By Private Invitation (36 page)

She snapped her mouth shut to stop any other words that might escape. Or at least
to hide the hurt she heard in her voice.

“Belle—”

She walked toward the door, her steps careful, but he caught her upper arm before
she could get there. The heat of his hand began to seep through the cold but not enough.
Her first reaction was to rip her arm out of his grasp but she refused to give him
the satisfaction.

And he leaned closer to speak into her ear. “Go ahead. Get pissed off at me. I deserve
it. Hell, I understand what you’re feeling. The betrayal. It burns like hell. But
I’m not going to burn you. Never, Annabelle. I would rather cut off my right arm than
see you hurt again. I know this is my fault. Just give me the opportunity to fix it.”

He couldn’t. She could think of nothing he could do to erase the betrayal she felt
over his investigation. Not unless he took that final step and told her he loved her.

He didn’t.

She forced herself to look him in the eyes. “I want you to leave, Jared. I don’t think
we should see each other again. If I find out my personal information has been revealed,
I’ll call my law—”

He covered her mouth with his and kissed her. Hard.

She tasted his regret. And the heat of his passion.

She wanted to respond. But she felt only cold.

She pushed at his chest until he released her, withdrew her arm from his hand, and
forced herself to walk, not run, to the door. Opening it, she turned to stare back
at him.

For a second, she thought he wouldn’t go, that he’d force her to break that icy shell
surrounding her and scream at him to leave.

His stony expression made the beautiful lines of his face stand out in stark relief.
Such a beautiful face. But she saw no love.

Only determination to keep her by his side.

And she wanted more.

“This isn’t finished, Belle. This breach in your security needs to be taken care of.
Let me have Dane fix it.”

“I think Dane’s fixed enough, thank you. And so have you.”

“You’re not safe.”

She wanted to laugh in his face. “I know that. Now.”

A tiny muscle in his jaw began to tic. “Belle—”

“You need to leave. Just go, Jared. I can’t—You have to go.”

He paused again but he must have seen something in her eyes that convinced him to
give up the fight.

“I’ll go. For now. I’ll check back in a few days.”

She didn’t tell him not to bother. She didn’t know what to think, how to feel. Everything
was such a mess right.

“Don’t hide, Belle. You’ll solve nothing by hiding.”

Her fingers itched to reach for him but she couldn’t seem to get beyond the fact that
he’d had her investigated behind her back. Her hands curled into fists at her sides.
“I’m not hiding. I just need you to go.”

He didn’t move and the tension in her body drew her muscles into tight, painful bunches.

His hand lifted from his side and she flinched away from him. She couldn’t help herself.
She didn’t know what she’d do if he touched her.

Probably break apart. And she’d done that once in her life. She didn’t know if she
could live through another.

He must have seen something in her eyes because he didn’t touch her.

“Make sure the security system’s set at night, Belle.”

Her heart twisted at the concern in his voice but she didn’t have anything to say.

When he finally shook his head and stalked out the door, she wasn’t sure her legs
would hold her weight. Flipping the open sign to closed, she forced herself up the
stairs to her bedroom, closed the door, and let herself fall apart.

“I’m not giving her up.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t think that’s your choice, Jed. You screwed this one up good.”

Jared considered flipping his brother the finger but knew it was an exercise in futility.
And he didn’t know if he’d get the right finger anyway.

His companion of the last several hours, Jack Daniels, had finally called it quits.

The empty bottle lay on its side, like a fallen soldier, on the floor of the Salon.
Jared slumped on a chaise, figuring he’d be joining the bottle soon enough. The chaise
seemed to have developed a definite angle that threatened to land him on the floor.

Of course, that could just be the Jack. Everything was off kilter. Or maybe that was
just him.

Tyler sat at the piano, playing something slow and quiet that
didn’t grate on Jared’s nerves. Tyler had found him holed up here about an hour ago.
He’d poured himself a drink and hadn’t said more than a few words.

“She won’t let me take care of this for her. Why won’t she let me take care of her?”

“Maybe because you went behind her back and had Dane investigate her?”

Jared grimaced.
Yeah, maybe that had been a bad idea.
But…“Why didn’t she tell me?”

Tyler sighed. “For the fifth time, my answer to that is, ‘Why should she?’”

Because she’s mine.

Tyler’s fingers came down hard on the keys, sending a bolt of pain through Jared’s
head at the discordant sound. “She’s not one of your paintings, Jed. You don’t own
her.”

Shit, had he said that out loud?

“I don’t want to own her. I want her to…”

“Want her to what?”

To love me.

He wanted her to love him. He wanted her to be his.

“Shit, Tyler. I love her.”

His brother snorted. “Ya think? Christ, I could’ve told you that two weeks ago.”

His heart contracted in his chest, and he could barely breathe. “And she hates me.
What the fuck am I supposed to do about that?”

With a sigh, Tyler closed the lid on the piano keys. “Well, first, you sleep off the
Jack. Tomorrow, you fix it. You’ll grovel, you’ll beg, you’ll throw yourself at her
feet and tell her what an ass you’ve been and that you will do anything to make it
up to her.”

He’d groveled before. At least, he’d tried to. Maybe he wouldn’t have to this time.

Maybe he’d just show her he could take care of her. He’d fix her information leak.
He was good at fixing things.

And he never lost. When he wanted something, he got it.

He wanted Annabelle.

He’d do whatever it took to get her back.

“Men are so totally not worth the aggravation,” Kate declared as they made the rounds
of the dealer tables at Renninger’s Market way too early Sunday morning.

Annabelle ran her fingers over a rare piece of blue willow china and then spotted
a box of costume jewelry on the jumbled table.

“Men are dogs,” she agreed as she picked through the collection of ’50s and ’60s paste.

Jewelry had never been her area of expertise but she’d promised Beatrice she’d search
for the missing pieces of her collection.

Just because Beatrice’s grandson was an overbearing, no-good playboy didn’t mean she
would renege on a promise.

She’d shed enough tears over the guy for the past four nights. Cheap wine, sugar,
and hot fictional guys. Perfectly…mindless.

Sighing, she moved on to the next table.

She hoped she found the damn ring soon. She wanted to put all of the Goldens behind
her and out of her mind.

Especially one blue-eyed, blond, backstabbing—

“They’re worse than dogs,” Kate added as she paused to pick up a battered china doll
from the table in front of her. “But…I still can’t believe Jared left without a fight.”

Annabelle rolled her eyes as she sifted through the jewelry,
careful not to prick her finger on an unclasped pin back. “Oh, please, Kate, let’s
not go there. Obviously, the man was only interested in what he could get out of our
relationship. When he realized he’d been caught and screwed his chance to get his
hands on my paintings, he split.”

Kate cocked one eyebrow at her. “And you’re sure he only wanted the paintings?”

No but…
“Positive.”

“Did you even give him the chance to apologize?”

Grimacing, Annabelle returned to the jewelry box. “I won’t be made a fool of again,
Kate. He slept with me to get the pin. That should’ve warned me to stay far away from
him. But I was stupid and let him get close to me again. And he played me.”

“Don’t you think he might really care for you?”

“No.”

Annabelle moved on to another vendor’s stall, not wanting to continue the conversation.
It made her eyes burn with tears she refused to cry. She made a show of staring at
the jewelry in the glass case but in reality, couldn’t see a thing.

Kate moved up beside her and sighed. “I’m sorry. I just…I think Jared felt something
more than just lust for you. I think he really…Hey, isn’t this pretty?”

Kate reached for something in one of the cases and slipped a ring on her right ring
finger. “What color did you say the stone was that you’re looking for?”

She turned to see what Kate was holding out. “Oh, my God.”

She almost grabbed Kate’s hand to bring the piece into better light but stopped before
she made a scene.

“Annabelle?” Kate frowned at her. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Annabelle leaned in and lowered her voice to a whisper, so she
didn’t attract too much attention from the seller. “I think you found Beatrice’s ring.”

Kate looked up, eyes wide. “No way. You’re freaking kidding me.”

“No, I’m not. Let me see it.”

Kate slid the ring off her finger and dropped it into Annabelle’s open palm.

The blue sapphire had the right shape and appeared to be the proper carat weight.
Tarnish covered the plain silver band, and the teardrop stone looked dull from a coating
of what she thought might be soot. Otherwise, it looked exactly like the picture Beatrice
had sent her.

Could it really be that easy? It didn’t seem possible.

“I haven’t gotten a chance to clean that one yet.” The dealer walked over with a smile
on her face. “I found it in a box of jewelry I bought at an estate sale last week.
The stone’s real. A sapphire.”

Trying not to act like an over-eager rube, Annabelle held it up to the light.

At the moment, it didn’t look like it was worth five dollars, much less five hundred,
which was actually closer to the truth.

To Beatrice, it was priceless.
If
it was her ring.

Turning her attention to the inside of the band, she swore she felt lightheaded when
she saw the faint letters that looked like Greek. She wasn’t positive they spelled
the word
passion
but, really, what else could it be?

“How much do want for this?” she asked the vendor.

When she named a ridiculously high price, Annabelle settled into bargaining. She wasn’t
about to cheat the woman but she wasn’t going to pay more than it was really worth.
When they settled on $450, Annabelle walked away with a smile and the ring.

Which she handed back to Kate.

She took it with a confused smile.

“I think you should hold on to that for me,” Annabelle said. “Just for a while.”

She recalled Beatrice telling her about the legend associated with the jewels. Kate
had picked it up first and put it on her finger. She should be the one to give it
to Beatrice. Unless she saw Tyler first.

At least one of the Golden brothers was a gentleman and she had no doubt it was Tyler.