The Lying Game by Maxine Barry & Faith Martin

Author:Maxine Barry & Faith Martin [Barry, Maxine & Martin, Faith]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781789313871
Publisher: Joffe Books romantic suspense and thrillers
Published: 2020-03-30T22:00:00+00:00

* * *

Oriana looked up, expecting Connor, her smile faltering as Lowell walked into the room. She was sitting in the main living room, the investigator’s report on the scarred wooden coffee table in front of her, colour charts and decorating magazines on the other. She got to her feet slowly. Lowell raised his hands in a gesture of appeasement. ‘Pax,’ he said, the word taking him straight back to his childhood when he, Mercedes, and sometimes Rollo, would play chase in the orchard.

Oriana, too, remembered, and for a moment her eyes flooded with tears. Then she smiled and nodded. ‘Pax,’ she agreed, sinking back down onto the sofa. Her knees weren’t even as strong as jelly.

He brought into the room with him not only his extraordinary male beauty, but also a sense of power, of life. For how long, Oriana wondered, with a mixture of bleak pleasure, had Lowell meant life itself to her?

Lowell moved forward, glancing down at the magazines. ‘So you really are an interior designer?’

Oriana blinked. What? Then she remembered her cover story and followed his eyes to the magazines. She’d only been looking through them for some preliminary ideas. She’d intended to hire a local firm later to see about transforming the Manor. It was such a lovely old house, and had been unloved for far too long.

‘Can I sit down?’ he asked.

Oriana jerked her hand helplessly. ‘Of course you can,’ she said, watching as he lowered himself into an overstuffed armchair. His jacket was off, his tie stuffed haphazardly into a pocket. She remembered the touch of his lips on hers, and wanted it again, fiercely. So much, in fact, that she could actually feel her lips ache.

‘You’ve turned my life upside down,’ Lowell said slowly. ‘But then, I suppose you know that?’

Oriana swallowed hard. ‘That wasn’t my intention.’

‘No. Your intention was to prove your innocence. Is that right? Or have you changed your mind?’

Oriana shook her head. ‘No, I haven’t changed my mind. And today, I’m one step closer.’

She saw the flash of hope ignite in his eyes, then slowly bank down as mentally he argued against it. But at least the hope had been there, she told herself, her heart pounding. That meant, didn’t it, that at least he wanted it to be true? That was something. Oh yes, that was something. More than enough to set her heart singing again.

‘Yes. One step nearer to proving the truth,’ she continued, with deceiving calm, for her only chance of happiness lay in proving her innocence to Lowell, and she was well aware of the odds still stacked against her. ‘Do you remember Frances Greer, Lowell? The housekeeper who so conveniently told the court that it was me who pushed Rollo? Do you know what happened to her after the trial?’

She couldn’t keep the bitterness from her voice and didn’t even try. ‘Shall I tell you what happened to her, Lowell? She moved to Brighton, that’s what happened to her. And bought herself a nice big bungalow on the coast.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.