Page 19 of Fraud
I leaped into action.
With my arms stretched out, I managed to catch her just in the nick of time. Wide-eyed and panicked, she looked up at me with a mixture of fear and surprise.
“You.”
“Hey.” I smiled.
“Oh my gosh, Kate!” the dancing queen in the sexy black number shouted. She was at our side in record time.
“Kate?” I repeated, confusion bouncing around my alcohol-infused brain.
As in Katelyn O’Malley?
“I’m okay, Jane. Just a little stumble.”
My head jumped from the woman in my arms to the one standing next to me.
Oh, shit.
I couldn’t believe it.
That understated mouse of a female who had been standing next to me was Laura Stone.
TheLaura Stone.
“Can we buy you a drink? I’m sorry, but I didn’t catch your name,” Jane said as I helped the still-frazzled Kate over to their table.
Believe me, she wasn’t the only one.
“Sure, that’d be great. Whiskey sour. And the name is Killian Townes,” I said, nearly stumbling over the false last name.How many lies did that make tonight?
Jane, with expert efficiency, flagged down a waitress and had our drinks ordered within seconds. I was starting to understand the sophisticated, ballsy attitude the bartender had described of her.
The moment her friend had fallen, she’d taken action, getting people out of the way and assessing Kate from head to toe.
It was almost motherly.
But my elusive author?
The one I’d fantasized over while lying in bed at night.
The one I’d imagined would be easy to charm.
Wrong.
So wrong.
I’d never been so far off in my life.
Since my chivalrous rescue on the dance floor, Kate hadn’t said a single word to me—or anyone else for that matter. While she was wearing black and did in fact have blonde hair, she was not the vision I’d pictured for a best-selling erotic author.
Quite the opposite, in fact..
But then what the hell did I know?
Before, when Jane had been dancing the night away, she’d openly talked to me. She had been the one to approach me—even if it was sort of awkward. But, now, she was nervously picking at her fingernail, avoiding eye contact, as she asked me about myself.
“What do you do for a living, Killian?” she asked after our drinks had arrived.
