by Anara Bella
Chapter Four
“You’re certain you’re okay?”
Asia picked at a stubborn bit of gunk stuck to the bottom of the cubbyhole she was cleaning and tried hard not to feel exasperated at the oft-repeated question. She knew everyone was concerned for her, but it was hard not to think about the robbery when everyone kept bringing it up. And she really needed to stop thinking about the robbery. “Yes, Gram, I’m sure. Don’t worry about me.”
Peeking over the counter, which was currently covered with the emptied cubbyhole contents, she watched as her grandmother flitted from item to item in the store like some drunken hummingbird. An action Asia usually found comforting because it was typical for Gram, but right now her grandmother just looked troubled.
What made her constant motion singularly amazing was that her grandmother was sixty-five years old. But she neither looked, nor acted, anywhere near her age. Which was just one of the many things Asia loved about her.
“Don’t talk nonsense, child. Of course I’m going to worry about you.”
Asia frowned at Gram’s sharp tone and stood, stretching her legs in the process. “Well, try not to, okay. To tell you the truth, I’m just relieved we didn’t have much in the till.”
Waving away her concern, her grandmother pshawed the very idea. “I could care less about the money. It’s you I care about. I’m so glad Marcus was here to help you. Such a nice young man.”
Asia rolled her eyes at Gram’s obvious matchmaking. “Yes, but I wasn’t in any danger by then.”
“Still, you could have been stuck tied up for hours before someone found you.”
Asia shuddered at the mere thought of it. She couldn’t bear to think of what that would have been like. Thirty minutes had been a half hour too long. “Well, I wasn’t, so everything worked out fine. I just wish the thief hadn’t been wearing a mask so I could have identified him.”
Gram stared off in the distance, looking even more agitated. “Yes. A real shame.”
What was up with her today? “Is something wrong?”
“No, no. It’s just that I guess we’ll never find the thief. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. So many unsolved crimes these days.”
Huh? “Not in Forsythia Falls.”
Her grandmother’s pacing jerked to a sudden stop. “Really, Asia. That’s only because there’s almost never any crime here. Besides, it’s for the best that you can’t identify him.”
Asia blinked. “Why’s that?”
Her Gram stopped and finally let her worry show. “Because you might not be safe if he thought you could identify him. This way, he’ll leave you alone.”
At last, the reason why Gram was acting so strange. She rushed to reassure her. “You’re right. He won’t bother with me or the shop anymore. Especially since he got almost nothing. No reason for him to come back.”
Thank God for that.
She changed the subject since the topic bothered her grandmother. It bothered her too, but she wouldn’t let Gram know that. “So, what are your plans for tonight?”
Her grandmother’s periwinkle-blue skirt puffed out when she resumed traipsing about. Nothing kept her grandmother down. She had more life in her little finger than a lot of people half her age had in their whole body.
With relief, Asia saw the worry leave Gram’s face as the twinkle returned to her eyes. “Sam’s taking me to dinner and then we’re going over to Frank and Myrtle’s for canasta. And don’t forget, I won’t be here on Friday.” Her grandmother stopped moving and looked back at Asia. “Are you sure about this? I still think Sam and I should cancel our weekend at the bed and breakfast.”
Asia shook her head emphatically. No way was she going to be responsible for ruining Gram’s plans. It was the first anniversary of Sam and her grandmother’s first date. How many of those did you have at their age? Not many, she’d warrant. “I already told you. I want you to go.”
“But won’t you be nervous in the shop all by yourself?”
Asia strove to exude a confidence she didn’t feel, ignoring the nervous flutter in her stomach. She’d get over it. “I’ll be fine. Go, have fun. Enjoy your hot weekend.”
Gram scrutinized Asia and then relented with a wink. “We will.”
Asia grinned. “I can’t believe your social calendar is busier than mine.”
“Since you refuse to date, that’s your own fault.”
She’d stepped into that one. “You know I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone.”
Her grandmother snorted. “You’re scared is what you are. Ever since you broke up with Davis you’ve shunned men.”
Asia wanted to refute what she said but couldn’t. “That’s not because I’m afraid. It’s common sense. Men are only out for themselves.”
“Not all of them are cheaters like Davis.”
But they still couldn’t be trusted. “I know, but I don’t want to get involved with anyone else. I’m not ready.”
Her thoughts flew to Marcus and the way he made her feel with just a look, but she shoved him out of her head. She was just missing sex. That’s all it was.
Her grandmother stopped moving and faced her. “It’s been two years since you broke off the engagement. Someday you’re going to have to jump back into the dating pool.”
Not anytime soon. Maybe never. How could she? She’d been so wrong about Davis. Could she ever again trust her instincts when it came to men?
She suddenly remembered Thea and Lexi’s suggestion to forget about relationships and just have some hot sex. It was tempting. Really tempting, but way too risky. “We’ll see.”
Her grandmother gave a great sigh and shook her head. Asia hoped it meant the end of the pointless topic they’d gone over too many times to count. Just in case it wasn’t, she dropped to her haunches behind the counter to discourage further conversation and went back to cleaning the cubbyholes.
The front door tinkled and she glanced over the top to see who had entered the store.
Damn.
It was Marcus. She so wasn’t ready to see him again. She dropped down farther and prayed he hadn’t seen her.
A few seconds later his head appeared over the top of the counter. “Asia. How are you feeling today?”
Feeling stupid that he’d caught her hiding, she kept wiping out the cupboards with unnecessary gusto. “I’m good.”
He came around the counter and dropped to his haunches beside her. “You sure? I can still see the rope burns on your wrists.” Concern resonated in his voice, making her feel all soft and fluttery inside.
She would have worn long sleeves to hide the marks if it wasn’t so warm today. At least her white jeans hid the ones on her ankles.
She glanced down at her wrists when his fingers gently traced the already fading red marks, causing a secret thrill to race down her spine.
She shrugged, more to shake off the unwanted feeling than for his benefit. “Looks worse than it is.”
Their eyes caught and held. She held her breath as if in expectation of something. Of what, she wasn’t quite sure but her gut told her it meant trouble. She broke eye contact.
He stood and stepped back around the counter again.
“Marcus, how good to see you.”
Her grandmother’s voice cut in, enveloping him with welcome. Asia groaned to herself, knowing Gram would start in on the matchmaking again and there was no way to avoid it short of sneaking out the back way on her hands and knees. She eyed the door leading out back with more than a little longing but wasn’t willing to lower herself to that just yet.
Realizing she was still crouched down like an idiot, Asia stood in time to see Marcus enfolded in a bear hug. He smiled and hugged back. “You’re looking well, Astrid.”
Her grandmother primped. “Why thank you, dear boy. I do my best. You know, I can’t thank you enough for helping Asia yesterday.”
“There’s nothing to thank me for. I’m just glad I came when I did. Although I was surprised when you weren’t
here.”
Asia frowned. Why would he be surprised by that? Asia often worked in the store alone.
Her Gram’s eyes shifted, making her look peculiarly guilty, but of what? “Something came up at the last minute. I’m sorry I missed our appointment.”
Appointment? What appointment? Asia had known since the beginning of the week that Gram wouldn’t be working yesterday.
And then realization struck. More matchmaking attempts by Gram. She’d wanted them to spend time alone together yesterday. It had worked too, although not quite the way Gram had hoped, Asia was sure.
He waved off Gram’s apology. “Doesn’t matter. That’s why I dropped by. I wanted to see how Asia was today and I was hoping I’d bump into you as well.”
“Did you now? Well, here I am, so spit it out.”
He grinned, no doubt at her choice of words. “I need some help. I found an old chest of drawers in the attic. It’s in pretty rough shape but I’d like to know if it’s worth fixing.”
Her grandmother patted his hand. “You’ve come to the right place. Astrid’s Antiques has always offered this kind of help as a service to our customers.”
“That’s what I’d heard. When can you come out to have a look?”
Gram looked her way. “Depends on Asia.”
She did a double take. What? “You usually take care of that area.”
Her grandmother nodded. “Yes, but it’s in the attic. That’s a lot of stairs for my old knees to climb.”
Asia’s eyes narrowed in skepticism. “Since when have you had trouble with your knees?”
Her grandmother’s gaze flicked aside. “It’s a recent development.”
It would have to be, since it was the first Asia had heard of it. More than a little suspicious, Asia studied her grandmother, but she just gave Asia a wide-eyed look that was pretty darned convincing. How the hell her grandmother managed to look the picture of innocence when Asia strongly suspected she was lying through her teeth, she didn’t know. She was up to something. Most likely matchmaking.
Then again, Gram was sixty-five. Asia had never heard Gram complain of her knees before, but maybe something had changed.
Asia relented. “Fine, I’ll take care of it.” She turned toward Marcus, not at all noticing the way his gorgeous blue eyes picked up the cerulean of his shirt. “When should I come over?”
“Anytime. Tomorrow afternoon would be good.”
Before she could say anything Gram jumped in. “That’s perfect. I can watch the store tomorrow afternoon. We’re not heading out to the bed and breakfast until after Sam closes up anyway.”
Asia nodded, already freaking out at the mere idea of being alone with Marcus in his home. Gram had done it to her again. “Thursday afternoon it is. Around three okay?”
Marcus nodded. “Perfect. I can still get some writing done before you come.”
Of course, her mind went straight to the gutter. And the last thing she needed was her mind to be wandering off to thoughts of Marcus and coming. His cock hard and ready for her. Her body warm and soft to receive him. Her stomach plummeted with desire, something she hadn’t felt for a very long time.
Heat washed over her and Asia felt her face turning a lovely fire-engine red to match her sandals. She was in so much trouble.
Feeling boxed in and more than a little panicky, Asia worked to accept her fate. She was going over to Marcus’s house. They would be alone. And she was horny.
Shit.
Could she handle her hormones for that amount of time? She called up her resolve. Of course she could, no matter how turned on she always felt around Marcus. She was made of tougher stuff than that. “I’ll see you then.”
Her grandmother nodded her pleasure at the arrangement. “You’re a good girl.”
Sure she was. Asia internally rolled her eyes at herself. What she was, was a sap.
Chapter Five
Asia still couldn’t believe she was standing on Marcus’s front porch. This was the last place she wanted to be. No, that wasn’t true. The last place was anywhere inside the house alone with him.
She couldn’t shake the recollection of how close she’d come to letting him kiss her the day he’d untied her. It was an unwanted memory burned into her brain with the laser from hell. She couldn’t seem to stop thinking about it. His closeness, his touch. Damn it, he’d almost kissed her and worse, she’d almost let him. And God only knew what that would have led to.
The fact that he’d given her the chance to pull away still surprised her more than a little bit. He had to have been able to see how much she’d wanted him to kiss her in that moment. Thank God she’d come to her senses in time. But what concerned her most was the question of whether she’d be able to stick to her resolve if she spent too much time alone with him.
Which was why she really, really didn’t want to be here.
Before she’d met Marcus, she’d thought she had great self-control. But now, she wondered if it wasn’t just that she’d never truly been tempted in the past two years.
Not until a tall, dark, gorgeous stud like Marcus had come into her life.
Why the hell did he have to move to Forsythia Falls anyway? Couldn’t he have stayed wherever it was he came from? Nice and far away? Somewhere she wasn’t?
She sighed, oddly relieved now that she’d gotten her little internal rant out of her system.
Which was great, but she really needed to stop dawdling and get this over with as quickly as possible. There was no avoiding the meeting and the sky was looking very ominous to the north. With thunderstorms in the forecast, and dark clouds already headed their way, she needed to get this over with so she could get out of here and back home again before they hit. Some of these late June storms could be brutal, and the back roads she’d taken to get to his house on the outskirts of town flooded fast when there was a downpour.
She straightened her skirt and double-checked all the buttons were closed on her new short-sleeved blouse. And was once again annoyed that she cared about how she looked around Marcus. It had taken her far too long to decide what to wear around a guy she kept telling herself she didn’t care about.
She lifted her hand to knock, but before she made contact the door swung wide to reveal Marcus standing there dressed in casual jeans and a T-shirt. He looked yummy as hell and wore a slight grin on his face as if he knew something she didn’t.
Oh great. Now she felt stupid. How long had she been standing there in indecision on his front porch? Had he seen her? Did he know how close she’d come to hightailing it out of there?
Shit. She always managed to do something embarrassing around this guy. She made a stab at covering. “I was just admiring your gorgeous porch. They did a great job of restoring it.”
The corners of his striking blue eyes crinkled with the amusement twinkling in their depths. It was obvious her attempted cover story hadn’t fooled him one bit.
Just peachy.
“Thanks. I think so too. Come on in.”
There he went being all nice and considerate again by not pointing it out. Even if he was laughing on the inside.
She shook off her embarrassment and stepped into the foyer.
Marcus closed the door and gave her a warm smile. “I’m glad you could come over today. It was probably a huge inconvenience.”
You have no idea. “No problem at all. I didn’t have anything else I had to do.” Aside from staying as far away from you as possible, that is.
“Well, I appreciate it anyway.”
She took in her surroundings with some surprise. “You have a lovely place here.”
And she wasn’t kidding. The whole place had a definite country feel to it but it was very eclectic. And very masculine. There was nothing fussy about it. All clean lines, plank hardwood floors, a minimal amount of knickknacks to the point of being almost sparse, juxtaposed with bold modern art on the walls. It shouldn’t have worked but somehow it did, feeling very inviting in the process.
“Thanks. T
his way.”
She followed him as he led the way up the stairs. Hard-pressed not to spend the time admiring his tight ass, she forced herself to look away and take in every detail of her surroundings instead. The second floor, where the bedrooms were, was the same as the main level with clean masculine lines and a wonderful feeling of spaciousness.
He led her up another set of stairs. “Watch your step here. These stairs are pretty narrow.”
At the top, he opened a small door and flicked a switch. When she followed him through, she was more than a little surprised at the sight she was greeted with.
She stopped and took in her surroundings. “Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an attic that was this clean and dust free.”
He laughed. “You wouldn’t have said that a couple of weeks ago.”
She crooked an eyebrow. “So this is a recent development.”
“Call it a project. It was packed with dust-covered boxes the previous owners left behind. I was determined to clean it out and see what was up here. That’s when I found the piece I want you to look at. It was buried behind a wall of boxes and a great old trunk.”
She spotted the old steamer trunk right away and immediately fell in love with it. “You must mean this one.”
Black with its original brass fittings and wood slats, in pristine condition. All it needed was a bit of cleaning to bring it back to almost new condition. “This is gorgeous. It couldn’t have been used very much.”
“I know. I was thinking of putting it downstairs somewhere.”
“You should. It would look amazing all cleaned up. I’ll give you some pointers if you want to do it yourself.”
“I would, thanks.”
When she finally tore her gaze away from the trunk, she spotted the Victorian dresser he wanted her to see. She went over and bent to take a closer look, running her hand over the bow front. “This will need a lot of work.”
Handles were missing, the front of the bottom drawer was sitting on the floor in front of it, the top was warped and the whole thing was covered in at least three coats of chipped paint. But it was an antique well worth restoring.
