by J. R. Ward
There were ten rings in the tray that James put out on the blotter, all of which had been steam-cleaned for presentation. The one he plucked from the black velvet crease was not the largest, although only by a fraction of a carat. It was, however, by far the best.
“This is a seven-point-seven-carat emerald-cut, D in color, internally flawless. I have both the GIA and EGL certifications for your perusal.”
James stayed silent as Mr. diPietro took the ring and bent down to inspect it. There was no reason to mention that the polish and the symmetry of the stone were exceptional or that the platinum setting had been handmade for the diamond or that it was the kind of thing that came onto the market very infrequently. The reflected light and fire spoke for themselves, the flashes radiating upward so brilliantly one had to wonder if the stone itself weren’t magical.
“How much?” Mr. diPietro demanded.
James put the certificates on the desk. “Two million, three hundred thousand.”
With men like Mr. diPietro, the more expensive the better, but the truth was, it was a good deal. For Reinhardt to stay in business, one had to balance volume and margin: too much margin, not enough volume. Besides, assuming Mr. diPietro stayed out of jail and/or bankruptcy, this was the kind of man James wanted to have a long relationship with.
Mr. diPietro handed the ring back and studied the certs. “Tell me about the others.”
James swallowed his surprise. “Of course. Yes, of course.”
He proceeded from right to left through the tray and described the attributes of each ring, all the while wondering whether he had misread his client. He also had Terrence bring in six more, all over five carats.
An hour later, Mr. diPietro sat back in the chair. The man had not stretched or wavered in his attention and there had been no quick checks of his BlackBerry or jokes to break the tension. He hadn’t even glanced in passing at Janice, who was lovely.
Total and complete absorption.
James had to wonder about the woman whose finger would bear the ring. She’d be beautiful, naturally, but she’d have to be very independent and not very emotional. Generally speaking, even the most logical and successful man got a glint in his eye when he bought a ring like one of these for his woman—whether it was the thrill of surprising her with something over the top or the pride that came with being able to afford something that only .01 percent of the population could, the men usually showed some emotion.
Mr. diPietro was as cold and hard as the stones he regarded.
“Is there something else I might show you?” James said, deflating. “Some rubies or sapphires, perhaps?”
The client reached inside his suit jacket and brought out a thin black wallet. “I’ll take the first one you showed me for two million even.” As James blinked, Mr. diPietro put a credit card on the desktop. “If I’m giving you my money, I want you to work for it. And you will be discounting the stone, because your business needs repeat clients like myself.”
James took a moment to catch up with the fact that a transaction might actually occur. “I…I appreciate your discerning eye, but the price is two million, three hundred thousand.”
Mr. diPietro tapped the card. “That’s debit. Two million. Right now.”
James quickly did some math in his head. At that price he was still making about three hundred and fifty thousand on the piece.
“I believe I can do that,” he said.
Mr. diPietro did not sound surprised. “Smart of you.”
“What about sizing? Do you know what size your—”
“The seven-point-seven carats is the only size she’s going to care about. We’ll take care of the rest later.”
“As you wish.”
James typically encouraged the staff to engage with a client as he went back to set a purchase into its box and print out the valuation for insurance purposes. Tonight, though, he shook his head at them as Mr. diPietro palmed a cell phone and started dialing.
As James worked in the back office, he heard Mr. diPietro talking on the phone. There was no teasing, “Darling, I have something for you,” or suggestive, “I’m coming to see you.” No, Mr. diPietro was not calling his soon-to-be fiancée, but rather someone named Tom about some kind of land issue.
James swiped the card. As he waited for authorization, he steam-cleaned the ring again, periodically checking the green digital readout on the card machine. When he was told to call the bank’s twenty-four-hour line directly, he was not surprised given the purchase amount, and as soon as he got on with them, the representative requested to speak to Mr. diPietro.
Transferring the call to the phone on the desk in the viewing room, James put his head through the door. “Mr. diPietro—”
“They want to talk to me?” The man extended his right hand, flashing that watch, and picked up the receiver. Before James could come and take the line off hold, Mr. diPietro did it himself and started talking.
“Yes, it is. Yes, I am. Yes. Yes. My mother’s maiden name is O’Brian. Yes. Thanks.” He looked up at James as he put the call on hold again and the phone back in its seat. “They have an authorization code for you.”
James bowed and went back to the office. When he reappeared, he was carrying a sleek red bag with satin handles and an envelope with the receipt in it.
“I hope you will call on us again if we may be of service.”
Mr. diPietro took what he now owned. “I plan on getting engaged only once, but there will be anniversaries. Plenty of them.”
The staff stepped back to get out of his way and James had to hustle to open the store’s door before Mr. diPietro came to it. After the man breezed through, James relocked the thing and looked out the window.
The man’s car was gorgeous as it took off, its engine growling, the bright lights of the street lamps reflecting off black paint as glossy as still water.
As James turned away, he caught Janice leaning into another window, her eyes sharp. One could be quite sure she wasn’t measuring the car as he had, but focusing on the driver instead.
Odd, wasn’t it. That which you could not have always seemed more valuable than what you did, and maybe that was why diPietro was so removed: He could afford all of what had been shown, so to him the transaction was no different from buying a newspaper or a can of Coke to the average person.
There was nothing that the truly wealthy could not have, and how lucky they were.
“No offense, but I think I’m going to take off.”
Jim put down his empty and grabbed for his leather jacket. He’d had his two Buds, and one more was going to put him into DUI territory, so it was time to pull out.
“I can’t believe you’re leaving alone,” Adrian drawled, his eyes going over to Blue Dress.
She was still standing beneath that ceiling light. And still staring. And still breathtaking. “Yup, just me, myself, and I.”
“Most men don’t have your kind of self-control.” Adrian smiled, the hoop in his lower lip glinting. “Kind of impressive actually.”
“Yeah, I’m a saint, all right.”
“Well, drive home safe so you can keep polishing that halo. We’ll see you tomorrow at the site.”
There was a round of palm slapping and then Jim was making his way through the crowd. As he went, he drew looks from the black-chained and spike-collared, probably in the same way all these Goths did when they were out at a mall: What the hell are you doing here?
Guess Levi’s and a clean flannel shirt offended their leather-and-lace sensibilities.
Jim chose a path that kept him far away from Blue Dress, and once he was outside, he took a deep breath like he’d passed some kind of test. The cold air didn’t bring quite the relief he wanted, though, and as he walked around to the back parking lot, his hand went to the pocket of his shirt.
He’d quit smoking, and yet a year later, he was still reaching for the Marlboro Reds. His frickin’ habit was like having an amputated limb with phantom pain.
As he made
the corner and walked into the lot, he went past a row of cars that were parked grilles-in to the building. All of them were dirty, their flanks spackled with salt from the road treatments and months-old white-snow grime. His truck, which was way down at the end of the third row in, was exactly the same.
He looked left and right as he went. This was a bad part of town, and if he were going to get jumped, he wanted to see what was coming at him. Not that he minded a good fight. He’d gotten into a lot of them in his younger years, and then been trained properly in the military—plus, thanks to his day job, he was in rock-hard shape. But it was always better to—
He stopped as a flash of gold winked at him from the ground.
Crouching down, he picked up a thin gold ring—no, it was a hoop earring, one of those guys that plugged into itself. He cleaned the grunge off and glanced over at the cars. Could have been dropped by anyone, and it wasn’t very expensive.
“Why did you leave without me?”
Jim froze.
Shit, her voice was as sexy as the rest of her.
Straightening to his full height, he pivoted on his work boot and stared across the trunks of the cars. Blue Dress was about ten yards away, standing under a security light—which made him wonder if she always chose spots that illuminated her.
“It’s cold,” he said. “You should go back inside.”
“I’m not cold.”
True enough. Hot as fuck would cover it. “Well…I’m leaving.”
“Alone?” She came forward, her high heels tracking across the pitted asphalt.
The closer she got, the better-looking she became. Shit, her lips were made for sex, deep red and slightly parted, and that hair of hers…All he could think about was it falling over his bare chest and thighs.
Jim shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. He was much taller than she was, but the way she walked was a sucker punch to the solar plexus, immobilizing him with hot thoughts and vivid plans: Staring at her fine pale skin, he wondered if it was as soft as it seemed. Wondered a whole hell of a lot about what was under that dress. Wondered what she would feel like beneath his naked body.
As she stopped in front of him, he had to take a deep breath.
“Where’s your car?” she said.
“Truck.”
“Where is it?”
At that moment a cold breeze rolled in from the alley and she shivered a little, raising thin, lovely arms to wrap herself in a hug. Her dark eyes, which had been seductive in the club, abruptly became pleading…and made her nearly impossible to turn away from.
Was he going to do this? Was he going to fall into this warm pool of a woman, if only for a short time?
Another gust came barreling in, and she stamped one stiletto, then the other.
Jim took off his leather jacket and closed the distance between them. With their eyes locked, he encircled her with what had warmed himself. “I’m over here.”
She reached for his hand and took it. He led the way.
Ford F-150s were not exactly great for hooking up, but there was enough room if you needed it—and more to the point, the truck was all he had to offer. Jim helped her inside and then went around and got behind the wheel. The engine started quick and he turned the fan off, halting the blast of frigid air until things heated up.
She moved across the seat to him, her breasts rising above the tight bands of her dress as she got closer. “You’re very kind.”
Kind was not he way he saw himself. Especially not now, given what was on his mind. “Can’t have a lady cold.”
Jim ran his eyes all over her. She was huddled in his beat-to-shit leather jacket, her face turned down, her long hair falling over her shoulder and curling up into her cleavage. She might have come across as a seducer, but the truth was she was a good girl who was in over her head.
“Do you want to talk?” he said, because she deserved better than what he wanted from her.
“No.” She shook her head. “No, I want to do…something.”
Okay, Jim was definitely not kind. He was a man who was a palm’s reach away from a beautiful woman, and even though she was giving off vulnerable vibes, playing therapist with her was not the sort of horizontal he was after.
As her eyes lifted, they were orphan sad. “Please…kiss me?”
Jim held back, her expression putting the brakes on him and then some. “You sure about this?”
She swept her hair over her shoulder and tucked it behind her ear. When she nodded, the dime-size diamond in her lobe flashed. “Yes…very. Kiss me.”
When she held his stare and didn’t look away, Jim leaned in, feeling ensnared and not minding in the slightest. “I’ll go slow.”
Oh…God…
Her lips were every bit as soft as he’d imagined, and he stroked her mouth carefully with his own, afraid he would crush her. She was sweet, she was warm, and she trusted him to set the careful pace, welcoming his tongue inside of her, then later shifting back so that his palm could ease down from her face to her collarbone…to her full breast.
Which changed the tempo of things.
Abruptly, she sat up and took off his jacket. “Zipper’s in the back.”
His rough workman’s hands found it quick, and he worried about marring the blue dress as he drew the fastening downward. And then he stopped thinking as she took the top from her breasts herself, revealing a satin-and-lace bra that probably cost as much as his truck.
Through the fine material, her nipples were peaked, and in the shadows thrown by the dim light of the dash, they were feast-for-the-starved spectacular.
“My breasts are real,” she said softly. “He wanted me to get implants, but I…I don’t want them.”
Jim frowned, thinking that whatever pig asshole had come up with that one deserved an eye operation—performed by a tire iron. “Don’t do it. You’re beautiful.”
“Really?” Her voice wavered.
“Truly.”
Her shy smile meant too much to him, piercing through his chest, going too deep. He knew all about the ugly side of life, had been through the kinds of things that could make a single day feel like it lasted a month, and he wished her none of that. Seemed, though, she’d had plenty of hard cracks herself.
Jim reached over and turned the heater on to warm her.
When he eased back, she swept aside one of the bra’s cups and framed herself with her hand, offering the nipple to him.
“You’re amazing,” he whispered.
Jim bent down and captured her flesh with his lips, sucking on her gently. As she gasped and thrust her hands into his hair, her breast cushioned his mouth and he had a moment of raw lust, the kind that turned men into animals.
Except then he remembered the way she’d looked at him, and he knew he wasn’t going to have sex with her. He was going to take care of her, here in the truck cab, with the heater going and the windows fogging up. He was going to show her how beautiful she was and how perfect her body looked and felt and…tasted. But he wasn’t taking anything for himself.
Hell, maybe he wasn’t all bad.
You sure about that? his inner voice cut in. Are you really sure about that?
No, he wasn’t. But Jim laid her down on the seat and wadded his leather jacket into a pillow for her head and vowed to do the right thing.
Man…she was drop-dead gorgeous, a lost, exotic bird who’d found a chicken coop for shelter. Why on God’s green earth did she want him?
“Kiss me,” she breathed.
Just as he braced his weight on his heavy arms and leaned over her, he caught sight of the digital clock on the dash: 11:59. The very minute he had been born forty years before.
What a happy birthday this had turned out to be.
CHAPTER
3
Vin diPietro sat on a silk-covered sofa in a living room decorated in gold, red and creamy white. The black marble floors were covered with antique rugs, the bookcases were filled with first editions, and all around his collection
of crystal, ebony, and bronze statuary gleamed.
But the real showstopper was the view of the city over to the right.
Thanks to a glass wall that ran the entire length of the room, Caldwell’s twin bridges and all of its skyscrapers were as much a part of the decorations as the drapes and the floor coverings and the objets d’art. The sprawling vista was urban splendor at its best, a vast, glimmering landscape that was never the same, even though the buildings didn’t change.
Vin’s duplex in the Commodore took up all of the twenty-eighth and twenty-ninth floors of the luxury high-rise, for a total of ten thousand square feet. He had six bedrooms, a maid’s suite, an exercise room, and a movie theater. Eight bathrooms. Four parking spaces in the underground parking garage. And inside everything was exactly as he wanted it, every square of marble, slab of granite, yard of fabric, plank of hardwood, foot of carpet—all of it had been handpicked from the best of the best by him.
He was ready to move out.
With the way things were going, he figured he’d be ready to hand over the keys to its next owner in another four months. Maybe three, depending on how fast the crews were at the construction site.
If this condo was nice, what Vin was building on the banks of the Hudson River was going to make the duplex look like subsidized housing. He’d had to buy up a half dozen old hunting lodges and camps to get the kind of acreage and shoreline he wanted, but everything had fallen into place. He’d razed the shacks, cleared the land, and dug a cellar hole big enough to play football in. The crew was framing now and working on the roof; then his fleet of electricians would install the house’s central nervous system and his plumbers would put in the arteries. Finally, it would be the detail crap with the counters and tiles, the appliances and fixtures, and the decorators.
It was all coming together, just like magic. And not only about where he would live.
In front of him, on the glass-topped table, was the velvet box from Reinhardt’s.
As the grandfather clock in the hall struck midnight, Vin sat back into the sofa cushions and crossed his legs. He was not a romantic, never had been, and neither was Devina—which was only one of the reasons they were perfect together. She gave him his space, kept herself busy, and was always ready to hop on a plane when he needed her to. And she didn’t want children, which was a huge plus.