I was on the floor trying to collect the last of the antique keys I’d spilled when I heard the bells tinkle over the door.

“Be right with you,” I called.

“Need some help?”

I turned in surprise to see Saint. “What are you doing back so soon?” I asked.

He knelt on the floor and began picking up keys. “What happened?”

“Oh, I uh… I was unpacking an urn and didn’t realize it was full of all these keys. I guess the broker included them in the package as a gift for me, but when I pulled out the urn upside down, they all tumbled onto the floor.”

He glanced at me in confusion. “Why would he include a bunch of keys? What do they go to?”

“Nothing, really. I collect them. It’s a personal thing. The man I bought this lot of urns from knows how much I love them.” I hesitated for a second before continuing. “I… I love the mystery of old keys.”

“What do you mean?”

I felt my face heat. “Ever since my great-aunt gave me a special antique key on a childhood visit to Hobie, I’ve always enjoyed daydreaming about what antique keys go to. As if maybe there’s some ancient collection of interesting items in an old chest somewhere that no one knows is there because they don’t have the right key.” I swallowed, trying not to notice how close Saint’s large body was to mine on the wooden floor of the shop. “It’s silly, I guess. Simply the product of a wild imagination.”

“I think that’s really interesting,” he said softly. “Like buried treasure without the map to lead you there.”

I looked up at Saint, stopped short by his clear gray-blue eyes. “Exactly.”

We were interrupted by the sound of my cell phone ringing. I pulled it out of my pocket to see my mom’s photo lighting up the screen. “Excuse me,” I murmured before answering. It was a long-ingrained habit not to keep my mother waiting.

“Mother,” I answered before standing up and stretching my back.

“Augie, I need you to come to the city tonight. Meet me at Dakota’s at seven.”

Her high-brow sense of entitlement that I would jump when she said jump annoyed me immediately. “I can’t. I have to work. The shop is open until six, and then it would take me a couple of hours to get to the city. Sorry.”

I closed my eyes in frustration hearing the apology come out of my own damned mouth. Why was I sorry for doing my job?

“Find someone else to close the shop. It’s important. Aurora will be there as well. I’m sure your sister misses you since you moved to the countryside.”

My mother liked to refer to Hobie as “the countryside” as if it were a summer estate in an old English romance novel. Which was better than what my cousin Brett had always called it. But my mother slipping Rory’s name in there to guilt me was a hot button of mine. And she knew pressing it worked every time.

I did have a part-time employee who could close for me, but he had a second job working evenings in a restaurant. When he closed, it left him precious little time to make it to the Pinecone for his shift. “I can’t. What’s so important that you need me there tonight?” I assumed it was most likely an investor or friend who particularly liked antiques. That was my mother’s favorite time to trot out her knowledgeable son.

“I heard about the break-in. You need to tell me what happened. Why didn’t you call me right away?”

Saint finished grabbing the last of the keys and stood up next to me to put them in the box with the others. His big muscled body was close enough to dwarf me, but instead of being intimidated by his size, I found myself wanting to lean into his sturdy frame.

I cleared my throat and tried to concentrate on my mother’s words. “What?”

I tried ignoring the little smile that quirked up the edge of Saint’s lush mouth. The man was sexy as hell. I let out a breath.

“August,” she said in her clipped tone. “This is serious. You should have had a proper alarm system in place. Why did someone break into your house?”

I threw up my hand. “How the hell should I know? Why does anyone ever break into a house, Mom? To steal stuff, I guess.”

Silence.

Saint shifted closer to me. I wanted to turn and bury my face into the front of his shirt. I was so fucking tired from not getting any decent sleep, and now my mother was making me feel like the burglary had somehow been my fault.

When the silence from the other end of the line became unbearable, I did what I always did with my family. I caved.

“Sorry for my outburst,” I mumbled, turning away from Saint. “And I had a security system installed right after it happened. I didn’t expect to need it in the countryside. Hobie has an insanely low crime rate.”

“Have you seen Brett at all?”

The sudden change of subject threw me. My cousin and I didn’t get along. Brett had been a complete terror to me growing up, and I avoided him as much as possible now that it was in my power to do so. “Um, no? Why would I have seen him? I’ve been here in Hobie since I met you for lunch at Grandfather’s office a couple of weeks ago. The burglary happened after that.”

“You should have told me,” she continued. “Had I known Melody’s house had been broken into, I would have insisted—”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I need to help some customers who just came in. Sorry about missing dinner tonight.” I hung up before she had a chance to say another word. I turned to ask Saint why he’d come by.

He studied me with wrinkles of concern on his forehead. “Augie…”

“Why are you here?” I pushed my glasses up and looked around at the shop full of things Saint could have zero interest in. Surely he wasn’t there as a customer.

“I wanted to ask you some more questions.”

As much as I would have loved to have cried all my woes to the big protector, I resisted the urge to rely on a perfect stranger, and I knew that even talking about it would reveal just how upset the topic made me. The idea of transforming into the trembling, cowering weakling in front of Saint that I already saw myself as in general was untenable.

“No, thank you. I need to get back to work.”

Saint took a slow pan of the shop which was empty of any customers. “I can see how slammed you are,” he said flatly.

“Saint… I can’t… I just don’t want to talk about it anymore. It’s over. I’m fine.”

“Could the break-in have anything to do with your family’s… money or… involvement in political issues?”

I could tell he was trying to be professional, but the implication rankled. “No.”

“How do you know for sure?”

“Because I don’t have anything to do with the company or the foundation. That’s all my grandfather.”

We stared at each other for a beat. I could see the man’s frustration at not being able to solve the mystery behind my intruders. Leave it to a professional self-defense instructor to get annoyed at not being able to account for all factors and secure all angles.

“Let me take you to Dallas,” Saint blurted. By the almost comical widening of his eyes immediately after, I could tell he’d surprised himself as much as me with his offer.

“What? Why?” Was he asking me out? No. Surely not.

Saint cleared his throat. “Well, your mother wants you to come to dinner, and I’d love a chance to meet her.”

Oh. Oh, right. It wasn’t me he wanted to spend time with in the city. It was either my beautiful, elegant mother or my famous, rich, and influential family. My heart tumbled to the floor like an idiot. I had so much experience being used for my connections, there was no telling why I was surprised by this.

“No. I’m not going. I have to close the shop.”

“I’ll get my sister Sassy to come hold down the fort. She’s worked a ton of retail and lives just a few blocks away over the doctor’s office. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.”

“Why in the world would I need you to drive me to Dallas? And how exactly would I explain your presence to my mother?”

My head was reeling with the conflicting emotions of disappointment that he didn’t want me for me and the temptation of getting him alone in the car for several hours just so I could have an excuse to be near him. Plus, I had to admit to myself the idea of having him beside me at John’s house filled me with a strange kind of relief.

“You could tell her I’m your personal security. Maybe it would make her feel better knowing someone was looking after you since the break-in and everything.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t need a bodyguard.”

I may have wanted one… but I didn’t need one.

Saint stepped closer, overwhelming me with the same fresh scent I’d imprinted on during our first self-defense lesson. It made me dizzy with the effort not to actively sniff him like a dog.

“I’d like to take you to Dallas, Augie,” he said in a low voice. The rumble went straight to my dick like a traitor. “Please.”

I bit my teeth against the whimper that wanted to escape. “We’d be stuck there for hours. My mother never shuts up.”

“If it’s too late to come home, we can stay at my apartment in the city and drive back in the morning,” he suggested.

My knees began shaking. Did he have a one bedroom? Would we be forced to share a bed? Don’t be ridiculous, Augie. The man would put you on the sofa before sharing a bed with you.

“Augie?”

“Huh?” I sounded breathless even to my own ears.

“Can I call Sassy to come help?”

“Um…”

Saint’s hand came up as if to touch me. I stared at it, tracking every millimeter of movement with my eyes and accelerating heartbeat. When his fingers reached out to pluck a piece of lint off my shirt, I almost cried out my disappointment.

“No,” I said with a cough, shaking myself out of the daze I’d fallen into. What the hell was wrong with me? I didn’t appeal to men like this. And I didn’t have open crushes and flirtations. I had Katrina. And a hookup app if needed. “No, I’m fine. I’m not going to Dallas tonight. But thank you anyway for offering.”

I turned around to move the box of keys… somewhere. Anywhere, really. I simply needed to get away from the magnetic pull that was Saint Wilde.

“I’ll see you for our lesson tomorrow night,” I said over my shoulder. “Thanks for stopping by.”

I pretended not to see Saint’s expression of concern and disappointment. I pretended not to care that the man had wanted to use me to get to my wealthy family the same way people had been doing to me for years.

And as usual, I pretended I was fine. Until two hours later when I got a text from my mother.

I closed the shop early and made my way to Dallas, not realizing until I was halfway there that I’d forgotten the writing slope. It was a good thing I did though. During dinner at the restaurant, my car was broken into again in the parking garage attached to my grandfather’s office building.

When I came outside after the interminable dinner where Mom’s friend Merlina Giordano grilled me about the provenance of several small pieces of personal grooming items she’d bought at an auction, I discovered the smashed passenger-side window and the explosion of items that had been pulled from the overnight bag on the front seat. Nothing seemed to be missing except the box of old keys I’d brought from the shop to keep at home with the rest of my collection. Since I hadn’t paid for them, it wasn’t really a monetary loss, but it pissed me off nonetheless. What the fuck did someone want with a bunch of old metal keys? Was I just being harassed? If so, by whom?

As soon as the cops were done taking my statement so I could claim the damage on my insurance, I got my scaredy-cat ass in the car before speeding home to Hobie with the October wind freezing me into an ice cube through the broken window.

And I holed up in my attic nest without sleeping a wink all night.