When Only Diamonds Will Do (11 page)

‘Where the hell do you think you’re going at this time of night?’ he queried harshly.

‘No idea! Maybe Perth—it seems a popular spot for midnight flits—but if you’re not going to explain, I’m off!’

‘Kim—all right,’ he said through his teeth. ‘There’s no bloody point in going on, is there?’ His eyes blazed. ‘You’re never going to forgive or forget. We could go on for years setting each other alight physically and spending every other damn moment fighting each other.’

She simply stared at him.

‘Look,’ he went on in the same hard voice, ‘you’re entirely in the right, if it’s any consolation. I should never have done it.’

Kim opened and closed her mouth several times. And what finally came out surprised her. ‘Wh…what about Darcy?’

If she’d surprised herself, she could see that she’d shocked him.

He blinked several times. ‘I …’ But he didn’t seem able to finish.

‘I haven’t told you this, but I’m finally getting through to him,’ she went on. ‘He’s even decided on a new name for his horse—Rimfire. What are you going to tell him?’

‘I don’t know—I haven’t thought about it.’

She opened her hands. ‘Ah. Another lack-of-information exercise in the making.’

He swore audibly. ‘Better for it to happen now rather than later.’

‘No,’ Kim whispered with sudden tears in her eyes.

He studied the tears for a moment and a nerve flickered in his jaw. ‘So what are you suggesting?’ he asked with a frown. ‘The same kind of hell we’re going through, only a more amicable version of it for Darcy’s sake? It’s not going to work, Kim. We’ve wanted each other for months now. I don’t know about you, but it’s starting to drive me crazy. My only option now is to…go.’

‘Why did you do it, Reith?’ she asked, tears now streaking her mascara. ‘Why
did
you ask me to marry you like that?’

‘Because, despite what you might like to think,’ he said curtly, ‘I have a chip on my shoulder a mile wide, I probably always will have. And your brother and father were able to expose it in all its glory. Particularly your brother.’

She gasped. ‘How? Why?’

‘I could have understood your father’s reaction to a certain extent, an older man with old-fashioned notions, but Damien …’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘They were so bloody superior when they discovered my background. Not only that, they made me feel like a scavenger when I knew damn well they’d dug their own hole and were responsible for their own downfall.’

‘They were…It’s possible they were just desperate, isn’t it?’

He shook his head again and smiled with no amusement at all. ‘Then you came along and you were all fabulous, rich, classy, sassy
Theron
,’ he went on, and stopped, breathing harshly. ‘Although one thing I have to salute you for, Kimberley. I thought you’d be much easier to seduce than you were. In fact, if there was a man with any backbone in your family, it was you.’ And with his mouth in a hard line, he sketched a mocking little salute.

Kim’s lips parted and for a moment something very much like stunned heartbreak showed in her eyes. Then she turned and started to walk away.

‘Kim …’ He said her name hoarsely but, with a slight shake of her head, she kept on walking.

‘Kim.’ He came round in front of her and barred her way and he put his hands on her arms. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I should never have said that.’ He scanned her pale face and darkened eyes. ‘I’m
sorry
. It’s the way I am, though, it’s the way I’ve been since I was ten.’ And he pulled her into his arms. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said barely audibly into her hair.

She trembled and went to pull away but he resisted easily, then he picked her up and carried her through to the lounge and sat down on a settee with her.

He didn’t say anything for a long time, just stroked her hair as she lay with her head turned into his shoulder.

And gradually the trembling that had attacked her eased and she lay against him feeling a strange kind of peace come over her. A release, almost, that puzzled her and puckered her brow briefly, then she realized
what it was. Despite everything and after the long months of holding herself aloof, there was no other feeling for her that came close to the magic of being in Reith Richardson’s arms.

As it struck her, her eyes flew open and she looked up to see him staring down at her.

‘Reith?’ It came out as a husky little breath of sound.

‘Kim?’

They stared into each other’s eyes for a long moment, then he pulled her close and started to kiss her.

The master bedroom at Saldanha was a beautiful room. It had a white ceiling, greyish-blue carpeting, mushroom walls and ivory curtains. The ivory silk bedspread hung over the antique ottoman and, by the light of the Chinese porcelain bedside lamps, Kim lay still as Reith paid tribute to the whole silken, slim, curved length of her.

But stillness wasn’t going to stay with her much longer, she knew. Indeed, how she’d survived the way he’d undressed her item by item she didn’t know.

Nor did she know how she’d contained her delight and awe at the sight of him powerfully naked next to her. The contrast between them was breathtaking. She felt slight and as light as air and vulnerable, but in a way that was thrilling to her senses, against him. He was so tall and tanned, broad-shouldered, lean and strong, his body sprinkled with dark hairs, his hands …

His hands, she thought with a visible tremor, so wise on her body, so sure in the way they found her most erogenous spots—she’d never be able to look at his
hands again without remembering this—this sheer delight he was inflicting on her.

Then he eased his leg between hers and bent his dark head to taste and tease her nipples.

‘Oh, Reith,’ she whispered as she felt a deep clenching within her body. ‘Oh, Reith, I’m dying. I need you.’

And he was there for her, with a mounting rhythm that she began to echo; one that carried them on a wave of rapture that exploded for both of them.

‘So.’

Kim stirred and repeated his one word very quietly. ‘So.’

He pulled a cover over them, took her in his arms and buried his head in the curve of her shoulder and they lay in silence, completely absorbed in each other and the memory of the event that had just taken place.

Then he asked a question. ‘How the hell did we manage to abstain for so long?’

She freed a hand and ran her fingers through his hair. ‘Basically, we’re lookers not leapers.’

He laughed and kissed her. ‘I feel as if I’ve leapt up a mountain.’

‘I feel …’ She paused and he lifted his head and rested it on his elbow so he could look into her eyes. ‘You’ve made me feel more wonderful than I’ve ever felt in my life.’

‘Kim.’ He put his palm on her cheek and his eyes softened. ‘I’ve no right to hear you say that. Not after—’

He stopped as she put her fingers to his lips. ‘Let’s not go back,’ she whispered.

‘I need to explain.’ He kissed her palm.

But this time she replaced her fingers with her lips and she effectively silenced him.

Some weeks later, she got an early morning call from Alice. Reith had been away for a couple of nights, the first time they’d been apart since the momentous night of Pippa’s barbecue …

‘Kim, dear—’ she and Alice had been on first name terms for some time now ‘—Reith would like you to be in Perth today and he said please dress up because he wants to take you to the races at Ascot. He’s got a runner.’

Kim blinked. ‘He didn’t say anything about it to me.’

‘No, he forgot. Funny that, he’s been quite forgetful lately, quite…I don’t know…as if he has other things on his mind.’

Kim’s lips twitched as she thought of her powerful, usually completely businesslike husband having her on his mind to the point of being forgetful, and decided she liked that very much. But her smile changed to a frown.

‘Alice, I’ve got to get ready—I’ve been in the garden. And it will take me at least an hour and a half to drive to Perth.’

‘The chopper is coming to pick you up. Should be there in an hour, so that will give you time to get ready, then it’s only a quick little trip and at this end a limo will pick you up and deliver you to Burswood.’

‘Burswood?’ Kim repeated, sounding surprised.

‘The hotel. He’s booked, rather I’ve booked a suite
for the night so you can pack a bag and leave it there. He’ll meet you there.’

Kim frowned. ‘Why not the apartment?’

‘Have you forgotten, Kim?’ Alice clicked her tongue as if she couldn’t believe how forgetful they were both being at the moment. ‘It’s being redecorated.’

‘Oh. Yes, I had,’ Kim said ruefully. ‘Well, I guess I’d better get cracking. Thank you, Alice.’

Kim arrived at the Burswood Casino complex on the banks of the Swan River with plenty of time to spare, and checked into the luxury hotel.

She unpacked her overnight bag, then checked herself in the mirror. She had on a black linen dress with short cap sleeves and a tulip-layered knee-length skirt. She had an oyster mohair jacket to go with the outfit as autumn slid towards winter and brought with it cooler weather. Her hair was loose but sleek and sculptured and she wore a string of pearls and tear-drop pearl earrings. Her make-up was perfect, and she lifted a fascinator out of the hat box she’d brought with her. It was a froth of dotted black veil on a comb and she slid it carefully onto her head.

She was studying her reflection, twisting this way and that with her hands on her hips, when the outer door of the suite opened and Reith came in.

He paused, saw her through the bedroom door and walked towards her.

She stayed exactly as she was as he stopped, paces from her, and their gazes clashed.

‘Hello,’ she said barely audibly.

His gaze roamed over her, from the top of her fascinator to the tips of her high black heels. ‘Hello.’ He pulled his jacket off and threw it over the back of a chair, then he loosened his tie.

‘You didn’t mention the races to me,’ she murmured, conscious of a prickle of tension between them.

‘No. I forgot. As I’m about to do again.’

She raised her eyebrows. ‘What do you mean?’

He pulled his tie off and consigned it to lie on his jacket. ‘The next time I decide to go to the races it will have to be in different circumstances.’

‘I still don’t understand.’ Kim frowned.

Reith moved and put his hands on her waist.

She trembled as an inkling of his intentions came to her.

‘It won’t be after I’ve spent two nights away from you—put it like that,’ he drawled.

‘I see,’ Kim said very seriously. ‘In other words, you mean to tell me, Reith Richardson, that I’ve gone to all this trouble—’ she sketched the outline of her figure, then touched her fascinator delicately ‘—for nothing?’

His arms closed round her waist, but he eyed her with some irony. ‘Depends what you classify as “nothing”. But I have also to tell you that even if I’d made love to you a couple of hours ago I would still be subject to an irresistible urge.’

‘Urge? To?’ she queried, wide-eyed.

‘Undress you, disrupt you, dispense with all this exquisite grooming and finery, take you to bed.’

Kim stared up at him. ‘You’re serious.’

‘Yep,’ he agreed.

‘Reith—’ her lips twitched but her pulse was starting to race ‘—that sounds a bit…caveman.’

He raised her hand and kissed her knuckles. ‘Not at all,’ he said ruefully. ‘Just some poor guy who can’t seem to get enough of you.’

Kim laughed softly and kissed him, and she didn’t object when he found the zip at the back of her dress and slid it down.

In fact she stepped out of it regally. And she dispensed with her black bra and suspender belt, her sheer stockings, then she remembered the fascinator with a little gurgle of laughter and took it off too.

He spanned her waist, then slid his hands up to cup her breasts, causing her nipples to peak like tight buds.

‘Down to my pearls,’ she quipped breathlessly, then promptly forgot about them as he looked down at her in a heavy-lidded way and with a nerve beating in his jaw that wreaked havoc with her senses.

She shivered with pleasure as he breathed harshly as if he was going to say something, but instead he made a growling little sound in his throat and swept her into his arms.

Everything became urgent from then on—urgent with desire. It was there in the way he got rid of his own clothes, in the way his hands and lips moved on her body. It was there in their breathing and their movements, the way she directed his hands, the way he directed hers. In the way they clung together as they climaxed, both helpless beneath the physical force of their union.

As they lay together, resting and relaxed, mentally
close as well as physically, it was perhaps half an hour before he said, ‘Shall we do it?’

Her eyes widened. ‘Again?’

‘No—’ he looked amused ‘—that might be a hard act to follow so soon. Shall we go back to Plan A?’

‘You mean …’ She sat up and blinked several times.

He nodded. ‘Let’s go to the races.’

They did just that, but while their undressing could not have been described as orderly, their dressing was much more leisurely.

Kim had the first shower in the en suite bathroom. He handed her a towel as she came out, kissed her on the lips in passing as he stepped in.

It was as he walked through to the bedroom, towelling his hair and with another towel slung around his hips, that he stopped and whistled.

Kim was wearing only a lacy black bra and a matching suspender belt and one sheer stocking. She was in the act of drawing the second stocking on and she completed the task but with a tinge of pink in her cheeks.

‘Now that,’ he murmured, ‘is seriously sexy.’

She straightened. ‘Think so?’

‘Know so. It’s also the first time I’ve seen you wear them. Do you wear them often?’

Kim shook her head. ‘Not often, but some clothes just seem to cry out for you to be as elegant below as on the outer.’

‘I see. Makes sense,’ he murmured and raked his hand through his hair, then fingered his chin as if he
was in two minds about something. ‘Can I offer you some advice?’

She tilted her chin. ‘If you like.’