Tart Read online

  Praise for

  Heart of Darkness

  “Fresh, fun, fast-paced paranormal romance, spellbinding magic, a wry-humored, gutsy heroine and a sexy-as-sin hero put the charm on this witchy new series from multitalented, always fabulous Lauren Dane!���

  —Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author

  “Dane always delivers a steamy, exciting ride . . . she leaves me wanting more!”

  —Larissa Ione, New York Times bestselling author

  “Unputdownable . . . Great characters, wonderful world-building and, as always, a delicious romance. If you pick this book up, make sure you’ve cleared the afternoon.”

  —Ann Aguirre, national bestselling author

  Further praise for Lauren Dane and her novels

  “[It] just might fry your circuits.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Scintillating . . . A roller coaster of emotion, intrigue and sensual delights . . . I was hooked.”

  —Vivi Anna, author of Glimmer

  “Erotic . . . Sure to keep you reading late into the night.”

  —Anya Bast, New York Times bestselling author

  “In a word . . . amazing.”

  —RT Book Review

  Berkley titles by Lauren Dane

  TART

  CHERISHED

  (with Maya Banks)

  CHAOS BURNING

  CAPTIVATED

  HEART OF DARKNESS

  NEVER ENOUGH

  THREE TO TANGO

  (with Emma Holly, Megan Hart, and Bethany Kane)

  MESMERIZED

  INSIDE OUT

  INSATIABLE

  COMING UNDONE

  LAID BARE

  RELENTLESS

  UNDERCOVER

  eSpecials

  LAID OPEN

  TART

  LAUREN DANE

  HEAT | NEW YORK

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Copyright © 2012 by Lauren Dane.

  Cover art by Tony Mauro.

  Cover design by Rita Frangie.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  HEAT and the HEAT design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Heat trade paperback edition / November 2012

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Dane, Lauren.

  Tart : a delicious novel / Lauren Dane.—Heat trade paperback ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN 978-1-101-61231-6

  1. Man-woman relationships—Fiction. 2. Triangles (Interpersonal relations)—Fiction. I. Title.

  PS3604.A5T37 2012

  813'.6—dc23

  2012011831

  I’ve been blessed by an abundance of strong women in my life. This one is for Minnie, Jewell, Bernice and Linda.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  First and foremost, thanks goes to my family. Family is incredibly important, and despite the grumpy times and the trips to the emergency room when my middle child does crazy things like climb bookshelves, they keep me sane and grounded.

  My readers—thank you all so much for loving the Brown siblings so much that I’m able to give you Delicious.

  People who make me better at what I do: Leis Pederson, thank you so much for your patient and sharp advice. Laura Bradford, thank you for your continuing belief in my work (and for your friendship). Megan Hart, who has read so many IMs, emails and manuscripts, and who has taken the time to talk me off ledges and make me laugh. My beta readers Mary, Fatin and Renee—thank you for all the time and effort you’ve so freely given me over the years.

  My secret illuminati author ninjas, aka TLTSNBN—thank you each and every one for kicking butt and taking names.

  Contents

  Praise for Lauren Dane

  Berkley titles by Lauren Dane

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  1

  In case anyone ever doubted it, getting up at four in the morning was all sorts of things. Jules Lamprey had been doing it for years so it wasn’t so much a matter of holy crap, it’s early anymore.

  What she did like, she thought as she locked her front door and headed to her car, was the way the world held so much anticipation. No dawn yet. But it wasn’t the middle of the night anymore either. The promise of a new day was just beginning to manifest itself.

  She liked that she pretty much had the road to herself as she made the short trip to Tart. Oh sure, in a while there’d be people waking up to get that first ferry to Seattle, but for now, it felt as if the entire world was all hers.

  And for a brief, thrilling moment after she’d parked her car and walked up the block, she stood and looked at her shop.

  Tart, in all its glory. Shiny red and chrome with black-and-white tiles on the floor. The place she’d been given so unexpectedly had become her heart. The place she always knew existed because she’d made it so.

  Hers. She unlocked the back door and went through to the kitchen, hanging her things up and getting ready to start the day. She figured at least one of her friends would be by in the next hour either to help or seeking tarts and coffee, and that made her nearly as happy as seeing the front of Tart each and every morning.

  • • •

  True to Jules’s gut feeling, Gillian came in at six. Gillian Forrester had been Jules’s closest friend for well over a decade and a frequent early bird visitor to Tart once she got h
er son Miles off to school.

  Even so, six fifteen was early for Gillian.

  “So what? Did you have some hot, early morning nookie with your rock-star fiancé or what?”

  Gillian sniffed, but the smile on her lips gave her away. “I really need some coffee.”

  Jules grinned, leaning in for the hug. Tart had just opened for the morning commuters. She’d already done all her prep and things were baking and her display case was full of delicious treats.

  But it was quiet enough for the time being that she could pause a moment to make Gillian a latte and slide a scone her way.

  “Adrian was working pretty much the entire night in his new studio. He came home a while ago and told me he’d get Miles to school before he crashed. I sleep poorly when he’s working. It’s terrible and I should be ashamed of myself for apparently being addicted to him in my bed like some sort of comfort object.”

  Her best friend had met Adrian Brown the year before in an unlikely way. He was the biological father of her son Miles. They’d had a rough start, but Jules had never seen Gillian happier and the two of them were getting married that summer.

  “Ashamed, my ass. You’ve got love. Love in the form of a tattooed, tall, dark and handsome musician who adores you. Of course you like him in your bed. But it’s nice of him to deal with Miles.”

  Gillian’s smile made Jules happy to the tip of her toes. “And we did, you know, get a little early morning—ahem—action in. So now I’m awake and he’s going to sleep once he gets Miles off to school so I figure I might as well come here, see you, which I don’t do often enough of late. And you’ll take pity on me and give me caffeine.”

  It’d been a while since Jules had had early morning action, or action of any kind. Maybe she’d meet some hot rock-star friend of Adrian’s at the wedding.

  “Well, I’m glad you’re here. You’re right, I don’t see you often enough lately.”

  “Are you mad at me? You must all feel like I’ve abandoned you.”

  She squeezed Gillian’s hand. “Heck no. You have a few things going on in your life right now. A kid. A fiancé. A wedding. Your business. A new house. Hanging out with your friends tends to fall to the bottom of the list when you’re doing all that other stuff. We don’t feel like you’ve abandoned us. You should know us better than that.”

  Jules handled a few of her regulars before turning her attention back to Gillian.

  “I miss you. There’s so much going on.”

  Jules studied Gillian carefully, worried suddenly that she’d missed something. “Is everything all right? Do you need me to kick anyone for you?”

  “This is exactly what I miss. No one you need to kick, though you know how much it pleases me to have my own army of Amazonian warrior women ready to do my bidding and protect me should I need it.”

  Jules laughed as she worked the counter for a few minutes.

  “It’s just busy,” Gillian said as Jules got back to her. “Wedding stuff, and thank you so much for all your help. And house stuff. We’re halfway between my house and the new place and Miles is bouncing off the walls with excitement. Little prat got a D on a big math test last week. I only found out when Adrian had taken out the recycling and found it in the papers.”

  Jules winced. Gillian loved her son intensely, but she was a tough momma on the big stuff like school.

  “Anyway, I figured if I came in here before my first lesson and while my men took care of themselves, we could visit and you could fill me in on how the new arrangement is working.”

  The new arrangement was the business deal she’d worked out with her friends Mary and Daisy. Mary had moved her catering and dinner club business into Tart’s space and had already grown her business by 50 percent. Daisy’s art hung on the walls, and she sold it and other local artists’ work as well as handling the business and marketing for Tart and Mary’s catering business.

  A lot of new things happening. So much that Jules found herself juggling her life a lot more lately than she ever had. But she felt like things were really looking up.

  “I’m getting used to sharing my space, and it’s going well. Profits are up for all three of us. I’m going out to Patrick Carter’s farm after I close today. I’m expanding my menu to include locally grown produce.”

  “He’ll love that. I’ve been worried about him after losing his wife.”

  “He seemed all right when I spoke to him on the phone. But you know, I can’t imagine losing the love of my life after all those decades together. He still comes in here at least once a month though. And I think he’s slowly moving forward.” The Carters had been one of those couples who seemed to light up at the sight of one another.

  “Here, try this one. It’s a new recipe.” She gave Gillian one of the strawberry buttermilk muffins she’d made earlier.

  “If I must.” Gillian winked and then tried it, humming her delight. “This is really good. Which pretty much is my answer every time you have me try something new of yours.”

  “The strawberries were frozen, but once they’re in season I have a local supplier. I’m taking some out to Patrick’s to give him a sample of what I can do.” Along with the cherry turnovers he loved so much. Hey, she wasn’t above a little bribery.

  “No one is going to complain when you arrive carrying one of your red-and-white bakery boxes.” Gillian grinned.

  Pride filled Jules at the compliment. She’d worked hard to make the place her own after she’d inherited the building. It pleased her so much that she’d been as successful as she had.

  She’d never wake up one day to have her entire life turned upside down and not have a backup plan. Like her mother had.

  • • •

  Jules had been out to Patrick Carter’s farm just a few months before. Unfortunately it had been a less-than-happy occasion. His wife Clara had battled cancer for the better part of the last several years and had finally succumbed to it. The wake had been lovely, filled with friends and family. It had been a tribute to just what an amazing person Clara Carter had been.

  Patrick was hale and hearty in that way some men grew into as they hit eighty. Barrel-chested and broad shouldered, he’d spent his entire life on the farm he still worked. He stopped into Tart once a month when he came into town to run errands and she’d sit with him and visit for the better part of an hour or two. He was a terrible flirt, which always made her smile. And he knew about stuff. His stories always entertained her.

  But the sadness in his eyes had stuck with Jules. Her friend Daisy, in addition to being an artist and a dancer, had a great mind for business. It was her idea to bring Mary and Jules together to combine their resources. Using locally sourced ingredients in the food Tart put out would add another facet to the business. It was smart and would strengthen her ties and commitment to the community.

  So when the idea had come up, Patrick was one of the first names that had come to mind. It was probably a little thing for him, but hopefully it gave her the chance to see him more often and also get him connected to a new and fun project.

  The island was small enough that it didn’t take long to get out to his place. The curved drive up to the pretty farmhouse was lined with trees. His bees were out in the orchards behind the house. She wanted his fruit and his honey.

  It wasn’t until she’d parked and gotten out of the car, her arms laden with the pastry she’d brought, that she noted Patrick was sitting on his big front porch. But he wasn’t alone.

  Both men stood as she headed up the steps and she realized the other one was Gideon, Patrick’s grandson.

  It was an unexpected pleasure to see him. Which was probably why just looking at him sent a little zing through her. That or the fact that he was ridiculously gorgeous. Either way, a zing was a zing and who was she to go looking at any zing askance when she’d been sort of zing-less of late?

  “Two Carter men in one place? I’m not sure Bainbridge Island is big enough to handle all this handsome.” She winked at Patrick, who kissed
her cheek and grabbed the pastry box with a happy sound and a grin.

  “If these have cherry turnovers in them, you can have whatever you like, girlie.” He indicated Gideon, who stood, smiling at her. “You remember my grandson, don’t you?”

  Gideon’s gold-blond hair was to his shoulders. His beard was neatly groomed and framed a sinfully full mouth. Jeans and boots were part of his job, much like the ones his grandfather had on. But Gideon only made her think, “hot cowboy.”

  “I do,” she managed to say instead of drooling. He’d been a cute older boy she’d crushed on growing up. But this Gideon was a man. Damn.

  Before she could say anything else, Gideon stepped to her and pulled her into a hug. He smelled like sunshine and hard work and a hint of the shampoo he used.

  “It’s really good to see you, Jules. Come sit. Granddad has made coffee. I told him we should have offered you food, but he insisted you’d bring it so why bother.”

  Oh. His accent. Not pronounced or even that noticeable, but it was there. A general slowing of his speech. Sexy.

  “Patrick, I brought you some other things in addition to the cherry turnovers.” She tipped her head to the boxes, though she didn’t bother to hide her flattered smile when she noted he’d already started eating.

  He pointed at the box. “You can have one, boy. Just don’t get greedy.”

  Gideon looked to his grandfather. “So says the guy who’s shoving one into his face already like a starving man.”

  Patrick looked over and snorted. “I’m still growing, Gideon. I need it.”

  She laughed, liking the sight of a far more lighthearted Patrick than she’d seen in some time. It was clear Gideon’s presence wasn’t just candy for the ladies in the area.

  “How long are you in town for, Gideon?” She hoped she didn’t sound like a breathless schoolgirl hinting at being asked out. It wasn’t as if he was a stranger after all. She’d known him since they were both kids and he came to Bainbridge every summer and over the winter holidays to visit his grandparents.