by Loretta Hill
‘Is … is this a bad time?’
‘No.’ He found his wits and stepped back. ‘Of course not. Come in.’
She walked into his apartment, munching her lower lip between small white teeth. ‘I guess you’re wondering what I’m doing here, after I hung up on you a hundred times.’
‘That many?’ He rubbed his neck. ‘Guess I lost count.’
Her eyes darted to him and she winced.
‘Not,’ he added quickly to reassure her, ‘that I blame you, because I would have hung up on me too.’
‘Henry, I –’
But he couldn’t let her finish. Now that he had her in the same room, he was desperate to explain before she ran away again. He had to say everything that he had been saying to her in his head for the past few weeks.
‘Kate, that file you found was organised by my brother. He –’
‘Henry, I know. Tom told me.’
He was surprised enough to pause. ‘He did?’
‘Yeah,’ she nodded sheepishly. ‘He sort of explained everything. I’m sorry that I didn’t listen to you when you tried to tell me yourself.’
‘I can’t believe Tom did that,’ he breathed, shock briefly taking precedence over his nervousness. It was such an un-Tom thing to do. ‘Somewhere along the line I must have got through to him.’ He shook his head in wonder and made a mental note to thank his brother later.
‘He also gave me this.’ She turned his novel over, face first, and held it up against her chest. She hesitated. ‘I saw that you dedicated it to me. And I wanted to know … what that means.’
He studied her expression. Her large eyes glistened with doubt as she nervously licked her lips. The action so achingly seductive, he didn’t know where to look.
A flame of hope flickered in his heart. ‘Oh, Kate.’ He placed his hands on her shoulders. ‘What do you think it means?’
She veiled her eyes. ‘What do I make you believe in again?’
‘In love. I believe in love because of you,’ Henry said fiercely. ‘And I never want to lose that – or you, for that matter – ever again.’
She nodded in slow motion. His flame of hope blew out as though snuffed by her silence. Maybe he’d said too much too soon. They’d only known each other for a few months.
He should have known better.
‘Look, Kate, I’m not hoping you feel the same way immediately. I just mainly want your forgiveness. Can we go from there?’
‘Henry.’ She put her palm to his chest and he felt her warmth burn right through his shirt. ‘I love you too.’
His heart stopped and flipped over. ‘What did you say?’
‘I’m crazy about you.’ She glanced up and he couldn’t look away, Mesmerised by the power of her eyes. ‘From day one, you were my fantasy come to life. And I’ve been fighting my feelings ever since you first appeared. But I can’t do it anymore.’
‘Then don’t,’ he breathed. He scooped her to him and kissed her with hungry passion. She wrapped her arms around his neck and fitted her body into his, giving as good as she got. They stumbled across the room without breaking contact until they fell onto one of his big green couches. A couple of the cushions bounced onto the floor to make room for their fall, his body half splayed across hers.
‘I’ve wanted to do this since the second you walked in the door,’ he groaned, kissing her eyes, her cheeks, her nose, her hair.
‘Then we better make up for lost time,’ she muttered, grabbing his face and following his example, kiss for kiss. Her pretend boyfriend was real and he had cleansed away all the hurt that had stained her heart.
He nuzzled her neck and she chuckled with the joy and freedom of the moment. A mobile phone on the coffee table beside them buzzed and Henry glanced briefly at the winking screen.
‘It’s my brother,’ he muttered.
‘As much as I’m indebted to you brother, don’t answer it.’ She grabbed handfuls of his shirt as though to stop him.
He grinned, touching his forehead to hers. ‘And what shall I tell him when he demands to know why I wasn’t answering my phone? Because, trust me, he will.’
She squinted heavenward and then smiled. ‘Tell him you went out and left your phone at home by accident.’
‘You want me to lie to Tom?’
Her mouth stretched into an incorrigible grin. ‘It’s only one little white one. What harm could it possibly do?’
With a chuckle his mouth found hers again. ‘How right you are.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would be remiss if I didn’t at this point mention my good friend Leith Brindle. After completing the first draft of this novel I deleted the entire manuscript from my computer by saving something over the top of it. Yes, a very dumb thing to do – even dumber because I didn’t have a back-up. But I was tired, it was late, and in the click of a few buttons months of hard work had disappeared. Suffice it to say, it was devastating. I tried to get it back but nothing worked. I’m not very tech-savvy, which is probably why the deletion occurred in the first place. Then along came the wonderful, intelligent Leith, full of bright ideas and solutions.
I got my story back completely intact. So if it weren’t for him, I can honestly say you wouldn’t be reading this novel right now.
Thank you, Leith.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity, including internet search engines or retailers, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, photocopying (except under the statutory exceptions provisions of the Australian Copyright Act 1968), recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system without the prior written permission of Random House Australia. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Version 1.0
One Little White Lie
Published by Random House Australia, 2013
Copyright © Loretta Hill
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
A Random Romance book
Published by Random House Australia Pty Ltd
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www.randomhouse.com.au
Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at http://www.randomhouse.com.au/about/contacts.aspx
First published by Random House Australia in 2013
Cataloguing-in-Publication Entry
National Library of Australia
Hill, Loretta.
One little white lie [electronic resource]/Loretta Hill.
ISBN 978 1 74275 998 2 (ebook)
A823.4
Cover image courtesy iStockphoto/Vetta Collection
Cover design by Christabella Designs
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