Page 111 of Untouchable
“Was it? I don’t remember anyone doing that.”
Maybe he was one of those people who ask a lot of questions on first introduction. He probably thought it was natural, normal, but it left Kelly naked and exposed. “Well…”
For just a moment her mind went blank with the kind of blind terror she’d felt in an oral exam her senior year in high school, like her whole future rested on one answer that she simply couldn’t think of.
“Well, you’re a lot older than me,” she finished. “What does it matter?”
Her tone must have been too snippy because his brows shot up. “It doesn’t. I was just curious. Caleb has never been serious about a woman before, and I wanted to know more about who had managed to enthrall him.”
“Of course.” She looked again for Caleb and was relieved to see him approaching them again, three glasses of champagne in his hands. “But if you want a clear picture of what’s going on in Caleb’s mind, then you should probably ask him instead of me.”
It was a good answer. Convincing. She gave Wes what she hoped was an ameliorating smile, and he returned it, but she still saw an unanswered question in his eyes.
Like she’d triggered a suspicion in him that was going to be a problem.
Caleb gave them both a glass and then pulled Kelly against his side again. She burrowed against him instinctively, feeling safer, almost protected, now that he was back.
He leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the lips. “What’s wrong? Has Wes been harassing you?”
“No,” she said with a smile, trying to hide her mood from both men now. “He’s been telling me that you’ve never been serious about a woman before and that I’ve enthralled you.”
Caleb shot a look at Wes, but he was smiling down at Kelly when he said, “Enthrall? Is that what we’re calling it?”
“It’s what I’m calling it,” Wes said, looking friendly and unconcerned, although his eyes kept going back to Kelly with that same lingering question. “I still feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before.”
His eyes met Kelly’s and his expression shifted just a little, as if his words were meant as much for her as for Caleb.
Kelly swallowed hard, realizing she’d messed up. A lot. She’d made Wes suspicious with the reference to the Watsons, compounding the possibility of his having seen her before, and he was going to keep asking questions she didn’t want to be asked.
She bit her lip, feeling like cursing and wishing she could go back in time just a few minutes so she could fix that conversation.
It had been such a silly slip. Hardly anything. A person simply couldn’t pursue perfect strategy every moment of the day. It wasn’t natural. But she might have ruined her entire plan in the one moment.
Caleb laughed and shook his head. “Good luck with that.”
Kelly was desperately relieved when a couple of other people moved their way and the conversation broke up. She wanted to get away from Wes. She wanted to never see him again.
She wanted Caleb to never see him again either even though he was evidently one of the few real friends Caleb had.
Things had been going so well. She hadn’t made any mistakes that threatened to expose her. Until now. And now she was vulnerable. Now it all might be on the verge of falling apart.
She took a deep breath as Caleb introduced her to someone else, and she reminded herself that, even if Wes wanted more information on her, the evidence of her identity had all been hidden. Caleb had certainly already done a background check and found nothing.
She was okay. She would be done with this whole thing before he could uncover her identity.
She had to believe she hadn’t lost everything in one slip of the tongue.
Her mind returned to the situation at hand with a hard bump when the name of the man she was shaking hands with suddenly clicked.
Vinnie DiMauro.
An older, balding man with a plain face and very dark eyes. Caleb’s cousin. Originally from Baltimore but moved to DC years ago.
Caleb’s supervisor when her father was killed.
If Caleb wasn’t responsible for her father’s death, then this man probably was.
She pulled her hand away from his, wiping it discreetly on her dress. Vinnie looked harmless enough, but she didn’t want to touch him, to be close to him in any way.
