Page 37 of The Sandbar saga

Before she chickened out, she opened the dressing room door and strolled out. Standing in front of Dr. C., she turned, looking over her shoulder at him.

"Do you like?" She ran her hands over her hips. "Everything is comfortable."

He cleared his throat, spoke to the saleswoman who walked off leaving them alone, then approached Katie. "You don't need more room in the clothes to move?"

She rotated her shoulders and cocked her hip. "Nope."

He rubbed the back of his neck, glancing down at her shirt. Her face warmed, and her nipples hardened without a bra. A thrilling excitement filled her.

"So, can I get them?"

The muscle near his jaw throbbed. She raised her eyebrows, wondering what that meant.

He groaned as if in pain and said, "Okay. Keep going. I'll wait out here for you."

She grinned all the way back to the dressing room. Doing quick work of changing, she showed him each outfit. The more she tried on, the more he looked at her. She felt beautiful and special. Best of all, he stopped talking to the saleswoman.

"Katie?" he said, outside the dressing room. "Maybe you should get a couple dresses in case you have an event at school you need to go to."

"Okay. Will you pick out some for me and bring them here?" She stood in only her panties.

"Hang on."

She peeked through the gap where the door hinged to the wall. He'd walked away. While he was gone, she made a pile for the clothes she wanted and one for the items she wanted to put back on the rack.

A knock came as soon as she finished. "I'm not dressed."

Dresses landed in the room with her. She laughed, grabbing the hangers from Dr. C's hand over the door. The surprise shopping trip made her happy. He was buying her more clothes than she needed, but she liked having new things.

"Katie?"

"Yeah?" She looked through the five dresses he handed her.

"The saleswoman picked these out, too, and said you might want to wear them with the dresses."

She looked toward the door and found three bras on hangers dangling from his finger. Pressing her hand to her over-warm neck, she took them and hung them up in the room. "Uh, thanks," she mumbled.

It was one thing for him to send her new bras in a box to her room at the school and another for him to touch them before she had to put them on. Picking out the black dress with the black bra first, she wondered who picked the outfit. Dr. C or the saleswoman?

She shimmied the material over her hips and slipped her arms through the sleeveless holes. Looking down, she was glad for the black bra because the front was deep. Luckily, the bra dipped and was hidden entirely.

Reaching behind her, she couldn't move the zipper up past her lower back. She tugged, bent, struggled, finally giving up.

"Dr. C? Are you still out there?" she asked.

"I'm here."

"Will you zip me up?"

"Are you dressed?" he asked.

"Mm-hm." She opened the door, and staying in the room, turned around and held her hair up out of the way.

His warm fingers slipped under the material, skimming her back. She shivered and met his eyes in the mirror. His hand stilled against her. Her pulse throbbed in her neck. Self-conscious, she couldn't move away from him.

Britta's accusation about her having sex with Dr. C ran through her brain. Was this what it would be like? Would he make her feel good?

She remembered their deal about asking him questions while shopping, and he had to answer. "Do I look pretty?"

He zipped her the rest of the way up, wrapped his fingers around her wrists and lowered her arms, setting her hair free to tumble around her shoulders.

The area between her legs fluttered. She couldn't look away from his gaze in the mirror.

He placed his hands on her bare, upper arms and whispered, "You're beautiful."

Her body swayed, and her back brushed against him. Trying to breathe seemed impossible. She wanted to turn around. She wanted to press against his body. She wanted to run and think about all the feelings swarming her.

"Go ahead and try on the rest." He stepped away, and the door shut.

She rubbed her arms at the chill left behind even though her body smoldered inside. The feelings going through her were the best in the world. She'd never experienced anything like them.