By Private Invitation Read Online Free PDF Page B

and if he asked to go to her room, she’d say yes.
    This was why she’d come here tonight. To meet a man and have fun. Reduce her stress
     through a little sexual indulgence. Why not?
    Jared seemed like the perfect candidate. He knew women, seemed to know what they liked,
     what they wanted.
    Could she go through with this? Did she have the guts?
    To hell with doubt.
    She concentrated on the feel of Jared’s hands on her waist, on the way his broad shoulder
     shifted beneath her cheek. On the rigid erection pressing into her hip.
    He wanted her and she wanted him. Wanted him to ask her to leave with him. Better
     yet, she should ask him to her room.
    Sex with this man would be the best end to this evening.
    One ballad segued into another as they continued to dance. How many songs passed?
     She didn’t know or care but Kate must be bored out of her head. She chanced a look
     at the table to see Kate and Tyler, their dark heads closer than they had been before.
    She hadn’t told Jared yet, but one of the men she’d danced with earlier had spilled
     the beans about his identity and his relationship to Tyler and the hotel. The brothers
     looked nothing alike, she realized. Jared’s wavy hair and classic features made him
     look like one of her grandfather’s prized Italian sculptures. But his smile was warm,
     and those eyes…
    She wondered what he saw when he looked at her. Did he see a confident, sexy woman?
     Had she inherited any of her mother’s genes other than her hair color?
    Jared stopped abruptly and, with a start, she realized Kate stood beside them, Tyler
     at her side.
    “I hope you don’t mind,” Kate said with an apologetic smile, “but I’m going to go
     up to my room.”
    “Is something wrong?” Annabelle asked, immediately worried.
    Kate’s lips curled ruefully. “No. It’s just that it’s late and I’m tired.”
    Excusing herself, Annabelle pulled her friend away from the men to talk quietly.
    “Is everything okay?” Annabelle asked. “It’s not even midnight.”
    Kate shook her head. “There’s nothing wrong and this is just another night of the
     year for me. I’m not really into all this New Year’s stuff. I did have a good time,
     though.” Kate leaned forward for a hug and Annabelle obliged, but they ended up giggling
     like schoolgirls when they entangled their hands in their wings. Funny, Jared had
     managed to avoid them all night.
    Annabelle gave her friend a rueful smile. “I’m sorry I was such awful company—”
    “Actually, I enjoyed talking to Tyler.” Kate sliced a quick glance at the other man.
     “It was…enlightening.”
    Annabelle took a close look at her friend, only now noticing the flush on her cheeks
     and the sparkle in her eyes. She raised her eyebrows in question.
    “Oh, don’t get the wrong idea,” Kate rushed on. “I’m an engaged woman. I just think
     it’s time for me to head up. Annabelle…have fun.”
    Annabelle’s smile was slow to form but it
was
there. “I planto. I’m so glad you came with me. Tomorrow we’ll hit the King of Prussia mall and
     do a little damage to our credit cards.”
    Kate nodded then turned and said good night to the men. Tyler walked her to the door
     but stopped there. Annabelle watched Kate shake hands with Tyler then disappear down
     the hall as he stared after her.
    Annabelle raised her gaze to Jared’s. Holding his hand out to her, he waited until
     she reached for him, her warm hand clasping his.
    “Would you like to see the garden, Belle?”

Three

“It’s like a little piece of England transplanted here.”
    Belle stood in the center of the hotel’s deserted courtyard, looking around. Jared
     lingered near the edge of the lawn.
    She looked perfect in the formal garden.
    Surrounded on three sides by the hotel, the courtyard retained a touch of summer in
     the winter. With its huge glass-dome ceiling and paneled wall of glass at the rear,
     the enclosed garden was Tyler’s pride and joy. With