“Do you now?” Kia crossed her arms over her breasts and regarded the other woman with mock curiosity. “What is that?”

“By informing you that you have allowed your ex-husband to win, you’ve tucked your fluffy little tail between your legs and disappeared.”

Her fluffy little tail? Kia had an insane urge to reach back and see if she had somehow managed to add additional pounds there without meaning to.

Drew had dealt a blow to her pride that had been hard to overcome.

“So you care if Drew thinks he’s won, why?” Kia tilted her head to the side as Ella continued making coffee in a kitchen that was not her own.

Ella Wyman had balls. Kia’s mother had always made that statement accompanied by affectionate laughter.

“Sweetheart, if the only ones we care about are ourselves, then we’re no better than that trash that tried to destroy you. Now, take that shower. I’m fixing breakfast and coffee, and then we’re going shopping. It’s girls’ day out, so get prepared for it.”

How long had it been since she had had a girls’ day out? Years, in fact. She’d even refused her mothers invitations. But Kia and her mother disagreed on just about every article of clothing that Kia preferred for herself.

“You’re only allowing Rebecca to believe she’s won,” Tessa inserted at this point. “That’s a mistake in this town, Kia, and you know it. You never let them see you bleed. But even more, you never let them see you hide. And refusing to be seen in public with Chase Falladay after you were seen leaving a party with him is an even larger mistake. There were comments made when you weren’t at the dinner club with him and the friends he meets with there.”

Humiliation flared inside Kia.

“Perhaps I wasn’t invited.” She smiled coolly. “You’re under the impression Chase Falladay and I have a relationship, Tessa. It’s a mistaken impression.”

Surprise narrowed Tessa’s eyes as she glanced at her mother.

Ella was outraged, though she was careful to keep that knowledge from the young woman whose eyes flashed with pain and whose expression filled with quiet pride.

Tessa had unintentionally hurt her, but they had watched Chase carefully. He was cool to the women who approached him at that club, where he was rarely cool to any woman. Chase gave all the signs of a man involved. And even James had been smirking the night before the dinner that Chase was falling for the Rutherford girl. And James was rarely wrong.

“Well, we’re all prone to mistaken impressions,” Ella told Kia. “Go. Shower. Breakfast will be in an hour, and we’re leaving soon after. The sales won’t wait for us.”

“Perhaps this isn’t a good day.” Kia stared back at them, all that hurt pride hidden beneath that cool little voice.

“It’s the perfect day,” Ella informed her. “And I won’t be leaving without you. To get rid of us, I guess you’ll just have to go shopping with us.”

Kia felt as though her chest was going to erupt with the ache inside it. Already people were forming impressions, placing her with Chase. It was going to appear as though he had rejected her. As though she wasn’t enough woman to hold his attention any longer than it had taken him to fuck her.

Her fists clenched as she turned and strode from the kitchen. Shopping was the last thing she wanted to do. Especially with two women who were witnesses to the fact that she couldn’t even hold Chase’s attention long enough for dinner with friends.

Damn her own stubborn, stubborn need for a man who obviously had no need for her.

She showered because it was the only way to release the tears building inside her. Because she was furious with herself and with Chase and with the damned society she couldn’t seem to hide from, no matter how hard she tried.

Gossip had never bothered her. But her pride was always her downfall. It always had been. She would get ready, she would go shopping, and when it was over, she would decide for herself exactly how she would show Rebecca Harding how little her opinion mattered. And once she did that, then she would try to cure herself of this strange addiction to Chase Falladay. Before it destroyed her.

“Mom, are we the only ones under the impression that Chase Falladay has a thing for her?” Tessa asked after Kia was safely in the shower.

Ella gave her short sniff. “Not hardly. Cameron told James last week that Chase was so torn over the girl that he was walking backward.”

“He hasn’t even taken her to dinner?” Tessa whispered, shocked. “They aren’t involved?”

Ella shook her head, glancing back at the door as she frowned in concern.

“Courtney says Chase was yelling in Ian’s office over that stupid ex-husband of Kia’s, Drew. Chase never yells over anything.”

Ella glanced toward the bedroom. “It doesn’t matter. Whether she’s Chase’s or not, she’s hid long enough.” Then she smiled. “But I know how to find out if she is Chase’s.”

“Oh, Mom, what are you going to do?” Tessa’s eyes widened, but Ella was proud to see the amused trust in her gaze.

Ella shrugged. “There are ways, Tessa.” She made a shushing motion and pointed toward the sounds in Kia’s bedroom. “Trust me, there are many many ways.”

It had been too many years since Kia had gone shopping with the girls. By the time they were half an hour into the excursion, two others had joined them, Kimberly Raddington and Terrie Wyman. Within another hour, Courtney Sinclair and Jaci Wright, Chase’s brother’s fiancée, were there as well.

The crowd of women was met eagerly by each store manager, and Kia was certain a small fortune was spent in those shops.

Kia found herself drawn back to her own favorites. The lingerie stores that specialized in the wickedly erotic items she had treasured before her marriage. Before Drew had systematically destroyed the confidence she had in herself.

Chase had loved the panties, bras, and stockings she had picked out to wear with her gowns, though. What would he do if he saw her in the lacy corset she found, the panties barely there, the stockings inset with tiny, sparkling decorations?

There were the camisole sets, silk and lace, wicked and erotic. And as she looked at them, she remembered Chase’s expression both times he undressed her. The pleasure in his face when he tore aside the sexy panties.

She picked up more than she should have. With each piece, she thought about whether Chase would see them, if he would enjoy them.

There were sleep sets and underclothes sets. And with each one, she knew she was spending money on pieces of frippery that might never be seen by the man she was buying them for.

She was unaware of the looks the other women gave her, the way they examined each piece she placed in her basket, and how Courtney used her cell phone to catch several pictures of her. Just so they could be sure that certain parties would overhear them discussing the articles when they met at Courtney’s later that evening.

They talked her into a pair of heels that made her look like a sex goddess with her petite figure, and a pair of boots to match a too-short dress that she knew she would never wear.

The black boots hugged her legs and went over the knees. Three-inch heels and a hidden zipper. They went very well with the just-below—the-thigh deep violet dress that she blushed at the thought of wearing.

So why had she bought it? Because she looked at it and saw the woman who hid inside her. And she bought it because that woman desperately needed something as wild as she wanted to be.

The dress was more tease than reveal. But it was a dress a woman knew would draw looks, a dress guaranteed to stimulate interest.

By the time they collapsed in their chairs around the table one of the more exclusive restaurants had held for them, Kia was exhausted. Her feet were throbbing, and the wine she had with her meal had her smothering a yawn.