By Private Invitation (22 page)

Her mouth parted in shock before she let out a little laugh. “You hacked your professor’s
email and found out he was part of a sex club?”

“Not a sex club. Yes, they paid dues but they only went toward maintaining their meeting
rooms. Actually, it ran a lot like the Salon. You had to be sponsored by at least
three current members to get an invitation to be interviewed to join. Once you were
in, you signed a confidentiality agreement. They had a required reading list and then
they re-created scenes from books like
Fanny Hill
and
The Pearl
.”

Belle shook her head. “That actually sounds really fascinating. Did you expose him?”

“Not me, no. It came out eventually, I think someone actually broke the confidentiality
clause and got sued but I never told anyone. I was fascinated. I started to read all
the Victorian erotica I
could get my hands on. I already had a healthy interest in sex, but this was like
nothing I’d ever seen. Porn is so…plebian.”

She let out a hearty laugh, letting her head drop back and her hair spill down. She
had such an erotic laugh, husky and deep and completely natural. “Jared, only you
would use a word like plebian in relationship to sex.”

“But you know what I mean, don’t you?”

She rolled her eyes. “Of course. Reading Victorian erotica is like listening to someone
with an English accent talk dirty to you for hours on end. Extremely arousing.”

He was thinking the exact same thing about her. And her voice made his blood boil.
“So are—”

His phone vibrated on his hip, intruding on the moment. He’d set it so that only his
brother’s calls would come through and if his brother was calling, it only meant two
things.

“Jared?”

He pulled the phone off his hip and looked at the number just to make sure.

“Damn, I’m sorry. I have to take this, Belle. It’s Tyler.”

He expected to have to soothe her. Most women he knew would pout if he interrupted
their flirtation to take a call.

Belle smiled and rose. “No problem. I’ll be in the main shop.”

No snark, no snit.

He answered the phone, shaking his head. “Dude, you’re killing me. What’s so im—”

“You need to get home. Now.” Tyler’s tired sigh echoed through the phone line, making
a cold shiver run though Jared’s body. “Mom’s having an episode and we can’t get her
calmed down. She keeps asking for you and I’m afraid we’re going to have to hospitalize
her if we can’t get her to take the meds. Damn it, Jed, you know how she gets when
she’s like this.”

Yeah, he knew. And he knew why she usually got like this. “What’d the bastard do this
time?”

Tyler sighed again, his frustration coming through loud and clear. “Jed, she needs
you.”

And that was really all that mattered, wasn’t it? No matter what he wanted. “I’ll
be there in an hour. Can she hold it together until then?”

“If I tell her you’re coming, I think so, yeah.”

“I’m leaving now.”

He disconnected the call and shoved the phone back on his hip. Emotion lay heavy in
his gut. Fear and concern for his mom.

Rage…

His goddamn father. Fury began to overtake the fear and concern. Anger at whatever
it was he’d done to make his mom have an attack bad enough for Tyler to have to call
him home.

It didn’t happen often and she hadn’t had an episode like this for years.

He had to leave. Right now. Just get in his car and go.

He couldn’t stop to think about Belle. Not now. He’d be back tomorrow. It wasn’t like
they were married. Or even that they had an emotional attachment. Sure, the sex was
great. But that’s all it was.

Just sex.

He walked out into the main shop, where Belle sat on the counter, watching him approach.

“Jared, are you okay?”

He forced a smile. “I’m fine. But I need to head back to Philly. Something’s come
up at the hotel and Tyler needs me.”

He stopped in front of her, knowing his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Not caring if
she noticed.

Her eyes narrowed as her head tilted to the side.

He stepped in close and kissed her with a finesse he’d never used on her. A slickness
that always served him well with women. Most couldn’t tell it was all technique and
no emotion.

He stepped back and knew Belle had noticed.

He smiled again, but he knew this time it was more like a grimace. He needed to get
out of here. Now.

“I’ll call you, Belle. Good night. And thanks for dinner.”

He turned and walked out the door.

“So he just walked out? Without any explanation?”

On Wednesday morning, Annabelle had a copy of Jared’s layout in front of her on the
kitchen table while she drank hot chocolate and waited for the pan of Pillsbury cinnamon
rolls to hurry and bake already.

Sometimes a girl needed more than Special K with Red Berries in the morning. This
qualified as one of those mornings.

Kate sat at the other end of the table, both hands around her mug. She didn’t start
work until noon on Wednesdays and they had a standing date for breakfast.

Except Kate had called this morning to make sure she wouldn’t be interrupting anything.
Annabelle had assured her she wouldn’t be and Kate had rushed over.

Now, Annabelle figured Kate’s shocked expression echoed hers from last night.

“He said he had to get back to the hotel. That something had come up.”

And she was trying really hard to believe that. But the look on his face…

“But you don’t believe him?”

Finally, Annabelle looked up at Kate. “No, I think something happened but…he just
didn’t want to tell me about it. He shut me out like he’d slammed a door in my face.”

“That doesn’t sound like Jared.” Kate’s frown narrowed her eyes to slits of glittering
black.

Annabelle huffed as she dropped her gaze back to the layout in front of her. “Really?
Because we know him so well, right?”

Kate paused. “Hey, did something else happen last night?”

Annabelle sighed and shook her head. “Not a blessed thing. Except he gave me this
nice little layout for my shop. Needs some work but at least he gave it a little effort
before he skipped town.”

“Oh, Annabelle. I’m sorry.”

Shit
. She hadn’t wanted to sound that…hurt. Because she wasn’t. “No, forget I said that.
We had an agreement, not a relationship. Hell, we had three nights of sex, Kate. I
didn’t fall for the guy.”

She forced a smile as the oven timer dinged. Getting up, she pushed Jared’s rough
draft and her own more detailed sketch toward Kate. “So tell me what you think.”

Annabelle got the pan out of the oven and dropped the rolls onto a plate. She considered
just scooping out the icing with her finger and lathering it on the rolls but that
might smack of desperation. And hurt. She grabbed a knife instead.

Kate was still staring at her when she turned back to the table.

“Annabelle…”

She dropped the plate on the table with a clatter and held up her hand to stop anything
else Kate may have said. She didn’t want to talk about him anymore.

“I have plans to make, a carpenter to contact, and a shop to run. I really like his
ideas and I’m going to move ahead. I’m going
to call Henry today, see if I can get him out here to at least look over the space
sometime this week.”

Kate snorted. “I’m sure he’ll be able to fit you in. Henry’s been crushing on you
for years.”

“Shit, I forgot about that.” Christ, just what she needed. Sweet, handsome Henry Schmidt
hitting on her all day. Maybe she should contact another carpenter.

“You know,” Kate said, “Henry is a real sweetheart.”

Annabelle nearly stuck her fingers in her ears like a two-year-old and stomped her
feet. “Oh, no. Don’t even go there. Guys are no longer on my to-do list. Hell, I’ll
date Teddy before I get wrapped up with anyone else.”

Kate nearly choked on her roll dripping with two hundred calories of icing. “And if
you ever date Teddy, I’ll know it’s time to put you out of your misery.”

Misery? She was not miserable. Jared hadn’t broken up with her. Hell, they hadn’t
had a relationship to break up. Just sex. Hot sex. Great sex.

But
just
sex.

“Jared had said he’d be back. And if he doesn’t return…Well, then that’s fine too.”

“Jared, are you leaving?”

With his hand on the front door knob of his parents’ home, Jared paused for a moment
to wipe his face of all emotion before turning to face his father.

It was just after three in the afternoon. He’d caught a few hours of sleep after his
mother had finally closed her eyes this morning.

“I have a business to run. I’m needed there.”

His father nodded, his mouth twisting into a slight grimace. As if he couldn’t be
allowed a full one. “Then I appreciate you coming. I know how difficult this is for
you and Tyler.”

Jared felt the rage start to bubble like lava in his stomach. His hand clenched around
the cut-glass knob, so tightly he felt the fine edges nearly pierce his skin. If he
didn’t get out of here soon…“Yes, it is.”

He didn’t say anything else, just waited for his father to say whatever it was he
wanted to say.

“I just want you to know…how much we especially appreciate your time.”

Staring into his father’s eyes, the exact same shade of blue as his own, Jared had
a momentary flash of the man as Jared had seen him fifteen years ago—gleaming smile,
hearty laugh, and carefree attitude. With his hand on another woman’s breast and his
mouth on her neck.

Only minutes before he’d caught his father in that affair, Jared hadn’t known how
much of a farce his parents’ marriage had become.

He’d known they no longer shared the same room and barely spoke to each other. He’d
also known, since he’d been at least eight and maybe even before, that his mom was
mentally unstable.

She’d have incredible highs, days when she’d keep him and Tyler home from school to
go skiing in the Poconos or to New York for a show. A few times they’d flown to Florida
to spend time on the beach.

Of course, the incredible lows had followed with screaming fits, crying jags, and
a trashed bedroom.

She’d had a “personal assistant” since Tyler’s birth. Jared had realized sometime
in his teens that the “personal assistant” was really a registered nurse. He remembered
three. He also remembered how each time there’d been a new one, the transition had
been difficult. Especially when Jared knew his father had had an affair with the last
one, which was what had caused her to leave.

Jared’s eyes narrowed. “She’s my mother and I love her.” He tried hard not to emphasize
the “I” in that statement. His father knew how he felt. “Do you know what triggered
this one?”

His father’s back straightened, as if preparing for battle. “No. She’s been fine.
She hasn’t had an episode like that for more than a year. The medication has made
a marked improvement in her control.” His father’s gaze unfocused. “Things have almost
been back to the way they were when we first met.”

Jared heard something in his father’s tone, something that sounded almost wistful,
and he had to work hard to keep the sneer off his lips. He didn’t want to get into
a potential knock-down drag-out with his dad. Not now.

Last night had been exhausting. He’d sat with his mom all night. For some reason,
she hadn’t wanted Tyler. Sometimes that happened. They had no idea why. And when Helena
started to come down, when the meds did their job, no one wanted to talk about it,
much less ask questions.

She had a psychiatrist for that. Jared was no psychiatrist.

And though he wasn’t a doctor, he’d done more than enough reading to know his mother’s
bipolar disorder would never be cured. She could only manage it with treatment and
drugs.

Some days were better than others. Sometimes she went for months without an episode
like last night. But then she’d think she was getting better and would forget to take
her meds. Or refuse to take them.

It was a vicious cycle, one they were all trapped in.