Forced (1st book in The Forced Series)

Twenty Seven

Twenty Seven

Hazel George-Steel stared at the few items in her closet that weren't shorts, jeans and tee shirts. They consisted of one elegant enough black dress that she wore once to a gallery auction where five of her paintings were on sale. She considered the dress her lucky five dress seeing as she both it for five dollars less than what the store wanted, on the fifth of May and wore it on the fifteenth. She doubted that any luck in it would be more than five goes and she had already used up one. She decided to save the next four for special occasions.

The other item was a pencil skirt that she considered her interview clothes. That, also, was out the window. After all, Van had put her on a perpetual lock down.

The other was a simple white sundress she had bought just before leaving Chicago. Seeing as life hadn't presented any reason to feel pretty, she had never worn it. That sun dress had become a memorandum that life wasn't always sunny.

Biting her lips hesitantly, she put back everything else and laid out the dress on the bed. She picked out a pair of heeled sandals to go with it, smiling.

Van had texted her a couple of minutes ago that he would pick her up in an hour to have dinner and then watch the movie. She felt giddy like a school girl...

Except she was a married school girl who happened to be pregnant, married to a stranger and... not a school girl at all.

Giggling at her absurd thoughts, she put her hair and took a extra long shower. She didn't understand why she was troubling herself with the effort, but it felt right. The thought did occur to her that she was dressing up for Van, however she put it down to being in a good mood and being happy to be going out... with Van goth Steel.

After putting on the dress, Hazel applied mascara, lip stick, rubbed it off, then applied lip balm instead and a tiny bit of a perfume China had gifted her. She gave herself a once over in the mirror then left and sat waiting in the spare bedroom/ work room.

Van ran his hand through his hair as he stood waiting for the elevator. He was stone tired but knew he couldn't cancel on Hazel. He had gotten so much paper work to look over from HR that he'd probably have to start some at home to be able to finish by the due date. However he didn't see himself looking over any tonight.

He opened the door calling her,"Hazel?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm gonna take a quick shower, change and then we can go."

"Okay."

He grimaced at her answers. Was that it? One word day? Was she angry?

Putting aside his doubts, he strip and got in the shower. A few minutes later, he was dressed in black skinny jeans, a relatively tight white tee shirt and his favorite black and white Air Walks. It felt right to finally dress causally after a day of treacherous work.

He knocked on the spare bedroom door,"Haze, lets go."

The door opened, revealing his doe eyed princess -scratch that- queen with her fiery red hair piled on the top of her head, in a form fitting white dress that he'd just love to rip off of her if she so much as let her deliciously red lips twitch.

He swallowed, feeling a part of him kick,"You look..." his voice became raspy. He wanted to say edible but doubted that she would accept that as a compliment,"absolutely beautiful."

Her face became red, noting the darking of his eyes and sudden change in his voice,"T-thank you. And you look fairly good too."

Van smiled,"Was that a compliment? "

Hazel restrained her grin but played along,"Yes... you know something you say to make someone feel good about themselves."

Van grinned,"Whatever. I see we dress to complement each other, you know, making something complete." he winked at her clearly flushed face,"Lets go."

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