A Kind Deception

Laurel Culhane has a respectable accounting career and a family whose expectations leave little room for the writing life she wants. Rayne Ducasse appears to occupy an entirely different world: successful, famous, and accustomed to the attention that follows her public image. Their paths cross at an awards event, where the assumptions each woman carries about the other begin to matter less than the attraction between them. Yet neither is presenting a complete account of who she is or what she needs. Laurel’s ambitions and Rayne’s wish for an authentic connection sit uneasily beside the roles they perform for other people. Getting closer will require more than looking past differences in age and reputation.