Led into Temptation

“Junior high. I must have been fourteen. Lowell was my first love, and the reason I discovered I was gay at an early age. But I was afraid to say anything, even to Lowell. In junior high I felt I had to at least pass as a heterosexual. Do you remember your first crush?”

She did, and for a second, Naomi felt heat rise in her face again.

“You’re blushing,” Avery said. “That good, huh?”

She waved a hand. “It was a crush. All fantasy and no substance.”

“The best kind.” Avery grinned. “Tell me.”

She’d never told anyone.

“Confession is good for the soul,” Avery urged.

“It’s silly. Not even Reese and Jillian know. But when I was fourteen, I had this super crush on a young priest who’d been assigned to our boarding school.”

“Really?” Avery’s eyes lit up. “Shades of The Thorn-birds. The young innocent girl, the handsome caring priest, forbidden love … all set against the rugged landscape of Australia. Adored the novel. And Richard Chamberlain in the movie—be still my heart.”

Naomi nodded, relaxing a bit when she saw that he wasn’t shocked. “Exactly. I’d bought the book and smuggled it into the dorm. I read it by flashlight under the covers. I loved it.”

“Forbidden treats are always so much more delicious. Tell me more about this priest.”

Naomi spread her hands. “Father Bouchard was assigned to the school. He was young, probably in his early twenties. He was so kind, and he was such a good listener. I could talk to him about anything. I fell hopelessly in love. I used to write about him in my diary every day, and then I would dream about him every night.”

And a year ago after she’d opened up that parchment in Hattie Haworth’s boudoir and the message had been indelibly printed on her mind, she’d unearthed those diaries and reread every one.

“Details. Give me the details. Did you ever actually do it with the priest—in your dreams?”

Heat burned her cheeks again. She’d fantasized about doing a lot of things—not just in her dreams, but in her diaries, too. “What do you think? I’d read The Thornbirds.”

“Atta girl. Did you ever tell him what you were feeling?”

Her eyes widened in shock. “No. Of course not. It was all fantasy. Pure fantasy.”

“Just like me and Lowell. Except for the priest part.”

She nodded. Except for the priest part. But the priest part had definitely been on the piece of parchment she’d pulled out of Hattie’s hatbox. Now you will experience all of those forbidden pleasures…. And that was what had motivated her to reread the diaries she’d written at fourteen. Then she noticed the expression on Avery’s face. “What?”

“Just thinking. You know, there’s a priest, a Father Dane MacFarland, who’s due to check in to Haworth House today.”

“Avery, you can’t be—”

He raised both hands, palms outward. “I’m not suggesting anything. Just providing information. Besides, he may be eighty and using a walker.”

He accepted a menu from the waitress and flashed her a smile. “We’ll have your best bottle of champagne and four lobster rolls.”

“Champagne?” Naomi echoed.

He turned his smile on her. “Sisters’ orders. My mission is to get you from mourning into celebratory mode ASAP. Before anyone finds you here.”

“My sisters are being pushy.”

Avery’s brows shot up. “Turnabout’s fair play. You’ve been taking care of them and pushing them for a long time.”

Her lips curved.

Avery patted her hand. “That’s better. They’re annoyed that they can’t talk to you in person. But since we’re pretty sure your phone is being tapped, they want you to have as much privacy here as you can get.”

“We were careful not to mention Haworth House when we talked. We have this code we’ve used since we were kids.”

“Right.” Avery raised both hands and wiggled his fingers. “They’re being very cloak-and-daggerish with me, too, using pay phones and only contacting me on my private line at the hotel.”

Naomi sighed. “It’s not going to take a Sherlock Holmes to trace me here.”

Avery shrugged. “Hey, if using codes and pay phones makes your sisters feel like they’re helping, I say it’s a good thing. And who knows? Might buy you twenty-four to forty-eight hours of privacy.”

The waitress arrived and began the uncorking ritual. Once she’d filled the glasses, Avery raised his. “To the new Naomi Brightman.”

Naomi blinked. “I’ll be perfectly happy to get the old one back.”

“I assumed that old Naomi’s bridges are pretty much burned.”

“And then some. But there’s got to be something I can do to fix that. I haven’t let myself think about it.” She lifted her glass thoughtfully and her gaze shifted beyond his shoulder to Haworth House. Something inside of her stirred. “I have a feeling that I’ll figure something out while I’m here.”

“Good plan. All I’m saying is that you should keep your options open. You don’t necessarily have to return to your life BMD.”

“Before Michael Davenport.”

He grinned at her. “You’re catching on, sugar. When one door slams shut, another one always opens. Hattie Haworth reinvented herself here. You might as well give it a shot, too. So I’ll drink to the new Naomi Brightman.”

“Cheers,” Naomi said, and they both drank champagne.

“ANYTHING ELSE I can get for you, Father MacFarland?”

Dane glanced up from his book, removed his sunglasses and smiled at the pretty redhead who’d been cheerfully refilling his glass of iced tea for the past hour. “No thanks, Tess.”

Except for an introduction to Naomi Brightman. That would be nice. She’d been in her room in the tower for over an hour now. He knew that because he’d kept her in his sights ever since she’d left the ferry. Dane had no doubt that the FBI and the police would soon figure out she’d come to her home on Belle Island. But for now MacFarland Investigations, the firm he ran with his brother Ian, appeared to be the only ones on the scene.

Except for Michael Davenport. Gut instinct told Dane that the swindler was probably already here and would make contact with Naomi soon. And so far, she hadn’t been lured out onto the balcony by the breathtaking view.

He handed Tess the bill he’d already signed to his room. “I thought I’d stay here and read for a bit more.”

“No prob. During the summer months, the courtyard is one of our most popular spots and it’s open to Haworth House guests twenty-four-seven.”

Dane considered that providential. The hotel itself was a three-story structure built around an inner courtyard lined with porticoes. One side opened into the lobby, and through an archway on the other, guests could access a stairway that descended to the beach. Dane’s location at a table beneath one of the porticoes offered him a perfect view of the balcony that opened off Naomi Brightman’s room. So far she hadn’t made an appearance, but that might be providential, too. He was going to have to tread carefully with her. She’d already managed to throw him off a bit. It hadn’t been a part of his plan to talk to her on the ferry.

But there’d been something about the way she’d looked, standing alone at the railing, and he’d felt the tug of sympathy in every fiber of his being.

He lifted his gaze to her balcony. He’d been in her bedroom two days ago on a reconnaissance mission. Once he’d cracked the primitive code she and her sisters used to communicate and learned that she was definitely coming to Haworth House, he’d assigned a man to watch her apartment in Boston, and he’d taken a quick trip to Belle Island to get the lay of the land.