Twin Temptation: Twin Temptation

“The thing is, Eva Ware isn’t in charge here anymore,” Maddie said.

Adam’s face turned red. He opened his mouth, shut it and finally said, “Very well.”

The elevator door slid open on a small, high-ceilinged room with three offices opening off it. Desks and cabinets were partially visible through the open doorways. Oriental rugs in muted pastel shades dotted the marble floors. Sunlight poured through narrow windows. An antique cherry desk sat in the center of the room, and a young Asian girl glanced up, then rose and moved toward them. “Welcome to Eva Ware Designs. I’m Michelle Tan.”

Maddie summoned up the name from the notes Jordan had given her as she shook the hand the young woman extended. Then as the Michelle’s gaze shifted to Jase, Maddie said, “This is my friend, Jase Campbell.”

“Ah. Jordan’s roommate,” Michelle said. “She’s spoken of you.”

“I hope in a positive way,” Jase said.

Michelle smiled, but Adam interrupted before she could speak. “They’ve asked to see Aunt Eva’s workroom. We’ll be back shortly.” Then he turned and led the way down a short hall.

“You’re doing a nice job of handling your cousin, darlin’,” Jase murmured for Maddie’s ears only. “The pushier you are with him, the more easily I can fade into the background.”

“His mother isn’t here to prompt him. He seems more assertive when she is.” Then she shot him a look. “Darlin’?”

“Payback for my foot.”

The short exchange eased the nerves in Maddie’s stomach.

“When we get in the studio,” Jase continued, “I’ll distract your cousin so you can take your time.”

Adam opened the door and strode into the room. Over his shoulder, Maddie could see Cho Li, her mother’s long-time assistant, bent over something at a desk. He wore jeans and a loose-fitting chambray shirt.

“Cho, what are you doing working in Aunt Eva’s space?”

Adam’s voice had the small man swiveling in his chair.

Cho Li wore rimless glasses.

“I was finishing a design that Eva was working on,” Cho replied in a calm voice. “She would want it completed.”

For a moment the gazes of the two men clashed. In the end, it was Adam who dropped his. “You remember Madison Farrell.”

Cho rose from his chair and moved toward Maddie. When he reached her, he bowed.

Jase released Maddie’s hand as she also bowed. He knew from Jordan that Cho Li was in his midseventies, but he looked younger and his eyes were smiling. Jase quickly scanned the room. It was large, nearly twice the space of the office area where they’d left Michelle. Tall narrow windows along two walls let in plenty of light, and there were three clearly defined workspaces.

“Welcome, Ms. Farrell,” Cho Li said. “What can I do for you?”

Maddie smiled at him. “Please call me Maddie.”

He nodded his head. “Maddie then.”

“I’d love to see the design that you were completing for Eva.”

A smile spread over Cho’s face. “Come.”

When Adam started to follow them, Jase put a hand on his arm. “I wonder if I could have a word with you.”

“What about?”

Jase glanced at Maddie, then lowered his voice. “In private?” Then he drew Adam over to the far end of the room. He settled his hip against a worktable so that Adam would have to face him. “The thing is, I need some help.”

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “With what?”

Over Adam’s shoulder, Jase could see Maddie and Cho standing in front of the worktable. Cho was holding up a ring of yellow gold with a smaller ring of white gold inside it.

Jase met Adam’s eyes. “Maddie and I have only just met. Jordan and I have been pals for years, and they look so much alike. But when I met Maddie, something just clicked. You know what I mean?”

“Your relationship with Madison is of no interest to me. Now if you’ll excuse—”

Jase put a hand on Adam’s arm. “The thing is, I’d like to buy her something while we’re here. Can you help me with that?”

Adam frowned at him. “Do I look like a salesperson? If you came to purchase something, Arnold could have taken care of you in the main salon.”

Jase shrugged. “You’re one of the designers, aren’t you?”

Adam’s chin lifted. “Yes, I am. Now that Eva is gone, I’m the head designer at Eva Ware Designs.”

“And you’re Maddie’s cousin. Family’s important to her. I was thinking that one of your creations might be just the ticket. Something exclusive that hasn’t made its way downstairs yet? Do you have some pieces that I could look at?”

Adam was torn. Jase could see the struggle in his face, but in the end ego won out. He opened a drawer in his worktable, took out a thick ring of keys and led the way to a cabinet in the corner. “I can show you three of my latest creations.”

MADDIE TOUCHED the pendant of concentric gold rings that Cho had been working on when they’d entered the room. “Would you mind if I picked it up?”

“Go ahead,” Cho said.

Maddie examined it more closely. The larger ring was yellow gold and the smaller circle dangling inside it was white gold. Cho had nearly completed hammering the finish onto the larger ring.

“There’s the sketch your mother was working from.”

Maddie shifted her gaze to the corkboard that formed the walls above each workspace. There were at least a dozen sketches pinned to the wall, and it took her a moment to locate the right one. She saw that the inner circular ring was supposed to be hammered too.

She looked back at the pendant now nestled in the palm of her hand. “It’s beautiful. Just beautiful. I’ve been experimenting with a technique like this one.”

“Why don’t you try your hand on the silver?”

“Silver?” Maddie’s eyes narrowed on the inner ring. “I thought it had to be white gold.” But it wasn’t. She could see that now. “I didn’t know that Eva worked with silver.”

“She had just started.” Cho held out the small hammer. “Go ahead.”

Her fingers itched to take it. Instead, she met Cho’s eyes. “You knew her for a long time.”

He nodded. “I worked with her for a year before she opened this store.”

Maddie drew in a deep breath. “Did she ever tell you about me?”

“No. I’m sorry.”

Maddie read both sadness and understanding in Cho’s eyes. Swallowing her disappointment, she glanced back at the tool he held in his hand. “I think you’d better finish this. I’m not sure she’d want me to work on her pieces.”

“But she brought you here,” Cho said.

Maddie stared at him. He was right. Eva had brought her here with the terms of the will. She must have wanted her to be here. When Cho swiveled the chair and she felt it at the back of her knees, she sank into it.

He sat down beside her. “One thing I can tell you. I worked with her for a year before she signed the lease on this building. There were three other places she looked at, but she told me that she wanted a store on Madison Avenue. She believed it would bring her luck. It did.”

Maddie took the tool that Cho offered and turned back to the circular rings. Then, drawing in a deep breath, she hit the first stroke.

Chapter Eight

WHILE ADAM had waxed on and on extolling the design values of first a ring and then a bracelet, Jase had taken the time to study the room. The worktable that Cho and Maddie sat at ran nearly the length of one wall. It had two workspaces. Adam’s desk and worktable sat on the opposite wall.

Occasionally, Adam would glance over to see what Maddie was doing. Jase had used those opportunities to take a quick inventory of the sketches that nearly covered the walls. He knew from Jordan that Cho didn’t create any original jewelry, that he worked on executing and occasionally modifying Eva’s designs.

Adam’s jewelry was bolder than Eva’s, and his use of gems was more dramatic. Jase glanced down at the piece Adam had described as a tennis necklace of multicolored gems nestled between stations of etched gold. It was a stunner, and it was the only piece Adam had shown him that might suit Maddie.

“How much?” Jase asked.

“One hundred and fifty thousand.” Adam glanced over his shoulder to check on Maddie and Cho again.

Jase took advantage of his distraction to pull open a second drawer in the small chest. It held hundreds of gems separated by colors into different compartments.

“Stop that.”

It was only his lightning-fast reflexes that kept Jase’s fingers from being caught when Adam slammed the drawer shut.

“That’s a lot of bling,” Jase commented.

“Yes.” Adam held out his hand for the tennis necklace. “If that tennis necklace isn’t to your taste, Arnold has more on the main floor.”

Instead of handing it over, Jase poured the necklace from one hand into the other. “I heard there was a robbery here about a month ago. I guess they didn’t get in here.”

“No,” Adam said shortly, wiggling his fingers impatiently for the necklace. “The thieves hit the main salon.”

“I heard that what they took roughly amounted to fifty thousand less than the price of this necklace. But I suppose something like this would be harder to fence than the smaller pieces that were taken.”

Adam stiffened. “Every piece that was taken was one of a kind. It was a terrible loss.”

“Were some of your pieces stolen?”

Something flashed into Adam’s eyes. Anger, or maybe fear. “As a matter of fact, none of my pieces were stolen. If your theory is correct, the thieves might have found my designs a little too pricey. Now, if you’ll give me that necklace?”

“Actually, I like it. But it’s a little large for Maddie. Could you make one a little bit daintier with smaller stones?”

Though Jase hadn’t supposed it possible, Adam grew even stiffer and his voice rose slightly. “Absolutely not. I never alter one of my designs.”

Jase allowed a puzzled expression to fill his face. “But Jordan told me that was why so few pieces were on display in the main salon—so that customers could consult with the designer and place special orders.”

Adam snatched the necklace, placed it back in the cabinet and locked the drawer. “That’s Jordan’s strategy. Aunt Eva went along with it. I didn’t.”

“But wouldn’t you have made more money in the long run by following Jordan’s strategy?”

Adam’s chin lifted. “I’m an artist. I won’t modify my designs.”

Jase would grant Adam was creative. But if he had to choose two other words to describe Maddie and Jordan’s cousin, they would be arrogant and rebellious. The rebelliousness was something he and his aunt Eva had shared. According to Jordan, both had shunned going into the family banking business. Perhaps Eva Ware had seen a bit of herself in her nephew. But in the end, she hadn’t seen enough to leave him her business.

At the far end of the room, the first hit of a hammer sounded.

Adam whirled toward Maddie and Cho. “Wait a minute. You can’t—”

Jase gripped his arm and kept him firmly anchored in place. He pitched his voice low. “Actually, she can. You have no authority to stop her.”

Adam’s face went red with fury. But whatever he would have said was interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. He glanced impatiently at the caller ID and then took the call. “Mother, I’m…No…Yes. I can explain.”

Adam glanced once more at Maddie and Cho; then with frustration radiating off him in waves, he whirled and left the room.

What exactly did Adam Ware have to explain to his mother, Jase wondered. Whatever it was, he didn’t seem happy about it. On the bright side, it had gotten Adam out of the room.

Jase shifted his attention to Maddie and Cho. Their heads were bent low over the pendant Maddie was working on, and Cho was speaking in a low murmur. They were so absorbed in their work that he doubted they were aware that Adam had just stormed out.

Satisfied, Jase moved to a far window that looked down on 51st Street. Pedestrians moved quickly along the sidewalks in steady streams interrupted only by the changing traffic lights.

Adam Ware was going to be a problem. Jase knew from Jordan that Adam was twenty-nine and he’d joined Eva Ware Designs right out of college. He’d already been working there for three years and designing his own line of jewelry when Jordan had come on board. He’d resented her presence from the beginning and complained regularly about any changes she wanted to make.

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