Mr. Wonderful Lies by Kaitlin Maitland

Jared her boyfriend?”
    A niggling sense of unease rippled through me. “No, Jared is the guy you saw the other morning at the café.”
    “I see.”
    The flat tone in his voice and the decided chill in his eyes didn’t quite match the nonchalant look on his face. Feeling unexpectedly uncomfortable, I headed for the front door. “Are you ready? I’m excited to see where we’re going. You never told me.”
    The coolness in his expression was replaced by forced warmth. “It’s a surprise. I promise you’ll like it.”
    “Great!”
    I managed to remain vertical on my trip down the front steps in my high-heeled boots, and Ollie opened the door to his SUV to help me in. It wasn’t a monster truck, but it still took a little leap for me to land my butt on the seat.
    “Careful with those heels.”
    “Afraid I’m going to unintentionally stab you with them?” I arranged the edges of my wispy skirt around my legs and tucked them safely into the vehicle.
    “Baby, you can do whatever you want to me with those heels.”
    He shut the door and strode around the vehicle, climbing inside and settling himself behind the wheel. The Barbies were absent from the backseat. I wasn’t sure why, but I was glad.
    I took a deep breath and smelled faint traces of Ollie’s cologne. I tried not to be distracted from the questions burning in my mind. Our conversations thus far had always been prone to light banter. I didn’t really mind. I liked the playful tone of our interactions. It was one of the things that had drawn me so forcefully to Ollie in the first place. But my talk with Jared burned at the back of my mind.
    “So, do you go out much?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
    He glanced over, surprise evident in his expression. “Not all that much. I date occasionally, but not usually long term.”
    I’d already stuck my fat mouth in the middle of this conversation without clearing it with my brain, so I figured I might as well see things through. “Why not?”
    He shrugged, looking distinctly uncomfortable. “Women tend to look for one of two things in a guy.”
    “That would be?”
    “Looks and money.”
    I fiddled with the clasp on my handbag, not liking the bitterness in his tone. “Wow, you don’t cut us any slack do you?”
    Ollie flashed me a grin. “Don’t try that wounded female sensibility stuff with me. I’ve heard you cut your gender less slack than I do.”
    “Crap, you know all my secrets.”
    “I can think of a few secrets I haven’t had the pleasure of learning.”
    “Dare I ask what those might be?”
    “Not on a first date. It’d blow my gentlemanly image.”
    I pressed my hand to my heart and batted my eyelashes. “My word, I do declare you to be a rake of the first order Mr. Oliver.”
    His brow furrowed. “Ugh, Ollie please. I’m Mr. Oliver at work and nowhere else.”
    “So why not Elliot?” I mused, trying it out. “Oh Ellie, you’re so…”
    “Emasculated,” he finished, mouth curved into a wry grin.
    “You’re a bear of a man; I can’t imagine much that could emasculate a guy like you.”
    “Baby, you flatter me.”
    “No seriously,” I argued. “I can’t see you as even remotely girly.”
    “Carissa would disagree,” he muttered darkly.
    I felt as if someone had sloshed ice-cold water down my back. I cleared my suddenly dry throat and ran my tongue over papery lips. “Who’s Carissa?”
    He hadn’t meant to say her name; that much was obvious. Ollie was carefully controlling his facial expressions, but his lips thinned into a tight line and his pulse beat rapidly in his neck. A knot formed in my stomach, and I began to wonder if Anna had been right about Ollie without even meeting him first.
    “Who’s Carissa, Ollie?”
    “Just someone from the past.”
    “What kind of someone?” I tried not to sound demanding or angry and managed neutral at best.
    The glow from the SUV’s dash didn’t offer much in the way of light to scrutinize the details of his