A Tiara Under The Tree

As if to show her, Dominic rose to his feet and brought his face down, close to hers. His lips lingered over her mouth, his breath teasing her with anticipation. Waverly rose on tiptoe, inciting the kiss, fanning the flames of desire boiling between them. Dominic caressed the side of her face with his free hand. His fingers found their way into her hair and tousled the loose strands. His lips covered hers.

His tongue gracefully entered her mouth, introduced itself to Waverly’s and slipped away. Her hand had twitched with withdrawal a few minutes ago, and Waverly’s lips quivered when Dominic pulled away for a moment. Not done with their kiss, Dominic turned his head to the other side and cupped both her cheeks. For the first time in weeks, Waverly forgot about everything else in the world. A rumble rolled through her belly. How fast would it make her if she invited Dominic to her bedroom?

“I have my answer,” Dominic whispered. He kissed her lips one last time before he pulled away and stood to his full height. “How about you?”

Waverly pressed her forehead against his chest. The beat of his heart sounded against hers. “What was the question?”

Chuckling, Dominic dropped his hands and stepped backward to hold out her seat for her. “We should stop.”

“We should,” Waverly agreed with a slight shake of her head.

They went back to eating, forgetting how their pizza chilled while the tension between them heated with each bite. Waverly tossed her crust onto the plate. “My God, that was good.”

“The pizza or the kiss?”

“The pizza is fantastic,” Waverly answered with a sly grin. “So tell me, Dominic Crowne, what do you do at this garage of yours?”

After hearing her question out loud, Waverly hated to admit how foolish she sounded. She’d almost taken this man to her bedroom without knowing the first thing about him.

“Well, besides the typical oil changes and routine work on cars,” Dominic said, “I restore old cars and customize them for clients.”

“What’s the last big project you worked on?”

Dominic took a long drink of his beer before answering. “This morning I flew in from Dubai after a two-week trek of bringing my friend Aamir his customized Ferrari.”

“What did you do to it?”

“I put in some speakers and tires and fixed the motor so he can maximize the power when he races.”

Waverly frowned. “And how old is he?”

“Thirty, like me, almost thirty-one.”

“Ah,” Waverly drawled, “so he’s old.”

Dominic nodded. “Oh, you got jokes?”

“I’m known to say something funny a time or two,” Waverly told him with a laugh. “So did it take two weeks to deliver a car?”

“Wait until you meet Aamir at our wedding,” Dominic said. “You’ll understand.”

Waverly’s heart surged again. She knew he was teasing about the marriage, but hearing someone making plans for something other than beauty pageants felt good...human, almost. Speaking of being human, Waverly reached for a third slice of pizza. “How did you end up with friends overseas?”

“College,” he answered. “Stanford, to be exact.”

“Oh, that’s too interesting.” Waverly bit her bottom lip for a half second. Here she was, barely a full semester under her belt with a tarnished tiara, while he was highly educated and worldly. “I hear those Ivy League schools are stuck-up.”

“Stanford is not Ivy League,” Dominic countered. He held out his muscular arm. “Would a guy tatted like me get into an Ivy League school?”

“How would I know?” Waverly shrugged. “Maybe as a graduation treat, you’d got yourself a few tattoos.”

“I promise you, I had tattoos before I started college.”

Waverly didn’t know why this was an issue. Dominic stood up, reaching for his phone in his back pocket. “Don’t try to show me some Photoshopped version of yourself.”

“What do you know about Photoshopping?” he asked.

A little too much these days, Waverly thought to herself.

“I say we make a wager of this,” Dominic began. “If I can prove you wrong, you have to do something with me.”

Considering what they almost did, sure. Waverly grinned. “Deal.”

“Don’t go back on a promise, now.”

Waverly rolled her eyes and held out her hand. “Man, if you don’t show me this picture...”

Playfully Dominic held the phone in the air and out of her reach. Now would be the great time for her to come up with her part in the wager when Dominic failed to provide the photograph. Wasn’t he the prize, though? Waverly licked her lips in anticipation.

“Bam,” Dominic said after his thumb stopped scrolling across the screen. He shoved the phone close to her face.

Waverly took a step backward to adjust what she saw. There, surrounded by a set of twin preteen boys flexing their nonexistent muscles and a young girl, draped in an oversize green graduation gown, was a young Dominic. His hair was cut in a high top fade, too high for his graduation cap, which he held in one hand. He wore a pair of jeans with holes at the knees and a muscle shirt. Dark tattoos covered his biceps. Considering how buff he was now compared to then, Waverly had to concede.

“This is your high school graduation. How old do you have to be to get a tattoo?”

“Sixteen with your parents’ approval. My mom came with me,” Dominic said. “Ever been around someone with tattoos?”

Waverly sighed. “My first serious boyfriend had them. But since he was older, I assumed.”

“Okay,” Dominic said, blowing out a sigh in the universal manner of changing the subject. “I’ve proven you wrong and now it’s time to pay up.”

Excitement flashed within her. A date? The movies? “Sure,” Waverly replied in an even-keeled tone.

Dominic extracted something from the back pocket of his jeans. A folded envelope.

“While I was gone, I got this thing. My sister thinks I need it to fit in with the community better.”

“What thing?”

“The Miss Southwood Pageant. Have you heard of it?”

Dread loomed over her. Waverly nodded. “I have.”

“Plan on entering?”

The combs of her tiara dug into her scalp as she shook her head. “No. I haven’t been in Southwood long enough to have a sponsor.”

“Well, that’s what I’m saying. I need a beauty queen, and you look like you’d be good at it. You even come with your own crown and everything.”

* * *

Tuesday morning Dominic woke with a slight hangover, but given what he accomplished last night, he didn’t care. He secured himself a beauty queen and managed to pass himself off as a gentleman by not ripping off Waverly’s clothes and carrying her to the bedroom. She was so damn irresistible when she tried to back out of the pageant. He saved himself from eating Alisha’s idea of a pizza and still got back to his sister’s condo in time to feed Hamilton his carrots seconds before Alisha stumbled through the front door at one in the morning. He was in such a good mood, he didn’t care if Alisha banged on the guest bedroom door where he slept every time he came over there. The chain dangling from the ceiling fan rattled with each pound of her fist.

“I know you’re up.” Alisha rattled the door. “You’re not snoring.”

Damn, with everything he completed before going to bed, Dominic forgot to lock the room. “I don’t...” Before he got the words out, Alisha poked her head inside. “Alisha, I could have been naked.”

“You better not be naked in my house.” Alisha stepped forward and cringed. “Gross.”

“What do you want?” Dominic pulled himself up onto his elbows. Hamilton oinked at Alisha’s feet. Today he wore a rainbow tutu.

“Is there anything you want to tell me?” she asked.

“No.” Did she figure out he didn’t eat her pizza or was barely over here last night?

“Are you sure?”

“Just tell me what’s going on, Alisha,” Dominic growled. Hamilton, protective of his mother, oinked at him. Would it be wrong of him to eat a slice of bacon in front of the pig?

Alisha crossed her arms and kicked the edge of the bed. “You have a visitor.”

“Waverly?”

“Who?” Alisha’s upper lip curled. “Jesus, you’re back one day and you’ve got women coming out of the woodwork for you. This one is married, though.”

“Lexi,” Dominic said with a nod.

“Why is the pageant producer in my living room with a butt load of dresses? Have you decided you’re going to change up your wardrobe?” Alisha rambled on while Dominic grabbed his jeans he’d hung over the chair last night and went into the bathroom to change. She was still rattling on about dresses, so like any good big brother, Dominic patted her on the head and headed out of the bedroom and down the hall to greet Lexi Pendergrass Reyes.

Racks of ball gowns filled the living room, covering the messy pigsty Alisha lived in. The front door opened and closed while two men dressed in white smocks rolled in more racks of clothing. Hamilton’s feet scrambled down the hall and out the door. Alisha quickly followed but not before shooting an angry glare at her brother. Somewhere in the mix, Lexi’s blond head bobbed around. He heard her voice and another woman’s as well, but couldn’t see who the second person was.

“Good morning?” Dominic said to announce his presence. Lights spilled in from the opened curtains. The doors to the balcony were closed but the clear skies were welcome.

“Dominic,” Lexi exclaimed.

Dominic made his way through a row of dresses in every shade of yellow. “What’s all this?”

“These—” Lexi waved her arm over the racks “—are all dresses in Waverly’s size that are not mine.”

Everyone in town, male or female, understood the place to buy a dress was at Grits and Glam Gowns. For Alisha, the boutique was one of the bonuses of agreeing to move to Southwood. Lexi made one-of-a-kind dresses for proms, weddings and, most famously, pageants.

“Why wouldn’t she get any of your dresses?”

“Conflict of interest,” Lexi’s assistant answered.

“Sorry, let me make the introductions,” said Lexi. “Dominic, this is Kenzie Swayne. She’s my right-hand woman for the pageant.”

Kenzie, all of five-three, stepped forward and extended her hand for a firm shake. “Pleased to meet you, Mr. Crowne. I’ve been meaning to stop by your garage. You realize it was once the city jail?”

“I did not,” said Dominic. He flexed his hand to revive the circulation. “You’ll have to tell me about it.”

“Just not today,” said Lexi. “I have a limited amount of time.”

Dominic glanced down at Lexi’s protruding pregnant belly. “How far along are you?”

“Seven months,” Lexi said with a shake of her blond head. “But that’s not why there’s no time. I’ve got to turn the reins over to Kenzie.”

“Because of Waverly?”

“Exactly,” Lexi and Kenzie chorused.

Scratching the back of his head, Dominic sighed. “I don’t understand. I didn’t mean for you to leave your duties as the pageant director, Lexi. I don’t understand what the big deal is.” He stood uncomfortably as Kenzie gave him a blank stare. After a half second or more, she blinked in disbelief. “What’d I say?” he asked.

Lexi pushed Kenzie playfully on the shoulder. “Kenzie is just in shock to find someone who clearly doesn’t know about Waverly Leverve.”

Leverve—that’s right. She did tell him her last name. Hell, it didn’t matter. Like he told Waverly last night, her last name would change soon enough. Dominic squared his shoulders, not sure how to take Kenzie’s question. “I know her now.”

“Then you know she was stripped of her crown a few weeks ago?” Kenzie asked.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Lexi countered. “It wouldn’t be ethical for me to stay on board if Waverly is going to enter my contest. Rumors would spread that I fixed it due to our closeness. I used to coach her, you see.”

“Like Little League?”

Kenzie scoffed. Her mouth dropped open. “You’ve seriously never heard of Waverly? The dethroning, the memes?”

“Oh my God, the memes,” Lexi reiterated with a shake of her head. “They’re getting worse,” she said to Kenzie, who nodded.

Maybe that’s what Waverly tried to show him last night. Dominic held his hand up. “Look, I’ve worked on cars my whole life. I can take one look at a piece of metal that’s been through the wringer and recreate it as a beautiful piece of art. I don’t need to see where Waverly came from. I know what I see now. I don’t need any memes.”

“Are you comparing Waverly to a hunk of junk?” Kenzie asked.

“Not at all.” Dominic chuckled. She was beyond just beautiful. She was captivating and breathtaking. “Whatever happened in her past, I will restore justice.”

Lexi offered Dominic a sweet smile, almost motherly. “And for that, I can’t be any more grateful, which is why I need to step down, to make sure no one can question Waverly’s victorious return to the crown.”

While the three of them agreed their main focus was on Waverly, Alisha stood in her doorway, Hamilton in her arms. “Wait, am I to understand you’re doing this for someone other than Tiffani?”

“This is for Waverly,” Dominic said.

“Who the hell is Waverly?” Alisha asked. Anger filled her cheeks with a red tint. He knew he was in for a cursing out. Dominic glanced up at the dark oak ceiling to avoid her wrath.

“I am.”

Alisha turned. Lexi and Kenzie squealed. Without thinking, Dominic’s hand clutched his heart when he saw her standing behind Alisha. She wore her hair in a ball at the top of her head, no makeup and a tan turtleneck paired with what looked like a pair of denim overalls. Waverly glared at him with her dark eyes. If looks could kill...

“I’ve seen you around,” Alisha said. “I didn’t realize you and my brother were friends.”

Waverly blinked and glanced at everyone in the living room. “Apparently your brother has a lot of friends these days. Lexi? Kenzie? What’s going on in here?”

“Surprise!” Lexi cheered, followed by Kenzie pumping her fist in the air.

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