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

saw the fifolet .”  She glanced outside like she might see it again.  “It’s a blue light that lures you into the swamp and then gets you hopelessly lost.”
    Kip was starting to feel like he’d discovered his own fifolet .  “It is a mirage?”
    Teasingly she shrugged.  “Some say it’s magic.  Others claim it’s the spirit of a murdered pirate guiding you to the treasure of Jean Lafitte.  Just depends on whose legend you choose to believe.”
    As a subtle breeze crested through the doors, it tossed Lou’s auburn fringe where it grazed her freckled cheeks.  Wanting to reach for it, Kip stepped back.  He was staring too intently.  He was standing too close.  Whatever magic resided in Louisiana’s bayous, Lou brought some of it with her to England.
    To steady himself, Kip emptied his glass in a couple of gulps.  Straightaway he craved another.
    Before he could ask Lou if she wanted the same, a commotion arose in the lobby.  The telltale shouts of photographers made dancing couples spin toward the door.  Soon everyone scrutinized the room’s curtained entrance.
    Like a diva making her grand debut, Catrella glided into the room.
    A cocktail of panic and exasperation made Kip almost drop his glass.  The sight of Cat in a sleek red dress demolished his onrushing buzz.  In its wake, hindsight waggled a finger.  He should have left after the auction and not hung about trying to woo the elusive Lou Aucoin who gripped his arm with a different tension than before.
    “Isn’t that…?”
    “It is,” Kip muttered.
    “She’s a little late for this party.”
    “It’s her trademark.  She shows only for the last hour or so – just as everyone’s grown drunk and bored.”
    “Are you drunk and bored?”
    Kip noticed the concern in Lou’s voice.  “Not at all.  I’m less than thrilled to see Cat, however.”
    Lou’s eyes narrowed as she watched other socialites flock and fawn around his former fiancée.  “I’ll bet you anything she’s here to see you.  Did you two ever come to this as a couple?”
    “All three years we were together.  But it was always business.  Never like tonight.”
    “What’s different about tonight?”
    “Well…”  Kip rallied the courage to be utterly frank.  “Tonight I’m with you.”
    Her bashful smile reappearing, Lou tucked her hand into his.  “ Allons , Kip.  Let’s hide on the patio, and maybe she won’t catch you.”
    It was warm on the terrace, even for July.  Gas lamps mounted along the balustrade cast flickering shadows upon the Avon.  On its far shore, narrowboats moored for the night bobbled atop the river’s surface.  The moon’s reflection was a globe on the water.  Sleeping swans floated past.
    The charm of it all was lost on Kip who kept his focus on Catrella.  Lou hadn’t been wrong.  Cat was hunting for him with a cunning eye no matter how distracted she seemed.  Effusively she worked her way toward the terrace door.  She must have spotted him before his escape.
    Although Kip knew he wasn’t an impotent man, somehow Cat undid him.  Their initial infatuation became a routine, one Cat nurtured while Kip endured.  She’d been good for him during those first few months, but he realized, gradually, as months turned to years, that he’d traded one habit for another.  Relationships could be as addictive as drugs.
    Even with twelve Cat-free months now under his belt, he still feared what she might make him feel.
    Above all else, he hated how things would appear to the other guests.  Anyone who believed the tabloids would assume that Kip was philandering.  His reputation was as fragile as the champagne flute which Lou pried free of his fingers.
    When she squeezed his arm, Kip refocused.  “Sorry?”
    “I didn’t say anything.”  Smirking, she set both glasses on the railing.  “I’ve got a sure-fire way to chase her off, but it might be awkward for all of us.  She’s not the type to pitch a fit, right?”
    “Cause