A Prize Beyond Jewels

He was certainly in no mood to deal with her two overprotective, over-muscled security guards. ‘We can have this conversation here, Nina, or we can have it upstairs in my office,’ he bit out coldly. ‘It’s your choice.’

Nina wasn’t at all reassured by the anger she could see blazing in Rafe’s eyes. Although she was still puzzled as to the reason for it; she had thought he would be relieved when he woke up alone in his bed, that it was the way these things were done.

But she did accept that continuing this conversation in front of Rich and Andy wasn’t a good idea. The two men looked ready to physically attack the other man, if they deemed it necessary. And that challenging glint in Rafe’s eyes said he would welcome a show of the aggression.

‘Fine.’ Nina removed the thin cotton gloves she had worn for her work. ‘You had better stay with the collection,’ she instructed Rich and Andy. ‘I’ll only be a few minutes,’ she assured them lightly.

‘I wouldn’t count on it,’ Rafe muttered as she passed him in the doorway.

Nina gave him a frowning glance, her own anger stirring as Rafe continued to look grim as he fell into step beside her. Her anger deepened as he made no effort to explain himself, either outside in the hallway, or as they walked up the stairs to his office.

All of that changed the moment they had crossed through his assistant’s office and closed Rafe’s office door behind them. Nina suddenly found herself with her back pressed flush against that door, with Rafe towering over her, his hands either side of her head as he glowered down at her.

She frowned her displeasure as she felt imprisoned, both by Rafe’s hands placed either side of her and pinning her in place, and his close proximity. A proximity that her traitorous body instantly reacted to by becoming achingly aroused, her nipples tightening into swollen, aching buds beneath her T-shirt, that familiar dampness gushing between her thighs.

‘What’s this all about, Rafe?’ Her voice was sharp with irritation, at her physical response to him rather than Rafe’s incomprehensible behaviour.

His eyes narrowed. ‘You left.’

‘What?’

‘Why did you leave this morning, Nina?’

She gave a puzzled shake of her head. ‘I don’t understand the question.’

‘Do I take it from your answer that you’re in the habit of sneaking out of a man’s apartment, without so much as a goodbye, after spending the night with him?’ he grated harshly.

Nina’s eyes flashed. ‘I didn’t sneak.’

‘What the hell else would you call it?’ Rafe snarled.

‘I would call it your still being asleep when I woke up and my needing to get back to my own apartment to shower and change before coming in to work!’ she snapped back dismissively.

‘Without saying good morning or goodbye?’

She shrugged. ‘As I said, you were asleep.’

‘And we had just spent an incredible night together. You didn’t consider waking me before you left?’

‘No.’ Her chin rose challengingly as she reminded him, ‘You told me Michael would be arriving today.’

‘This evening, not this morning,’ he rasped impatiently. ‘Besides which, I doubt my brother would go into shock at finding a woman in the apartment.’

‘Probably not, no,’ she drawled, sure that it was an occupational hazard for the three charismatic D’Angelo brothers, if they shared the same apartments around the world.

Not so much for Gabriel, of course, now that he was married, but Nina had no doubts that the brothers were used to stumbling across each other’s lovers in the morning. Even the aloofly austere Michael, although no doubt more discreet about his relationships than his two younger brothers, was too charismatically handsome not to have a succession of women in his bed. That very austereness with which he surrounded himself was a challenge to any red-blooded woman.

‘I would prefer it if he didn’t find me there,’ Nina added decisively.

Rafe looked down at Nina searchingly for several long seconds before pushing away from the door to move sharply away from her and stand in front of the window with his back towards the room. He thrust his clenched hands into the pockets of his trousers as he resisted the urge to grasp hold of her shoulders and shake her.

He was more than a little annoyed with himself because he wanted to kiss Nina again, make love to her again, rather than continuing with this less than satisfying conversation.

And it was playing havoc with his self-control that Nina still managed to look so damned fresh and alluring, despite the lack of sleep during the night of pleasure they had just spent together. Low-rise skinny black denims rested low on her hips, below a T-shirt the same green as her eyes. Her fiery red hair was caught up in a ponytail at her nape, her face appearing bare of make-up, and revealing those endearing freckles across the bridge of her nose.