Ghosts & Liars: The Impossible Julian Strande (Book 2) by Kathryn Ann Kingsley

Author:Kathryn Ann Kingsley [Kingsley, Kathryn Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Published: 2020-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

13

Alice was sincerely regretting her decision.

Agreeing to be Julian’s assistant was an experience in trying not to run and hide. It wasn’t that he was an impatient teacher. It wasn’t that he was a bad teacher. He was neither of those things. He walked her through every moment of each trick with all the gentleness she could ever imagine. Even when she was convinced she was screwing it up.

No, it was the idea of standing on stage and having to do the things he was teaching her that scared her.

Julian had a very different opinion. He thought it was all going wonderfully.

“This is miserable.” She looked down at the box she was standing on. It was a famous trick—called Metamorphosis—but he had created a special twist on it. One he couldn’t perform since he had died because it required two people. “I suck at this.”

“You do not, under any circumstances, suck at this.” He took her arm and spun her to face him. For one of the few times since she’d known him, she was taller than he was. She rested her arms on his shoulders. “That isn’t to say you aren’t very good at sucking, but this—”

“Julian.”

He smiled, revealing his mischief, and leaned his head to kiss her forearm. “You are doing wonderfully.”

“I don’t think I can do this.”

“You don’t think you can get over your stage fright, is what you mean. You can perform the trick, no problem. You’ve done it flawlessly ten times in a row out of eleven attempts. You’re perfect.”

“I…” Okay, he was right. She was shy. She didn’t want to be on stage in front of three hundred plus people. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it with so many people watching.”

“Voyeurism not your thing, check.” He hooked his arms around her waist and held her casually. “But you’ll be fine. I promise. You’ll freak out until the lights hit you, and then instinct and adrenaline will take over. You’ll know what marks to hit, you’ll know where you need to be, and you’ll smile for the crowd. I promise.”

“I think you’re lying.”

“When have I ever lied to you?”

She glared.

“Okay, okay, yes.” He kissed her arm again. “Don’t answer that.” He flashed her that award-winning, trademark, perfect expression that was halfway between being sweet and evil. It was a little bit of both. It was both utterly punch-able, yet she wanted to kiss him anyway. He was such an egotistical bastard she wanted to push him down the stairs sometimes. But now she knew how little good that would do in the short or long run.

“You’re a jerk.”

“You’ve said. All right. One more time from the top? You’re ready to perform tomorrow night.”

“No. No, I’m not.”

“Yes, you are. You’re scared. You’ve got to rip the Band-Aid off, pretty rabbit. You—”

“What did you call me?”

Julian looked sheepish and lowered his arms from her waist and tried to turn away from her. She didn’t let him. Grasping his shoulders, she forced him to stay facing her.

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