Seduced by the Baron (The Fairy Tales of New York Book 4) (25 page)

Faith crossed the corridor. Mrs. Gianelli, a woman from the neighborhood who had taken over a lot of the running of the pub so Faith could spend time at the hospital, would be in shortly. They weren’t opening until after lunch today so the family could throw a little welcome home party and everyone was gathering downstairs to help set up.

A waft of toasty warm air greeted her as she opened the door. It may have been April but it was still cool out and someone had started the fire. Everyone was there already waiting for her. Ty and Zel. Finn and Dawn. Even the twins. Considering they’d worked a gig until two this morning it was a miracle. Mercy was there as well. She was so sweet to give them a hand.

Faith took a deep breath. No time like the present to make her announcement.

“Gosh you guys are keen,” she teased as she drew level with their tables. Everyone had coffee.

“It’s a big day,” Zel said. She glanced at the bags of bunting Faith had brought down earlier then looked around the interior. “What did you have in mind?”

“Actually…” She sat next to Mercy. “I wanted to run something past you guys first.” If she let everyone get distracted by the party preparations she’d never say what she needed to say and that was the old Faith.

“I want to hire a permanent manager for the pub.”

No one said anything. Casey and Ronan looked up from their coffees. Ty exchanged a look with Finn.

“If I don’t get out of this pub now I never will. It’s time. It’s
past
time.” She paused. “I’m reapplying to Columbia.”

There was more silence, then Finn smiled. “Good for you.”

Mercy flung her arm around Faith and kissed her cheek. “That’s wonderful news.”

Faith grinned at her then glanced at Ty. “Our finances can stretch to it especially with my wage out of the picture.”

“Hey,” he said, reaching his hand across the table to cover hers. “It’s a brilliant idea. You’ll get no arguments from me.”

“Or me.” Zel grinned.

“Or me,” Casey replied. “We should have thought of it years ago.”

Faith’s pulse fluttered as she took in her family beaming with approval. She couldn’t believe it had really been that simple all along. Just hiring a manager. Her sense of duty and tradition had been that ingrained she’d been blind to the options. But having Mrs. Gianelli around had opened Faith’s eyes.

She withdrew her hand from Ty’s. The support of her brothers meant everything but they all knew the biggest obstacle wasn’t in this room. “Pop won’t like it.”

“Pop will come around,” Finn declared. “No matter how unintentional, all of us including
him
have been taking advantage of you for years, Faith.”

“I was happy to do it,” she said, dismissively. “I
wanted
to.”

“We know,” Finn said. “But we all conveniently forgot along the way that you had dreams too.”

Faith nodded. Those dreams
had
been lost amongst the everyday responsibilities but she still remembered her excitement the day she’d received her admission letter from Columbia eight years ago.

*

“We’d have to
find the right person to look after this place, though,” she said, trying not to get ahead of herself. “We were lucky to find Mrs. Gianelli but she’s only temporary.”

“We’ll find someone,” Dawn assured her.

Faith smiled at her, buoyed by her absolute confidence.

“And while you’re making changes maybe now Pop is so much better you can cut the apron strings from him too?” Ronan suggested.

“Well now, let’s not go crazy,” Faith joked and everyone laughed.

Faith was overwhelmed by the sudden lightness across her shoulders. The truth was, she had been too overprotective of him. If Pop continued to be as good as he was now it was time to break the cycle of co-dependence they’d fallen into over the years.

“Seriously though, Faith,” Ty said when he’d sobered. “We’re all going to be involved in Pop’s health care from now on.
As a family
. Not just you taking sole responsibility for it.”

Faith felt another weight lifted from her shoulders. She hadn’t minded caring for Pop but having her brothers more involved would be great. “I’d like that,” she said, nodding and looking at each one of them. “Thank you for your support. I don’t know what to say… just thank you.”

“No.” Finn shook his head. “Thank you.”

Faith blinked back tears suddenly emotional. Mercy hugged her. “Now all we need to fix,” she said, “is the romance department.”

Faith forced herself to laugh. “I’m sure I’ll take up with some hippy art student before you know it.”

“Or maybe,” Mercy said with a mysterious smile, “a certain Australian who is back in town in a couple of days?”

Faith’s heart skipped a couple of beats. Rafael? Back in New York? “Raf’s coming back?”

Mercy nodded. “He is.”

Dear God. Faith wasn’t sure she could stand that. Having him so near and yet, in a lot of ways, so damn far. It was almost more bearable having him on the other side of the world. His casual kind of loving couldn’t hurt her so much from afar.

“For business?”

Mercy shook her head. “No.”

Faith didn’t dare ask for any further clarification because, if anything, buying into something happening between them had just become more impossible.

She was going to
Columbia
for crying out loud.

She’d given that up once, she wasn’t going to do it again. Not even for someone who loved her.
Certainly not for someone who wouldn’t.

Faith shook her head. “I think I’m going to fall in love with art again.” Mercy had already kick-started the process with her wine label job and applying for Columbia had knocked it into hyper drive. “I’m going to paint and go to Paris.”

Mercy smiled at her. “You don’t have to choose one over the other.”

Faith supposed she was right although she had made a life out of absolutes. Pop. The pub. She was beginning to think it was the only way she worked. And great art demanded a certain amount of single-mindedness.

“I know.” She gave Mercy a hug to reassure her but secretly chose art anyway.

*

Two days later
Faith was down in the basement tapping a new keg. It was less frigid these days but she barely noticed the temperature any more. Coming down here was suddenly like a portal to all the times she’d shared with Raf and that always left her feeling hot under the collar.

Faith grunted as she struggled with a particularly recalcitrant fixture. Usually she could do this in her sleep but there was always the odd one that proved difficult and the poor lighting didn’t help.

She swore as her hands slipped off the cold metal and she scraped her knuckle. “Goddamn it,” she spat, leaning her good hand up high on the wall as she automatically sucked the injured finger into her mouth. She heard the creak that the second stair from the top always made and she swore again.

“James Patrick Sullivan,” she called out, bending down again to the keg. “I don’t care how well you feel. There’s to be no lifting for six weeks. Doctor’s orders. So just turn yourself around.”

“And miss out on how good your ass looks in those jeans?”

Faith jumped at the lazy Aussie drawl. She’d been trying unsuccessfully not to think about the fact that Raf was in New York.

She turned. Man, he was a sight for sore eyes. He looked browner and blonder and taller. His smile was sexier. His stubble was stubblier. He filled out his Levis better. He smelled better.

He was everything she remembered only better.

“Raf,” she said, fighting hard to sound casual. She would not swoon at his feet. It didn’t matter why he was in New York. She wasn’t interested in rekindling their sexual relationship. She needed more than that from him.

And she had her art.

“Hey,” he said, smiling.

Hey.
Just one simple word and a smile and her traitorous pulse had kicked into overdrive. If he touched her she was doomed.

“You look good,” he said, his gaze traveling over her shirt and her jeans then back up again. “
Really
good.”

Her body melted beneath the heat in his gaze but there was no way she was returning the compliment. No way she was going to get into some flirty banter down here in the basement surrounded by erotic memories of them.

“Your dad looks great,” he said.

Faith nodded. He’d obviously seen Pop in the bar. “He does. He has a new lease on life.”

“And Mercy tells me you’ve applied to Columbia.”

“Yes. I still have to get in though. It’s not easy.”

“The good things never are,” he said. “But I believe in you.”

Faith didn’t want to admit how much his belief meant. It hurt too much. “Why are you here, Raf?”

He regarded her for long moments before shoving his hand in his pocket and pulling something out. He took a couple of steps towards her holding it up to the light. It dangled from his fingertips, flashing green. “You left this in my bed the morning you ran out after the ball. I thought you might like it back.”

The earring.

Faith had realized in the cab that morning that only one earring had survived their night twisting up the sheets. Going back for it hadn’t been an option so she’d pulled the other one out and dropped it in her bag and promptly forgotten about it.

And now here it was, swinging in a pretty green arc between them, an exquisite glass bauble that hadn’t been hers in the first place.

A symbol of so much about her ill-fated fling.

She didn’t know what it said about her that she wanted it back very badly. “Thank you.”

She reached for it but Raf pulled it away and took another step in her direction and another until she could put out her hand and touch him if she wanted.
She didn’t.
But with kegs already pressing into the backs of her knees she couldn’t go back up a step either.

“Shall we try it and see?” he said.

She frowned. “What?”

He smiled and slid his hand onto her cheek until he was cupping her face. Faith swallowed as the gentle caress was felt rather more violently in places further south.

“
Raf
.” She hated that her voice sounded so thready.

“Shh,” he said. “Trust me.”

Then, applying some gentle pressure with his thumb under her chin, he tilted her head to one side. He brushed her hair back and in one deft, efficient move he hooked the earring into the hole in her lobe and she felt the cool brush of glass against the side of her neck.

“It fits perfectly,” he murmured.

Faith shivered as the light stroke of his fingers whispered sweet nothings to every skin cell they touched. She shut her eyes to the temptation of his mouth and her ears to fancy in his words. “It’s an earring,” she said, opening her eyes again, “not a glass slipper. One size fits all.”

He chuckled. “Way to ruin the moment, Faith Sullivan.”

Faith stomped on the flutter in her heart. “We’re having a moment?”

He shook his head, amusement dancing in those sea-green eyes. “Yes. I’m trying to tell you that I love you. That I’m
in
love with you.”

Faith’s breath stuttered to a halt in her chest.
What the hell?
She pushed him aside and stalked away, turning to face him when she’d put enough distance between. Or as much as she could in the basement. “Don’t,” she said, her heart pounding. “Don’t say that.”

“Why not?” he asked, shoving his hands on his hips, serious now. “It’s the truth.”

Faith wanted to demand he stop. He shouldn’t be allowed to tell her the thing she most wanted to hear so…casually. So matter-of-fact. “Really?” she snapped. “Just like that?”

“Yes.”

She blinked. He was so damn calm. “Well I don’t believe you.”

He nodded. “Fair enough. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t so.”

“I didn’t think you believed in all that love stuff? I thought you were all
love the one you’re with, baby
.”

“I didn’t believe in it and I was like that because I’d had no experience with love and had never met anyone that challenged my beliefs. And then I met you and you were a game changer right from the start, only I didn’t know why until I was sitting at the coffee shop with you that day at the hospital. And it hit me. I’d fallen for you. I knew it like I knew the beat of my own heart. Like I know the rhythm of the ocean and exactly where a wave is going to break. It was intrinsic. It was living and breathing inside me.”