Say It With Diamonds (2 page)

‘Will Cameron,’ he said, wrapping his fingers around hers and giving her hand a firm shake before letting it go.

Two more of her senses hit the deck. His deep, wickedly lazy voice teased her ears, and her whole body tingled with the aftershocks of touching his hand.

The only sense left unaffected was that of taste, and that could be easily corrected. All she’d have to do would be to take one quick step towards him, reach up and plant a kiss on his mouth. Wind her arms round his neck, press herself against him, slide her tongue between his lips and she’d be able to find out exactly what he tasted like and exactly how hot, hard and demanding he was.

Agh, this was awful, she thought frantically fighting the instinct to swoon. It simply wouldn’t do. Grappling for her elusive self-control, Bella drew in a deep steadying breath.

‘Please,’ she said, finally managing to get a grip and waving a hand in the direction of the chair on the other side of the table. ‘Do sit down.’

Will folded himself into the chair and leaned back, taking up far too much space and, more disturbingly, far too much air. ‘Thank you for agreeing to see me at such short notice.’

‘Not a problem.’

As breathing, however, apparently
was
something of a problem, she wished that at the time she’d said she was too busy. Which she was. Ever since one of her necklaces had featured on the catwalk last year, Bella had had more work
than she could really cope with. But the mesmerising tones of Will’s voice over the phone had captivated her and the secret little longing to find out if the rest of him lived up to it had been impossible to resist.

‘You mentioned you had some items to be valued?’ she said, thinking that as it was way too late for regrets she’d better get on with it.

‘I do.’

‘For insurance?’

‘Probate.’

‘Oh,’ she murmured. ‘I’m sorry.’

He shrugged and his mouth twisted into what she presumed was supposed to resemble a smile. ‘Just one of the many formalities to get through.’

Hmm. That wasn’t quite what she’d meant, but his relationship with the deceased was none of her business. Or, to be honest, of nearly as much interest as what he’d brought her to value. She might have forged a career designing jewellery, but her first love would always lie with gemmology.

Bella’s mouth watered as tiny thrills of anticipation began to course through her. ‘May I see?’

He reached into his pocket, drew something from its depths and then leaned forwards and held it out to her.

She lowered her gaze and her breath hitched in her throat.

Oh, good Lord.

Catching her lip with her teeth, she took the ring from him, so mesmerised by its beauty that she barely noticed the tingles that rippled along her fingers when they brushed against his.

Utterly transfixed, she twisted the ring one way, then the other, and stifled a sigh of longing. She’d never seen anything quite so magnificent. The emerald-cut diamond solitaire was set in the platinum band and sparkled in the weak sun that had briefly broken through the heavy grey cloud of the autumnal afternoon and bathed the room. The stone had
to be three carats at least. And flawless, judging by the perfect symmetry of the shards of light that were flashing all across the table.

‘So what do you think?’

Yes, she thought as her heart twanged. Oh, yes. If—no,
when
—she got engaged she’d love something like this.

‘It’s beautiful,’ she murmured, unable to stop the trace of wistfulness that crept into her voice.

‘I couldn’t care less what it looks like,’ Will said flatly. ‘I’m only interested in what it’s worth.’

Bella jerked her eyes up to his and her little daydreamy bubble burst with a splat. What? How could anyone with an ounce of feeling in them be unmoved by such a beautiful thing?

Keeping her jaw firmly where it was instead of letting it drop in appal as it was threatening to do, she gave herself a quick shake. His attitude towards the ring was none of her business either, however much of a shame she thought it.

No. He was simply here for a valuation, not a lecture on gemmological appreciation. And from the tension currently radiating off him he was unlikely to welcome her opinions on the vast superiority of sentimental value over material worth.

Maybe he didn’t have an ounce of feeling, she decided, picking up her loupe and holding it to her eye. Maybe he hated the stuff. Certainly something about the tight set of his jaw told her he wasn’t the sentimental type. In fact he looked like the weary cynical type, and if that was the case he was definitely
not
her type, however gorgeous.

Firmly switching her attention to the ring, Bella turned it in her fingers. Examined it. Tilted it. Held it closer. Felt a stab of bewilderment and paused. Hmm. That was odd.

Perhaps there was something amiss with her loupe. Or her eyesight. Or maybe it was simply that with Will’s gaze fixed on her as he watched her at work, her fingers felt as thick and
as useless as sausages and her head felt as if it had been well and truly scrambled.

‘Is something wrong?’

Very. On a number of levels. Lowering the loupe and hoping her concerns didn’t show on her face, she glanced up at him. ‘Would you mind if I did another test?’

‘Be my guest.’

Bella rummaged around in the drawer for her touchstone and gently rubbed the ring against it. Then she added a drop of liquid and observed the results. Well, that was something to be thankful for, she supposed. ‘Did you bring anything else for me to take a look at?’

He nodded, dug his hands into the pockets of his coat and spilled the contents on the table. As he did so his sleeves inched up and Bella’s gaze instinctively dropped to his wrists. Her mouth dried. Tanned, strong and sprinkled with a smattering of fine dark hairs, they were completely mouth-watering. Up until now she’d never really thought a man’s wrists particularly worthy of attention. Now they’d shot straight into the top five. Or at least Will’s had.

Unable to help herself she slid her gaze to his hands and was instantly assaulted by the vision of those hands roaming all over her, exploring her, lingering and seeking, the long brown fingers delving and probing as they roused her. The vision was so vivid, so real, that Bella’s temperature rocketed and her heart thundered.

Oh, this
really
had to stop. She’d never been so distracted. Certainly not when jewellery was in the picture. And right now, with the discovery she’d just made, she really couldn’t afford to be.

Dredging up every ounce of concentration she possessed, Bella swallowed hard and turned her attention to the tangle of pieces piled on the table.

God, they were exquisite. And if genuine, worth a fortune.

‘May I?’ she said, casting a quick glance up at him.

‘By all means.’

She picked up an art deco sapphire and diamond brooch and caught her breath. She put it back down and let a gold and emerald necklace slither through her fingers. Feeling like a child in a sweetshop, she felt her heart start pounding with anticipation. She’d never seen jewellery like it. Probably wouldn’t ever again. If there was more where these pieces came from Will Cameron would have quite a collection.

Assuming of course that her suspicions didn’t turn out to be correct.

As the excitement winding through her turned to trepidation Bella found a newer loupe in the drawer and braced herself to examine the rest.

Piece by piece, she performed the same tests. Taking her time as she scrutinised each item. Telling herself that she wanted to be sure, that she wasn’t stalling.

But she was. Just a little. Because with every passing minute her heart sank a little further.

As she put the last piece back down Bella stifled a sigh. She didn’t know who she was more disappointed for—herself for having had her illusions shattered or Will, who was only interested in the value of the objects and was, in all likelihood, going to be devastated.

‘Well?’ he said, arching an eyebrow.

‘I’m afraid I can’t give these a value,’ she said cautiously. At least not the sort of value he was after.

‘Why not?’

There was no way she could skirt around it. No way she could soften the blow. She could only hope that he wasn’t the type of man to shoot the messenger.

Making herself look him in the eye, she took a deep breath and said, ‘Because they’re synthetic.’

CHAPTER TWO

S
YNTHETIC
?

Will tensed. Impossible. They couldn’t be. He must have misheard. Been distracted by the effect Bella appeared to be having on him or something. Because she was certainly distracting.

The minute he’d laid eyes on her, standing there stock still, staring at him from inside her shop, he’d clocked the long dark hair, the body poured into a clingy dress and the knee-high boots, and a shaft of awareness had shot through him making his gut tighten and his blood heat.

When she’d finally sprung into action and let him in, he’d fought back the nausea that always surged up inside him at the sound of a lock sliding into place by resolutely focusing his attention on something else. In this case, her.

Within a split second of running his gaze over her curves, the simmering awareness had turned to lust. Which had swelled to almost uncontrollable proportions when he’d spotted the flush hitting her cheeks and a reciprocal flame of desire flickering in the depths of her darkening eyes. He’d taken her hand, her scent enveloping him and vaporising his equilibrium, and had had to drum up every ounce of control he possessed not to haul her into his arms, push her back and spread her over the table.

Once he’d managed to rein in that oddly violent reaction,
he’d toyed with the idea of asking her out for dinner. God knew after spending the last couple of months sorting out his father’s estate, he could have done with a bit of distraction and some light female company.

There was nothing particularly unusual about that. Will liked women; they liked him. He was currently single and he had no problem with affairs, as long as they remained hot and short. With his DNA anything else was out of the question.

No, what
was
unusual was that to his growing frustration it appeared that, while he still ached with raging desire, Bella had obliterated whatever spark of attraction she’d experienced, and had retreated behind an air of aloof detachment.

Which wasn’t just unusual. It was baffling. And strangely disappointing, since he could barely remember the last time he’d had the opportunity to explore the heady delights of searing mutual attraction.

Not that he let it show, of course. No. He’d got used to arranging his face so that it didn’t reveal what he was thinking or feeling years ago.

Perhaps a bit too well, Will thought, frowning and shifting in the chair. From the way her head was tilting and her eyebrows were creeping up, Bella was obviously waiting for some sort of response.

He rubbed a hand over his jaw and snapped his mind from perplexing women and evaporating dinner plans to the startling revelation that the samples he’d grabbed from the front of the safe and brought to be valued were synthetic.

How the hell could the stuff be synthetic? The collection had been built up over decades. Generations of his male ancestors had given the finest jewellery to their wives, and he was pretty sure that while virtually every single one of them
had been lousy at keeping their marriage vows, they’d always bought the best.

Setting his jaw, he arched an eyebrow. ‘Synthetic?’ he echoed.

Bella nodded. ‘The settings are real. The metal is genuine. And original. But the stones are paste.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Pretty much. You see here?’ She held up the engagement ring his father had given to his mother, and leaned forwards.

Will’s initial instinct was to jerk back, but as that would imply he considered her some sort of threat—which was absurd—he held himself steady, even if it meant her proximity made his skin tighten and tingle.

Forcing himself to keep his eyes on the ring and well away from her mouth and the alluring way it moved, Will dragged his attention to what she was saying. ‘The lustre is too dull and the light comes in at all the wrong angles. I’d need to double check, but I suspect the originals have been replaced with cubic zirconia.’

As her words sank in Will’s blood chilled and he ruthlessly suppressed the mind-scrambling effect Bella seemed to have on him.

How on earth could this have happened? As far as he knew, the collection hadn’t left the safe it was stored in for years. ‘When?’

‘It’s impossible to say, but the settings look as if they’ve been manipulated recently. Probably within the past year or so.’

His jaw tightened and he sat back, making sure that his expression didn’t reveal any hint of his thoughts. He might not care about the collection per se, or even the unforeseen plummet in its value, but he
did
care that the discovery that someone had been ransacking it had been made on his watch. He was its current custodian and it was therefore up to him
to find out who and why and how far they’d gone. And then decide what he was going to do about it.

‘I am sorry,’ she said quietly, giving him a look full of sympathy he really didn’t need.

Resisting the temptation to toss the whole lot in the bin, Will stuffed the jewellery back in his pockets. ‘I trust your conclusions will remain confidential,’ he said curtly.

Bella nodded. ‘Of course.’

‘Good. In that case, I’d like you to take a look at the rest of the collection.’

‘There’s more?’

Her eyes widened and sparkled, and Will’s mind briefly went blank. Determinedly switching his focus to the dozens of boxes still in the vault and what might be lurking within them, he pushed his chair back and stood up. ‘A lot more.’

‘When?’

‘Now?’

‘I’ll get my things.’

For someone who’d just been told that the ten items of jewellery in his possession were in fact worthless fakes, Will appeared remarkably sanguine, thought Bella as they purred through the streets of central London. If it had been her, she’d have been wailing from the rooftops and tearing her hair out.