A Prize Beyond Jewels (7 page)

Rafe gave a shake of his head. ‘Even at twelve Michael was the serious one, the responsible one.’

Nina remembered that aloof seriousness from that one occasion she had met Michael D’Angelo. ‘Maybe he didn’t feel he had a choice, with two mischievous younger brothers?’

Rafe frowned as he seemed to give the suggestion some thought, now wondering if perhaps his older brother chose to live behind a public mask too.

‘I’ve never thought of it quite like that before, but you could be right,’ Rafe conceded slowly. ‘And talking of Michael, I spoke to him this afternoon, too.’

Her brows rose. ‘He’s back in New York?’

Rafe shook his head. ‘Still in Paris. We spoke on a conference call.’

Nina’s brows rose. ‘You have been busy today!’

He frowned. ‘Didn’t the things I’ve just told you show that I’m busy every day?’

Yes, they had, Nina acknowledged with an inner glow, not sure why Rafe had chosen to answer her questions so candidly, but pleased that he had, now knowing there was so much more to this man, a depth that others wouldn’t know was there.

She eyed him teasingly. ‘I believe it’s the newspapers who prefer to report on your night-time activities rather than the daytime ones!’

‘They take delight in reporting what they think are my night-time activities,’ Rafe corrected dryly.

‘All those photographs of you out with beautiful women are just a figment of the press’s imagination?’ she prompted.

Unfortunately, Rafe knew they weren’t. And worst of all, of course, was the one of him with Jennifer Nichols two nights ago, when he had refused to cancel his prior arrangements to have dinner with Nina and her father.

‘My main reason for talking to Michael...’ Rafe abruptly changed the subject ‘...was because I wanted to see what he thought about my suggestion of asking you to design new display cabinets for all three of the galleries.’

‘Me?’ She was obviously stunned by the suggestion.

‘Why not?’ He frowned at Nina’s reaction. ‘The display cabinets you designed for your father are elegantly beautiful in their simplicity. The same elegance and simplicity that we aim for at Archangel.’

‘Well. Yes. I’ve noticed that these past few days. But...’ She was obviously flustered. ‘I already have a job.’

‘Working for your father.’

Nina could hear the disapproval in Rafe’s tone. Perhaps deserved, after all those years she had spent attaining her design degree from Stanford.

But Rafe didn’t understand. No one did. Because most people, Rafe included, had no idea what had happened to them nineteen years ago. Nina was well aware that her father had used the Palitov wealth and power to make certain not all the events of that time were ever made public.

‘Don’t you have any hopes and dreams of your own, Nina?’ Rafe pressed determinedly, refusing to back down on the subject. ‘An ambition to do something more with your life than stand in your father’s shadow?’

She gasped, her face visibly paling at this attack coming so quickly after Rafe had talked to her so candidly. Or perhaps that was the reason for the attack? She very much doubted that Rafe spoke that candidly about himself to many people. ‘That was uncalled for,’ she murmured softly.

‘But true?’

‘Thank you for a lovely dinner, Rafe, but I think perhaps it’s time I left.’ Nina turned away, the bareness of her shoulders defensively stiff as she slowly laid her napkin down on the table beside her empty coffee cup, sure now that Rafe was being deliberately challenging. Because he had so completely let his guard down with her?

Rafe’s mouth had thinned. ‘I’m driving you home.’

‘Lawrence and Paul will take me home.’

Rafe gave a slow, determined shake of his head. ‘I drove you here. I’m driving you home.’

‘Why?’ Her eyes glittered deeply green. ‘So that you can insult me some more? Because I asked too many questions? Or because you answered them?’ she added astutely as she stood up, black clutch bag in her hand.

Rafe stood up too, grasping her arm as she would have brushed past him on her way to the door. ‘And is this what you do, Nina?’ he challenged softly. ‘Run away every time someone says something that strikes a little too close to home?’

Tears glistened in her eyes as she looked up at him. ‘Run home to Daddy, do you mean?’

He winced at the sight of those tears swimming in her pained green eyes. ‘I didn’t say that.’

‘You meant it, though,’ Nina said knowingly, attempting to shake off his hold on her arm but not succeeding. ‘You’re causing a scene, Rafe,’ she muttered as she noticed several people at the neighbouring tables were giving discreetly curious glances in their direction.

Not surprising really. The two of them had obviously been getting on so well, talking and laughing together, all the time with that underlying edge of flirtation and awareness, as they ate their delicious meal, and then lingered over coffee, and now this.

And of course Nina had ambitions and hopes and dreams of her own. Lots of them. And one of them had been to go to Stanford. Which she had done.

But she hadn’t taken into account how frail her father would be when she returned to New York to live three years later, a frailty she felt partly responsible for, because she knew how much of a strain it had been for him, a worry, while she was away. At the time, the most she had felt comfortable insisting upon was that she be allowed to have her own apartment rather than continue to live with her father in the penthouse apartment.

But that didn’t mean that she didn’t still long to start her own design business, to be able to take commissions like the one Rafe had just offered her at the Archangel galleries, in London and Paris as well as here. Just thinking of accepting such a commission made her heart soar with excitement.

But it was never going to happen. Not while her father was alive, anyway, and Nina wanted him with her for many more years to come.

‘Careful, Rafe—’ Nina fell back on mockery as her defence ‘—or the next thing you’ll see in the newspapers is a photograph of you manhandling a woman in your friend’s restaurant!’

‘Gerry doesn’t allow the press inside his restaurant,’ he rasped tautly.

So much for mockery! ‘Nevertheless, I would appreciate it if you would let go of my arm.’ She met his gaze challengingly.

And Rafe would have appreciated it if he could have just managed to get through a single evening with Nina without the two of them arguing.

Maybe he shouldn’t have brought up the subject of having Nina design some display cabinets for the gallery yet. Perhaps he shouldn’t challenge her about having hopes and dreams of her own, rather than those imposed on her by her father’s security. He certainly shouldn’t have accused Nina of running away when the subject became too personal for her!

So why had he?

Because, as she had intimated, she had got too close, Rafe realised. By answering her questions, he had allowed her to see the astute businessman, the ‘new ideas’ man, behind the façade of the playboy. And it had unsettled him. He’d never allowed any woman to question him so deeply about his work or his family.

But having Nina walk out on him in this way unsettled him more!

‘We’ll talk about this in the car,’ he told her stiffly.

‘I told you that I will ride back with Lawrence and Paul.’

‘Oh, no, Nina, you don’t get to tell me anything when it comes to who’s taking you home tonight,’ he assured softly, maintaining a hold on her arm as he strode across the restaurant.

He gave Gerry a stiff nod as they paused in the reception area to collect Nina’s cashmere wrap, knowing, by his friend’s understanding nod as Rafe draped that wrap about the stiffness of Nina’s shoulders, that Gerry was more than happy for Rafe to settle the bill at his convenience. Which certainly wasn’t now. Anything but Rafe’s complete attention and Nina was likely to just walk out of here and not look back.

‘We’re going to my apartment,’ he briskly informed the two security men waiting near the lifts as he maintained a firm grip on Nina’s arm. ‘No doubt you’re aware of exactly where that is?’ he added tersely as he and Nina stepped into one of the lifts together, Rafe pressing the button to close the doors and leaving the two men to follow behind in the second lift.

‘Rafe.’

‘Not now, Nina,’ he bit out through clenched teeth.

‘But...’

‘Please, Nina.’ Rafe’s gaze was rapier sharp as he looked down at her. ‘I’m trying my damnedest not to—’

He drew in a deep, controlling breath. ‘All I want right now is to get you out of here so that we can go to the privacy of my apartment.’

His car was being brought to the front of the building even as they stepped outside. No doubt Gerry had called down to the valets in the underground garage as soon as Rafe and Nina stepped into the lift together. The valet got quickly out of the car to open the passenger door for Nina to get inside, at the same time as the two bodyguards rushed out of the building behind them and hurried off to get their own car from where it was parked further down the block.

The silent drive to Rafe’s apartment—doggedly followed by the black limousine occupied by Lawrence and Paul—gave Rafe ample time to think of that last conversation in the restaurant. To accept that he was definitely responsible for the current tension that existed between himself and Nina. And after he had previously decided he would be the one person in Nina’s life who didn’t cause her hassle or tension.

‘I’m sorry,’ he murmured on a sigh.

‘I thought we weren’t going to spend the evening apologising to each other?’

‘This one needs to be said. My remark was out of line.’

‘It’s okay,’ Nina said softly.

Rafe gave her a brief glance, his jaw tightening as he saw the tracks of the tears that were still falling down the paleness of her cheeks, before he turned his gaze sharply back to manoeuvring through the late night traffic clogging up the city’s streets. ‘No, it isn’t,’ he bit out, disgusted with himself.

No, it wasn’t, Nina acknowledged miserably, having now realised that this evening, with Rafe, an evening that had started out with such promise, and which she had been enjoying immensely, was now going to end as disastrously as those dinners she’d had with three other men since returning home to New York.

She had hoped tonight would be different, because Rafe was different from anyone else she had ever known, their conversation this evening showing her he wasn’t just the playboy he wanted everyone else to think that he was.

But she could see now that it wasn’t going to work. That although he had no intention of sucking up to her father and ignoring what Nina wanted, as those other men had, her attraction to Rafe was pulling her in another direction completely, and one that she knew would ultimately cause her father further heartache. And that was something Nina absolutely refused to do; her father had suffered enough.

And going to Rafe’s apartment with him wasn’t going to change any of that. No matter how volatile she knew her physical reaction to him was...

CHAPTER SIX

‘F
EELING
BETTER
?’

‘Yes, thank you,’ Nina confirmed huskily as she looked up at Rafe after taking a sip of the brandy he had insisted on pouring for both of them once they reached his apartment.

In the end, Nina hadn’t been able to resist accompanying him there; if this was to be their one and only date, as it probably would be, then she intended making the most of it.

The modern décor of Rafe’s apartment had come as something of a surprise to her, even a disappointment, with its colour scheme of black, silver and white. The walls in the sitting room were white, as was the carpet, with a black leather sofa and chairs, and a glass coffee table, only the original artwork on the walls and the fantastic view of New York outside the huge windows to prevent it from appearing utilitarian.

It certainly reflected none of the sensuality or larger than life personality of the man who occupied it.

‘It’s a family-owned apartment,’ Rafe dismissed as he saw her curiosity. ‘Whichever of the brothers is in New York at the time uses it.’

She blinked. ‘Do you change locations a lot, then?’

‘Every two months or so, sometimes more often.’ Rafe shrugged. ‘Depends what’s happening at the time. We have an exhibition coming up in Paris next month, and, with Gabriel away on his honeymoon, Michael decided to take over in Paris for a while. He’ll be flying over here on Friday for the gala opening on Saturday, of course.’

Nina knew they were both just talking for the sake of it, that Rafe was trying to put her at her ease. ‘My father will appreciate that.’ She nodded.

‘Michael wouldn’t think of not being there.’

And yet Michael had no reservations in leaving Rafe in charge of her father’s exhibition. Further proof that Nina really shouldn’t believe all that she read about Rafe in the newspapers, that, as she had realised this evening, he really wasn’t just the playboy the press had made him out to be.

Rafe placed his glass down on the coffee table before coming down on his haunches beside the chair where Nina sat. He took her free hand in his. ‘I really am sorry about earlier. For making you cry,’ he told her gruffly. ‘I shouldn’t have pushed you so hard.’

‘It isn’t your fault.’ Her hand shook slightly inside his as she gave a shake of her head. ‘You can’t possibly understand, and I can’t explain, either,’ she added emotionally.

Those golden eyes narrowed. ‘Why can’t you?’

‘It isn’t possible.’

His jaw tightened. ‘I repeat, why not?’

‘Because it isn’t my story to tell.’

Rafe had already guessed as much, just as he now believed this story had something to do with whatever had happened to the Palitov family nineteen years ago. When Nina’s mother had died, and Dmitri Palitov had been involved in the car accident that had resulted in his being in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

The timing of those two events, just weeks apart, and Nina’s refusal to talk about them, made Rafe wonder if they might actually be linked by more than just Dmitri’s distraction at the loss of his wife.

And it mattered to him, Rafe realised. Knowing, what kept the beautiful and talented Nina hidden away from the world mattered to him.

As did the woman herself?

The only thing that mattered at the moment was learning why, whatever might have happened nineteen years ago, Nina continued to allow her life to be so restricted.

Why Dmitri Palitov kept his daughter so protected and sheltered he was in danger of suffocating her.

Rafe had even wondered, as he had allowed his imagination free rein the night before, and having found no actual proof of Anna Palitov’s death, if she hadn’t just chosen to leave her husband and daughter nineteen years ago. It would certainly go a long way to explaining why Dmitri had become so determined not to lose Nina too.

Nina’s smile was sad as she saw the frustrated anger in Rafe’s expression; the flash of temper in those amazing golden eyes, chiselled lips thinned as he obviously raged an inner battle with his impatience at her refusal to talk to him, to tell him, the reason she refused to break away from her father’s protection.

Nina had no actual memories of what had happened nineteen years ago. She had been five years old at the time, and only knew what had really happened because her father had explained it to her when she was ten, old enough to understand that horrendous sequence of events that had shaped their lives.

And Nina could still remember her father’s pain that day, as if it had been just minutes ago rather than five years.

Oh, Nina had been fully aware that her mother had disappeared from her life when she was five. She had cried over it, had pleaded and thrown temper tantrums as she demanded to know where her mother had gone. A demand her father had assuaged by assuring her that her mother hadn’t wanted to leave them, that she’d had no choice.

But it had been another five years before her father had explained exactly why Anna had left them.

Kidnapped.

Ransomed.

A ransom Dmitri had gladly paid in his desire to have his beloved wife returned to him, as he had also complied with the kidnappers’ demand that he not inform the police or the press of the kidnapping, or his wife would die.

The payment of that ransom hadn’t stopped the kidnappers from killing their hostage, anyway. From killing Nina’s kind and beautiful mother, and Dmitri’s beloved wife.

Or stopped Nina’s father from hunting down the three men responsible.

And when he finally found those three men her father had contacted them and arranged to meet with them, only for their two cars to be involved in an accident that had resulted in two of those three men being killed outright, and putting Dmitri in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

And Nina had always had her doubts as to how that accident had occurred, had always suspected—but never dared ask—that her father had intended those three men to die that day, as retribution for taking his beloved Anna’s life.

Which was why Nina knew she could never explain, never tell anyone else about the events of nineteen years ago, without also implicating her father in the death of at least two of the men who had taken Anna from them both. She had always shied away from asking what had become of the third man.

She couldn’t explain that to Rafe. She wouldn’t. Even if it meant that she now had to allow Rafe, a man she liked and was so attracted to, to walk away from her without a single backward glance.

She drew in a deep, controlling breath before forcing a smile to her lips. ‘I think it’s time I was leaving.’

Rafe had had an idea that was where all Nina’s concentrated thought was going to lead. ‘You’re running away again, Nina,’ he reproved gently.

‘Yes,’ she confirmed without apology.

He frowned. ‘You don’t have to leave.’

‘Yes,’ she sighed. ‘I really think that I do.’

Rafe gave a slow shake of his head. ‘I don’t want you to.’ And he didn’t.

In fact, Rafe could never remember wanting anything as much as he now wanted Nina to stay, here with him, in this apartment, in his bed.

He reached out and gently took the brandy glass from Nina’s unresisting fingers before placing that glass beside his own on the coffee table. Turning back to her and taking both of her hands into his, his gaze seeking and capturing hers as he looked down at her intently. ‘Don’t go, Nina,’ he encouraged gruffly. ‘Stay here with me tonight.’

Nina’s breath caught in her throat, her heart beating loudly, erratically, in her chest, both at the words Rafe had just spoken, and the intensity of the desire she could see burning in the depths of those glittering golden eyes that looked so intently into hers. ‘You’ll be disappointed.’

‘What?’ Rafe stared at her incredulously, obviously startled by her reply.

Heat coloured Nina’s cheeks as she avoided meeting that shocked gaze. ‘I—’ She moistened suddenly dry lips with a sweep of her tongue. ‘I’m not experienced, Rafe. I’m not a virgin either,’ she hastened to add, so there should be no misunderstandings. ‘But I’m not experienced, not like the other women you’ve—’ She ceased speaking as he pressed his fingertips gently against her lips.

‘Nina, all that matters here and now is the two of us,’ he assured gruffly. ‘No one else, and certainly not the past, but what we both want now. And I want you very much,’ he added huskily. ‘Do you want me?’

Too much!

Nina had wanted Rafe from the moment she had looked at him that first day, as he stood in the doorway of the gallery in the east wing of Archangel.

It had been so obvious that day that Rafe had assumed she was just another one of her father’s workmen, and she had very much enjoyed taking off her baseball cap to release her fiery red hair down her back, in order to shatter that illusion.

Because looking at Rafe had awoken dormant feelings inside her, a physical awareness, a desire that had caused her body to hum with the need for him to see her as a desirable woman.

Exactly the way Rafe was looking at her now. His golden eyes warm with the same desire that coursed through her own veins, an aroused flush to the sharp blade of his cheekbones, those chiselled lips parted, as if he was just waiting for her to say yes so that he could kiss her.

And God knew Nina wanted him to kiss her. Wanted Rafe in a way she had never wanted any other man. To kiss him. To touch him. To make love with him.

And why shouldn’t she do just that? Why shouldn’t she take this one night with him? Lose herself in that desire, that arousal, and enjoy Rafe in the way she would never be able to do again?

Because Nina already knew that had to be the ultimate outcome of this evening. That Rafe was far too intelligent, too intensely curious about the past, her past, for her to ever risk incriminating her father by answering any of Rafe’s questions.

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue before answering, her gaze remaining unwavering on his.

‘Yes, I want you, Rafe,’ she answered softly, steadily, allowing no room for doubts in her mind. She would take this one night of pleasure, enjoy it, revel in it, with no expectations of anything other than tonight. Men did it all the time, Rafe did it all the time, so why shouldn’t she?

‘Right now,’ she added determinedly.

‘Good girl.’ It wasn’t triumph, but satisfaction, that flared in those golden eyes as he straightened beside her before holding out one of his hands to her invitingly.

Nina placed her own hand unhesitatingly into his as she rose to her feet in front of him. Rafe kept possession of that hand as they turned and walked out of the room together and down the hallway to his bedroom.

Nina felt no reservations, no doubts, as Rafe maintained that hold on her hand as he switched on one of the bedside lamps before turning to cup either side of her face, gazing down searchingly into her eyes before his head lowered towards hers.

‘You are so beautiful,’ he murmured huskily.

‘Kiss me, Rafe,’ she encouraged.

‘Your mouth has been driving me insane since the first moment I looked at you,’ he acknowledged gruffly.

She blinked. ‘My mouth?’

‘You have the most delicious, lusciously pouting lips, and I’ve been imagining kissing them, and having them kiss me, since the moment I first met you. Everywhere,’ he groaned.

Her cheeks warmed with colour. ‘How can that possibly be true, when you went out with, made love to, another woman that same evening?’

‘I didn’t,’ he drawled. ‘Oh, I went out to dinner with her, but bedding her was a different matter, when the woman I wanted was a tall and fiery redhead who enjoys challenging me.’

Nina felt warmed inside just knowing that Rafe hadn’t been intimate with Jennifer Nichols two nights ago. Because it was her that he wanted. Her. Nina Palitov. ‘In that case, I think I would very much enjoy being kissed and kissing you. Everywhere...’

So would Rafe.

To hell with his rules and the complications of being involved with a woman like Nina; he wanted her. And those complications if that was the only way he could have her!

He continued to cradle the warmth of Nina’s cheeks as he kissed her slowly, lingering for long heart-pounding minutes as he sipped and tasted those luscious lips that had taunted and tempted him these past three days. Nina returned the warmth, the heat of those kisses, as her hands glided up his shirt-covered chest beneath his jacket.

Rafe hadn’t thought, hadn’t dared to hope, that the evening would end like this. End? Damn it, this wasn’t the end of him and Nina, but the beginning.

He continued to kiss her, those kisses becoming hungrier, wilder, more heated, as he reached up and took the clip from her hair, allowing those fiery red curls to cascade down the length of her spine. He shrugged out of his dinner jacket and let it fall to the floor. Nina groaned softly in her throat as her body now curved intimately into and against his, her hands now roaming restlessly over his muscled back.

Not close enough. They weren’t nearly close enough for Rafe’s liking. The barrier of their clothes had to go. He needed to see, to feel the heat of Nina’s delicious curves, ached to taste those succulent breasts again, to hear Nina’s soft cries of pleasure as he laved those breasts with his tongue and nibbled them with his teeth, before suckling deeply.

His lips raked down her throat in a heated caress as he slid the zip to her gown down the length of her spine, tasting her creamy flesh as he slipped the straps of her gown down her arms before letting it fall to the floor.

‘Amazing.’ Rafe breathed raggedly as Nina stood before him wearing only a pair of minuscule black lace panties and her high-heeled black shoes, her hair a wild fiery red tumble over her shoulders and breasts.

‘You like?’ Nina prompted shyly.

That heated gaze roamed over her hungrily. ‘Oh, I definitely like!’ Rafe assured gruffly. ‘Take off the rest, Nina,’ he encouraged gruffly.

‘I was thinking of you when I wore these,’ she revealed huskily as she stepped out of the high-heeled shoes before sliding the black panties down her thighs and dropping them on the carpet beside her gown. She was totally exposed to Rafe now, but not in the least self-conscious as she saw the desire for her burning in those glittering golden eyes. ‘Because I wanted this to happen.’