Killer Queens Read Online Free PDF Page B

had said firmly, plonking it down in front of him. ‘You need to pay.’
    ‘How much are you short?’ Chloe said quickly to the young man. ‘I’ve got tons of change.’
    ‘Two quid,’ he said, turning to look at her. ‘But I really can’t—’
    ‘No, it’s fine,’ Chloe said, reaching in her bag for her purse. ‘Carmen’s made your coffee now, you might as well have it. And my purse is stuffed, honestly. I’ll be glad to lighten it.’
    ‘Thanks, Chloe,’ Carmen said gratefully as Chloe handed her the coins.
    ‘This is awfully nice of you,’ Hugo said, taking his cup.
    Chloe smiled up at him under her lashes; she hadn’t seen his face initially, so she hadn’t realized how good-looking he was, even with the sunglasses on. Just her type – tall, fair and, if not exactly handsome, then with nice solid features and that posh-boy blush, which suffused not only his cheeks, but went right up to the tips of his ears. She had always fancied the Sloane boys, with their butter-blond silky hair and pinky-white skin; this one had Cupid’s bow lips that were the colour of dark red roses. Very kissable.
    ‘No problem,’ she said. ‘It’s easy to get caught short.’
    He started to say something, cut himself off, and then, grinning at her a little inanely, turned away from the counter. Chloe hoped he would wait for her, ask for her number; he had the perfect excuse, because he could offer to pay her back. But to her disappointment, she heard the doorbell clang as he left the shop.
    ‘He likes you, I think,’ Carmen said, making Chloe’s skinny cappuccino with chocolate topping without needing to be told what she wanted.
    Chloe pulled a face:
well, why didn’t he ask me out, then
? She sighed; she’d definitely felt chemistry between them.
He must have a girlfriend
, she told herself to avoid feeling rejected. He was exactly what she’d hoped she’d meet when she was hired for Rescue Children, whose head office was in Fulham; the area was packed with just the kind of young men she liked. But so far, very disappointingly, they seemed to travel in packs with girls of their own class.
    She paid Carmen and went out into the street, holding the hot coffee carefully.
    ‘Um, hi!’ said a voice behind her, and she jumped and nearly dropped the cup.
    ‘Sorry!’ he said as she turned round; he had gone pink all over again. ‘I sort of guessed which way you’d go, and I got it wrong.’
    ‘My office is down there,’ she said, nodding to the unpromising modern block at the end of the short street.
    ‘Oh, right! Well, I mustn’t keep you,’ he said. ‘It’s just – it was very nice of you, but I can’t possibly take money from a girl . . .’
    ‘That sounds a bit sexist,’ Chloe said, her flirtatious smile making it clear that she was teasing him.
    ‘Oh! Gosh! I didn’t mean – Oh, I see!’ He grinned at her. ‘Nice one. So, um, I was wondering if I could maybe buy you a drink later on? To say thank you? Obviously,’ he added hurriedly, ‘I’d have some money by then.’
    They stood there on the pavement, smiling at each other, for a long, happy moment; a nanny tried to push a Bugaboo past them, and Hugo jumped aside politely to give her room.
    ‘So you’ll come for a drink?’ he said hopefully. ‘Are you around later?’
    Chloe debated whether she should play it cool, make him ring her for a date, and then decided that she’d been reading too many magazine articles about playing hard to get.
    ‘I
am
, actually,’ she said, though she did try to infuse a note of surprise into her voice that this was the case.
    ‘Oh, wonderful!’ he said enthusiastically. ‘What a piece of luck! Look, shall I meet you when you finish work? What time is that?’
    ‘Six, usually,’ she said.
    ‘Six it is. Um, just one thing.’ He rubbed the back of his head. ‘I won’t actually be alone. Completely.’
    Chloe frowned. ‘I don’t understand.’
    She didn’t like this, either. He had seemed so nice