Led into Temptation

To my very newest daughter-in-law,

Nicole Van Markwyk Hanlon, and to my son

Brendan. I hope you bring each other a lifetime

of joy! Welcome to the family, Nicole.

I love you both!!

Dear Reader,

Have you ever had a secret fantasy that you’ve never shared with anyone? Not even your sister or your best friend? I’d forgotten mine until my editor suggested I write a TWICE FORBIDDEN book and she mentioned very casually that no one had ever written one about the ultimate forbidden fantasy—a priest.

Wow! Not only did her suggestion trigger memories of The Thorn Birds and an even earlier movie, The Left Hand of God, but I remembered that long-ago summer when I was thirteen and I too had a secret crush.

When she is dumped by her swindling fiancé and becomes a person of interest to the FBI, Naomi Brightman flees to Haworth House, the hotel she runs with her sisters. But trouble follows hot on her heels in the person of Father Dane MacFarland. While he instantly rekindles memories of the teenage crush she had on a school chaplain, the raw sexual heat she feels from the moment she sees him is very real. And increasingly irresistible.

I hope you enjoy Naomi’s story and my upcoming stories about her sisters, Jillian and Reese, in Taken Beyond Temptation and Twice the Temptation.

Happy reading,

Cara Summers

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Author

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Copyright

Prologue

“To NEW BEGINNINGS.” Naomi Brightman raised her glass of champagne and met her sisters’ eyes over the rim. It was too late for second thoughts. As the oldest sister, the practical one, it had always been her job to have them. Third thoughts, too. But thanks to her, the papers were signed. She’d even drawn them up. With enthusiasm.

From the moment she’d stepped through the front door of Haworth House, it had exerted an odd pull on her. For the life of her she couldn’t figure it out. With its perch on a lofty cliff overlooking the sea and the turreted gray tower that seemed to pierce the sky, it had conjured up images of fantasy and romance, and she’d decided a long time ago that fantasy and reality never mixed.

Even now, standing in the gloomy tower room that the real estate agent had neglected to include on their initial tour, Naomi was still convinced that this was where she and her sisters were meant to be.

“To our first business venture,” Reese said, lifting her champagne. “It’s been a long road getting here.”

Naomi had been seventeen, Jillian sixteen and Reese fifteen when they’d first hatched their plan. They’d known full well that their days together were numbered in the Catholic boarding school in the south of France where they’d been raised. Abandoned there by their father when Reese was an infant, they’d grown up inseparable. The nuns had often referred to them as the Three Musketeers. But as they’d entered their teens, it had become increasingly clear that their future career paths were going to separate them.

Jillian beamed a smile at her sisters. “To our new home.”

As they all sipped their drinks, Naomi thought back to that night so long ago when they’d first toasted their dream of sharing a business venture with champagne—a bottle Jillian had snitched from the nuns’ private wine cellar.

Now that dream was a budding reality. They were going to turn Haworth House, once the summer home of legendary silent film star Hattie Haworth, into a small, exclusive hotel that offered excellent food and fine decor.

Naomi’s contribution had been to provide legal advice and a solid business plan. Reese, who had a growing international reputation as a chef, would handle the culinary details—design the menus and hire the kitchen staff. And Jillian, now a budding antique dealer, was going to oversee the interior design.

“Isn’t it just perfect?” Jillian’s voice bubbled with enthusiasm. She’d been the one who’d found Haworth House on Belle Island off the coast of Maine. It had just the kind of rich history that would appeal to her. According to Jillian, Hattie Haworth’s life had been a mess when she’d retired here to the haven she’d built for herself. When the star had failed to make the transition to the talkies, her studio had dumped her, and her husband had left her for a younger woman with a more promising future.

Reese let her gaze sweep the tower room that had once been Hattie’s private boudoir. “Perfect might be pushing it a little.”

Naomi had to agree. The sunshine battling its way through the grime-coated tower windows illuminated dancing dust motes and not much else—which was probably a blessing considering the state of the faded wallpaper and the crumbling bricks in the fireplace.

Totally unruffled, Jillian said, “This tower will rehab beautifully, and you have to admit, the rest of the place is great.”

“True,” Reese agreed with a smile. “The kitchen has definite possibilities. And you can’t beat the view.” She gestured to one of the windows, where the Atlantic stretched as far as the eye could see. “But this room looks like no one has touched it in years.”

“No one has,” Jillian said. “I did some research in the local paper, and in the beginning—right after Hattie died—there were rumors that she haunted the place. So the new owners boarded up the tower. After that the stories seemed to fade. But none of the subsequent owners ever ventured up here.”

“And you just decided to tear down the boards and barge in on a ghost?” Reese gave Naomi a rolling eye glance that said typical.

Jillian lifted her chin. “I think Hattie’s happy to have us here.”

“You think?” Naomi asked.

Jillian nodded. “The first time I came up here, I sensed her presence. Look.” Setting down her glass, she grabbed her sisters’ hands and drew them toward an old beveled glass mirror. “What do you see?”

“I see the Brightman sisters,” Naomi said. They were so different. Jillian, with her curly blond hair, was the shortest, her style of dress early gypsy. Reese, the tallest and most striking, wore her dark hair pixie short and had on her usual uniform of jeans and T-shirt. Compared to her sisters, Naomi thought of herself as ordinary. Her hair was trapped between blond and red, her eyes a mix of green and gray. The conservative business suits and practical shoes suited her job in the Boston law firm where she worked.

“Wait for it,” Jillian urged.

Seconds ticked by. They stood side by side staring into the mirror as the air chilled around them.

Jillian squeezed their hands. “Can you feel the drop in temperature? ”

“You could hang meat in here.” Reese’s voice was hushed.

Naomi suppressed a shudder. Later, she decided that if she’d been there alone, she would have chalked it up to an overactive imagination. But when the mirror suddenly flashed as if it had caught a beam of sunlight and then shimmered, she heard all three of them catch their breath simultaneously.

For an instant, there’d been a fourth image in the dusty glass.

“Did you see her?” Jillian whispered.

“Tall, beautiful, in a filmy white dress,” Reese said.

“Red-gold hair,” Naomi murmured. It nearly matched the shade of her own. And it had fallen in a tumble of curls nearly to her waist.

“And her feet didn’t touch the ground,” Jillian said. “Did you notice that? I did some research. Ghosts float. Their feet never touch the ground.”

“Well, I’ll be,” Reese said.

“She’s here.” Jillian’s tone was triumphant. “And if she didn’t want us here, we wouldn’t be.”

For a moment there was silence in the room.

Naomi swallowed hard and wondered what had happened to her practical, sober side. She’d seen that image in the mirror. She should be telling her sisters that this wasn’t going to work. They couldn’t possibly live in a tower that was already occupied. But what she said was, “So we’re going to build our new home in a space that’s probably haunted.” And as she let her gaze sweep the room again, she realized she’d made a statement, not a question.

“There’s something else,” Jillian said. “Something I haven’t told you yet.”

“What?” Naomi and Reese asked the question in unison as their eyes shot to their sister.

“There’s a secret room.” Jillian hurried over to the one wall that didn’t have windows and pulled a lever. A panel slid open.

“Of course, it has a secret room,” Naomi murmured.

“And it’s just like Jillian to spring it on us,” Reese said.

Even in the dim light pushing through the windows, Naomi could see that the room was small, no larger than a closet. She and Reese waited in the doorway as Jillian stepped in.

“There’s more. Wait till you see.” Jillian picked up a linen-covered hatbox, turned and held it for her sisters’ inspection.

As she and Reese moved closer, Naomi noticed the piece of parchment fastened to the top of the box. It read:

Fantasy Box. Choose carefully. The one you draw out will come true.

Reese shot Jillian a suspicious glance. “This isn’t a joke.”

Jillian shook her head. “I swear it’s not. I found the room the first time I came up here. I was looking into the mirror and I saw the door open behind me. But I waited for the two of you before opening the box. Naomi, you’re oldest. You go first.”

Naomi firmly ignored the chill working its way up her spine as she lifted the cover off. Inside were folded pieces of the same parchment as the note. Curiosity warred with a firm tug of apprehension. There had been a definite warning in that message.

She met her sisters’ eyes, then carried the box to a table and set it down. “Let’s all take one on a count of three. One.”

“Two,” Jillian said.

“Three,” Reese finished.

They reached into the box and together pulled out a parchment each.

For a moment there was no sound in the tower room other than the muffled crash of waves on the rocks below.

Reese whistled softly. “I don’t know about the two of you, but the fantasy I drew out seems pretty sexual in nature.”

“Me, too,” Jillian said.

“I guess we know what Hattie Haworth did to amuse herself after she retired from her film career,” Reese commented.

Only Naomi remained silent. She didn’t think she could talk. She certainly couldn’t seem to take her eyes off the words written on the parchment. What she was reading was the secret sexual fantasy that had fueled her imagination when she’d been a teenager in that French Catholic boarding school.

But who would have known about it? She’d never even shared it with her sisters. It was forbidden. Unthinkable. Yet there’d been a time in her life when she’d thought of little else. Still, there was far too much guilt associated with it.

And pleasure? A little thrill moved through Naomi as she thought of the message on the box.

The one you draw out will come true.

1

One year later …

I HAVE TO GET TO Haworth House. I have to get to Haworth House.

The words had formed an ongoing chant in Naomi’s mind on the short ferry ride from the mainland and they’d become more insistent once the gray turreted tower had come into view. From the moment she’d seen it, she hadn’t been able to tear her eyes away. In spite of the chill wind that had driven other passengers into the main cabin, she’d remained outside. Even now that the boat had docked and passengers were queuing up to disembark, she lingered at the railing.

Two weeks ago the life she’d built for herself in Boston had begun to unravel. First, she’d lost her fiancé and become a person of interest to the FBI. Then, two days ago, she’d been fired from her job at the law firm of King and Fairchild. The FBI thought she had something to do with the one-hundred-million-dollar-plus Ponzi scheme her ex-fiancé had been running during the six months they’d been engaged.

When she’d learned of their suspicions, she’d felt just like Humpty Dumpty after his fall—completely shattered. Every time she replayed the pivotal scenes of the past two weeks in her mind, she felt as if she were watching clips from a reality TV series. Everything seemed to have happened to someone else.

Only, they’d happened to Naomi Brightman.

But if she could just get to Haworth House, she’d figure out a way to put the pieces of her life back together. After all, Hattie Haworth had.

In the distance, a gull circled the tower, then soared into the brilliant blue sky. Little had she known a year ago when she and her sisters had toasted each other with champagne in Hattie’s boudoir that her life was going to run such a close parallel to the original owner’s. And Hattie had come here.

Naomi knew she was running away, something she’d never done before in her life. How could she? She’d been the oldest. It had been her job to provide a role model for her sisters. Some role model. In the space of half a month, her life had gone from girl success story to girl failure.

She simply had to get out of Boston. She needed a break from that damned prickling sensation at the back of her neck that told her she was being watched—24/7. By the FBI, the Boston police and perhaps by her ex, Michael Davenport, too. Everyone seemed convinced that her ex-fiancé was going to contact her.

The sudden sting of tears blurred her view of the tower. Blinking rapidly, she turned from the railing and bit down on her lower lip to keep it from trembling. No tears. She never cried. If it was the last thing she did, she was going to figure out how she could have been so wrong about Michael Davenport.

For a moment, she let her mind drift back to the night he’d ended things between them. He’d invited her to meet at the Four Seasons. That’s where they’d first run in to each other six months ago. She’d been entertaining clients with her boss, Leo King, senior partner and her mentor at King and Fairchild.

Michael had claimed it was love at first sight for him. Had it been the same for her? She’d certainly thought so. Their romance had been a whirlwind one, and Michael was really good at the romantic side of things. There’d been flowers and little gifts, funny little trinkets that he’d given her to commemorate everything they’d done together. The Michael gifts, she’d called them. She’d kept them lined up on a shelf in her apartment.

He’d even given her one at their final meeting, a souvenir of Boston he’d picked up in the hotel gift shop. How many times had she gone over that last meeting, not only in her own mind, but also for the police and the FBI? Hundreds of times. Michael had been kind, telling her that he had to go away for a while on business. He’d lifted her hand, kissed her fingers and said he’d be in touch. All she’d read was sincerity in his eyes. And she’d believed him, just as she’d believed everything else he’d told her.

Naomi Brightman, girl super-chump.

And she wasn’t sure she’d let go of him yet. In her hurry to leave her apartment without being tailed, she hadn’t dared to pack a suitcase. But she’d put all of the Michael gifts in the big tote she always carried.

That made her a super-super chump.

“Is there something wrong, miss?”

Jerking around, Naomi found she had to glance up, way up, to see the face of the man who’d joined her at the railing. An instant tingle of familiarity moved through her. Why? He was tall, broad-shouldered and he wore aviator-style sunglasses that reflected back her own image. So it wasn’t the eyes that made her think she might have met him before.

She quickly catalogued the dark hair escaping from beneath the hood of the sweatshirt, the strong line of his cheekbone and chin. But it was only as her gaze dropped to his mouth that the memory finally clicked.

Father Pierre Bouchard.

He reminded her of the young French priest who’d been her confidant at the boarding school where she’d been raised. No, more than her confidant, she admitted as a guilty thrill moved through her. When she’d been fourteen, she’d had a major crush on the young and handsome Father Bouchard. He’d dominated her fantasy life for over a year. And this man bore an uncanny resemblance to him.

“Do I know you?” she asked.

The lips curved a little. And Naomi felt the tingle of recognition grow even stronger. She also felt a blush rise to her cheeks.

“No. We’ve never met. You’re sure you’re all right?”

“I’m fine.” She tilted her head to one side, not quite ready or willing to let it go. “You weren’t ever a priest at Our Lady of Solace boarding school near Lyons?”

“Never.”

It was relief she was feeling, not disappointment. He wasn’t Father Bouchard. How could he be? The voice was wrong. No accent. And what were the chances of Father Bouchard ending up at Belle Island? And why in the world would she want him to? She hadn’t thought of the young priest in ages. But he’d slipped into her mind frequently during the past year—ever since she and her sisters had opened up Hattie Haworth’s fantasy box.

Naomi could still picture the words on the parchment paper she’d pulled out: Your secret fantasy has always been to make love with a priest. Now you will experience all those forbidden pleasures.

Firmly, Naomi ignored the guilty thrill that moved through her again and pushed that memory aside. She had bigger problems to solve. Straightening her shoulders, she said, “Sorry. You reminded me of someone.”

“No problem.”

But the feeling of familiarity lingered even as she turned and followed the last of the passengers off the ferry. Once on the pier, she couldn’t prevent herself from glancing back. For a moment, their gazes locked and held. It wasn’t merely familiarity she felt this time. There was also a tug deep inside of her. For an instant, she wanted to go back and talk to the stranger again.

“Hey, sugar! Over here.”

Naomi snapped her head in the direction of the sound and spotted Avery Cooper, Jillian’s college roommate and the man they’d hired to run Haworth House. With his megawatt smile, he was a sight for sore eyes. She’d had a pretty smileless two weeks.

Tall and broad-shouldered with skin the color of milk chocolate, Avery was his usual impeccably dressed self in a pale gray shirt and black slacks. Gold glinted in the chain around his neck and the hoop on his left ear.

Blinking back a fresh sting of tears, Naomi broke into a run. The moment she reached him, he grabbed her off her feet and swung her around in a huge hug. “This one’s from me.”

Naomi blinked faster as he set her on her feet and then pulled her close again.

“This one’s from your sisters.” When he drew back the second time, he studied her more closely. “Love the Jackie O sunglasses and the scarf.”

“I used them to sneak out the back door of my apartment.” She raised her tote. “I didn’t even pack a suitcase. Good thing Jillian insists that we keep some clothes at the hotel. I was so afraid someone would notice and follow me. Not that I don’t have a perfect right to leave town. The FBI never told me that I had to stay in Boston. Besides, I just came here to Belle Island. I didn’t try to leave the country or anything.” She frowned. “I shouldn’t feel so guilty about this.”

“It’s your good-girl syndrome taking over.” Avery glanced over her shoulder. “Did anyone follow you?”

“I don’t think so. For the first time in two weeks, I don’t have that prickly feeling at the back of my neck.”

“Good.” Throwing an arm around her, Avery led her off the dock and along the boardwalk lining the beach area. “Reese and Jillian are bummed that they can’t be here.”

Truth told, Naomi was a bit relieved about that. After the hubbub of the past two weeks, she was looking forward to some alone time. Jillian was in Europe on a buying trip, and Reese was on a book tour for a cookbook she’d just authored.

“My job is to provide all the TLC they can’t shower on you in person. And we’re going to start with a late lunch.”

“I’m not—”

“Hungry. I know. I know.” His tone of voice all sympathy, Avery nevertheless propelled her into a small café on the pier that offered patio seating. “Humor me. Once we get to the hotel, I figure you’ll lay low in the tower, and I’ll be working.”

He pulled a chair out for her at a table that offered a view of the water. At the far end of the island, on a jut of land, she could just see the tower of Haworth House. The tightness inside of her eased.

Avery sat down across from her. “I figure you lost your appetite just about two weeks ago when the BFJ gave you your walking papers.”

“BFJ?”

“Big Fat Jerk. When I was getting over Lowell Bidderman, I didn’t eat much of anything for nearly a month.” He flexed his right arm. “Lost some good muscle tone.”

Naomi narrowed her eyes. As far as she knew, Avery had been in a relationship with his current partner, Matt Trudell, since his college days. “Lowell Bidderman?”

“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.”