Bettie Page Presents: The Librarian by Logan Belle Read Free Book Online Page A

uncover the next Tom Perrotta.”
    She glanced at him warily. “Are you mocking me?”
    â€œNo,” he said, smiling and shaking his head. “Why would I be mocking you? Someone is going to discover the next great writer. Why couldn’t it be you?”
    â€œI don’t know,” she said, still not convinced he was being serious.
    The car headed uptown, slowed by traffic.
    â€œLet me ask you something,” Sebastian said. “Why did you move to New York?”
    â€œTo work at the library,” she said with conviction.
    â€œIs that the only reason?”
    â€œWell, yeah,” she said, suddenly second-guessing her response. “I mean, isn’t that enough?”
    â€œI don’t know,” he said. There was a challenge in his dark eyes. “Is it?”
    She felt put on the spot, and reflexively turned it back on him. “Well, what did you move here to do?”
    â€œI didn’t move here. I grew up here. But if I hadn’t, I would have moved here, for sure. And most people I know who didn’t grow up here don’t so much move here as run here—to make their mark.”
    â€œOr maybe they’re running away from something,” she said, thinking about her mother. She immediately regretted the comment, but mercifully he didn’t press her on it.
    â€œSo you never thought about becoming an actress or a model or something?”
    She crossed her arms, certain now that he was mocking her. “No,” she said coolly.
    â€œInteresting,” he said. “Most women with your looks would have. I can’t believe how unaware of your beauty you are.”
    She felt herself blush. It’s not that she had never been complimented before; people told her she had pretty eyes, or nice hair. She had been called “cute,” and she had never worried about her complexion or her weight like a lot of her friends. But she was of just average height, her nose was too wide, and her upper lip was too thin ever to command the seductive beauty of a Scarlett Johansson or Kim Kardashian or Angelina Jolie. Certainly, she had never felt as if she was the object of true desire, and maybe this was partly her fault for feeling somehow unworthy of it.
    The traffic eased up, and Park Avenue passed by in a blur. When they reached a block in the mid-Fifties, the driver turned back toward Fifth. He pulled up in front of a building she recognized—the fifty-two-story Four Seasons Hotel, designed by I. M. Pei. She knew many of the I. M. Pei buildings. He was one of her father’s favorite architects.
    A doorman from the hotel opened the car door. Sebastian exited first, then held out his hand to help her. She was hesitant to give him her hand, but even in her instinctive reluctance, she couldn’t have anticipated how his touch would send a tremor through her like an electric current.
    He led her into the pale limestone lobby, Art Deco–inspired, with ceilings that had to be over thirty feet high.
    â€œI’ll wait for you here,” he said, handing her a key card. “This is for Room 2020.”
    She looked at the card but didn’t take it. “I don’t understand.”
    â€œYou didn’t think you could go to dinner wearing that, did you?” he asked. She felt blood rush to her face, and she didn’t know if she was more embarrassed or offended.
    â€œIf I can’t wear this to the restaurant, then maybe we should go someplace else.”
    He looked at her, his eyes serious and posing what she was beginning to recognize as their usual challenge. “Really? I thought someone with your intellectual curiosity might like to see another side to life.”
    She thought of the feeling that had plagued her for as long as she could remember: fear. Fear of what would happen if she didn’t do the right thing, if she didn’t play it safe, if she didn’t excel. And then, conversely, the fear of things passing her