She Hates Me Not: A Richer in Love Romance Read Online Free PDF Page A

forward, Kip didn’t budge.  Letting go of his arm, she turned to face him.  Kip studied her with an interest that wasn’t frisky.  If anything, he looked suspicious.
    “If I were to ask McGreevy about you, what would he tell me?”
    Threatened by the question, Lou froze.  “He’d tell you not to bother.  He’d tell you that I’m a tease and an uptight Catholic girl.  He’d say that I’m a waste of your time.”
    Kip stepped forward to touch her shoulder.  “Did he say those things to you?”
    “Nobody’s nice to each other when they’re breaking up.”
    “He really is a fool, isn’t he?”
    As Kip lingered before her, Lou smelled his cologne – something woodsy and spicy, refined but also wild.  Inhaling it made her dizzy.  Or maybe that was the champagne.  She hadn’t eaten since breakfast.
    “Wasn’t there something about a buffet on the invitation?” she asked in the most lighthearted voice she could muster.  “What do you say, Kip?  First the Renoir, then dinner?”
    His hand drifted down to grasp hers and fold it around his arm.  “It’s a beginning.”
    Lou wondered how right he was.



Chapter Four
    W ith champagne glasses in both hands, Kip maneuvered his way around the dance floor.  Couples glided and spun to a jazzy song as playful as it was polished.  Others chatted in soft tones at round tables.  Kip had attended the Stratford Gala several times before, and it never disappointed.
    This evening, however, he was enjoying himself – all thanks to Lou Aucoin.
    With the auction finished, most guests had transitioned to what was normally the theatre’s pre-show bar.  Now it served as a dance hall and dining area with a sizeable buffet arranged along one wall.  Typically, Kip didn’t bother to eat.  Business tended to be a priority at events such as these, and his mother’s instructions outranked anything else.
    But on this occasion he’d eaten his fill.  Chatted with Lou – much as she’d permit him.  Asked her to dance.  Even let her teach him something called the Cajun Traveling Waltz.  Kip’s ability to dance placed a close second to his mediocre skills on the football pitch, but he’d learned to forgive his own faults.
    The smile Lou gave Kip while he approached was as reassuring as it was radiant.  He’d worried that she might rush off as soon as the auction concluded.  Now she seemed to be enjoying herself.  Her shoulders and hips swayed in tandem to the music.  A wistful poise had replaced her jittery reserve.
    Kip was no more expecting a one-night affair than Lou appeared to be.  Nor did her green eyes have that devious “date & mate” gleam.  Those standards made her all the more enticing.  So did the numerous details she refused to reveal.  But whatever secrets she kept, Lou wasn’t a skillful liar which made Kip want to trust her.
    And to perhaps do a few other things.  With her.  To her.  Whatever she would permit.
    “So what should we toast?” he asked as he joined her beside a pair of doors that opened onto a spacious terrace.
    “The Renoir?” she suggested.
    He raised his glass.  “Do your parents not buy many Renoirs?”
    Her gaze traced a wide circle.  “They’re more Blue Dog people.”
    “I’ve seen those,” Kip told her.  “The blue sheepdog in the surrealistic settings.”
    “Actually it’s a rougarou .”
    “Isn’t that a type of soup?”
    “No, you’re thinking of a roux .”  A smoky, staccato laugh trickled from Lou’s lips.  “My daddy used to tell us, when we were little, that the rougarou would get us if we weren’t back in the house by sunset.  It’s a Cajun werewolf.”
    “And you believed him?”
    “Growing up on the edge of a cypress swamp, you believe a lot of things.”
    Kip wished he could ask to hear all of them.  It had taken several glasses of champagne, but at last Lou was sharing some details, and he didn’t want her to stop.
    “Several times, from my window at night, I thought I