Led into Temptation. Cara Summers

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      2

      THE MOMENT NAOMI entered the suite she and her sisters shared, she felt a bit more of her tension ease. Lunch and champagne with Avery had been fun, but this was really where she wanted to be.

      Slipping out of her shoes and dropping her tote bag on the bed, she moved to the love seats facing each other in front of a bay window. A gift basket sat on the small coffee table. Opening it, she found a box of candy, a business card from the village of Belle Bay and two notes.

      The first one was from Reese.

      Naomi,

      Sorry we can’t be there. Jillian and I have asked Avery to take very good care of you. The one thing we’re sure of is that you’re going to get past this. All of our lives, we’ve seen you set goals for yourself and meet them. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do next. The chocolate is to inspire you to indulge yourself.

      And don’t forget what you always told me when

      I was small and didn’t think I would ever reach my goal. “Little steps. Just take little steps.”

      Love,

      Reese

      Naomi blinked, the back of her eyes burning. She knew without opening the small box that it would contain the special chocolate truffles Reese had created as a trademark confection for Haworth House. Chocolates were Naomi’s weakness, so she rationed her consumption. In a stressful job, it paid off to eat healthy. Her youngest sister had always considered chocolate good therapy. Then she reread the note. We can’t wait to see what you’ll do next.

      But what if the thing she wanted most was to go back to her old job and her old life—before Michael Davenport? Little steps were good advice if she just knew where she was headed….

      With a sigh, she picked up the next note.

      Naomi,

      Avery is always telling me “When a door closes, another door opens.” I hope that by coming to Haworth House you’ll figure out how to open that door. The place has opened up a whole new career for me.

      The business card is from a new boutique in the village called Discoveries. I was thinking that you might want a different wardrobe for when you decide to open that door. And, hey, shopping is the best way I know to destress and get your mind ready to explore new paths.

      Love,

      Jillian

      Blinking again, Naomi studied the card. Discoveries, owned and operated by Molly Pepperman, promised the latest in fashions.

      Obviously, her sisters and Avery were on the same page in pushing her toward a fresh start. And she agreed with them in part. She wanted to discover who the new Naomi Brightman was going to be herself.

      But so far she didn’t have a clue. And how could she be positive that she wanted to leave the old Naomi Brightman behind? After all, they’d traveled a long road together. How was she supposed to change from the person she’d been all her life into someone … she didn’t even know?

       Little steps.

      Her gaze fell on the huge tote bag she carried with her everywhere. If she wanted a new beginning, she could start by getting rid of her tote. She’d had it since she’d started college nine years ago, and it held everything that was absolutely essential to her life. Most people used a filing cabinet, but she carted that tote around like some sort of a security blanket. Or obsession.

      Periodically—say, once a year—she’d sort through it, but almost always when she discarded something, she stuffed in something else she wanted to keep at her fingertips.

      And it weighed a ton. Hefting it up, she turned it over and dumped the contents out on the bed. Then she simply stared. There was a day planner and three notebooks—she never went into meetings or court without one. Then there was her makeup bag, an extra pair of earrings, a change purse, a wallet and all of the little surprise gifts Michael had given her in the six months they’d known each other.

      Somewhere in the roller coaster of emotions she’d experienced in the two weeks since she’d walked into Leo King’s office and been introduced to the two FBI agents, she’d tried to figure out if what she’d felt for Michael Davenport had been love.

      Or had she simply been dazzled by the attention he’d paid her?

      No one had ever treated her the way Michael had, as if she were special. She picked up the souvenir key chain he’d given her on their last night together. It boasted two charms, a silver key to Boston and a crystal heart. When he’d presented it to her, he’d asked for her keys and he’d transferred them to the new chain so that she would always carry the key to his heart.

      The gesture and the words were so typically Michael. He was the perfect gentleman. He’d taken charge of their relationship from that first chance meeting in the Four Seasons and he’d made all the decisions.

      That had been part of his attraction, she supposed. As the oldest, she’d often played a decision-making role when it came to her sisters. And Michael had lifted that burden off her shoulders. He’d even taken charge of the physical side of their relationship. He’d told her that considering her background, he wanted to take things slowly with her.

      Very slowly, to her way of thinking. They’d shared long kisses, even some heavy petting in his private limo. But in the six months she’d known him, they’d never actually made love. She’d thought of objecting more than once, but she hadn’t. It was so much easier to be just swept along.

      Would she have been more aggressive if she’d felt differently about him, she wondered now, or maybe if there’d been more heat between them?

      She’d given her engagement ring to the authorities to help pay back some of the people Michael had swindled. But she’d held on to the trinkets. Originally, he’d asked her to keep them so that when they were old and gray, they could take them out and rekindle memories of their early days together.

      At the time the idea had moved her and she’d promised to keep all of them. Forever. Was that why she’d taken them from her apartment and brought them to Belle Island? Or was she still nursing some adolescent hope that the stories about Michael would turn out to be false, that he would get in touch with her again as he’d promised?

      Whirling, she strode away from the bed and then paced back to it. What in the world was wrong with her? The memories were all lies. Why couldn’t she accept that? She stared down at the little mementos. She should toss them. But for tonight she wasn’t going to put too much pressure on herself. Little steps.

      After rescuing her makeup, СКАЧАТЬ