Chapter Thirty-Five: Diamond in the Rough

The next morning work had been hell by eleven am. She stood covered in  in bright copper hair colour because a rogue bottle of colour had exploded on her. She blew her hair out of her face and cranked the tap on.

“Bad morning?” Jonathan joined her at the big basins out the back as she scrubbed her arms. They quite often likened the scrub basin to a scrub room in a hospital as each stylist or beauty therapist always scrubbed up before they started work and in between clients. She was strict about sanitary measures in her place and they’d never had one single complaint and she was keeping it that way.

She pumped some scrub into her hands and then slathered her arms. “A grenade of copper exploded on me in the middle of stock-take.”

She blew the loose strand out of her face and used a loofah on her arms.

“Take an early lunch. I didn’t see you had any appointments till 1.30pm.”

She sighed. “I need to find something to wear. I have this gala thing with Jon tonight and I promised I’d go and I have no idea what I’m going to wear.”

Jonathan slid his glasses down his nose. “That’s tonight? And you didn’t tell me! You were meant to tell me so I could block some time to glam you up. Kelly!”

“I’ll make do Jonathan you don’t have to go to any trouble.”

“Oh, I don’t think so.”

“What’s up?” Kelly poked her head around the corner, her hair pinned up in a pile of red curls on her head.

“Block my calendar out after Mia Jamieson, she’s at 2.30. I’ll be busy with Devon.”

“Jonathan really I don’t need-”

“Hush. Have you thought about what you’re going to wear? If you say no, I’ll die.”

She chuckled. “I’ll have a dress. I was going to look through my clothes after work.”

“You’ll do no such thing. My lunch is from 12.30-1pm. We’ll take a cab uptown to the best little boutique dress shop. Avery, one of my clients owns it. The dresses are to die for as well as the suits. So we’ll get you a dress.”

She didn’t want to go to all this trouble. It was just a night out for Jon - a normal engagement and he probably attended dozens of them a year. On the other hand, she hadn’t had an excuse like this ever to dress up and she did like to dress up.

“How much will that set me back?” She didn’t splurge on herself normally and was pretty tight with her money preferring that it went back into the business or into her stash.

“It’s my treat. If I make you go to the ball dressed like Cinderella then I’ll foot the bill, it’s the least I can do.”

She frowned. “You don’t have to pay for them.” She knew Avery’s clothes weren’t cheap. Nothing Jonathan liked was ever cheap.

“We’ll be able to get shoes from the store next door if we need to as well. You are a naughty girl Miss Scott for not telling me this earlier!” He sighed and squirted some hand-cream on his hands before spraying some cologne neatly at his neck. “I’ll see you twelve-thirty sharp.”

She dried off her hands and applied a blob of Shea body butter up her arms and on her elbows. Not a fan of massive crowds she had kind of hoped tonight she could just hang on Jon’s arm and blend in easily. They’d be more interested in him, surely. Then her stomach flip-flopped. Then of course they would also be interested in Jon Bon Jovi’s new woman. He’d taken other women on his arms to these things so they might assume she was another one of his one-nighters. That would kind of piss her off though as she knew she wasn't. She couldn’t win.

God. Stop it.

She pinned back the sides of her hair and disappeared into her office to take a moment for herself. She’d need money for her shopping expedition with Jonathan even if he said he’d pay she wouldn’t let him. She smiled. Jonathan always looked after her even if he loved doing it.

She lifted the locked box out of the draw, glanced over her shoulder and twirled the combination. She tucked a few bills into her purse and smoothed the rest of the money in the box down.

“So this is your hidey whole?”

Her heart leapt into her throat and her off her chair. She slammed the lid down.

Fuck.

“Hey baby it’s only me.” Jon’s soothing voice was on her neck as she froze.

Pull yourself together.

“Hey-sorry. I just got a fright-” she stammered but it wasn’t convincing.

He rubbed her shoulders. “A big one by the looks of things. Everything ok?”

She closed her eyes as his fingers rested on her shoulders and he gave them a gentle squeeze. She clicked closed the lock on the box.

“I was just getting some petty cash.” Her fingers were still curled around the edges of the box and her knuckles had turned white.

“Are you sure you’re ok?”

She shut off the paranoia and plastered a grin across her face as she twisted her seat around. “Of course, I just got a hell of a fright.” She lifted the box and slid it into the draw shut. “What are you even doing here?”
Her heart banged in her chest.

He paused and his eyes shifted to the draw and then back to her. “Uh-well. I just thought I’d drop in on my gorgeous girlfriend and let her know that the car will pick her up at six tonight.”

She clasped her hands together to stop herself from trembling. It was an uncanny feeling to have the man you loved and the secret you hid from him so close to each other in the same room.

He eased a smile and rubbed her arm. “Is that ok?”

“Oh, god-yes. Of course! Sorry, I am all out of sync. It’s been one of those mornings. I had colour explode all over me and I’m a mess.”

He snaked his arm around her waist and dragged her in. “Well we’ll have to change that now won’t we, starting now.”

She didn’t have time to even breathe as he lifted her from the chair and crushed his mouth down on hers. The nerves rolled out of her as she melted into his kiss. He had a way about him that made her forget about the world for a while. Their teeth clicked as she tip-toed up into the kiss and her fingers twisted in the soft tuffs of hair at the base of his neck. Every reason to be with him sang true to her through his kiss. He broke apart but left their lips barely touching.

“Better?”

She grinned and nodded. “Better.” He made everything better that was just it.

“I could make things so much better.” He untwisted her apron strings and the tips of his fingers grazed against her skin under her top. But she stepped back.

Hell no. Not in here.

“Not here babe.” That wasn’t even the problem. Taking her on her desk rated right up there in her top ten sexual bucket list but not here, not now. She didn’t mean to snap but he stepped away as he got the message loud and clear.

“I’m having a bad day.” She was a coward and she knew it. She didn’t want to have sex on her desk with him when she had a two-hundred and fifty thousand dollar secret locked in the draw below them. It just wasn’t right.

“It’s ok. I’ve caught you in the middle of it all. I understand this is your business. I get it, I’m good.” The pad of his thumb brushed her jaw and across her bottom. “I’ll see you at six, k?”

She nodded and closed her eyes as he pressed a kiss onto her forehead. “Absolutely.”

When he closed the door behind himself she slumped into the chair and let the lone tear spill down her cheek. This sucked.

~

By the time she was in the chair and Jonathan was working his magic on her hair she was feeling better. Avery’s had been overwhelming but they’d found a dress. She thought it might have been too much but Jonathan soon reminded her of the types of people she was about to rub shoulders with. They weren’t strangers to the glitz and glamour that she found so foreign.

Jonathan had assured her she was going to look fabulous, seven-hundred and eighty dollars of fabulous that was. You had to live once and the more that she tried to slide into Jon’s lifestyle the easier it was to deny the fact she didn’t belong there.

“Now just a colour and touch up, we want your roots to be golden.”

He flicked up the comb as he applied a generous blob of hair colour with his brush. Her feet were soaking in a rose-petal foot-spa at her feet and her hands were drying with a new French manicure Jonathan had completed. The face-mask was bright green and one of their popular seaweed concoctions and her hair was scattered with foils. She looked a picture alright.

“I feel ridiculous; it’s just one charity dinner.”

Jonathan snorted. “Like it or not. What’s on your arm is A+-grade arm candy princess.”

“Well I’m happy for him to be the pretty one.” He can take the attention.

“Oh stop. You’re gorgeous and when I’m done you’re going to blow his socks off and everyone else there whether that is George Clooney or Brad Pitt.”

“You’re just hoping its George Clooney or Brad Pitt aren’t you?”

“Well more like Catherine Zeta-Jones or Oh! Sarah Jessica Parker. Now that I could get on board with.”

“I’m not sure Jon really knows them.”

“He was with Sarah Jessica Parker in Sex in the City for a cameo. I’m sure they’d do a “hi” from across the room.”

“Jesus Jonathan, maybe Jon should be taking you.”

“Maybe next time. You’re not getting out of it that easy.”

The little flip flops in her belly were not easing the closer that this event was drawing. “Maybe I should have some tea.”

Jonathan snapped his fingers. “Kels, can you get some Lemon and Ginger tea for Miss Scott.”

“Sheesh you’re bossy when you want to be.”

“Love you too darling now hush - I need to work we’re running out of time.”

She leaned back and closed her eyes while Jonathan did his magic. True to form he had her rinsed, dried and styled on time. Her skin was polished and he applied the last of the makeup. He swept the shadow along her brow and then touched her lips with gloss. She slid into the dress and he adjusted the straps of her shoes.

“Ok.” He clapped his hands together. “You can now turn around.”

She took a small breath, hell is was all she could in this dress as it was tight but the silky material felt amazing under her palms. She turned and the image of the girl in the mirror was breath-taking. Her hair was twisted neatly up away from her face with a side fringe was swept around one side of her face making the angle of her jaw softer.

The dress itself was a black sleek halter neck that flowed to the floor regally. A thin silver strap twisted high up around the A-line and through the halter. A keyhole of skin was left below between the breasts added an element of sexy but it was classy. Silver strappy shoes with a crystal white toe nails peeked out the bottom.
She looked freaking incredible. The girl from New Zealand that had come here unplanned five years ago had certainly done well to get to here. She had to remind herself of that once and awhile and take steed that she’d worked bloody hard to get here and that it hadn't all been for the wrong reasons.

The mirror image of the amazing Devon was startling though. She really wanted to be that girl, that girl that could do anything she wanted and have anything she wanted and she was on the cusp of that all with Jon.
“Well?” Jonathan crossed his arms and grinned.

She stood side on and noticed the dress held her tiny belly in perfectly. “Not too shabby.” She grinned and her slick pink lips widened. “I look amazing Jonathan, I really can’t believe it. I feel like Cinderella.”

“Indeed you do and here is your Prince Charming.”

She turned and Jon stood in the entrance-way to the salon part of the shop in a black and white neat suit.

“You’re early!”

He didn’t say a word but his eyes drifted down the length of her and then back up to her. “I didn't really want to go tonight in all honesty. But now, this wow- you...I can’t wait to show you off.”

Her cheeks flushed. “It’s not too much?”

“Hell. You’re breath-taking Dev.”

The little endearment on her name made her heart jump. “Well I don’t know about that but some people might say stunning.” She fluttered her eyelashes.

Jonathan had slipped out to the back room as Jon came closer. “It is missing something though.”

She fingered her ears. “Oh I know I was about to-”

He lifted a box from his jacket pocket and placed it in her palm. “Here.”

Her heart beat steadily as she looked down to the small blue box with a white box. “Jon - what have you done?”

He chuckled. “Open it and find out silly.”

She lifted the box open delicately afraid it would break. Her chest grew tight as nestled in the box were two diamond droplet earrings which were elegant and understated. They were real – no cubic zirconia here thank you very much. Her belly bottomed out and honest to god she was speechless. “They’re beautiful but you didn't-”

“Nonsense.” He took the box from her and lifted one of the earrings up to her ear and clipped it in.
She wasn't going to cry. Nope. But it was sweet. Damn him. No one had ever given her diamonds dammit.

“There perfectly...” His thumb-pad swept away her tear gently. “Perfect.”

Her heart was positively melting. “They’re gorgeous, thank you.”

“I’d kiss you but your lips look too pretty.”

“I don’t care.” She cupped the back of his neck and she pressed her lips against his. Her fingers teased the hair at the nape of his neck and then smoothed down the front of his suit. “You look very dapper Mr Bongiovi.” His suit was trim, dark and fit perfectly around his shoulders accentuating at the waist with a crisp white shirt and deep blue tie.

He laughed. “Dapper huh? Very British.”

She shrugged. “What can I say? We steal sayings from everywhere us Kiwi’s.”

Jonathan came back into the area armed with his camera. “A picture before you go kids.”

“Really?” She asked him raising her brow. “It’s not my prom night here you know.”

Jon snaked his arm around her waist. “Relax its fine. Good practice as you’ll be sick of smiling at the end of the night, I guarantee it.”

She smiled for Jonathan and he handed her the clutch purse. “You go. I’ll lock up.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course go, have fun. Live a little. I’m so damn jealous.”

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you Jonathan, I don’t know how to thank you for all this.”

“God just go. Have fun, seriously.” He fingered her earrings and his eyes widened. “Holy cow batman.” He whispered just out of Jon’s earshot.

They both waved at Jonathan and laughed as he took one last picture of them out the door.

*Click*

It would be a moment she’d always remember but now it was time to face the Dragon’s Den.