A Prize Beyond Jewels (12 page)

That was what she should do.

Unfortunately, that ache in her body said otherwise. ‘I’ll still come to your apartment later,’ she confirmed huskily.

‘Good.’ He nodded his satisfaction with her reply. ‘I suppose you’re right, and we have to go back to the exhibition now.’ He grimaced.

Nina had to smile at his obvious lack of enthusiasm for the idea. A lack of enthusiasm she echoed.

‘Nina?’ The hand Rafe placed lightly on her arm halted her as they stepped out into the hallway together.

She glanced up at him warily. ‘Yes?’

His hands moved up to cup either side of her face, his gaze holding hers captive as he slowly lowered his head to brush his lips lightly against hers. ‘Thank you,’ he murmured huskily.

Nina’s heart beat a wild tattoo in her chest at the touch of his lips and his close proximity. ‘For what?’ she breathed softly.

‘Just thank you.’ Rafe wasn’t a hundred per cent sure himself what he was thanking Nina for.

Maybe for not slapping him in the face earlier, when he had dragged her out of the gallery like the caveman she had accused him of being yesterday?

Or perhaps because, once they were alone together, she hadn’t even attempted to deny the attraction that still burned so fiercely between the two of them?

Or maybe because of the pleasure her uninhibited response gave him. Rafe was certainly no longer suffering with that same frustrated anger he had been plagued with for the past thirty-six hours.

Or maybe he was thanking her for simply being Nina?

Rafe had the rest of the evening to get through before he could even begin to give that revelation any deeper thought.

* * *

‘Are you sure you’re quite well, Papa?’ Nina prompted concernedly as she saw how pale her father was looking when she rejoined him in the gallery. She hoped that his pallor was due to the effort of socialising, after so many years of avoiding it, rather than her own disappearance with Rafe just a short time ago.

She had done what she could to tidy her appearance once she reached the ladies’ room, but brushing her hair and reapplying lip gloss had done nothing to hide that sultry glow Rafe said she had after lovemaking. A glow that had noticeably darkened her eyes to deep emerald, rendered her cheeks a delicate peach, and left her lips plump and rosy from Rafe’s kisses.

‘I am quite well,
maya doch
,’ her father assured as he looked up at her searchingly. ‘You and Rafe D’Angelo are...friends again?’

‘I wasn’t aware we were ever anything else.’ Nina avoided meeting her father’s probing gaze as she blushed.

‘I believe we have passed the stage of coyness in regard to your relationship with D’Angelo, Nina,’ he reproved softly.

There was every reason for Nina to blush, when she could so clearly remember the wildness, the heat, of the lovemaking between her and Rafe such a short time ago.

It was as if they had been starved for each other, wild with need.

Rafe compelled to touch her and Nina desperate to feel his touch. She had been completely aware of the heat still throbbing between her bare thighs as she crossed the gallery to rejoin her father.

She glanced across to where Rafe stood in conversation with his brother, just in time to see him put his hand in the pocket of his jacket where he had placed those ripped panties.

As if he sensed her glance Rafe’s gaze rose to meet hers, those predatory golden eyes glittering with memories, chiselled lips slowly curving into a smile that was a promise of yet more pleasure to come when she joined him at his apartment later.

* * *

‘You’re pacing again.’

Rafe shot a malevolent glare across the kitchen to where Michael sat at the breakfast bar enjoying his morning tea and toast as he read the business section in the Sunday newspaper.

And of course Rafe was pacing, damn it, because Nina hadn’t turned up at the apartment last night as she had said she would.

He and Michael had arrived back at a little before midnight the previous evening, Michael needing no persuading in taking himself off to bed—perhaps because he had guessed that Rafe was expecting Nina to join him?

Rafe had waited for Nina to arrive until one o’clock before phoning down to the security desk on the ground floor, to see if he had somehow missed her, only to be told that there had been no visitors for him at all that evening.

Rafe had waited another hour before telephoning security again. Only to be given the same answer.

At which time he had realised Nina wasn’t going to come to him tonight, after all.

But even then, remembering the seriousness of her tone when she had mentioned the conversation she needed to have with her father before she could join him at his apartment, Rafe had been more worried than annoyed. He didn’t at all like the possibility of Nina being upset and alone in her own apartment.

Although a call from her, telling him of her change of plans, might have been nice.

Even so, worry niggled at Rafe, until in desperation he had called her apartment building, asking the security guard on duty to put him through to Nina’s apartment, only to discover that she wasn’t in her apartment to answer his call. Nor would the security guard on the other end of the line reveal whether or not she had returned to the building with her father earlier, or whether or not she had gone out again.

And there was no way Rafe was going to call Dmitri’s apartment and ask him where his daughter was.

Instead Rafe had finally gone to bed. Alone. But not to sleep.

Because, no matter how much he punched and pummelled his pillows to get comfortable, sleep had eluded him. Rafe simply lay in the bed, wide-eyed, his brain working overtime as he went over and over the events of the rest of yesterday evening, trying to find some reason, something he might have done or said, to make Nina change her mind about spending the night with him.

The only thing he knew she had taken exception to was that remark he had made about her father, but even that didn’t make sense, because Nina had confirmed that she would come to his apartment after Rafe had made that foolish joke.

Which was the reason it was now ten o’clock on a Sunday morning, and he was pacing up and down the kitchen on bare feet, still wearing the black T-shirt and grey sweats he had slept in, his hair standing on end from where he had run his fingers through it so often in the past ten hours, while at the same time suffering Michael’s penetrating and knowing gaze.

‘I fully expected to see Nina here with you this morning,’ Michael prompted softly.

‘Well, obviously you expected wrong!’ Rafe scowled at him darkly.

Michael nodded. ‘Obviously. Rafe—’ He broke off as the telephone rang.

Rafe crossed the kitchen quickly to snatch up the receiver, hoping—praying—it was Nina. ‘Yes?’ he snapped impatiently.

‘There’s a visitor waiting down in Reception to see you, Mr D’Angelo,’ Jeffrey, the doorman informed, sounding slightly nervous.

‘Send her right up,’ Rafe barked sharply.

‘But—’

‘Now, Jeffrey.’ Rafe slammed down the receiver, his pacing restless now rather than angry, as he waited impatiently for Nina to ring the doorbell.

‘I think I’ll go shower and dress ready for leaving for the airport shortly—’ Michael rose to his feet ‘—and leave you two alone to talk and sort out whatever it is you need to.’

‘Thanks,’ Rafe answered distractedly, barely aware of his brother leaving as he strode out into the hallway to wait for Nina.

Whatever the reason for Nina’s no show last night, she was here now, and that was all that mattered.

The doorbell had hardly finished ringing when Rafe threw open the door, the welcoming smile freezing on his lips as he saw the two burly bodyguards standing shoulder to shoulder outside in the hallway, their eyes once again hidden behind those wrap-around sunglasses. That probably explained Jeffrey’s nervousness on the telephone just now.

Rafe couldn’t say he was particularly happy at seeing the two bodyguards either. ‘What—?’

‘I’m sorry for the intrusion, Rafe.’ The two bodyguards had parted to reveal Dmitri Palitov sitting in his wheelchair in the hallway behind them. ‘I wondered, if my daughter is here with you, if I might speak with her?’ His expression was hopeful rather than condemning.

That told Rafe that Dmitri Palitov had no more idea where Nina was than he did.

CHAPTER TEN

N
INA
HELD
HER
head confidently high as she walked into the Archangel gallery late on Monday morning, her smile conveying that same confidence to the receptionist, in her right to be here, as the other woman nodded in recognition as Nina walked towards the staircase that would take her up to Rafe’s office on the third floor of the building.

Rafe...

Nina had no doubt that he was going to be far from happy with her, for not having turned up at his apartment on Saturday night, and for not getting in touch with him since then to explain why she hadn’t.

Rafe might have claimed to have been joking on Saturday evening, as to the possibility of her father being some sort of gangster, but Nina had always had her own suspicions that weren’t so far from the truth. Her conversation with her father late on Saturday evening hadn’t gone far enough to confirm that, but it had certainly proved to her how powerful a man her father really was.

As a result, Nina knew there was no way she could ever tell Rafe of those new and shocking truths about her mother that her father had revealed to her late Saturday evening. Nina was having trouble accepting that truth herself, so how could anyone else possibly be expected to understand?

Which was why Nina had decided—again!—that from now she and Rafe could only have a business relationship. She would design the new display cabinets for the Archangel galleries, and as one of the owners of those galleries Rafe could approve those designs. Straightforward. Simple.

At least, it had seemed straightforward and simple when Nina had made that decision in her hotel room yesterday. She’d spent most of the night sitting dry-eyed in a chair beside the window looking sightlessly out at the New York skyline, wondering how, after the things her father had told her about her mother, she was going to get through the next few hours, let alone all the days that were to follow.

Here and now, with Rafe just a staircase away, her decision seemed far from simple. Rafe had already shown that he wasn’t the type of man to just accept what she said at face value, that he would want to prod and probe in order to learn the reasons for her having made that decision. Reasons Nina couldn’t possibly share with him. That she couldn’t share with anyone.

Her footsteps slowed, grew heavier, the closer she got to Rafe’s office. To the confrontation she had decided she had no choice but to face if she really was serious in her intention to make a life for herself. She planned to start by setting up her own business, well away from her father’s influence. This work for the Archangel galleries was her door into doing that, at least.

All she had to do, before any of that became possible, was to fend off or dismiss any of Rafe’s demands for the answers she couldn’t give him.

All she had to do!

Just standing here outside the door to Rafe’s office made her heart pound louder and her palms grow damp, so how much worse was it going to be once she was face to face with him?

* * *

‘Bridget, I thought I told you no interruptions—Nina!’ Rafe rasped in recognition as he looked up from the catalogue he had been studying and saw it was Nina standing in the doorway rather than his assistant.

He stood up to move swiftly around his desk and cross the room in long strides before taking one of her hands in both of his, his gaze roaming over her face searchingly—hungrily!—easily noting the pallor of her cheeks and the distance in those cool green eyes that looked into his so steadily.

‘Have I come at a bad time?’ Her voice had that same distance and coolness.

He continued to look at her searchingly, wanting, needing to see some of ‘his Nina’ in the pained depths of her eyes. ‘Are you okay?’ Stupid question, Rafe instantly rebuked himself impatiently; of course Nina wasn’t okay!

If Nina was ‘okay’ she wouldn’t have walked out of her father’s apartment on Saturday night. If she was ‘okay’ she would have come to Rafe that same night, as they had agreed she would. If she was ‘okay’ she wouldn’t be looking at Rafe now as if he were a stranger to her rather than her lover.

She shrugged dismissively. ‘Why wouldn’t I be okay?’

Rafe didn’t know the full answer to that; Dmitri Palitov hadn’t been exactly forthcoming on the details yesterday, and would only reveal that Nina was upset about something he had told her, and had been missing since the previous night.

‘Come inside.’ Rafe kept a firm hold of her hand as he pulled her further into the room before shutting the door behind her. ‘I can’t tell you how pleased I am that you came here, Nina,’ he added huskily.

‘Why?’

Because now at least Rafe knew she was alive. Because now he knew she was safe.

Just because he needed her here with him, damn it.

‘Nina, your father came to see me yesterday.’

Emotion flickered in the cool depths of those green eyes before it was quickly quashed. ‘Did he?’ she dismissed uninterestedly as she firmly but determinedly removed her hand from within Rafe’s before walking away from him to stand in front of his desk. ‘That must have been pleasant, for you both,’ she added tersely.

Rafe continued to look at Nina searchingly, seeing the brittle fragility beneath her cool exterior. A fragility that was all the more apparent to him because she wore her hair up today, clearly revealing the hollows of her cheeks, the dark shadows beneath her eyes, and the delicate arch of her throat.

It was a fragility that Rafe believed might snap and break, shattering Nina along with it, if he said or did the wrong thing to her.

Which was the only reason Rafe hadn’t taken Nina into his arms and kissed her senseless the moment he had closed the office door behind her.

Nina looked so brittle at the moment she was only capable of showing two responses to any attempt Rafe might make to hold her in his arms. One, she would fight him, biting and scratching with every bit of strength she possessed. Two, that fragile outer shell she held so tightly about her would crack wide open and she would disintegrate in front of his eyes. The first Rafe would withstand gladly, the second would utterly destroy him.

As it would destroy Nina.

And he didn’t want that to happen. Nina’s shy but rebellious spirit was one of the many things he had admired about her from the moment he first met her—was it really only a week ago?

That initial admiration had widened, and now included her unassuming beauty, her gentle sense of humour, her passion, the warmth of her heart, so evident when she spoke of her father.

A warmth so noticeably missing today whenever she spoke of Dmitri.

Rafe drew in a slow, measured breath, determined not to do or say anything that would shake the fragility of the tight control Nina had over her emotions. ‘Nina...’

‘I realise it would have been more businesslike to have made an appointment first, but I’ve brought in some sketches of my designs to show you,’ she told him briskly, indicating the folder she carried in her left hand.

His brows rose at her use of the word ‘businesslike’.

‘Your designs?’

Her smile lacked any warmth or humour. ‘I found myself with a lot of time on my hands over the weekend.’

Rafe winced.

Not only had Nina not spent the day with him yesterday, as he had hoped she would following the two of them spending the night together, but he also knew that after walking out of her father’s apartment on Saturday evening Nina had gone down to her own apartment, packed a suitcase, and left the building altogether.

Because of something Dmitri had told her after they had returned home from the gala opening on Saturday evening. A conversation Nina had found so painful that she had apparently walked out of her father’s apartment, swearing she would never forgive Dmitri for what he had done.

Quite what that was Rafe had no idea. Dmitri had remained close-mouthed about the details of that conversation when Rafe had repeatedly pressed him for answers. All Dmitri was interested in was finding Nina, and, as Rafe had shared that concern, the two men had reached an uneasy truce on the reasons for her disappearance.

Nor, it seemed, had Nina come to Rafe today for any other reason than to show him her designs.

When Rafe had been hoping she had come to be with him because she needed him.

As he needed her.

Rafe had been shocked yesterday to learn that Dmitri hadn’t seen Nina since Saturday night either. Having discovered Nina was missing on Sunday morning, after eluding her security guards, Dmitri had gone straight to Rafe’s apartment to look for her.

Only to learn that Rafe hadn’t seen her since Saturday evening either.

Michael had walked in on the heated argument that followed as Rafe and Dmitri threw accusations at each other, out of their concern for Nina rather than any real anger towards each other. Having calmed the situation down enough to find out what the problem was, Michael had even offered to cancel his flight back to Paris in order to help them look for Nina. An offer Rafe had thanked him for but refused, knowing that he and Dmitri were the ones who had to look for her. Who had to find her. They had to ensure that she was safe.

The two men had spent most of yesterday calling any and all of Nina’s friends or acquaintances to see if they had seen or heard from her. None of them had. Following that they had called hotel after hotel to see if a Nina Palitov had booked in late on Saturday night. When those calls had turned up nothing, they had widened the search to the suburbs, to any and all places Nina might have stayed since she had walked out on him.

All to no avail; Nina was out there somewhere, but she obviously didn’t want to be found.

Rafe had hoped that didn’t include by him, but her comment just now would seem to imply that she hadn’t even been aware he would bother looking for her when she hadn’t arrived at his apartment on Saturday night, as she had said she would. And maybe he deserved that dismissal; Nina had no way of knowing that Rafe had thought of little else but her since the moment he first met her.

And now, when she was hurting so badly, because of the things her father had told her, wasn’t the right time for Rafe to tell her how he felt, either.

‘You know, Nina...’ he spoke softly ‘...whatever your father has done, whatever he’s said to you, nothing and no one is ever as completely black or completely white as they appear, and those shady areas of grey can be—’

‘Oh, please!’ Nina cut him off disparagingly. ‘He got to you, didn’t he?’ she continued with knowing derision. ‘And no doubt he told you just enough to excuse his behaviour.’

‘He told me nothing, Nina, made no excuses for whatever it was he’s done to upset you,’ Rafe assured gruffly.

‘Because there aren’t any!’ Her eyes glittered deeply green as the first crack began to appear in her defensive shell, a lapse she quickly brought under control as she straightened her shoulders determinedly. ‘There just aren’t any excuses for what he did, Rafe,’ she repeated evenly.

‘He loves you very much. He was only trying to protect you.’

‘He’s protected me from life all of my life!’ Angry colour appeared in the pallor of her cheeks.

‘Yes, he has,’ Rafe acknowledged gently. ‘And maybe that was wrong of him.’

‘Maybe?’ She moved restlessly. ‘There’s no maybe about it!’ Her eyes continued to glitter angrily. ‘He must have told you something, Rafe,’ she continued scornfully. ‘Enough that he’s the one you feel sorry for, obviously.’

‘It isn’t a question of feeling sorry for anyone.’

‘Isn’t it?’ she dismissed harshly. ‘Well, believe me, I don’t feel in the least sorry for him after hearing the things he’s kept from me all these years.’

Rafe looked at her searchingly, the glitter of tears in her eyes enough to tell him that she wasn’t as immune to her father’s pain as she claimed to be. ‘This isn’t really you, Nina,’ he cajoled huskily. ‘You love your father, and you don’t have it in you to be deliberately cruel, to him or anyone else.’

She gave another humourless laugh. ‘What do you really know about me, Rafe? That I like having your hands on me? That I liked it so much on Saturday evening I let you drag me into a damned cupboard full of brooms just so that you could pleasure me?’ She gave a disgusted shake of her head. ‘That isn’t knowing me, Rafe, that’s just enjoying having sex.’

‘Don’t,’ he warned harshly, knowing exactly what she was going to say next, and totally unwilling to allow her to reduce what they had to that basic level. ‘You came to me today, Nina,’ he reminded her gruffly, hands clenched at his sides to prevent himself from reaching out and taking her in his arms. ‘Whatever excuse you may have given yourself for coming here, you came to me, damn it!’

Yes, she had, Nina acknowledged heavily. This morning, as she’d showered and dressed in her hotel room, she had convinced herself she was going to see Rafe today because she wanted the commission for the display cabinets from Archangel galleries. That securing those designs was more important than her pride if she was really serious about launching her own design company.

Now that she was here, with Rafe, Nina wasn’t so sure she had been altogether truthful, even to herself.

There was comfort for her in being in Rafe’s company, in that quiet strength he had, and it was already acting as a balm to her shattered emotions. It fed the need she felt to be with someone who desired her, at least, and who could warm her even a little; at the moment her heart felt like a heavy block of ice in her chest.

So, yes, she had come to Rafe this morning, had needed, wanted to be with him. To be with the man she had realised that she had fallen in love with.

Not all of the last thirty-six hours had been spent thinking about that last conversation with her father. She had thought of Rafe too. A lot. Of what their relationship meant to her. Of the fact that she not only desired and wanted him, but that she liked him too. That she had fallen in love with him.

Her desire for Rafe’s dark good looks was undeniable, and she liked that fun person he could so often be, but she also knew, after this past week, that there was so much more to Rafe than that charming rogue persona he chose to show to the world at large.