Page 34 of Fragile Kiss (Fragile 2)
Cayden shook his head. “I’m okay.”
“Do you know her hotel?”
He sighed. What a mess. He was letting his personal life interfere with work. “I don’t. I didn’t even know she was coming.”
Katharina strolled to the kitchen counter and took a card from a dainty glass dish. He watched the card in her hand as she came over to him. Just the other day, before there had been any mention of Lillian, he watched her hips sway gently back and forth while she walked, enamored by the fluidity of her movements but also wishing it was Lillian he was watching. Now, he couldn’t make himself notice anything about Katharina even if he tried.
Not while Lillian was here, in the same city, in a hotel that couldn’t be too far away.
“I put her at the Eden,” Katharina stated. She was done with the flirty talk and innuendos. Cayden had never heard her so serious in the short time he had known her, and he imagined this was like the attitude she had when directing or producing—whatever it was she did.
“Where is that?”
“Just let me get you a car.”
“No, really. I can get it myself, it’s fine.”
Katharina looked at him, still without an expression, but a small glint of a glare in her eyes. “You’re refusing my help?”
“I’m just saying it’s not something that...” Dammit, he thought, frantically searching for words that wouldn’t piss her off. “This is something between Lil and me, so I don’t feel right having you help.”
When he called her Lil, Katharina noted the nickname instantly and her ears almost visibly perked up. She nodded, looking thoughtful. “Understandable,” she responded, taking her phone out of her designer jacket’s pocket. She tapped and scrolled and had her eyes glued to the screen again.
Cayden looked at the card. It was made of paper that was obviously ultra-high quality and there was a dime-sized circle on the side made from a clear material. The logo was printed there. This must be a nice place, he mused. It was the most impressive business card he had seen, and it distracted him for longer than it should have. Clearing his throat, he got out his phone and began to type in the address of the hotel to order a car.
“I hope you’re not finding transport,” purred Katharina, sounding as sultry as she usually did but without the flirtatious edge.
He looked up. “What?”
“I just ordered you a car.”
Shit. The terrifying, sinking feeling of a third person getting involved came over him. Katharina was probably one of the worst people to be involved. “You didn’t have to.”
“I know.” She raised an eyebrow, her lips in a fashionable pout. He expected her to say something else, but she kept her eyes focused on the screen. Not sure what else to do until the car arrived, he slipped his phone into his back pocket and walked out onto Katharina’s wraparound porch. It was mostly in shade by now. It was good to not feel the sun evaporating the beads of sweat on his skin, which had oddly increased since their workout ended.
He had no thoughts. Staring out at the cityscape in the not too far distance, he tried to mentally prepare for meeting Lillian—just the two of them, finally. He wasn’t quite sure why he wanted to see her, exactly. All he knew was there was some powerful unseen force driving him to her. It had to be fate. Of all the cities and all the situations that could have happened he had Katharina as a client, and she had a great need for someone with Lillian’s particular skills.
That couldn’t be an accident. It just couldn’t be.
“The car’s here,” Katharina called suddenly. Her voice projected, and it sounded like she was right beside Cayden. He turned around quickly, surprised to see her standing in the doorway, her weight put on one foot to enhance that trademark curve of hers.
“Thank you,” was all he could say.
“Bah.” She waved her hand at him. “Before you leave, darling, could you take a photo of me? For all my lovebugs out there.” Winking, she dangled her phone in front of her.
Cayden reluctantly took it and waited for her to get into position. He snapped a couple of her posing elegantly on the edge of the porch, the cityscape in the background. He tried to pay attention to the angle of the phone when he took the photo. Last time he had just snapped it like he normally would have, and she had gotten upset, snatching the phone away from his grasp and explaining how to hold it so her legs looked longer. Right now he wasn’t entirely confident in the way he was doing it, but he took a couple more photos of her doing a handstand.
Taking a deep breath, she turned back onto her feet and reviewed the pictures, nodding. “Fine,” she concluded, still looking through the photos. “There’s one good one. I can edit it now. Do you know any good quotes?”
A car horn honked from outside the driveway gate, and Katharina whipped her head around to see who it was. A black SUV waited.
Grunting angrily, she opened her phone. “Who is that?” she muttered to herself, tapping until she came to the app. “Oliver.”
“’Bye,” Cayden tried.
“Did he honk? Did you hear that?” she demanded. “I know it wasn’t only me.”
“I heard it.” Cayden wondered what the heck the honk had to do with anything.
