By Private Invitation (35 page)

Would it be bad if he knew who she really was?

And what if someone else was hunting her? What if someone exposed her before she got
the chance to tell Jared who she was? Would he be angry she’d lied to him?

Hell, maybe her true identity didn’t even matter anymore. The tragedy that had destroyed
her world more than a decade ago was old news. She’d survived. She’d built a life
and a career.

And she’d fallen for a guy who deserved to know who she was. Because if the past blew
up in her face, she wanted him to know what he was in for. But did she want to continue
a relationship with a man who was having her investigated behind her back?

There were too many damn questions.

The bell over the door rang, startling a gasp out of her.

“Hey, you ready to head—Whoa, Annabelle.” Kate held out her hands, as if declaring
surrender. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I…” Kate’s gaze flashed over her, concern
showing in her narrowed eyes. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

She sighed. “Someone’s digging into my past.”

Kate frowned. “Oh. That’s not good. Who do you…” She paused. “Wait, you think it’s
Jared, don’t you?”

“It makes sense. He’s seen the painting of my mom and he’s a smart guy.”

Annabelle abandoned the rug in the middle of the floor to sit on the stool behind
the main desk, resting her elbows on the counter.

Kate followed, mirroring her pose on the other side of the desk. “Assuming you’re
right, and that’s a big assumption at this point, what are you going to do?”

Annabelle bit her lip. “Do you think I should tell him?”

Kate just gazed at her steadily. “Do you want to tell him?”

She thought about it for several seconds. “I don’t want this secret hanging over our
heads like a black rain cloud. I
want
to trust him with this.”

Kate’s smile had a wry twist to it. “But…”

She shrugged. “What if he’s only after my dad’s paintings? And I’m just the means
to get them? Or what if it all blows up again? What if all the publicity is just too
much? He shows up in the tabloids sometimes. I don’t know that I want to live that
life. Not with my past.”

“Do you honestly think he’s sleeping with you just so he can get to your dad’s paintings?”

Damn, she really hoped not. But…

“The media was relentless after my parents were killed. They were vicious and cruel.
I don’t know that I could live through that again. I come with a lot of baggage, Kate.
He’s got family issues of his own, big ones. Maybe he just won’t want to deal with
my shit.” Shaking her head, she sighed. “You know, I don’t know why I’m even stressing
over this. It’s not like he’s going to ask me to marry him. When we first met, he
told me he was never getting married. Said he didn’t believe in it and I think I understand
why now. Maybe none of this will even matter. Maybe he’ll just say ‘See ya’ and move
on.”

“But you don’t want him to, do you?”

Kate’s quiet question made her breath hitch in her chest. “I knew going into this
that he didn’t want a long-term relationship. And I wasn’t looking for that either.”

“But that’s changed?”

Had it? Honestly…Yes, it had. Christ, why didn’t she just ask to have her heart broken?

She stared at Kate, whose eyes seemed so sad.

“Hey…did something happen?”

Kate’s gaze dropped for a second before she nodded. “I called off the engagement.”

Annabelle’s eyes popped wide and her mouth opened on a gasp. “Oh, God.” She reached
across the counter to take Kate’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “When?”

“Last night. I knew I couldn’t keep going like this. It wasn’t fair to Arnie or me.”
She sniffed, blinking back tears. “He didn’t even put up much of a fight.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Me too, for letting it go on so long when I knew it wasn’t right.”

“Then it was right thing to do. And maybe that’s what I need to do. Break it off now.
Before it goes too far.”

“Do you really want to?”

Kate’s quiet question had Annabelle shaking her head, though not in denial.

“This day is totally fucked up,” Annabelle finally said. “This calls for several bottles
of Arbor Mist, Double Stuf Oreos, Cherry Garcia ice cream, and that first season of
True Blood
we’ve been meaning to watch. I think we deserve to forget about the world for a little.”

“Are you going to tell her? It was difficult to find but I
did
find it, Jed. If someone else decides to look…”

Jared spared Dane a glance as he read over the report Dane had prepared. How Dane
had found a copy of the court order changing Graceanna Belle O’Malley’s name to Annabelle
Elder, Jared wasn’t sure he wanted to know. He had no doubt the paper was legit, though
Dane’s means of retrieval were probably slightly less than legal.

It was the smoking gun. And it screwed Jared five ways to Sunday.

From outside, he heard the muted chaos of Philadelphia traffic. So different from
the occasional buzz of traffic he could hear at Annabelle’s place.

He’d called her last night to tell her he could come up today. She’d sounded…drunk.

Not sloppy, falling-down drunk. Just buzzed enough to slightly slur her words. And
she’d sounded sad. Upset.

He’d asked what was wrong. She’d told him about Kate breaking off her engagement.

He knew how she felt about Kate’s engagement. She wouldn’t
have been so sad over just that. Did she suspect something? Or was that his own guilty
mind talking?

Shit.
He tossed the paper on the desk. “If I tell her I know, she’ll be upset that I had
her investigated. But if I don’t, her identity’s not safe and someone could use this
to hurt her. And then I’ll have to kill them. Christ, this is a fucking mess.”

Dane laced his fingers over his stomach and stared at him. “So what are you going
to do?”

Good question. After the horror she’d lived through, he understood why she’d wanted
to be someone else, someone no one knew. It explained her reluctance to be seen in
public with him. His family and his bank account made him a public figure. He’d never
had a problem with it before. Now…

They may cost him the woman he…What? What did he want from Annabelle?

Jared raised a hand to rub at his temple. “Damn, my head hurts.”

“You need to tell her what’s going on,” Dane said.

Hot anger that anyone might dare hurt her boiled in his stomach like acid. He’d do
whatever it took to spare her that.

Including telling her he’d had her investigated. “And when she tells me to go to hell…”

Dane gave an amused snort. “The mighty Jared Golden thwarted by a beautiful redhead.
I’m more impressed with her now than I was last weekend.”

When Dane had been the second man in her bed. The remembrance of her passion that
night made Jared hot as hell. He wanted to haul ass back to Adamstown, get her back
into bed, naked and panting his name.

“See what you can do to hide the information. I need to clean off my desk so I can
get the hell out of here.”

“Belle, we need to talk.”

Because it was exactly what she’d meant to say to Jared when he walked through the
door of the shop later that afternoon, it threw her for a second.

The smile that’d curved her lips when she’d first seen him froze before fading.

Some emotion passed through his eyes. Regret, remorse. She couldn’t tell.

And her lungs seized into a tight ball of anxiety. He knew.

He took a deep breath. “Is anyone here?”

She shook her head, feeling a deadly cold chill encase her body. “The store’s empty
for now. What’s wrong, Jared? Did something happen?”

He paused and took a deep breath. “I know who you are, Belle. I know who your parents
were.”

She actually felt like he’d kicked her in the gut. Even though she’d suspected it
was coming, it still hurt like hell. “I don’t know what you mean.”

But she did. She knew exactly what he meant.

“You’re Graceanna O’Malley, the daughter of Peter and Catrina O’Malley.”

She hadn’t heard anyone speak her real name to her face in years, and now it felt
like tiny daggers in her heart to hear it coming out of his mouth. She wanted to feel
a sense of relief that he knew her secret, wanted to be relieved that he knew. That
she didn’t have to tell him.

The relief never came. Only that ice-cold chill in her blood.

She didn’t bother to deny it. Why should she, when she’d thought about telling him
herself?

“How did you find out?”

His eyebrows lifted for a brief second, as if he hadn’t expected her to admit it.
As if he thought she’d at least put up a fight. Then he took another deep breath before
saying, “Dane.”

She understood what he wasn’t saying. He’d had her investigated.

Okay, she’d known this was a very real possibility. She’d known Jared was smart enough
to figure or at least wonder why she had so many O’Malleys in her collection. He’d
seen the portrait of her mother.

So why did she feel so betrayed?

Her chin lifted. “How long have you known?”

“Since this morning. I left soon after he told me. Belle—”

“How long has he been investigating me?”

Jared paused now and she knew again what he was going to say.

“Since I saw the O’Malleys upstairs.”

Her lips curved but it couldn’t be considered a smile. “They’re not for sale.”

He straightened as if she’d offended him but he shook his head, his expression carefully
neutral. “I’m not asking. I would never ask you to sell them. Listen, Belle, I know
what you must think about me right now, and I probably deserve it but there’s something
else.”

He moved closer and she took one step back. If he touched her, she might shatter.
That ice was moving out of her blood and into the rest of her body.

Jared’s mouth tightened then, the only outward sign that he’d noted her response.
“Dane said he had trouble accessing the information but it wasn’t impossible. Whoever
hid you…You’re no longer safe.”

She wanted to laugh but could barely breathe. “I’ll pass on that information. Thank
you for letting me know. Is there anything else you need to tell me?”

He moved close enough to touch and she couldn’t move fast enough to get away. He froze
for a brief second before his expression hardened with determination. “Don’t. Don’t
pull away. I know you’re pissed at me and you have every right to be. But it doesn’t
change how I feel about you. God damn it, Belle, I care about you.”

Her breath caught in her throat as she waited for him to say those three little words.
The three little words that might make this all better.

But he didn’t.

“We work well together. And I’m not ready to give this up yet. Let me make sure the
information about your parents gets buried right this time. I’ll make it all go away.
No one will ever know who you are.”

And his reputation would safe. No one would ever known he’d dated the daughter of
one of America’s most scandalous affairs.

Goose bumps covered her skin, the chill turning to a gut-churning, teeth-aching cold
that encased her from head to toe. “I want you to leave.”

“No way. We’re going to figure this out, Belle. We’re going to get past this.”

Get past this to where? For what purpose? Did he want more than a sexual relationship
with her? Or was his reputation more important? So far he hadn’t said anything that
led her to believe otherwise.

“There’s nothing to figure out. Thank you for the information. I’ll be sure to tell
my lawyer. Please close the door behind you.”

“Annabelle, we can—”

“There’s no
we
, Jared. You made that perfectly clear at the beginning of this affair. No ties, no…”
No love. “I look forward to continuing our business relationship but I’m sure you
can understand if I’d like to work with Tyler from here on out. That might be better
for both of us.”

At least it would be for her. She’d already done the absolute worst thing she could
have done by falling for Jared. To have to work with him now, after this…