A Prize Beyond Jewels

‘Oh, please!’ Nina cut him off disparagingly. ‘He got to you, didn’t he?’ she continued with knowing derision. ‘And no doubt he told you just enough to excuse his behaviour.’

‘He told me nothing, Nina, made no excuses for whatever it was he’s done to upset you,’ Rafe assured gruffly.

‘Because there aren’t any!’ Her eyes glittered deeply green as the first crack began to appear in her defensive shell, a lapse she quickly brought under control as she straightened her shoulders determinedly. ‘There just aren’t any excuses for what he did, Rafe,’ she repeated evenly.

‘He loves you very much. He was only trying to protect you.’

‘He’s protected me from life all of my life!’ Angry colour appeared in the pallor of her cheeks.

‘Yes, he has,’ Rafe acknowledged gently. ‘And maybe that was wrong of him.’

‘Maybe?’ She moved restlessly. ‘There’s no maybe about it!’ Her eyes continued to glitter angrily. ‘He must have told you something, Rafe,’ she continued scornfully. ‘Enough that he’s the one you feel sorry for, obviously.’

‘It isn’t a question of feeling sorry for anyone.’

‘Isn’t it?’ she dismissed harshly. ‘Well, believe me, I don’t feel in the least sorry for him after hearing the things he’s kept from me all these years.’

Rafe looked at her searchingly, the glitter of tears in her eyes enough to tell him that she wasn’t as immune to her father’s pain as she claimed to be. ‘This isn’t really you, Nina,’ he cajoled huskily. ‘You love your father, and you don’t have it in you to be deliberately cruel, to him or anyone else.’

She gave another humourless laugh. ‘What do you really know about me, Rafe? That I like having your hands on me? That I liked it so much on Saturday evening I let you drag me into a damned cupboard full of brooms just so that you could pleasure me?’ She gave a disgusted shake of her head. ‘That isn’t knowing me, Rafe, that’s just enjoying having sex.’

‘Don’t,’ he warned harshly, knowing exactly what she was going to say next, and totally unwilling to allow her to reduce what they had to that basic level. ‘You came to me today, Nina,’ he reminded her gruffly, hands clenched at his sides to prevent himself from reaching out and taking her in his arms. ‘Whatever excuse you may have given yourself for coming here, you came to me, damn it!’

Yes, she had, Nina acknowledged heavily. This morning, as she’d showered and dressed in her hotel room, she had convinced herself she was going to see Rafe today because she wanted the commission for the display cabinets from Archangel galleries. That securing those designs was more important than her pride if she was really serious about launching her own design company.

Now that she was here, with Rafe, Nina wasn’t so sure she had been altogether truthful, even to herself.

There was comfort for her in being in Rafe’s company, in that quiet strength he had, and it was already acting as a balm to her shattered emotions. It fed the need she felt to be with someone who desired her, at least, and who could warm her even a little; at the moment her heart felt like a heavy block of ice in her chest.

So, yes, she had come to Rafe this morning, had needed, wanted to be with him. To be with the man she had realised that she had fallen in love with.

Not all of the last thirty-six hours had been spent thinking about that last conversation with her father. She had thought of Rafe too. A lot. Of what their relationship meant to her. Of the fact that she not only desired and wanted him, but that she liked him too. That she had fallen in love with him.

Her desire for Rafe’s dark good looks was undeniable, and she liked that fun person he could so often be, but she also knew, after this past week, that there was so much more to Rafe than that charming rogue persona he chose to show to the world at large.

Rafe cared.

About the Archangel galleries.

About her...

And he loved his family deeply. And it was a love, after her conversation with Michael on Saturday evening, which she had no doubts his family returned.

The serious Michael had made a point of talking to her alone about his brother Rafe, casually at first, and then of how hard and diligently Rafe worked for the success of the galleries, of how they all owed much of the galleries’ continued success to Rafe’s ideas and innovations.

It was a caring part of Rafe that had already shone through bright and clear to Nina no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

Enough that she had already fallen in love with him.

A love that Rafe would never return.