As Annabelle closed the door behind the woman, she smiled pleasantly and waved until Carmen started her car and drove away.

Then she released a long, pent-up sigh and wilted back against the door.

Cold air seeped into her back, making her shiver in reaction.

“Well, that sucked.”

Carmen Moran probably thought she was an idiot. She’d sounded like an idiot.

All that preparation blown to hell.

And nothing she could do about it now.

Pushing away from the door, she headed for the counter and realized the pin was no longer there.

Drawing in a quick breath, she hurried behind the counter, thinking maybe it had dropped behind.

“Looking for this?”

Annabelle shot straight up, gasping when she saw Jared standing in front of the door. He must have let himself in just a second ago.

In his outstretched hand, he held the pin. “I didn’t think you’d want it lying unprotected on the counter so I picked it up. How’d your interview go?”

Her mouth firmed and her cheeks heated with anger. “I need you to go, Jared. Tell your grandmother I want her to have the pin and just go.”

“No. We have unfinished business.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he leaned back against a display case, his face a cool mask.

“No, we don’t.” She spoke carefully, as if she was afraid she’d let her anger get the better of her. “You need to go.”

Jared wasn’t going anywhere. God, she was gorgeous when she was angry, even with her beautiful mouth pursed in a straight line. But he saw tears in her eyes and that made his stomach churn.

Damn it, one of these days he’d put a smile on this woman’s face that would stick.

He shook his head, knowing it would anger her even more, but there was no way he was leaving.

Walking over to her, he set the pin on the counter between them. “Why don’t we go somewhere and talk? Do you live upstairs or is there somewhere else we can go? We need to talk, Annabelle.”

She shook her head again and pointed at the front door. “You need to leave.”

“Sorry, not happening.” Letting his gaze roam the shop, he looked for the stairs to the second floor. He knew she lived above the shop and she wasn’t going to get rid of him so easily.

“Jared, what— Oh, no. Don’t you dare go up those steps.”

As he blatantly ignored her, he heard Annabelle huff and the sound of her angry stomps on the stairs behind him.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“You need a drink. Got any alcohol in this place?”

He reached the top and found himself in her living room. The décor had the look and feel of a romantic country inn with lots of floral fabrics, chunky wood tables, and overstuffed furniture. It felt comfortable. Like home.

Well, not his home, but it certainly fit Annabelle.

A little eclectic, a little traditional, the red velvet accent pillows on the couch added a hint of sensuality.

Beyond the living room, he spied the kitchen through an open door and headed for it.

Behind him, he heard Annabelle reach the top of the stairs.

“I do not want a drink.” The strength was returning to her voice. “It’s barely noon, for heaven’s sake. I want you to leave. If you don’t, I’m calling the cops.”

He reached the kitchen, which didn’t have any windows big enough for her to push him through, so he stopped in the doorway and smiled at her. “Honey, you don’t really want to do that. Besides, I’ve got a proposition for you.”

Her mouth dropped open. “A proposition? What the hell are you talking about?”

He turned to reach for her refrigerator. “You look a little uncomfortable in that suit, hon. Why don’t you go get changed, then we’ll talk.”

He hadn’t been lying to her. He did have a proposition. Just not of a sexual nature.

With the great-sex buzz still zinging through his body, even after he’d spent two hours waiting in his car for Carmen to leave, he had to be careful not to overtip his hand and have Belle physically toss him out. She was upset and angry and he didn’t want to make it worse by grinning like a fool. He had no doubt she’d try to eject him if she decided she wanted him gone.

Of course, there was no way he was leaving. Not now.

He pulled open the fridge. A gallon of milk, a carton of orange juice, and a bottle of white Zinfandel were the only beverages. He pulled out the wine just as something hit him in the back. Turning, he caught a breath-stealing glance of a furious Annabelle as she stomped away. A pillow lay on the floor by his feet.

For a brief second, he considered following her but decided against it. She needed a little time to calm down.

He set the wine bottle on the table, scrounged up glasses from a cabinet, and waited. A minute later, she stomped back, dressed in green army fatigues and a tight Penn State T-shirt that’d seen better days. The faded pink cotton lovingly outlined every single one of her abundant curves.

And given how his cock stirred, you’d think he was a teenager the way his body responded around her.

Thankfully, he’d sat at the dining room table and his erection was hidden.

Watching her approach, he saw her emotions plainly on her face, defeat clear in her eyes.

Annabelle dropped into the seat across from him, her mouth set, but her eyes suspiciously wet. He poured her a glass of wine, topped his own, and then said, “Tell me.”

Without speaking, she reached for the glass and took a healthy swallow. She looked ready to tell him to go to hell.

He braced for a fight, then released his tightly held breath when she started to talk.

“Carmen Moran was here to interview me for a position as a freelance appraiser. I am damn good at what I do and Carmen’s firm is the most respected in the field. I wanted that job, Jared.”

Surprisingly, he heard no condemnation directed toward him in her voice. Only self-recrimination.

No way would he let her feel bad about the attraction that registered off the charts between them. He might not believe in true love or soul mates or anything so prosaic. Pleasure as intense as what they’d experienced wasn’t something you just tossed away.

“Are you in financial trouble?” he asked.

She shook her head. “I’m in no danger of losing the shop. Yes, business has taken a hit in the past few years but I’m not struggling.”

“So you don’t really need the job?”

Sucking in her bottom lip, she just stared at him, as if she didn’t want to say anymore.

Okay, fine. With a smile, he picked up his glass and walked into the living room.

“I’d love to see your home. Why don’t you show me around?”

“No.”

“Gee, Annabelle, is that any way to treat a guest?”

“You’re not a guest.”

“You wound me.” His eye caught on a grouping of paintings in the hallway that probably led to the bedrooms and he headed over to look at them. “But don’t worry, I heal fast.”

“Jared, stop.”

He did, but only when he reached the hall.

“Holy shit.”

He stopped dead in his tracks, staring at the painting.

She had another O’Malley.

He moved down the hall, his heart starting to pound for no good reason.

She had two. The smaller painting wasn’t signed but he’d bet his reputation that was an O’Malley, too. One he’d never seen. One he’d never heard mentioned or catalogued.

“Jared!” Annabelle grabbed his arm and pulled him back in the direction of the kitchen. Away from the paintings. “I want you to leave. Now.”

Annabelle’s heart threatened to pound out of her chest as Jared stared at her father’s paintings in the hall.

She could explain being in possession of another O’Malley. She’d told him she had a few. But Jared was smart and he knew O’Malley’s work.

She’d have a damn hard time explaining the unsigned portrait of her mother if he realized what it was. And he would. She knew he’d be able to tell it was one of her dad’s just by looking it. Everything about it screamed O’Malley, from the color of the paint he used for her mom’s hair to the blue settee she lay on.

She needed him to leave now. Before he looked at her and began to ask questions. Questions she couldn’t answer without risking everything she’d built here.

He didn’t put up a fight as she practically dragged him to the door that led to the stairs on the outside of the building.

Maybe she should have realized he was making it too easy on her. But all she wanted to do after that interview with Carmen was sit in her room and devour a pint of Turkey Hill rocky road ice cream.

Flinging open the door, she shoved him through. “Keep the pin. Just don’t come back.”

She went to slam the door in his face but he put one hand on the door before she could. With the other, he snagged the waistband of her sweats and pulled her closer.

Those blue, blue eyes stared into hers with an intensity she couldn’t break.

“I’ll be back to take you to dinner at seven,” he said. “Make reservations wherever you want but be sure you’re here when I get back. You don’t want me to come looking for you.”

Opening her mouth to tell him in no uncertain terms there was no way in hell she would ever go out with him, Annabelle gasped when his mouth covered hers for a kiss that took her breath away.

Hard, forceful, and utterly wicked, his mouth moved over hers with a possession she should have fought.

But didn’t.

Shocked, she let him kiss her until her body began to respond. Her nipples peaked and hardened, her sex moistened, and she had to force her arms to stay straight at her sides, otherwise she would have wrapped them around his shoulders.