No Reservations (2 page)

Two

Present

Tyler Golden stopped just outside the Adamstown antiques store where his brother,
Jared, planned to make a very public display of intention.

His grandmother, Beatrice, and Jed had already entered the building.

Through the front window, Tyler saw store owner, Annabelle Elder, the woman Jed could
no longer live without.

She moved through the crowd, her bright red hair flashing under the lights. Annabelle
had a wide smile to go along with her vibrant hair and vivid green eyes and a sweet
nature that eased Jed’s harder edges. When she laughed, everyone in her vicinity was
drawn to her.

Everyone except Tyler.

His attention had latched on to the woman at Annabelle’s side.

Kate Song, Annabelle’s best friend. Her long, dark hair accentuated the paleness of
her skin. Her huge, dark eyes and exotic features blended into a beauty that had tugged
at Tyler’s libido since the moment he’d seen her.

The first woman to do so since his fiancée.

It’d been almost two years since Mia had died and, of course, the first woman Tyler
had been attracted to had turned out to be engaged.

Apparently, his luck hadn’t changed much.

A cold breeze slid by him as the women moved into another room, out of sight. Tyler
decided it was past time to join his family and pushed through the front door.

Once inside, he stopped for a quick look around.

The shop looked clean, open, elegant. Not a dusty and disorganized jumble like a stereotypical
antiques store.

People stood in small groups everywhere . . . talking, laughing, having a good time.
No one he recognized, but that was probably because he wasn’t an art person like Jed.

Annabelle was celebrating the opening of her very own art gallery featuring the work
of her late father, a world-famous artist whose murder, along with that of Annabelle’s
mother and the man she considered her second father, had created a worldwide scandal
several years ago. Annabelle was finally taking back her birthright and her name as
Peter O’Malley’s daughter.

Tyler wished her all the best, and he’d make damn sure she and Jed had the time and
the privacy they needed to make their relationship work. If it meant he had to call
in some favors from a few well-placed friends, he wouldn’t hesitate.

He could be ruthless when it came to his family.

Though he hadn’t been able to do a damn thing to help Mia. And she hadn’t—

No.

Pushing that thought out of his mind, he made his way through the crowd to his grandmother
and brother, just as Annabelle spotted them from the front of the gallery, where she
was welcoming the guests.

“I have one more person I’d like to thank,” she said. “Without him, I don’t think
I’d be in this position. Ladies and gentlemen, Jared Golden was the catalyst for tonight’s
event. He provided me with the final piece to my father’s Passion series. Thank you,
Jared, and thank you all for coming tonight.”

Annabelle turned to Kate, still at her side, and the women exchanged a few words,
their gazes darting toward Jed before Kate’s slid to him. And held.

His grandmother said something he didn’t hear, but Jed and Beatrice moved forward
and Tyler followed along, his gaze never leaving Kate’s.

Annabelle stepped in front of them and Tyler forced himself to focus on her.

She wore a smile so bright, he couldn’t help but return it.

“Mrs. Golden.” Annabelle reached for his grandmother’s hand. “I’m so glad you could
come.”

“I wouldn’t have missed it for the world, Annabelle. Your shop is beautiful, and the
gallery is amazing.”

Their conversation continued but Tyler couldn’t follow. His attention had shifted
back to Kate.

She looked stunning, covered from neck to ankles in champagne-colored silk. Tyler
would’ve never thought a dress that completely covered every inch of a woman’s body
could be anything other than concealing.

This one . . .

Hell, this dress conformed to every curve, no matter how slight, and accentuated her
femininity to an exponential level.

He wanted to run his hands over the shiny material. Wondered if she was wearing anything
under the dress, because he couldn’t see any lines. And he was looking damn hard.

His temperature began to rise and he knew it wasn’t because the gallery was full of
people. It was Kate.

Suddenly, Kate stepped up beside Belle and held out her hand, palm up.

“But the set shouldn’t be parted,” Annabelle said.

Set? What
set?

His grandmother gasped and he turned to see her expression break into an amazed smile.
“Oh, Annabelle, you found the ring.”

Ah. The missing piece of his grandmother’s stolen jewelry. Annabelle had worn the
pin, stolen from his grandmother decades ago and lost for years until Annabelle’s
late grandfather had bought it at a yard sale, to Haven’s New Year’s Eve party.

Jed, the idiot, had nearly lost Annabelle when she’d overheard him telling Tyler about
the piece. She’d thrown it at him in anger the morning after the party, and it’d taken
Jed days to find her.

“Actually, Kate did,” Annabelle continued. “She picked it up at one of the stands
at Renninger’s Flea Market. If you hadn’t shown up tonight, I would have contacted
you tomorrow.”

Beatrice’s smile couldn’t be contained. “Well, now, I’m absolutely stunned.” She turned
to Kate with a smile Tyler had learned to be wary of. “Kate, why don’t you give that
to Tyler? He’ll hold on to it for me. Won’t you, sweetheart?”

Since he never refused his grandmother anything, he nodded and dutifully held out
his hand. “Of course, Nana.”

Their gazes locked as Kate stepped closer. She placed the ring in the center of his
palm, her fingertips brushing against his skin for a brief second before she pulled
back.

He forced his hand to remain open when all he wanted was to grab her and pull her
against him.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Jed and Annabelle exchange soft words and a kiss.

Good for Jed.

Tyler fought the urge to do the same to Kate.

His hand clenched around the ring and he nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Not
sure his voice wouldn’t betray his simmering desire for this woman.

Because somewhere in this crowd, he was pretty sure he’d find her fiancé.

He waited for her to move away, to drop his gaze and put him out of his misery.

Instead, she held it. And stepped closer.

Now he caught a whiff of the spicy scent she wore. Not perfume. It didn’t have that
underlying astringent smell most perfumes carried. This smelled more organic.

And much more enticing. It made him want to nuzzle his nose into her neck and lick
a path from her collarbone to just behind her ear.

“How have you been, Tyler?”

The sound of her voice jolted through him like a mild electric shock. Luckily, he
controlled any outward response that could’ve embarrassed the hell out of both of
them.

Instead, he nodded. “I’ve been fine. And you?”

She hesitated, her head tilting to one side, as if weighing her response. Or maybe
she was reacting to his cold tone. He hadn’t meant to sound so damn distant, but he
didn’t want to put her in an awkward position either.

If she were free—

“I’ve been better, actually.”

She smiled but he saw it didn’t reach her eyes.

Irrational fear made his heart pound and sent a chill through his body even as he
stepped closer. “Is everything okay?”

She nodded but began to worry her bottom lip with her teeth. “Everything’s fine. I
just . . . I mean, there’s nothing physically wrong.”

He frowned, wanting to pull her away from the crowd, from all the people and the noise.
Get her alone.

Which wasn’t going to happen.

“Did something happen? Do you need help?”

He’d do whatever she needed, get her whatever she wanted.

The corners of her mouth lifted and he was struck by the fact that he didn’t think
he’d ever really seen her smile, as if she didn’t have a worry in the world.

Her smiles were always tinged with . . . something. Not fear, but something that held
her back from total enjoyment.

“Actually . . . could we talk for a few minutes? Alone?”

He bit back the immediate urge to say “Absolutely” and hustle her out of the building.
She’d think he was an idiot, not to mention it’d probably cause a scene.

He nodded. “Of course. Where—”

She took his hand, the one not holding the ring, and tugged him toward the front room
and the door. But not before giving a furtive look over her shoulder.

As if searching for someone. He looked too, but no one appeared to be watching them.

She dropped his hand as they entered the less-crowded front room. She smiled and nodded
at a few people but never stopped to talk, kept moving forward. They reached the front
door in less than a minute and she pushed through, releasing a barely audible sigh
of relief when she stood on the sidewalk.

The cool night air slapped against his senses but didn’t make a dent in his internal
temperature, which was working its way to a boil.

And wasn’t helped by the fact that his gaze kept trailing down her back to watch her
swaying ass.

You’re a
dog.

True. And still, he couldn’t make himself not look.
Shit.

He thought she’d stop now that they’d reached the sidewalk in front of the building.
Instead, she continued on, not running but not taking a leisurely stroll either. Finally,
when she reached the intersection at Main Street, she stopped at the corner and took
a deep breath, which she released with an audible rush.

She didn’t say anything right away, just stared straight ahead. He was pretty sure
she wasn’t looking at anything in particular.

He, on the other hand, allowed his attention to shift over his surroundings.

Brick townhouses and small wooden homes with picket fences. A beautiful church and
a Victorian bed-and-breakfast. Several storefronts farther up the street.

All the properties appeared well-maintained.
Quaint
described it perfectly.

Considering that he and Jed had just bought a large property not too far from town
that they planned to turn into an exclusive spa retreat in the next few months, he
should be more interested.

Time enough for that later, he decided.

Right now, he focused all his energy on Kate. He wanted to enjoy these few stolen
moments before he had to walk away from her. Again.

He gave her a full minute before he couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Kate, is everything
okay?”

With a sigh, she turned to face him, arms crossed over her chest as if she were cold.
Slipping his leather jacket off his shoulders, he wrapped it around hers. She didn’t
tell him not to, and he could’ve sworn he saw her shiver, even after she drew it together
in front of her.

Her gaze lingered on his for a few seconds before she looked up into the sky.

Following her gaze, he realized he could see a hell of a lot more stars here than
he could in center-city Philadelphia.

Nice.

But far less interesting than she was.

“I’ve spent all of my life here,” she finally said. “It’s so peaceful. Quiet.”

Since he had no idea where she was going with this, he nodded, though she couldn’t
see because she was still staring up at the sky. “Seems like it would be.”

She looked over her shoulder at him, dark eyes huge. “Are you going to be spending
a lot of time up here getting the spa going? Or will Jared handle that?”

Did she want him to be here often? “We have good people in place at Haven, so I’ll
probably be able to spend some time here. Jed tends to go a little wild if I’m not
around to rein him in occasionally.”

There was that half smile again. “You two work well together. You get along well,
too, don’t you?”

“Yeah, we do. Better now that we’re older.”

He took a step closer, unable to stop, but clenched his hands into fists so he wouldn’t
reach for her and pull her against him.

Her smile spread. “I bet Jared was a hell-raiser as a teenager.”

Tyler laughed and felt his lips curve in an answering smile. “You could say that.”

Her head tilted to the side. “And you were always the stable one, weren’t you?”

“Would you be surprised if I told you I wasn’t?”

She shook her head and a ribbon of straight silky black hair fell over her shoulder.
He wanted to wind it around his hand and tug her closer. “No, because I don’t really
know you, do I?”

“True.” He took a deep breath. “Would you like to know me better, Kate?”

She paused, and a deep-seated longing curled through him, tightening his stomach into
a knot.

“I broke off my engagement.”

He blinked, momentarily stunned. Then the dark, fiery lust that’d been percolating
deep in his gut began to rise. “I’m sorry.”

But he wasn’t. Hell, how could he be sorry when he wanted her so badly his teeth fucking
ached with it?