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He was like iron under the fabric of his jacket sleeve. He looked at her hand with a raised brow, making her lift it away self-consciously. Her pulse continued to bounce like a pinball.
She fought to recover and find her voice. Benny was a geologist. His exploration company operated as an arm of Barsi on Fifth. It allowed Barsi on Fifth, her employer, to offer its richest clientele a means of investing in gems and precious metals literally at ground level.
“Benny would never salt samples. Our entire family relies on the Barsi reputation remaining impeccable. We all do our part to keep it that way.”
“Yes, it would seem all of New York believes your family is beyond reproach. That’s why the investment consortium is blaming me for the fraud, turning my name to mud all the way down the Eastern Seaboard.”
She shook her head, wanting to sit down, but the room was nothing but high-top tables, glittering ice sculptures and gaggles of hoodies. The music and noise were getting to her and she noticed that people were watching them. It made her uncomfortable, now that Kaine had completely thrown her out of her element. She had to fight letting the cracks in her composure show.
“What exactly has Benny said?”
“Nothing. That’s why I had to get his attention. You’ve disappointed me, Gisella. I don’t think you want that earring nearly as badly as you pretend. I think you’re more interested in keeping Benny’s crime from coming to light. You’re trying to placate me. But this sort of mollification—” he circled his finger to encompass her painted lips to her painted toes “—is very last century. And entirely too predictable.”
His accusation sent a few more fractures zigzagging across her veneer of confidence. She had wanted to kiss him, not that she would admit it now. Not when he was so disparaging about something that had caused such a flagrant reaction in her it still put a scorch of vulnerability in her throat.
“Benny is probably at the site, trying to sort it out,” she insisted.
“The site is in Indonesia. His office said he’s in South America. So does his social media.”
“I’ll make some calls. Right now.”
“Knock yourself out.”
Her heart hammered like a trapped bird in her chest, unsure which direction to fly. With a sniff of determination, she moved into a quiet corner and quickly realized it was well past business hours in New York, even later in South America. She tried her uncle’s cell, biting her nail because he might not even pick up. He was still in Florida checking on Grandmamma and they might be having an early night.
He answered and they exchanged brief greetings. He was her boss at Barsi on Fifth along with being her uncle. He presumed she was calling about work.
“No, it’s about Benny,” she said. “Have you spoken to him lately? I’ve just heard the most bizarre rumor from Kaine Michaels.” She glanced around, not wanting to repeat what Kaine had said in case she was overheard.
Her uncle’s silence was very ominous.
“Uncle?” she prompted.
“Why are you talking to him?” She couldn’t tell if his inflection was disdain or trepidation.
“Kaine has Grandmamma’s earring. I tried to buy it at an estate auction last week.” She hadn’t told anyone what she was planning, wanting to surprise everyone with her triumph. Instead, things had spiraled into a bigger mess than she could have anticipated. “I came here to make him an offer, but he’s making some awful accusations. Benny needs to call Kaine right away and straighten this out.”
“For God’s sake, Gisella. I wish you had talked to me first.”
“Why? What’s going on?” A chill invaded her chest.
“I don’t know,” he said in a clipped voice. “I’ve heard the few rumors myself. I’m doing my best to quash them while I try to get hold of Benny and hear his side of it.”
“You don’t think he would actually—”
“I do not,” he assured her, believing as she did that Benny was honest, reliable and professional. “But I don’t trust Michaels. You shouldn’t, either.”
She glanced up and saw Kaine staring at her from across the room.
“He wouldn’t be this angry if he didn’t feel it was justified.” She understood that instinctively.
“Well, don’t antagonize him further,” her uncle ordered. “He’s a dangerous man.”
In many ways. He held her from afar with nothing more than an unbroken stare.
“I’ll, um, do my best to smooth things over. Explain that we’ll have answers soon.” A dent in the Barsi name could spell disaster for all of them.
“I’ll try Benny right now,” her uncle promised. “Tell Michaels I’ll have him get in touch as soon as possible.”
She doubted that would be enough for Kaine, but Gisella thanked him and ended the call. As she did, she noticed a message from Rozi. Her cousin had touched down safely in Hungary and was headed to her hotel for a nap.
Viktor Rohan’s mother had agreed to meet with Gisella after Gisella had leaned heavily on their distant bloodline connection. Gisella had been completely prepared to go herself, but Kaine had rebuffed Rozi’s request for a meeting with his annoying, You’re not the cousin I want to talk to.
In a fit of pique, Gisella had insisted Rozi take her meeting with the Rohans. She would handle Kaine Michaels. This time he wouldn’t get the better of her.
She had believed it right up until Kaine’s accusation had left her bobbing through the ether, completely unmoored. Benny would not have committed fraud. That much she knew. It wasn’t in his nature and he wouldn’t put the family’s reputation and livelihood in jeopardy.
“Can I get you a drink?”
Gisella glanced up to see a handsome thirty-something in a nice suit eyeing her as if she was the dessert selection of the buffet. He might have been one of the men talking to Kaine when she arrived, but she hadn’t taken much notice of anyone but the man she’d come to see.
“Finished your call?” Kaine said, appearing at her side with ninja suddenness. “Darling,” he added, dry and late with the endearment, clearly using it to step on the other man’s advances.
The other man melted away.
Kaine lightly skimmed his hand to the small of her back, setting her senses alight, breaking her voice as she tried to answer his question.
“Y-yes. My uncle will have Benny call you as soon as possible.”
“Wonderful,” he said with open sarcasm. “Let’s dance, then.”
She didn’t want to antagonize him further, but, “No one is dancing.”
“Leaders lead. You strike me as one.”
She snapped him a look, but that hadn’t sounded like more sarcasm. It seemed to be a sincere compliment. How would he know what she was like?
“Why else would you be here representing your family?” he taunted lightly. “You’re not a sacrificial lamb, are you?”
“No.” But she felt inordinately vulnerable. She had been thinking of him day and night, trying to hate him even as she had wished things had gone differently. Wished their kiss had been the beginning of something more.
That longing was still lodged in her throat with a sob of disappointment. At least now she understood why he was treating her with such disparagement.
This had to be a misunderstanding. Had to be.
And she was an independent sort. One who struck out on her own to get things done. One who would happily play envoy for her family, even if she found it uncomfortable to face down so much suspicion.
“Why don’t we take this discussion somewhere more private,” she suggested.
His eyes became narrow slits with a gleam of enigmatic obsidian. His smile was empty of humor as he drew his lips back against his teeth.
“That would be my pleasure.”
CHAPTER THREE (#uc39474d0-3db7-55ea-9143-76922eb99ee1)
KAINE IGNORED THE disappointment that hit him as she more or less admitted to being here to keep him from taking stronger action against her family.
He shouldn’t be letting her under his skin. Aside from retaliating when someone tried to knock him down, he never allowed anyone to affect him on an emotional level, let alone a woman attempting to toy with him.
This turnaround from her innocent act when she’d arrived told him that’s exactly what this was: pure manipulation. Worse, when she had been protesting ignorance where her cousin’s behavior was concerned, she had nearly caused him to doubt his own sound judgment. He had found himself thinking maybe she really did just want to buy an earring for her grandmother.
As she had stepped away to make her call, he had actually allowed himself to imagine her coming back to him with a rational explanation, one that would allow him to believe in her, fool that he was. He had learned long ago that trusting people, particularly a woman he physically desired, resulted only in an empty wallet.
He sure as hell hadn’t intended to come to heel like a poodle on a leash, but another man had approached her. The possessiveness that had engulfed him in those seconds had been so intolerable, it propelled him across the room to stake a claim.
It was time to yank back control. He texted his driver as they exited the private rooms of the restaurant. When she veered toward the bar, he said, “We’ll go to my place.”
She faltered, then said, “I’m getting my bag. I haven’t checked into my hotel yet.”
Convenient. After she’d handed her ticket to the coat check, he picked up the small case and escorted her out. His car smoothly rolled to the curb and he opened the back door himself.
* * *
Kaine’s driver dropped them in front of a mirrored skyscraper with a lobby that led onto a restaurant.
Gisella glimpsed more than one starlet standing in line, but Kaine didn’t take her into that hot spot. He waved her into an elevator set back from the rest, one she quickly realized was his alone since his thumbprint made it whisk upward.
The darkened bay and the lights outlining the bridge came into view. Before she’d had a chance to process that, the windows went dark again. The elevator came to a stop, the doors opened and—
“Oh.” Glass walls offered more than 180 degrees of night sky and ocean. The sparkle of city and moonlight on the water, bobbing boat lights and stars against an inky sky drew her into the penthouse. The open-plan rooms were lit by a subtle glow in the baseboards and a single table lamp. He didn’t turn on any other lights.
A rational part of her warned this might be dangerous, coming to a strange man’s apartment. Things were contentious between them, but, “This is so beautiful.”
She wanted to see it in daylight, eat breakfast on that veranda protected by glass that would let in the sun but keep out the wind. She wasn’t a covetous person, but she rather wanted this.
He moved behind the wet bar and opened a bottle of wine. She felt his gaze on her across the football field that was his living room. The horseshoe sofa would seat twenty, the dining table equally as many. The kitchen seemed to be tucked around the far side of the dining area and she suspected the stairs over the bar led to his bedroom.
She glanced at the big screen. It looked as though it disappeared into the wall at the flick of a button. It didn’t have game controllers attached, which surprised her. He made a large chunk of his fortune in that arena.
“Do you host a lot of parties?” The place was built for entertaining, but something in his persona told her he kept his space private. He was such an infuriating man. She wanted to hate him for the accusations he kept throwing at her, but she was intrigued despite herself.
“You’re one of a handful of people who have been here since I moved in two years ago. The maid and doorman are my most frequent guests. My PA sometimes.”
“The inner sanctum,” she murmured, moving forward to stroke the buttery leather of the sofa. “I’m flattered.”
Was the earring here? She glanced around, wondering if it was in a safe behind that abstract painting in the dining room. He probably had an office upstairs.
“It’s in a safe-deposit box at my bank,” he said, reading her mind.
She crossed her arms, annoyed with herself for being so obvious.
“I brought you here for privacy. To discuss the terms of your compensation.”
“You keep accusing me of being willing to barter sex for favors. You know that says more about you than me, right?” She refused to gauge the distance to the elevator, tingling at speaking so frankly, but not with danger. It was the excitement of dropping a layer of civility. Like peeling off her cloak and letting him see what she wore beneath.
“I don’t pay for sex,” he drawled, moving around the horseshoe of the sofa to bring her wine.
“No?” she scoffed gently, taking it and speaking into the aromas of honey and peach before flavors of oak and vanilla dampened her tongue. “You don’t bring lovers on vacation? Buy them a parting gift of a bracelet or necklace?” She didn’t take such commissions on purpose, but knew some of her pieces had been bought by older men who had given them to women who weren’t their wives.
“Inviting someone to join me on my yacht is hardly paying for her company.” He picked up a tendril of her hair and drew it across the front of her neck like a collar. “And my lovers tend to be women with careers and incomes that make a gift of a necklace exactly that. A gift. A token of affection.”
She swallowed, hyperaware that her motion caused the edge of his thumb to brush her skin. She drew back enough to release her hair from his touch, disturbed by the thought of his having lovers. Rich, powerful lovers for whom he had affection. She probably knew some of them.
“I’m not clear on what you need compensation for. And why you think it’s up to me to provide it.”
“Your cousin sold me a pile of useless rocks, not the rare metals he led me to expect would fuel the next generation of my electronic devices.” His muted fury was contained, but instant. Volatile and very real. A glimpse into the volcano vent.
Her fingers tightened on the stem of her glass and she stood very still. “Surely you know that mining is as much a gamble as any slot machine in Vegas.”
“The Barsi name on the original test results carried a lot of weight. Heavy hitters signed on. When the mine didn’t pay out as advertised, the investors insisted on fresh samples. They were duds. I’ve had to lock up much of my operating capital in an escrow account while I wait out the investigation. It’s costing me daily to carry all that risk and debt. If Benny doesn’t show up and clear my name, I lose that money and pay fines on top of it—which could cost me everything.”
She didn’t dare ask if he was the one who had misrepresented or exaggerated test samples. He wouldn’t be so inimical if he didn’t have an ax to grind. She felt helpless in the face of everything he was saying, desperate to defuse the situation.
“I swear to you, Benny wouldn’t deliberately mislead anyone about something like that. Was there some other go-between?”
“I was dealing with him directly.” His cheeks went hollow as he penetrated her with laser eyes. “And I believe your family also invests heavily in precious metals. No doubt gains have been made on your more-established fronts since this new opportunity has fallen through.”
She gasped with outrage. “Are you suggesting we’re deliberately manipulating prices with supply and demand? No! We would never do anything like that.”
“I’m sure you wouldn’t blacklist me in New York, either.”
“Of course not!”
“Yet whispers are circulating loud enough that no one in New York is returning my calls. Damage is being done that won’t stop until Benny resurfaces. I think I deserve compensation for that, Gisella. Don’t you?”
Her insides felt cold and heavy, chilling her with dread. She threw up her hands in helplessness. “I didn’t know any of this!”
His lip curled with contempt, telling her she could talk herself blue. In his mind, the evidence was stacked too high against all of them.
She looked to her phone, desperately willing Benny to call and make all of this go away. All she wanted was a single earring, for heaven’s sake. How had this gone so horribly wrong?
“Who did you call earlier?” Kaine asked.
“Benny’s father. He’s heard the rumors, but there’s nothing we can do except not repeat them.”
“You can stop trying to take further advantage of me.”
“I’m not! We are not.”
