CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Rowan

It’s been several months since I last set foot in Fine Taste, but every time I come, it feels like the first time all over again.

I am transported to that day, ten years ago, when I stood on this very spot to receive the keys to the place. My hands had been shaky and damp with sweat as I pushed open the door to what was going to be my first-ever business.

Ten years later, I own forty locations all over the country, among other businesses, but this place will always be my first love. Well, that is, if my sister doesn’t run it into the ground.

And just like that, my earlier irritation returns, overtaking the serene feeling this place always offers me. When I got the email announcing an Anti-Valentine’s Day, I’d been so sure it was just a spam email, I’d almost deleted it before I noticed the sender.

Nora is the only family I have left after the death of our mother a few years ago. I’d used the manager position at Fine Taste to lure her into moving closer to me when she finished college. We’re half-siblings; our mother had married her father when I was six. From the moment she was born, I’d been every bit the protective older brother. I’d had to be, given how flighty our mother was and how her father couldn’t be bothered with anything outside of business until the day he died. I’d practically raised Nora, despite only being a child myself.

Lately, we’ve drifted apart as my career has grown ever more demanding. So, I have no doubt that this Anti-Valentine’s business is yet another of her jokes designed to get on my nerves and capture my attention. If that is her aim, then she’s succeeded because now I’m pissed.

I pull open the glass door and walk in. Pushing my nostalgia to the back of my mind, I look around for the brat who’ll be the death of me.

The place is packed, which is good news for me as the owner, but there is no doubt it will be empty after the whole Anti-Valentine’s trainwreck my sister is planning.

“Hi, can I help you?” someone calls out, and I turn to the source of the voice, my scowl in place, ready to demand the whereabouts of the manager, when my eyes meet hers.

And I forget.

It’s as if my brain reboots because I see nothing but her.

Her smile is indulgent. It’s the same smile, I suppose, she offers to all her customers. Pretty enough to please the customers but not so over the top, that they’ll think they are special.

Even so, it sucks all the air from my lungs.

I stand frozen on the floor, my gaze on her large, warm, emerald green eyes. She tilts her head to the side to study me, and a strand of auburn hair falls from a loose bun. I fist my hands, fighting back the need to reach out and push it behind her ear, then trace my finger over her skin.

My eyes shift to her lips, and I find myself wondering how they taste.

I want her.

I’ve never wanted someone as much as I want this beautiful stranger standing right in front of me. None of these feelings make sense to me, which is a tad frightening for a rational man such as myself, but there is no denying their existence.

“Uhm, hi, did you need something?” Her smile dims a little but doesn’t completely disappear. Christ, her voice is sultry, seductively so, which has my cock filling up in my pants. There is no hiding the bulge, and I don’t bother trying to.

I know I must look like a creep, standing in the middle of the coffee shop, watching her with a boner in my pants, but I can’t seem to make my feet or lips work.

Who is she, and why the hell have I not seen her before this moment?

“Rowan!” The raspy voice of my sister breaks through my thoughts, and my head snaps in the direction of the woman whose single goal seems to be to make my life a living hell. “What are you doing here?”

And just like that, my lust-ridden brain snaps to the present. I remember why I’m here in the first place when my eyes land on the picture hung on the wall of what I suppose is meant to be a bloodied cupid.

I look around the coffee shop, my heart hammering in horror with every hideous decoration I come across. Finally, my eyes find my sister’s, only to be met with a smirk.

I glare at her before walking in the direction of her office, knowing she’ll follow.

“Nora, what the hell was all that?” I hiss once I hear the soft sound of the door closing.

“Hello to you too, brother. How long has it been since I last saw you? Three, four weeks?”

“You could have called; it would have been easier than pulling whatever it is you are trying to pull here, not to mention more appropriate.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” she beams, staring up at me expectantly. “Besides, I didn’t do this for you.”

I study her closely as I try to make sense of what she is saying. Was I wrong to assume she did this just to get my attention? The last time she pulled something similar to this was a couple of months ago when she called to tell me she’d found a way of saving money by getting coffee beans from a friend she’d met on Facebook. I had taken that for the threat that it was meant to be and took her to dinner that same night.

“I want you to take down all those hideous decorations and get rid of this idea. Valentine’s Day is one of our most profitable days, and I can’t have whatever snit you’re in getting in the way of that. The investors…”

“The investors will believe whatever you tell them.” My eyes narrow on her when she stalks towards me and slips her arm through mine. “C’mon Rowan, I know you don’t like to bend rules but don’t be a stick in the mud. Every store in town will have Valentine’s decorations. We need to be different.”

I glare at her, slipping out of her grip and walking to the window that looks into the shop. I grip the blinds and push them down, my eyes trailing the place, but I don’t see her.

The angel from earlier.

Did I imagine her?

I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d only been a figment of my imagination. It’s not even lunch time yet, and I have already been up and working for over six hours.

“I have let you do whatever you want with this place, but this is where I draw the line.”

“What do you care?” she hisses behind me, her voice laced with anger. “It’s one stupid day. I’ve never pictured you for a romantic, what with your cold, dead heart.”

If the words are meant to hurt, they don’t. It’s not the first time I’ve been called heartless, a clear contrast to the hopeless romantic that is my sister. The words don’t affect me, they never have. It’s hard to fight the truth, and I don’t bother to hide it either.

I turn to find Nora glaring at me, but there is no changing my decision. She is used to me turning a blind eye to her little projects, but this is the one thing I am unwilling to cave on.

“Have all the decorations removed by tomorrow, or I’ll find someone to do it for you,” I say, watching her eyes flash in anger at my words.

“Rowan!”

“We are done discussing this, Nora.”