The Sweetest Seduction, Breakaway Hearts

by Crista McHugh

“We’ll get through this together, Lia,” he whispered. “I promise.”

  She lifted her head with a sniff and wiped her face with the back of her hand. “You’re right, Adam. Crying doesn’t help anything.” She slipped her panties up over her hips. “Let’s go and see what’s left.”

  The calm of her voice belied the droop of her shoulders, the half-hearted effort in which she dressed. She rode down the elevator with her arms wrapped around her waist, hugging herself while she stood several feet away from him. Her face remained void of emotion as they drove to the restaurant and the sea of flashing red lights that greeted them when they arrived.

  After explaining to the firemen that they were the owners, they were allowed to enter the parking garage and go up to the top floor.

  The acrid stench of smoke filled his nostrils as they got closer to La Arietta. A gasp broke free from her lips when the elevator doors parted. The fire may not have consumed the entire restaurant, but the damage was enough to call it a total loss. Smoke stains blackened the ceiling of the lobby, and wet plaster dripped off the walls. Beyond them, the charred remains of tables and chairs stood like ghastly skeletons at the far end of the dining room near the kitchen door.

  Bates approached them, his eyes flickering to Lia before speaking. “It’s not as bad as I first thought.”

  If Lia heard his words, she gave no indication.

  Bates gave him a quick jerk of his head, indicating there was more he wanted to say in private.

  Adam squeezed her hand. “Will you be okay here for moment?”

  She nodded, her gaze still fixed straight ahead.

  “I didn’t want to upset Ms. Mantovani any more than she already is.” Bates led him into the heart of the once-vibrant dining room, stopping at the line of black on the tile floor that marked the edge of the flames near the kitchen door. “From what I gather, the fire started in the kitchen near the deep fryer. The inspector is already investigating the cause as we speak.”

  As if on cue, a man emerged from the kitchen deep in conversation with one of the firemen. He scribbled a few notes on his clipboard and nodded before coming toward them. “Are you Mr. Kelly?”

  Adam nodded. “Is the building safe?”

  “You wouldn’t have been able to come in if it wasn’t.” The inspector made a few more notes. “I’ll have to look at the levels below before I can make the final call on whether they’ll be safe for people to return to work or not.”

  “I’ll call the smoke and water damage crew and have them here in the morning,” Bates offered.

  Adam waited for the inspector to answer the one question plaguing his mind, but when he didn’t offer the information, he asked, “Any clue as to the cause?”

  “Looks like a faulty plug above the fryer.” He held up a charred, twisted mess of metal and plastic. “A few sparks from that thing, and the oil would have ignited like gunpowder. Classic grease fire.”

  “I’m glad the firemen were able to contain it so quickly.”

  “Yeah, me too. Makes my job simpler.” He dropped the evidence into a plastic bag and sealed it. “Now, let’s take a look below.”

  “Bates, you take him. I’ll stay here with Lia.”

  The two men disappeared into the stairwell, and Adam faced the ominous task of trying to console the woman he loved.

  ****

  Lia took a few steps and halted, her chin quivering as she took it all in. It was all ruined. Everything she’d poured her heart and soul into for the last year was now sopping wet and reeking of smoke. Every dime she’d invested into La Arietta had gone up in flames, leaving her nothing.

  A flash of light called to her, and she crossed the lobby to where the framed issue of Food and Wine hung on the wall, still dry behind the pane of glass. She took it down and hugged it. Even if she never rebuilt La Arietta, she had proof that it had been real, that she’d created something wonderful and marvelous and....

  Her thoughts choked up in a silent sob. It didn’t matter what it had been. Now it was all gone.

  A pair of warm hands rested on her shoulders. “It’ll be all right, Lia,” Adam said in a gentle voice meant to soothe her. “We can rebuild it.”

  “No, we can’t.” A new batch of tears threatened to spill over. “I don’t have the money. My fire policy will barely cover the repairs needed to get it back to usable condition. It won’t replace the furniture or the appliances or the lost income.”

  He pulled her into his arms and made a few shushing noises. “Don’t worry about the money.”

  A spark of fury ignited deep inside her chest, spreading as quickly as the fire in the restaurant had. “That’s easy for someone like you to say. You’ve never had to worry about how to make ends meet or how you’re going to afford to move out of your mother’s apartment while still keeping your business afloat.”

  “Then what do you want me to say?” he asked, his arms falling to his sides.

  “I don’t know,” she admitted, hugging the framed magazine even tighter. “If you offer to lend me the money to reopen La Arietta, then I’d always feel indebted to you. It would feel like you owned part of my soul.”

  “Then are you saying you’d rather walk away from this?” He hooked his finger under her chin, increasing the pressure until she finally looked up at him. “Listen to me—I’ll take care of everything—the repairs, the inspections, the paperwork. You can move in with me and never have to worry about a thing ever again.”

  Her gut wrenched. He was offering to take control of everything and set up her up in his home. Her pulse pounded in her temples, and her mouth went dry. It was the gilded cage all over again. He wanted to lock her away and keep her from the one thing that could tear them apart.

  Mr. Bates thankfully spared her from having to tell him no. “Mr. Kelly, perhaps you should come downstairs and take a look before we form a plan of action.”

  Her throat tightened as though someone had slipped a noose around her neck. She’d overheard the inspector. A grease fire had caused all this damage. It was all her fault for not staying here and making sure everything was in order before leaving. If she’d been here, maybe she could have put the fire out before it spread. Now she’d destroyed not only her restaurant, but the surrounding businesses in Adam’s building.

  Adam ran his thumb over her lips. “Think about my offer.”

  She didn’t need to think about it. She already knew her answer, but she was too much of a coward to tell him right then. She stood there while he followed Mr. Bates downstairs, forming the best plan. She couldn’t resurrect La Arietta on her own, and she couldn’t become a kept woman. Each beat of her heart confirmed the inevitable, deepening the ache in her chest.

  She had no future with a man like Adam Kelly.

  Now was the time to slip out of his life for good, before her body seized control of her better judgment and she surrendered to his touch. She pressed the button for the elevator and caught a cab home to her mother’s apartment, carrying only the memories of a few shattered dreams with her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Adam punched in Lia’s number one more time. Like every time he’d tried to call her over the last two days, it went straight to voice mail. He hadn’t heard a word from her since the fire except for a text telling him she’d gone to her mother’s, followed by the e-mail he’d received less than an hour ago letting him know that he could give the lease to Amadeus Schlittler.

  “Damn it, woman! Why are you being so stubborn?”

  Her silence didn’t just hurt—it tore at his heart like some sadistic punishment that inflicted pain every time he thought of her. He’d offered to have her move in with him and let him take of everything that worried her. In truth, it was the closest he’d come to proposing to her. Maybe he would’ve been better off doing that.

  He pulled up the e-mail again and let her cold words prick his skin like dozens of little daggers.

  Dear Adam,

  Seeing as how the damage to La Arietta will require extensi
ve time and money to repair, I think it is in your best interest to offer the space to Amadeus Schlittler and forget about me.

  Sincerely,

  Lia Mantovani

  He slammed his keyboard against his desk in frustration. Maybe he’d been wrong in his assumption that she’d really cared for him. Maybe it had all been an act to seduce him into letting her keep the restaurant, and now that she couldn’t afford it, she was done with him.

  But when he remembered the way she’d told him she loved him in that sleepy voice a few days ago, he knew she hadn’t been pretending. She loved him as much as he loved her. He just needed to find out what had her running scared.

  A brisk knock sounded at his door. Bates came in carrying two folders. “Mr. Kelly, Mr. Volowski has been rather, um, insistent to learn your final decision on the Michigan Avenue property. I’ve taken the liberty of drawing up two different leases—one for Mr. Schlittler and one for Ms. Mantovani.”

  Bates placed each folder on his desk and opened them up to the documents inside. It was time to make a decision. He skimmed over the prospective agreement with Schlittler, then the one with Lia. He halted when he saw the monthly rent on her lease. “Is this correct?” he asked, pointing to the number that was a quarter of what he’d normally charge.

  Bates put on his reading glasses and checked the figure. “Yes, sir. That is the amount in her original sublease.”

  “Who authorized it?”

  His assistant flipped past the new lease to reveal the original one. On the very last page, the delicate loops of his mother’s signature filled the owner’s line.

  Adam took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair. He should’ve known there was one more piece of the puzzle that he’d overlooked. “I think I need to have a conversation with the owner before I do anything else.”

  “And what should I tell Mr. Volowski when he calls again?”

  Adam stared at Schlittler’s lease, then Lia’s. He’d promised her he’d do everything in his power to let her keep La Arietta. If he wanted to win her back, he needed to start by proving he was a man of his word.

  He picked up Schlittler’s lease and tore it in half. “Tell Mr. Volowski that Chef Amadeus and I failed to reach an agreement.”

  Bates raised a brow but took the shredded paper without asking why. A faint smile played on his lips. “Very good, sir. I’ll arrange a lunch date with your mother when she returns to Chicago on Tuesday.”

  “Thank you.” He closed the folder with Lia’s leases and patted the cover. It was a start, but he could take it one step further. “Also, could you please find the photos you took of La Arietta before the fire and show them to the contractor? I want everything restored to the way it was.”

  “Right away, Mr. Kelly.” Bates nodded in approval, adding before he shut door behind him, “By the way, Robert Curry called and has asked to set up a meeting with you. Said he found what you were looking for.”

  Adam cracked his knuckles. Time to deliver the one-two blow, especially if Curry’s cryptic message meant he had the dirt on Ray. He picked up the phone and dialed Curry’s number. “I understand you’d like to set up a meeting?”

  The private investigator chuckled. “I went digging like you asked, and you won’t believe the sewer line I hit.”

  He grinned. “That bad, huh?”

  “Worse.”

  He checked the clock on his desk. Three o’clock. Normally, he’d be counting down the minutes until he saw Lia again by this time of day, but now he itched to learn what Curry had unearthed and how he could use it against Ray. “When can you be here?”

  “I’m just a couple of blocks down the road from your office.”

  “What a coincidence—I happen to have an opening in my schedule right now. I’ll tell Bates to let you in when you arrive.”

  “See you in a few.” The phone clicked dead, but it didn’t kill Adam’s enthusiasm.

  He buzzed Bates. “Hold off on letting Ray know my decision. I’ll deliver it to him personally after I meet with Mr. Curry.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  At least there was one thing going in his favor. Adam glanced at the e-mail on his screen again. If she wouldn’t answer his phone calls, then hopefully she’d read her e-mail. He clicked the reply arrow and started typing. Business first, and once that was settled, then hopefully he could go back to the pleasure of having her in his arms once again.

  ****

  The phone buzzed in her lap again. She looked at the number and silenced it.

  “It’s him again, isn’t it?” her mother asked as she took the off ramp for O’Hare Airport.

  “What does it matter?” She’d made her break with him, much like yanking a bandage off in one swift stroke. Yes, it stung, but the pain would be over sooner than slowly drawing it out.

  “Maybe he has something to say to you.”

  She stared out the window at the tails of all the planes lining the terminals. “He’s said enough for me to realize he’s no different than Trey.”

  “Bullshit. No son of Maureen Kelly would ever be like that arrogant prick. She raised them better than that, just like I raised you better than the way you’re acting now.”

  Lia closed her eyes and counted to ten before her temper got the better of her and resulted in her mother making a U-turn back to their apartment. “I told you before—I just need some space to figure out what I’m going to do next.”

  “No, you’re running away from your problems, and I’m ashamed of you.”

  “Ma, please, just let me deal with it.”

  “But you’re not dealing with it. You should be back there at your restaurant starting the repair work, not catching a plane to mope around Italy with my cousin.”

  Lia pressed her fingers to her temples. “It’s not that simple. For starters, I don’t own that space any more. My lease ends today.”

  “So you assume.” She pointed at Lia’s phone, swerving into the next lane as she did and earning a blaring reprimand from someone’s horn. “Maybe that’s what Adam’s been trying to tell you all morning, but you’re too pessimistic to answer him and hear what he has to say.”

  “No, that’s not what it’s about.” She drew in a deep breath, knowing her confession would probably earn her a swat across the back of her head...and probably have her mom veering off the road in a fit of rage. “I gave up the space.”

  “What?” The rear tires her mother’s 1992 sedan squealed, and the steering wheel resembled one of those carnival rides that spun back and forth without any rhyme or reason.

  Lia straight-armed the dashboard and prayed she’d make it to the terminal alive.

  The car rocked from side to side as her mother found the center of the lane again. Her lips formed a thin line, and the furrows in her brow spoke more harshly of her displeasure than any lecture ever could. “There’s something you’re not telling me, isn’t there?”

  “Yes, Ma, there is.”

  “You’re not knocked up, are you?”

  Lia’s jaw dropped. “What kind of accusation is that?”

  “Why else would you give up the thing you loved the most unless you knew you had a little one on the way?” The anger in her face melted into the exciting prospect of possibly becoming a grandmother. “Why didn’t I think of that sooner?”

  “Keep dreaming, Ma. There is no baby.” As evidenced by the monthly reminder that she’d wasted another egg this morning. Someone said confession was good for the soul, so since she was baring it all to her mother, she continued, “Someone was threatening to sue Adam if he renewed my lease.”

  “And you think he isn’t man enough to stand up for you, huh?”

  “No, I—” What would Adam have done if La Arietta hadn’t caught on fire? Would he have renewed her lease and faced the consequences without telling her? Would he have bowed down to pressure? She glanced down at the phone, wondering if she should even bother asking him. “Jules is already looking at places for me, and when I get back, I’ll make a dec
ision on what the next step will be for La Arietta.”

  The car pulled up to the curb in front of her airline. Her gaze flew from the phone to the ticket counter and back again. She closed her eyes and prayed for an answer. Instead, all she heard was Adam telling her she could move in with him and never have to worry about a thing. If she believed in signs, that would be the one alerting her that he didn’t really know who she was. She turned her phone off and tucked it into her purse.

  “Bye, Ma.” She reached over to give her mom a quick hug and a kiss goodbye. “I’ll call you when I get to Carolina’s.”

  Her mother sat in the driver’s seat, her arms crossed. “It’s your life, Lia.”

  Which meant she thought Lia was making a huge mistake.

  Lia got out of the car and tugged her suitcase from the backseat. “Yes, it is my life, and I’m making the best decision I can at the moment.” Her chest ached when she acknowledged that it meant giving up Adam in the process. “It’s what’s best for both of us,” she whispered before slamming the door shut.

  Chapter Sixteen

  “Good afternoon, dear.” His mother leaned over, surrounding him in a cloud of Chanel No. 5, and kissed his forehead. “So good to see you again. How’s Jasper been?”

  “Moping all week.” Much like me. He waited until his mother sat down across the table from him at the tiny little French café she adored. “I’ll bring him by the house tonight.”

  “Thank you so much for dog-sitting at the last minute. You know how I loathe putting him in a kennel.”

  “You spoil that dog way more than you ever did any of us.”

  “That’s because all my boys have grown up, left the house and haven’t given me any grandbabies to fill the void.”

  Adam inwardly groaned. Not the guilt trip again. Instead, he pulled out the folder containing Lia’s lease. “I stumbled across something very interesting while you were away.”

  His mother pulled out her Kate Spade reading glasses and skimmed the contract. “Oh, that. I was wondering when you’d make your mind up. Have you told Lia the news?”