A Prize Beyond Jewels

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

‘FEELING 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.’