Page 5 of Lie With Me

In order to do anything at the club, you have to wear a mask to conceal your identity, and I’ve been chomping at the bit to go as soon as I found out about it.

It’s about time! I didn’t think a background check would take six freaking months. I don’t think she likes me very much.

It’s just her way. She’s got a frosty exterior. Even Ginny said it took over a year before Carmela warmed up to her.

“Watch it!” a man shouts in my ear as he passes, shoulder-checking me lightly.

My arms fly up so I don’t spill my coffee, my eyes rising to the people I’m walking past. The streets are always crowded. No one really pays attention to where they’re going because we’re all on autopilot and know precisely how to get to our destination. The only people who pay attention to the city sidewalks are tourists.

I look over my shoulder to glare at the man, who’s now stuck on the corner with a no-walk signal.

Dick.

As I turn back around, I crash straight into something, my hot coffee sloshing over the sides of the white paper cup down the front of it. I realize it’s a woman when she lets loose a string of curses and pulls her dress away from her body.

“Oh, god. I am so sorry!” I toss the empty cup in a nearby trash can and, without thinking, attempt to help her pull the dress off her skin.

She slaps at my hands and glares up at me. “This is avintageChanel!”

She has long, glossy, chestnut hair and sultry eyes that look like a combination of milk chocolate and honey. Her mauve-painted lips are open in astonishment, and for a fleeting moment I wonder what they taste like. The cream dress she’s wearing hugs her hourglass figure beneath an open navy peacoat as she desperately tries to squeeze out the dark brown liquid staining the front.

“Again, I amsosorry. Let me buy you another dress. There’s a Chanel just up the street–”

“They aren’t going to have anything like this! This dress is a timeless classic. Everything these days is way over the top. Besides, do youknowhow much these things cost?” She looks back up at me incredulously before appraising my dark gray Brunello Cucinelli suit.

Her eyes narrow as she takes me in before landing on my face with a raised brow. “Well, with a suit like that, maybe youdoknow.”

A laugh escapes my throat, short and sharp. “Trust me, it’s not a big deal. Bergdorf’s is around the corner if you’d like something moreclassic.”

Her hands find her hips as she asks dubiously, “You’rereallygoing to buy me a new dress?”

“It only seems fair since I pretty much ruined that one.” I begin to walk in the direction I’d been going before we ran into each other, and even though she’d been headed the opposite way, she falls into step beside me.

“I’m Ken, by the way,” I tell her. Clearly, she has no idea who I am, and that’s exactly why I like staying out of the gossip rags.

People treat you differently when they know you have money.

For all she knows, this could be the only nice suit I own, and I could be charging her dress on a credit card that’s nearly at its limit.

“Bianca,” she replies after a moment.

“Well, Bianca, it’s nice to meet you. I’m sorry it’s under these circumstances. I promise I don’t go around the city throwing coffee at every pretty woman on the street.”

I glance over just in time to see her roll her eyes as a smile pulls at the corner of her full lips. “Well, aren’t I lucky?”

We walk for a few minutes in silence before she asks, “So, what do you do that affords you the ability to buy thousand-dollar dresses for random women you meet on the sidewalk?”

Leaning over, I whisper, “If I tell you, I’ll have totie you up so you can’t let the other women know I’m an easy target for a new dress.”

Her eyes light up as her smile turns feline. “Be careful making threats like that, Ken. I might just be into that sort of thing.”

Pausing, I watch as she flips her hair over her shoulder and keeps walking, her hips swinging in a rhythmic way that seems to catch the eye of every male, and a few females, she passes.

Bianca walks with a confidence you rarely see in a woman these days.

It’s attractive as fuck.

It’s been months since I’ve been with anyone. Since my ex left me almost a year ago, I’ve been careful about what females I spend time with. Where most men in my position cover their asses with NDAs and payouts, the trouble isn’t worth it to me.

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