She didn’t take it. She wasn’t sure she could handle feeling his fingers touch hers.
Clearing his throat, Maddox stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I think you get the idea of what we’ll be doing here. Was two days enough time? Have you made a decision about my offer?”
Adelie tucked her wet hair behind her ear. “When would I get the money?”
“Half up front,” Maddox said. “And half will be deposited once the images are in place, in the bank account of your choice.”
Half. Oh, sweet goodness.
She attempted to remain unperturbed, though inside her organs were rotating. “When would the photo shoot be?”
“One week,” Maddox said. He stepped off from the carousel’s platform and again turned to offer her a hand, but she’d already leaped off as well. “And then you’ll be in every corner of Wonderland.”
Every corner. She was really doing this. “Will I need any kind of… I don’t know, training?”
Maddox stood back. He rested a hand in his chin and narrowed his eyes, shrewdly examining her.
Adelie gripped the soaked strap of her messenger bag. “What are you doing?”
His eyes narrowed. He still hadn’t taken them from her. “If you’re asking me whether you can stand there, looking bewildered, lost, and beautiful all at once, I think you’ve got it mastered.”
Adelie’s lips parted. She didn’t know what to say.
“The whole premise of Alice in Wonderland is this fantastic dream for Alice,” Maddox said. “Let me make this a dream for you.”
Whew. A dream, sure. A dream Alice had wanted to wake from the entire time. A dream where everyone she encountered was borderline psychotic. Still, Adelie felt as though she’d drunk from that bottle. She was soaring, feet higher than her normal height so her head wafted in the clouds.
She must be crazy to agree to this, but her lips formed the words all on their own.
“Yes. Okay. I’ll do it.”
Maddox’s smile was a flash of lightning across a bleary sky. Vibrant, colorful, and so intense it stole every ounce of her attention and made her heart hiccup. Now that was a smile.
Lifting the flap on her messenger bag, she removed the contract and signed it there on the puddled Wonderland street. Maddox accepted it when she was finished, tucking into his jacket to retrieve what looked like a business card.
“Come to this location next Monday,” he said, offering her the card with an address on it.
Somehow, her fingers closed around it. “What should I wear?”
“Everything will be set up for you,” he said, walking her to the exit. Their return trip was quiet, filled with anticipation and uncertainty. They passed the rides and kiosks she’d noticed before, and the men who’d been cleaning the streets had vanished, probably taking shelter during the brief storm.
The park’s elegant entrance came into view, and soon Maddox opened the side door for her with a set of keys from his pocket.
“Okay,” she breathed, nervous.
“Okay,” he replied, the corner of his lips quirking and adding an extra glint in his eyes.
Dipping her chin, Adelie thanked him for the tour and bade him goodbye.
She ambled in a daze to her car’s space in the mostly empty parking lot. So much had happened and in so short a time. She couldn’t believe the afternoon they’d shared. The rain, the carousel, the contract. She’d signed it and handed it to Maddox. That meant this was official. That meant in one more week, it would be time to become Alice.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Adelie approached the security booth, which was located at the end of the street address Maddox had given her—and rolled her car window down. A man in a blue suit with patches on the shoulders and a stern forehead scowled at her. A silver nametag secured over his breast pocket read, Juan Ramirez.
“Miss Carroll?”
“Y-yes. That’s me.”
He examined something on his screen, possibly comparing her face to a picture, though where he would have gotten one, she couldn’t say. Then again, she had been on the news after her completely unexpected victory.
“They’re expecting you,” he said with a nod. Giving her what she assumed was a smile, he added, “Welcome to Mr. Hatter’s estate.”
Adelie inclined her head and the gate swung open. She wished it would open quicker. The guard was so stern, he might as well be made from steel. Then again, if she had security of any kind, she’d want its director to be no-nonsense and threatening at first glance too.
She passed through and rolled down the remainder of the long drive. The extensive grounds were green and lush and spread for what seemed like miles along the distance between the guard’s station and the massively huge mansion.
It was like a miniature castle, set off by pointed dormers above an arched courtyard that led to what must be the front door. Balconies, turrets along the rooftop, and multiple stone stairways connected by a path that passed dozens of windows in every size speckling the exterior added variety to the bronze stones.
Adelie took a moment—or a thousand—to stop and just stare. She wanted to soak in every detail and appreciate each stunning aspect, from the windows to the intricate shapes in the stones, for what each individual aspect added to the whole. She couldn’t imagine living in a place like this. Visiting it was one thing, but having it for a home? It was breathtaking.
A few other cars were already parked in the drive. Adelie pulled between the smaller black Lexus and the large white, windowless van. She cut the ignition and stared at her hands’ ten- and two o’clock position on the steering wheel. She needed to go inside. To let go of the wheel, exit the vehicle and move.
Her phone buzzed from its place on the dashboard, startling her. Suzie’s name filled the screen, along with a dozen emojis trumpeting her cause and cheering her on. Bolstered by the well-timed text, Adelie smiled. Suzie had to work, but at least she was there in emoji, if not in spirit.
“Just one step at a time,” Adelie told herself. Exhaling through a small part in her lips, she pulled the car door’s handle and stepped out into the chilly spring morning.
A decadent fountain across from the courtyard stood like its own version of the Eiffel Tower—a sight Adelie had always longed to see in real life. Water spewed from multiple tiers and made an umbrella around a collection of stones.
Her old Honda looked like a crushed soda can compared to the Lexus, whose chrome handles and bumper were not only not dented but shined to beat the stars. That wasn’t a good sign. She hadn’t even bothered doing herself up, since Maddox had said she would be getting a makeover, but now, here, she felt like a shabby, discarded rag beside an exquisite gown.
What was she doing here? She didn’t belong in a place like this.
“You can do this,” she told herself. Grandma Carroll’s house. She was doing this to save her home.
It took much more effort than it should have to approach the enormous, mahogany door. More so to lift a hand and ring the doorbell, but she managed it. A grand sound pealed like a gong, as if meant to reach the expansive ends of such a huge dwelling.
“Though he probably has a butler or something,” she muttered to herself, fighting away the thought of Maddox Hatter leaping and sprinting from the far end of his house just to answer the door. The thought made her smile.
The door opened to reveal an older man with salt and pepper hair in a fine-fitted suit and a conservative brown tie. An earpiece coiled from his left ear and beneath his collar. Not exclusively a butler then, but more security.
“Miss Carroll? I’m Randy Kirk, but you can call me Kirk.”
“H-hi, Kirk.”
Unlike Juan’s stern, no-nonsense greeting, he smiled. The sight chiseled away at the hard nervousness inside her. “Please come in. Mr. Hatter and Mr. Hawthorne are waiting with the hairdresser, though I believe a wig-maker is on hand as well, if you prefer.”
Her mouth gaped. “A-a wig maker?”
She was having
a hard time following his thought process and taking in the vaulted foyer at the same time. The white and cream interior was set off by dark wood along the ceiling’s edge, the window frames, and the doors. Swirled, wrought iron curled around the staircase and led to a magnificent window on the landing above. Adelie itched to explore, to venture through and investigate every nook and cranny in this incredible place.
Kirk gave her a knowing smile. “They’re just down here, if you’d like to follow me.”
Adelie forced her feet forward. This place was too perfect to be real, and so opposite from the blend of beauty and chaos in Maddox’s Wonderland she couldn’t keep her jaw from dropping.
The ceiling along the wide, bright corridor was curved, set off again by that dark wood. Fantastic chandeliers dangled and teased their light upon her, and she kept looking, looking, looking everywhere she possibly could. An elegant set up of tables and chairs here. A fireplace there. Vases of flowers, columns, and paintings, so much splendor in one place.
Kirk took a series of short stairs and turned down another hall leading to a widespread room. Windows splashed sunlight on every surface and left shadows nowhere to hide.
A pair of double doors led out onto what she assumed was a balcony. They were situated across from the stone fireplace, which stretched to high-five the vaulted ceiling above. Maddox, Duncan, and a woman Adelie hadn’t yet met chuckled in low tones beside the fireplace, and the sound fisted her stomach.
The woman’s hair was stylish, her clothes well-fitted and hip. Her jeans were cropped short, and she wore a shirt with tassels dangling along the hem.
Mid-laugh, Maddox turned, his face brightening at the sight of her.
“Adelie,” he said with delight.
Embarrassment bloomed in her cheeks, and a small firework exploded in her stomach. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the simmering effect he’d had on her during their tour, and especially the romantic moment they’d shared on the carousel. It had all seemed so surreal but seeing him here now cemented everything in like concrete.
She was at his house. And he was looking at her as though she’d been the reason for the sunrise that morning.
“Hey,” she said.
The woman closed in, arms folded, heels clacking on the floor. She analyzed Adelie from head to toe.
“You’re right,” she said, her expression growing more and more in approval by the minute. “She is going to be perfect.”
Maddox’s, Duncan’s, and the woman’s gazes each fixed on her. Her breathing accelerated and she fought the urge to chew on her fingernails. Oh boy. What was Adelie getting herself into? If she couldn’t handle the attention from Maddox and his wig maker—or whoever this woman was—how could she ever handle having so much attention on her everywhere else?
Her throat closed over every word as she attempted to push it out. “Sorry, I didn’t get ready or anything. I wasn’t sure exactly what I was supposed to wear.”
“You look amazing,” Maddox said. “Just how you’re supposed to. This is Cathy. She’s a genius when it comes to hair and makeup. The photographer will be here in two hours. Does that give you ladies enough time to do what you need to?”
Two hours? Photographer? That wasn’t enough time. She wasn’t ready.
“Should be enough,” Cathy said, sizing Adelie up with one hand gripping her chin.
Adelie wished she could get a handle on her thoughts. And her breathing, for that matter.
“I—”
“Do you need anything?” Maddox said.
Her vision blanked. The room shrunk, bringing a wave of irrational dizziness with it. She was thirsty, so thirsty. She needed some air, or perhaps a drink of water. That would help her quivering insides.
“C-can I talk to you for a second?”
Maddox’s face softened and he guided her to the opposite corner of the room. She ignored Cathy and Mr. Hawthorne’s puzzled exchange and tried not to trip over her own feet the way she had during a presentation in her English class last semester.
Her internal temperature had flared up, just like this. Her body had tingled, her mind turning white, just like this. She’d stumbled on her way out of the classroom, feeling more embarrassed than ever. It was one thing for her anxiety to flare up as a child, but as a grown woman? What was her problem?
“Is everything okay?” Maddox asked, tucking his hands into his pockets, as cool as a cucumber.
She really wished she could sit down for a minute. “I don’t know,” she said. “I thought I could do this, but now? Seeing where you live? Being in the moment? I just—”
As if reading her earlier thoughts, he reached for a bottle of water on a nearby end table and handed it to her.
“It’s normal to be nervous,” he said. “And you did sign the contract.”
She bobbed her head and took the water, broke it open, then took a grateful sip. The cool liquid helped calm her somewhat inside. “I know. I know I did.”
He put his warm hands on her shoulders. “Adelie. Look at me.”
Blood palpitating, she lifted her head as though it was connected to a weight on the floor. His direct gaze had a mesmerizing effect, but it wasn’t enough to soothe her nervousness about this. She willed herself to feel as comfortable around him now as she’d been on the carousel in the rain. That had been so relaxed. So private.
This was the complete opposite. If only Suzie had been able to come.
Against her will, childhood memories flashed; memories with her father, who’d been far less kind than Maddox was at this moment. She pushed the memories aside.
“I wish I could tell you that you don’t have to do this. I suppose I could find a way to nullify our contract if that’s what you really want. But I need you to ask yourself what you really want.”
She didn’t have to ask herself. She wanted to go home, to cuddle up and forget the world and everyone in it for a while with a good book. Or perhaps to go over the syllabus for her new medical terminology course.
But how much longer would she even have a home? As if reading her thoughts, Maddox said, “Remember your grandparents’ house? I can’t help you save it unless you help me.”
She was touched he remembered, and at his soothing tone, she relaxed.
“Right,” she said on an exhale.
“You’ll be fine,” he said. “More than that, you’ll be amazing.”
In spite of the confidence in his words, her uneasiness grew. “I—whew. Sure.”
His mouth pressed into a line. He shifted his weight. “Want to tell me what’s bothering you about all of this?”
This was mortifying. How could she lay out her insecurities for him? She’d buried them as well as she could for years now, but the more time she spent with Maddox, the more her locked time capsule was becoming more like perforated Styrofoam. Living solo with her sister didn’t help. Maddox was forcing her out of her shell, and she felt more vulnerable than she had in years.
Never mind her difficult childhood. She wouldn’t go into that with him. She decided to stick with a different truth.
“I’ve never been the leading act,” she said. “I’m the supporting role.”
“I see.” He darted a glance in Duncan and Cathy’s direction before shifting as if to shield her from them and mumbled, “What if you’re more than you think you’re meant to be?”
He sounded so sincere. So genuine it scared her. Her eyes widened. He couldn’t know what he was saying. He barely knew her. “What does that mean?”
A shrug. “I mean, sometimes we have to take risks to make amazing things happen.”
He was unbelievable. The conversation was diverting enough she forgot her anxiety for the moment. “And you? What are you risking?”
Without hesitation, he declared, “Nothing.”
That was a football field away from the truth. She thought of this exorbitant home of his. His outlandish but incredible theme park. He had so much to lose. What did he mean he wasn’t risking anything here?
“I—I’m sorry. I’m not sure I understand.”
Hands in his pockets, he never took his attention from her. “Because of you, I know I’m not risking a thing. I’m one-hundred percent sure about you.”
She wasn’t sure if it was because of the intensity of his gaze, the effect of their surroundings, or the promise that losing money on her account wasn’t even a risk. Whatever it was, she was struck by his statement. He was that confident in her?
Her?
Adelie Eleanor Carroll, the small-town wonder who’d never won anything in her life, who’d never been kissed, who’d never stepped out of her comfort zone because fear’s shadow was always bigger than any prospect of victory. She’d always taken the back row at church, and she’d never had enough confidence in herself to try for anything she might fail at.
Her lack of confidence had been why she’d lost her job in retail. Why she’d botched every interview afterward.
Maddox didn’t care about all that. He didn’t know about all that. At this moment, he cared about her. He wanted her, and his confidence was more bolstering than anything she’d ever experienced.
Her body relaxed. Lightness blossomed in her chest. He thought she could do it. And suddenly, she wanted to.
“Okay,” she said with surprising assurance.
What if this was an opportunity in ways other than monetarily? She could become a different version of herself. Test the waters. See what it took and what she might gain, instead of focusing on everything she might lose.
“You’re sure?” he clarified.
Her blood slowed. Clarity settled into her mind. “Yes. I’m sure.”
Maddox’s eyes turned a shade of approval. The warm, reassuring glance sent a trickle of hope and something like intrigue along her spine and into her stomach. His hand found hers. His skin soft, he squeezed just enough. The soothing touch brought a sting of tears to her eyes.
No man had ever shown interest in her before. But just like back at the carousel, she wouldn’t mistake this for something more than it was. This was business. She was nothing more than the face he wanted for his park, and she had to always remember that.
Alice And The Billionaire's Wonderland (Once Upon A Billionaire Book 3) Page 6
