Page 50 of Masquerade

What wasn’t she saying?

“Do you cook?”

“It started as a defensive skill. With two parents communing with their muses, they often forgot about food. Anna’s better than me.” She’d just explained why she was a regular at Tony’s.

“Know Rory well?” Liam blurted out the question bugging him.

“Reasonably.” She yawned. “We covered most of the cases where I worked with him tonight. He also commissioned research from me for the South-West Escarpment campaign.”

“Did he provide some of your case information for your report to Clelland’s?” Liam damned himself for constantly looking for an ambush.

She stopped and disengaged her arm.

“Are you asking me if I discussed George’s project with Rory?” Her hands fisted on her hips.

The few people he trusted, trusted her. As he’d been learning all day, she came to environmental issues of her own accord. She was no spy planted to seduce him. For the love of all the saints whose names he couldn’t remember, she’d done nothing to warrant his suspicion.

“Because accusing me of breaching confidentiality would undo all the cautious steps we’ve taken towards friendship,” she added.

“He’s a friend of yours, knowledgeable.” He pushed his hands into his back pockets, admiring her for calling him out. “And from his attitude tonight, keen to spend time with you.”

“You’re jealous!” She clutched her hair at the top of her head, surprise trumping annoyance in her gesture.

“I’m not jealous.” He stood taller.

Cocking her head to one side, she considered him. “I’m sorry. I thought I made it clear enough. He’s a colleague. He can be good company, but our goals and lifestyles are too different for anything more.”

Her disinterest made him more kindly disposed to the bloke.

“What’s that mean?”

“Two points.” She exhaled, and her fringe lifted. Her gesture summed up Rory’s shortcomings more than words could. “One, he reminds me of Zaphod Beeblebrox.” She chose her example from one of Liam’s favourite books.

“‘If there’s anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now’,” Liam quoted one of the character’s famous lines.

“He probably needs the ego to front campaigns. His serial dating is more a problem for me.”

Liam should have guessed Brian Ferguson cast a long shadow. “And two?”

“He’s not a reader.” She threw a hand in the air. “Or rather, he’s a voracious reader about the planet and environmental issues. Shortly after I started, he dropped into the library to collect a report. I wasn’t there, but he told me what he thought about the display of romance books. My first showcase. A winner with my regulars.” She scrunched up her nose, puzzled and disappointed. “And he was scathing about the IQs of both readers and writers of romance.”

“No silliness.” Realisation dawned and with it, a certain male smugness. Liam grinned. Rory didn’t have the wit to woo a woman with whispered fantasies.

* * *

On their third nightin town, Kate reentered the main room of the Golf Club in time to see the woman tracking across the room in Liam’s direction. Selina Meyer, Futureproof Mining’s local PR manager, planned to ambush Liam, and Kate wasn’t about to let him face a fight alone.

Selina cut through the crowd, the overhead lights catching the golden tints in her auburn, short wavy bob. Styled by a master cutter, it could be flirty, like now, or toned down in a corporate setting. Brand-name casual clothes, workout-tight body, some sass in her sashaying. And her cute-as-hell smile must have misled more than one punter about the power behind her pixie face. If Kate was right, she’d chosen money over being Liam’s lover, which made her a fool.

The woman’s current predatory expression had been muted in the glossies Kate had discovered online yesterday. Although the grainy photos, taken by local green activists with telescopic lenses, had carried a stronger hint of hostile intent. All irrelevant given the woman’s current trajectory. The woman’s steps quickened, her expression changing to one of welcome. Kate picked up speed, to arrive at the bar at the same time.

“Liam, I’ve been hoping for a chance to see you again.” The Barbie doll lay her enamelled fingernails on his arm, pitching her voice to a husky whisper.

He didn’t flinch, remaining relaxed with his back against the bar, but Kate sensed as much as saw the slight clenching of his jaw.

“Niall.” Kate moved in on his right side, leaning against him to provide unspoken support. “Forty-two!That overzealous cameraman has identified forty-two possible locations for the next shoot. You have to help me talk sense into him.”

“Niall?” Ms. Sleek Selina fell back a step, her hand dropping to her side. “You’re Liam. Liam Quinn.”

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