That night, it took all my willpower to not peer beneath the bra and panties.

In doing so, I’d shown Julia the restraint I’d lacked with others. This beautiful angel deserved better than a man like me. She’d said that she was twenty-four. That made me nearly two decades her senior, and yet, as that night progressed, the unthinkable occurred. Julia came back to life, a vibrant beacon calling to me and inviting me into her orbit. Now that I was here, I didn’t want to break free.

Contemplating my question, Julia paced, stepping upon the floors and rugs in her high heels as if she were bred to move in a graceful manner. Given what I now know of her family, she had been.

Julia McGrath had been placed on this earth to secure her, her family’s, and Wade’s future.

Instead of doing that, she was here in my home with a man capable of destroying her and her family’s business.

I heard the warning bells.

Much like sirens from the lighthouses out upon the Apostle Islands, the ones in my mind were cautioning of the danger that lay ahead.

The words were on the tip of my tongue. I would tell her that my offer of a job was rescinded. I would help her find her way back to Ashland and back to Chicago.

Before I could voice my thoughts, Julia spoke, “I don’t want the guesthouse, Van.” Her smile lit up the bedroom. “I want time to think, but being alone in your guesthouse would be too lonely. This suite is beautiful. And,” she added, “I’ll have company.”

“Maybe you should reconsider the entire offer.”

“I have. I don’t know what brought me here, whether it was cosmic irony or what your grandmother called red sin, but I can’t deny that I too am interested in both you and this opportunity, too interested to walk away. I’ll contact my parents. After the first of the year, I’ll go back to Chicago and find out what’s happening with Wade Pharmaceutical. I think that after what I found out about Skylar, I want to stay far away from Chicago beyond the wedding date and let the dust settle.”

Maybe Julia was right with what she said earlier.

She was the fly and I was the spider.

Or maybe I was right—Julia was the innocent doe, wide-eyed on unsteady knees and I was the wolf. Either way, she’d just been invited to my web or my den.

Given her acceptance, with time she would come to regret her decision.