House of Lies by Maggie Toussaint

Author:Maggie Toussaint
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

After dinner that evening, her mother insisted Hannah accompany them to a nightclub. “It’ll be good for you to get out and meet people your age,” Libby had said.

Clubbing wasn’t Hannah’s idea of fun, but she wanted to make her mother happy. The music was loud, the drinks were watery, and the place was swimming with people. She wasn’t overweight by any means, but the aesthetically thin people with blonde highlights made her feel as broad as a barge.

Hannah felt like the lone Bohemian waxwing in a flock of cedar waxwings. A little lost, a little befuddled, but grateful for the relative safety of the flock.

She met Tad, Jerry, Clint, and Kyle and was soundly disappointed in all four. Their attention seemed fragmented, as if she were a stand-in until someone better came along. Their conversations seemed contrived and boring. Their eyes didn’t eat her up.

She had never purposefully endured such misery, and she couldn’t wait for the ordeal to end. It wasn’t until she listed the collective faults of the men that she understood what she had done. One man was too tall, another too short, another too blonde, another one too happy.

None of these men were Jake. None measured up to his rakishly dangerous good looks. None tried to order her around. None looked at her like she made the sun come up every morning.

“You’re not having any fun,” Libby said when she briefly sat out a dance.

Hannah traced her finger around the rim of her half

Maggie Toussaint empty cocktail. “I’m feeling out of place. I’d be more at ease if there were birds here to watch.”

“You and your moldy old birds. Forget about your birds for the evening. Relax and enjoy yourself. Isn’t this place great?”

Doug twirled her mother away, and Hannah was left to contemplate the flashing lights and overly warm, crowded room by herself. Relaxation wasn’t the issue.

This was about as relaxed as she ever got. Her real problem could be summed up in two words.

Jake Sutherland.

She had run from the passion he’d offered, but she couldn’t deny her deep seated longings for him. It wasn’t like her to be so cowardly. Usually if she wanted something, she figured out how to achieve her goal and implemented her plan.

Trouble was she didn’t know how to have Jake and protect herself at the same time. She didn’t indulge in casual affairs.

Not that sleeping with Jake would be casual. It would be as elemental as fire and water, as precarious as shifting sand. She liked having her feet planted solidly on the ground. All of her logic and commonsense told her to avoid the certain danger of Jake.

But, playing it safe was making her miserable. Was she a perennial wallflower in the dance of life?

Ever since she’d met Jake, her thoughts hadn’t been her own. It astounded her that she could be fascinated by a man so full of secrets. If she gave into this fierce longing she had to be with him, was she destined

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