Life Shocks Romances Collection 4

by Jade Kerrion

  He had never been more wrong about anything in his life.

  The silence between them wrapped like thorny vines around his throat. He forced out a single word. “Well?”

  Cixi, Mei Li, or whatever she called herself now, looked flushed and miserable. “Well, what?”

  “Any explanations for why you left me without a word eighteen months ago, stealing out in the middle of the night with my family heirloom?”

  Her trembling fingers pressed protectively on the diamond pendant. “I…”

  Someone brushed against his back, and a hand pressed against his shoulder. Lucien spoke quietly. “The auction is starting soon.” The warning note in Lucien’s voice, however, was the real message. You’re creating a scene.

  Rio released his grip on her wrist, and immediately, she cradled her hand against her chest like an injured bird and took several quick steps back from him. The wounded vulnerability in her eyes pierced his heart, but then again, she had always been able to do exactly that. The compelling need to protect her had driven him once before.

  I was a fool. Never again.

  “Are you all right?” Lucien asked in lowered tones.

  Rio nodded stiffly, his shoulders squared and his back muscles clenched against the sudden ache in his chest and the thoughts whirring through his mind. I loved her. I would have married her. I was going to give her everything—not just the diamond pendant, but the earrings, and the rings too, and everything I possessed.

  Now, I don’t even recognize her.

  No way in hell is she going to keep that diamond. I’ll get it back from her, with everything I ever gave her.

  Including my goddamned heart.

  Chapter 2

  Her head held high, her muscles stiffened against the trembling in her bones, Cixi returned to the safety of the crowd. Curious gazes turned in her direction, but only one person grasped her arm. The grip on her elbow was painful—even Rio had not grabbed her as tightly—and steered her to a quiet corner.

  She braced herself. Even so, her half-brother’s voice shafted icy shards down her spine. “You know him.”

  Cixi sucked in a deep breath. Guan Yu had not asked a question. He had made an accusation. “I knew him…from before.” Before I became…this. She stared with perfectly concealed distaste at the white Versace gown she wore. It was stunning—the crown jewel of the fall collection—and it was not her. She had scarcely recognized herself when she applied her makeup earlier that evening. Her reflection still startled her.

  Worse, she no longer recognized the person she was inside.

  Guan Yu glanced over his shoulder. “You know Riordan Loren.” The brief flare of hate in his eyes was quickly extinguished by cold cunning. “You never told us.”

  I never knew. He was always just Rio Loren to me. He never spoke about his family, other than his brother who died. He never flung around his wealth. Never made me think he was more than just…someone normal—instead of the billionaire’s son he turned out to be.

  “This…trinket that you’re so irrationally attached to—” Guan Yu stared at her diamond pendant. “It’s not just a costume piece, too large to be real. It actually is real—the Najam ‘Azraq.”

  “The what?” She touched the cool stone draped between the dip of her breasts. “It’s…real?”

  “You didn’t know?” Guan Yu laughed, the sound whipped like cold northern winds. “Little fool. Yes, it is real. The Najam ‘Azraq—the Blue Star—found in the famous diamond mines of Arabia. It’s a part of a set that includes earrings and a ring.” He studied her face, and his voice hushed into almost reverent tones. “You’ve seen them. You’ve seen the full set.”

  She did not nod, but she knew Guan Yu would see the truth in her eyes anyway. Eighteen months ago, she had seen the magnificent set of jewelry resting on a bed of dark blue velvet. With tears in her eyes and a scribbled note in her hand, she had crept out of bed and opened Rio’s suitcase. She would put the note where he would find it long after she had left. She could not risk him coming after her. Where she was going, he could not follow.

  The large hinged box in his suitcase had drawn her attention. She opened it and gasped at the blinding glitter emanating from the shards of blue gems. They had to be fake. Nothing real could possibly be that large or that brilliant. The pear-shaped blue pendant was unquestionably the highlight of the collection. The solitaire ring displayed above it was smaller but no less brilliant. The earrings on either side were clusters of small blue and clear gems that hung like ripe grapes off a vine.

  Earlier that evening, when Rio had returned from his three-day trip to New York City, he had said that he had a gift for her. Was this what he meant? Her chest ached as she smiled through her tears. He must have seen her pause in front of the jewelry stores in Key West, always looking but never entering. How kind of him to buy something so beautiful for her to wear, even if it was large to the point of gaudiness. Everyone would know it was just costume jewelry, but she didn’t care.

  He had thought of her. He had wanted to make her happy.

  She turned to look at her lover, fast asleep on the bed. They had exhausted each other—their fast, frantic sex eventually giving way to tender lovemaking that had lasted hours. He had given her joy. More than the physical rapture of orgasm, she had felt at peace when she had fallen asleep on his chest, embraced in his arms.

  The peace was an illusion. It evaporated when she awoke.

  Her time was up.

  She blinked her tears back. She would not stain their last memories with tears. But oh, how she loved him, needed him, and wanted him. If only things were different. If only choices could be unmade. She caressed the blue pendant on its bed of velvet. It was cold, unlike his arms, but it would be all she would have of him—something small to remember him by.

  The memory fell away, and Cixi squeezed her eyes shut as she touched the pendant lying between her breasts. It had sustained her through the painful surgeries and the long recuperation period. It had anchored her when she stared at her face, swathed in bandages. She no longer recognized herself, but the pendant from her former life reminded her that once, someone had loved her, ugly though she had been then.

  Her newfound family had allowed her the indulgence of keeping that large blue pendant. They laughed at her gaudy taste. No one ever thought it might be real.

  Most especially not her, or she would never have taken it.

  A middle-aged woman, her hair perfectly coiffed, approached Cixi and Guan Yu. “The auction is starting, my dear. We need you on the stage.”

  Guan Yu smiled affably, but his eyes were narrow slits. “Go on, and xiao mei,” he called out as she walked away from him. “Don’t lose that diamond.”

  The warning shuddered down her spine, a threat clouding a mind. She kept a smile fixed in place as she sauntered across the stage, hips swaying in a motion so practiced that it had become natural. She posed beside the auction chairperson, her hand on her hip and a faint smile on her lips. That smile, too, was practiced to perfection, striking the right balance of coolness to tempt and warmness to tease.

  She kept the smile in place as her thoughts whirred. How stupid and careless she had been. Her family had been content to let her hold on to her large, tacky paste jewel. But now that the gem was real—and not just real, it actually had a name—and now that they and she had learned that her former boyfriend wasn’t a beach bum, but the Riordan Loren—

  Her smile faltered. What was she going to do?

  “Sold!” The auction chairperson’s booming voice yanked her out of her distracted state.

  She looked at him, startled. Was it already over?

  A discrete glance at her watch told her that her auction had taken twenty minutes—far more than the usual ten-minute run rate.

  The chairperson beamed at her. “An absolutely splendid bidding war, gentleman, and congratulations to you, Mr. Loren. $59,000 is a bargain price to pay for a date with the stunning Mei Li.”

  Loren? Rio Lor
en?

  Her gaze flashed over the crowd and immediately locked on him. He was surrounded by others, yet it seemed as if all the spotlights in the room focused on him, plunging the crowd into darkness. She stared into the eyes of the man she had loved, but he was as much a stranger to her as she was to herself.

  His shoulders were stiff, his stance unwelcoming, and his eyes—a deeper blue than the diamond she had stolen from him—were utterly cold. A fist clenched around her heart, and she would have stumbled off the stage if Guan Yu had not been standing at the foot of the steps. He caught and steadied her, but there was no gentleness in his touch. “You will draw him in. Make him fall in love with you again, do you understand?”

  No, no. She wanted to plead with him. You don’t understand. Rio doesn’t forgive. He doesn’t forget. You don’t know him the way I do.

  But there were too many people around, and they were closing in on her—eager members of the press seeking a statement from the supermodel who had brought in the highest bid of the evening. Guan Yu straightened and stepped back, but not before he issued a final whispered warning. “Don’t lose that diamond.”

  His words thudded its unrelenting beat against her heart. Her head splitting from the onset of a migraine, Cixi smiled and nodded her way through a few perfunctory questions. The lights and sounds became unbearable, and the panic pounding in her chest rushed upward, on the brink of shattering her fragile façade.

  Cixi blinked hard and reeled from a microphone shoved in her face. She was unexpectedly rescued by Rio’s deep voice. “That’s enough. Give her space.”

  The crowd of reporters cleared, instinctively responding to the note of authority in his voice. Discreetly, he slipped an arm around her waist, steadying her until she no longer wobbled on her three-inch heels. “You need to eat more.” His growl sounded far less pleasant than the cold blast of authority that had sent the reporters scurrying.

  She looked up at him. “Why did you—? I mean, it’s so much—”

  “It’s tax deductible, and for a good cause. Besides—” His gaze drifted down to her breasts and to the glistening jewel nestled there. “$59,000 is a small price to pay to recover my property.” He bared his teeth in a smile utterly devoid of humor. “I will take you home. Our date begins the moment we step out of the club. Don’t lose that diamond.”

  Chapter 3

  Two voices rang in her mind, both issuing the same warning: Don’t lose that diamond.

  Cixi squeezed her eyes shut against the bright glare of lights in the ladies’ bathroom. Her fingernails dug painful indentations into the palms of her hands. If only she could flush that diamond down the drain!

  And then what?

  Rio Loren might not kill her, but Guan Yu would.

  It’s just a stone. A pretty stone. And I don’t want it anymore.

  It was supposed to be simple—a token from her old life, a reminder of Rio’s love. She would not have taken it if she had known that it was worth something.

  She might have been a coward, but she was not a thief.

  The bathroom door opened, and a woman walked in. Her skin was a soft blend of honey and bronze—she could have passed for South American or Middle Eastern—but her classy European style was timeless and as polished as her manicure. Zara Itani, the socialite, had graced the arms of some of the wealthiest men in the world. She was not conventionally beautiful, but she exuded all the sensuality of a night-blooming flower. Something about her made her almost irresistible to men.

  Cixi knew exactly what Zara possessed—the allure of the unknown and the elusive hint of danger. Without uttering a word, she challenged men to take her on, to best her.

  To Cixi’s knowledge, no man had ever succeeded.

  Casually, Zara stood in front of the mirror and reapplied her lipstick. “Quite a scene out there, don’t you think?” Her violet-eyed gaze locked on Cixi’s reflection. “I would have thought that someone who brought in the highest bid of the evening, from the extremely sexy Riordan Loren, no less, would look happier.”

  Cixi drew an unsteady breath. “He wants this.” She caressed the pendant.

  “Then why don’t you give it to him?”

  “Because it’s not just a pretty stone. It’s not even just an expensive stone. Not anymore. All kinds of egos are tied up in it now. It’s a symbol—of love, loss, revenge, and petty spite.” Cixi clenched her hands to keep herself from yanking the diamond off from around her neck and flinging it into the toilet.

  Zara shrugged. “Perhaps it’s more trouble than it is worth. Who’s going to miss the diamond the most?”

  Cixi froze. Not Guan Yu. All he cared about was the dollar value of the precious stone. Rio? He wanted his diamond back, but he had not yanked it off her throat the moment he had seen it. In the grand scheme of things, the diamond was a mere fraction of his net worth, little more than a rounding error.

  “Me…” she breathed. “I’d miss it the most.” Her shoulders drooped. “I thought Rio meant it for me. I thought he loved me.” She shook her head. “I didn’t intend or expect this…mess.”

  Not that she expected Zara to understand.

  Cixi was right on that point. Zara’s eyebrows formed a cynical arch. “You’re running out of time.” Her tone was perfectly modulated, with the smooth polish of finishing school.

  Cixi, however, heard the underlying threat beneath the sultry purr. Zara, she recalled, was more deadly than Guan Yu and Rio Loren combined. No sane person deliberately pissed her off. Cixi knew the right answer was to stay focused on why she had left Rio in the first place, but after seeing him—her head spun and her heart thudded—damn it. Over eighteen months, love had blurred into an abstract concept, but seeing him again brought it all back—the soaring highs of loving him, the crushing lows of realizing he didn’t love her as much as she wanted, let alone the way she deserved.

  All he wants is his diamond. He never wanted me. He never loved me the way I loved him—completely, utterly. Rio’s not the answer; he’s not my salvation. He never was. The silken threads of the web Cixi had weaved were fraying beneath her fingertips. The instincts that kept her alive and at the top of her game screamed incoherent warnings at her. Dread locked like a fist around her heart. Zara’s right. It’s time to finish this ridiculous game.

  Cixi breathed out a sigh. “I can’t let him take me home. Whatever control I have over the situation goes to hell at that point, because I…” I love him.

  Zara shrugged. “Then take control of the situation. You should never let men dictate it.”

  Cixi stifled a smile. That was exactly what she expected Zara to say. “Rio’s waiting for me at the front. Do you know another way out of here?”

  “Several. Come with me. And Cixi—”

  She met Zara’s violet-eyed gaze.

  The Lebanese-Venezuelan woman’s lips curved into a cool smile. “Everything will be all right.”

  Cixi fought the shudder rolling down her spine. Zara’s words weren’t a promise; they weren’t even a warning.

  They were a threat—as silken and subtle as the woman who had issued them.

  Chapter 4

  “Where is she?” Rio glanced at his watch and then drew his gaze back across the foyer. “How long can a woman spend in the bathroom?”

  “That is a rhetorical question, right?” Lucien asked. He suddenly straightened as a woman walked toward him. “Zara, what are you doing here?”

  “Just a night out on the town.” She breathed an affectionate kiss on Lucien’s cheek before turning to Rio. “Welcome back to the original Sin City.” She touched her cheek to his. Her spicy perfume shot straight into his head, lingering around his senses like fragrant incense. “Did you two boys have a good time tonight?”

  “How could we?” Lucien laughed. “You weren’t available for bid.”

  She winked at him. “No one can afford me. She has left, by the way.”

  For an instant, confusion blanked his thoughts, then Rio’s stomach sank. “Cixi?”r />
  “She told me to give you a message. She’s waiting where you first met her.” Zara smiled faintly before turning away. “Take care.”

  Rio frowned. Why did her dismissal sound like a threat? He glanced at Lucien, but the other man wore an inscrutable expression, as if Zara were as much a mystery to him.

  What the hell. For a moment, Rio’s was torn between curiosity over Zara’s inexplicable allure and the urgent compulsion to find Cixi. He drew a deep breath. He had been looking for Cixi for eighteen months. He wasn’t about to let her—or his diamond—slip out of his grasp.

  He strode out of the club as the hostess called down to the valets to retrieve his silver Porsche. He tipped the valet and roared off in his sports car.

  Why would she go back to Vinegar Hill? Didn’t she know how dangerous it was?

  The Brooklyn neighborhood was no better lit than it had been that night two years earlier when Rio and Cixi had first stumbled across each other. He parked his car, hoped it would be there when he returned, and then retraced his steps through Vinegar Hill.

  His tuxedo drew curious looks and more than a few snide comments, but the snickers faded into silence when he fixed the perpetrators with a steely look. They recoiled and hunkered back into the shadows. Just as well. He knew what they didn’t—that his threat was more psychological than physical. If it came down to actual blows, he didn’t stand much of a chance if the fight lasted for more than a minute. No amount of physical training compensated for the lingering effect of a childhood viral infection—ventricular arrhythmias. The abnormal rapid heart rhythms in the lower chambers of his heart made extreme physical exertion a hit-or-miss—more often a miss.

  He had learned to live with it, and with his nearly crippling fear of heights. He had worked the constraints of his life around both his weaknesses.

  Rio’s jaw tightened. What he hadn’t yet worked out was the constraints of his life without Cixi in it.