When she was around Ty, she was reminded of the girl who’d gotten on a bus to New York City with no idea what awaited her there. She felt more bold and adventurous. More willing to admit that her steady, dependable relationship with Alex bored her sometimes. She shivered at the truth she didn’t want to face. She might not be engaged to Alex, but she was involved with him on many levels. Enough to be considering marriage. Which meant she should not be thinking about making love to Ty.
But she was thinking about it. Often. Enough that she tingled between her thighs even now.
There were reasons besides Alex to avoid her desires. Her business meant everything to her. It was her reason for getting up in the morning and what helped put her to sleep at night, exhausted and looking forward to the next day. And her business was in New York City , not Hawken’s Cove.
But her business didn’t fill the empty spaces inside of her. Only a home, a family and the security she’d lacked for most of her life would take care of those needs. Along with the right man.
Lacey had no idea if Ty was that man. And she certainly didn’t know how Ty felt about her now.
He kept himself closed off to her in a way Alex did not, and she had no idea if Ty was even capable of giving her all she needed. Even if he did desire her, he might not want the kind of life and future she envisioned for herself.
She punched her pillow and eased herself onto her back. But none of that stopped her from wanting him. And she had no doubt that with Ty, it wouldn’t be just sex. He reached inside her, he always had. She realized now that she’d never gotten him out of her heart. Of course she’d been seventeen when she’d fallen for him and ten years later, she didn’t know him at all. But she wanted to.
She wanted to be the girl who’d gotten on that bus and she wanted to see what her life and her future held.
MARC DUMONT PACED the floor of the ballroom area of what he’d come to think of as his home. It wasn’t, of course. He had no rights to the mansion any more than he had rights to Lilly’s trust fund. Not anymore.
Years of anger management sessions and Alcoholics Anonymous had brought him to this—from being a man on the verge of achieving everything he’d wanted, including a fiancée he loved and a future—to a man about to lose everything thanks to the sudden resurrection of his presumed dead niece.
He poured himself a glass of club soda. It wouldn’t be easy being at this party with the cocktails flowing, but his fiancée insisted the guests would be disappointed without alcohol. He suspected she didn’t want to encourage the talk and speculation caused by a dry party. So he’d just have to gear himself for one minute at a time instead of one day. Or one hour. The temptation to drink was still strong.
Stronger now that things around him might fall apart.
THE HOUSE LOOKED BIGGER and more imposing than Lacey remembered. No matter how many people were inside, to Lacey it still felt as lonely as it had after her parents died. As Ty drove her up to the place where she’d grown up, the lump in her throat grew larger, the fear greater.
If she closed her eyes, she could imagine her parents—her mother greeting her with a hug and a kiss, and milk and cookies after school, waiting for her father to come home after a long day at work. It didn’t matter to him that her mother had money. He enjoyed a day’s work and she assumed he hadn’t wanted to live off his wife.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Ty asked.
She glanced at him and forced a smile. If he could show up at the mausoleum dressed in a suit and tie, she could handle walking inside. “I’m a big girl now.” She treated him to a lighthearted laugh.
He shook his head. “I’m not buying the act. We can turn around right now and nobody would know the difference.”
“I would.” But she appreciated his offer. “Besides if we left, then nobody would see how well you dress up.”
In a powder-blue shirt and black sport jacket, he wasn’t her rebel, but her knight coming to her rescue all over again. Still, even in her dreams, he’d never looked this sexy or this male.
“Thanks,” he said gruffly. He inclined his head toward her. “Since you’re looking pretty hot yourself, you’re right. We should do this.”
Her body tingled at his compliment. She was so glad he’d noticed. When picking out her little black dress, she’d had him in mind. When she’d looked into the mirror to view herself in the dress, she’d imagined Ty’s eyes staring back at her. But nothing in her imagination had prepared her for the heated look he gave her now.
He slowly pulled his gaze away and back to the road, turning up the long circular drive.
Lacey turned her attention back to what awaited her tonight. A valet greeted them as they stepped out of the vehicle.
“Fancy.” Lacey wondered how her uncle was paying for this party.
She knew he had some money of his own from whatever jobs he’d worked over the years but he’d never come close to matching her mother and father’s wealth. The incoming money from her father’s business was long gone. And though the upkeep on this house was covered by the trust, or at least that had always been her assumption, she doubted her uncle received a stipend once he no longer had Lilly to care for.
But since she didn’t know the exact terms of the trust, all she could do was guess based on the info rmation her uncle had given her when she’d lived here with him.
The assumptions would end, since she’d made an appointment with the law firm Hunter had told her had possession of her parents’ will. Information was power and soon she’d have some in her hot little hands.
With Ty’s hand on her back, they walked into the house side by side. Lacey’s first glimpse told her the decor was exactly as she remembered. Gray-and-white marble floors, white walls and floral furniture all remained the same, but the warmth she recalled from her early childhood was missing. She wasn’t surprised. Lilly had learned not long after her uncle moved in that people made a house a home—or an empty shell of one instead.
“Are you okay?” Ty whispered.
“Yes,” she lied.
Everything about how she was feeling felt wrong, from her racing heart to the overwhelming nausea. She wanted to run away fast, which made her all the more determined to face down these demons and these family members.
“Lacey, I’m so glad you could come.” Molly greeted them with a smile.
The other woman’s friendly voice immediately put Lacey at ease. “Thank you. I’m not sure how I feel about being here,” she said, allowing a nervous laugh to escape.