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Here's a Blurb Just for You!
About the Author:
Here's a Blurb Just for You!
Nate furrowed his brows,
annoyance clear from his expression. “Come on, Lil—”
“No.”
She cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I have a brother, a family and more
friends than I know what to do with. What I need is a career, and what I’d love
is someone to fall in love with. I’m working on the career thing, that’s why I
took this job. And don’t worry. I never hoped that ‘the someone to fall in love
with’ was you. I just thought we could have some fun.” She ignored the pang in
her heart at the untrue words, and then took a deep breath and pushed away from
the table. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have—”
The
heel of her boot caught on the thin metal rung halfway down the tall chair.
Lily grabbed for the tabletop with one hand while the other flailed for
balance, but the boot-and-rung held firm and she felt her other foot sliding
beneath her. And then Nate was there, steadying her, holding her free arm and
propping her body up with his own. Lily ignored the rush of heat that followed.
“Yeah,
you don’t need to make that kind of impression on the suits or the paparazzi.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and started for the bank of elevators
behind them. Lily pushed against him. He had the wrong idea. That wasn’t some
drunken stumble, it was an accident. Plain and simple. “Stop it, Lil. The last
thing your professional reputation needs is a bad rap. Let’s just get you away
from the crowd and sobered up a little.”“Nate, sweetie.” Lily put all the ice
in her voice she could find and casually traced her fingertips over his jaw. As
if the touch meant nothing. As if she felt nothing.
That
overwhelming urge to kiss him and then smack him was back. She didn’t need
rescuing. Not from a too-high heel and a badly placed chair rung. If she were a
woo-hoo girl, she’d use him. Use the silly misstep, play up being drunk and
turn into a vamp once they were alone.
Lily
couldn’t—no, she wouldn’t—do that. She wanted Nate, but more than that, she
wanted him to admit he wanted her. Just as badly.
“I’m
not drunk. Not even a little bit.”
“I’ve
seen enough—”
She
cut him off. “I tripped over the stupid chair rung and slid on the tiles. You
can take off that imaginary white hat and put away the brother card. I’m not
one of the woo-hoo girls who have to get drunk to get a guy. I’m going to
dance.”
She
pulled away from him, smiling on the inside at his annoyed expression. His
clenched fists. Lily grabbed the first guy she could find, a soundman who
worked in the staging area, interviewing contestants before and after their
performances. He was the kind of guy she should want.
Straightforward.
Not tied up in celebrity. The kind of guy who knew what he wanted and went
after it. They slid into a mid-tempo dance when the DJ changed discs. The
soundman was nice enough. Her chin rested against his shoulder, which was
unfortunate because her view of the dance floor, or rather her view of one
corner of the floor, was unobstructed. The man she danced with should make her
tummy go all fluttery, but instead it was Nate, standing across the room and
watching, who kept her attention. Her palms grew sweaty from the look on his
face, not from the feel of another man’s arms around her.
He
crossed his arms over his chest, the spinning red, green and blue lights
catching on the eagle tattooed over one forearm.
The
soundman twirled her around the dance floor until the next song started, a
bass-heavy dance mix that brought more and more crew members to the dance
floor. Lily danced her way across the floor, playing up to the music, but her
attention never left the corner where Nate still watched.
Would
he do something? Anything? She didn’t expect him to stalk across the floor and
rip her out of her dance partner’s arms, but he wasn’t interested in her, so
why not let her find someone who was?
Maybe
she wasn’t so different from the woo-hoo girls, after all. Because she knew in
her heart that every bump-and-grind move was for his benefit. Nate could play
dumb all he wanted, but that night wasn’t just one of those things. Things had
been tense between them for a long time before that limo ride.
She’d
been dead sober, and while still annoyed at the paparazzi line, she wasn’t so
far gone that she needed a one-night stand to get over the upset. And
Nate…kissing her hadn’t been about coming to her rescue on the red carpet or
being a friend. It couldn’t have been.
That
kiss was need and deep wanting for the ten or so seconds it lasted.
Light My Fire: Copyright © 2014 by Kristina Knight used
with permission of author/publisher
About the Author:
Once upon a time, Kristina Knight spent her days running from car crash to fire to meetings with
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