your prom.”
    She smiled at his cajoling, but even her lips were nervous and wobbly. “I didn’t have a prom, remember? And I’m sure the Opera High Brows will be happy to know you’re comparing a high school dance with their ball.”
    “ They’ll never know unless you tell