Читать книгу His Ex's Well-Kept Secret - Joss Wood - Страница 11

Two

Jaeger lowered his loupe and looked at the sapphire he held between his thumb and index finger. It was a small stone, barely four carats, but its color and quality, like those of the rest of the ten stones, were off the charts.

Like the woman who owned them.

Jaeger turned his head to the right and looked toward the window where she stood, watching the traffic on the famous street below. Like the stones, something in her called to him. She wasn’t beautiful, precisely, but she was...dazzling. With her naturally curly hair and cat-like green eyes, her stubborn chin and long, lean swimmer’s body, she was exotic, interesting. Utterly feminine...

And majorly pissed off with him.

Jaeger knew women. He should—he’d had enough experience dealing with them. He knew when they were moody or sad. He could recognize manipulation and desperation from a mile away, could see calculation and greed with one glance. He could read body language like other people read text, and Piper Mills was five feet seven inches of pure pissiness.

Directed at him.

He wanted to ask if they’d met before, but he knew that couldn’t be possible. Apart from those two months last year, his memory was impeccable, and he knew they’d never crossed paths before that. The probability of them meeting during his lost months was slim indeed. Credit cards, air tickets and a private investigator had filled in the blanks for the majority of the time he’d lost.

He’d spent July in Burma and Thailand, on the trail of a fantastic ruby he’d subsequently lost in an auction held in the back rooms of Bangkok. From Bangkok, he’d flown to Milan, where he visited Ballantyne and Company and examined and purchased some inexpensive art deco jewelry. He’d spent some extra time in Milan, not unusual since it was his favorite city, but the visit had ended badly. On his way to the airport, the taxi he’d traveled in was T-boned by a delivery truck, and he’d become the human filling in a vehicular sandwich. He’d sustained a broken clavicle and bleeding on the brain.

They’d stabilized him in Milan. Then Linc sent their private plane and a team of doctors to Italy, and Jaeger was transferred back to New York. After operating to stem the bleeding on his brain, they’d kept him in an induced coma until the swelling in his brain subsided. He woke up to the news he’d lost ten weeks of his life, and his beloved uncle, the man who’d raised the Ballantyne siblings, was dead.

Jaeger pulled his eyes from the long-legged beauty at the window and turned back to the stones. Kashmir Blues...why did that phrase keep jumping into his brain? Jaeger picked up his desk phone and punched in a number, impatient for Beckett to answer. His brother had a computer-like brain and remembered most of their uncle’s many stories. From the age of ten, he, Beckett and Sage, along with the housekeeper’s son, Linc—who Connor adopted along with the rest of them—listened to Connor’s gemstone-related tales. Beckett always remembered the finer details.

“You’re calling because you can’t handle the hot chick and you need my help?”

Jaeger scowled at his brother’s greeting. “Yeah, that’s why I’m calling,” he sarcastically replied.

“Thought so. Hang on, sweetheart. I’ll be right there to rescue you.”

If he’d been alone, he would have told his cocky younger brother exactly what he thought of his comment. Because he wasn’t, Jaeger just asked him what jumped into his head when he heard the phrase Kashmir Blues.

It took Beckett less than ten seconds to respond. “Great-Grandfather Mac called a cache of sapphires he saw in the London store the Kashmir Blues. Fifteen brilliant stones. Because other gem dealers, like Jim Moreau, also saw them, we know they definitely existed and weren’t just a figment of Mac’s whiskey-soaked imagination. Strangely, they’ve never, as far as I know, turned up again.”

Until, maybe, today. Could these ten stones be part of the original fifteen? If they were, Jaeger was staring at a hell of a find. He placed the handset back into its cradle. Good God. Could he really be looking at the biggest gem discovery of the last fifty years?

“Well, are they worth anything?” Piper demanded, her hands on her slim hips. Jaeger couldn’t help noticing the sun shone through her thin silk blouse. He could see the curve of her breast, the lace of her bra. He wanted her stones but, by God, he also wanted her with a ferocity that roared and clawed.

Pull yourself together, Ballantyne. This is not the time to think about sex.

“Yeah, they are worth something,” Jaeger slowly replied. “But how much, right now, I’m not sure. I need to do some tests. I’d like other experts to look at them.”

“I thought you were an expert.”

“I am. But with stones like these—” magnificent, important, breathtaking, expensive stones “—I like to make doubly sure.”

“I’d prefer to keep this between us,” Piper said, lifting a stubborn, sexy chin.

“My other experts are my two brothers, Linc and Beckett, and my sister, Sage. They are all Ballantyne directors, and we don’t discuss our clients with anyone else.”

Piper folded her arms across her chest and stared down at the floor, lifting one hand to hold her riotous hair back from her face. When she looked up at him, her expression was fierce. “No games, no lies...if I wanted to sell them right now, what would you offer me?”

“Do you need the money?” She didn’t look like she did. Her clothes were fashionable, her shoes new.

Piper dropped her hand and sent him a hard stare. “I know you might not realize this, but some people do.”

Jaeger held her hot eyes, not bothering to tell her he’d seen more poverty on one trip to Southeast Asia than she could ever comprehend. He knew what people would do for money; he’d witnessed what people would do for money.

He couldn’t help that he was the heir to a dynasty, that he was wealthy beyond belief, but he worked damn hard every day of his life. He didn’t lie or cheat people out of their stones. He paid good prices for good gems. He didn’t deal in blood diamonds, and he boycotted mines and miners using child labor. Like his parents, like Connor, he operated ethically, dammit!

Annoyingly, the urge to explain was strong.

What was it about this woman? And why did he care what she thought about him?

“Give me a number,” Piper demanded, but he heard the fear in her voice, and her hope that the gems would solve a very big problem.

“I’d give you a million,” Jaeger said, just to test her. Actually, he’d consider paying her double, but he wanted to see what her reaction would be.

Her shoulders slumped and she bit the inside of her lip. So a million was short of what she needed.

“Three?” Piper asked.

So three was what she needed. For what?

“Maybe two,” Jaeger said, pretending to think about her offer.

Again, there was a flash of disappointment in her green eyes. God, such beautiful eyes. Eyes that tempted him to cut her a check for the full three mil and then kiss her senseless before ripping off her clothes.

“Can I think about that?” Piper asked, placing her thumbnail between her teeth.

Jaeger slowly rolled up the velvet, capturing the gems inside. “Sure, but I’m not making the offer today, Ms. Mills. Or tomorrow.”

Because, despite the party in his pants, he wasn’t a novice dealer who could be swayed by a pretty face, a rocking body and sad, possibly desperate, eyes.

Piper’s luscious mouth fell open, and he wondered what she tasted like, whether her lips were as soft and plump, as sweet, as they looked. He knew her smile would be dynamite. He wanted to see it, feel it on his skin. God, Ballantyne, get a frickin’ grip.

“But...but...you said—”

Jaeger stood up and placed his hands on his desk, leaning down so their eyes were level. “I’m not making a million-plus offer on gems I know next to nothing about. I do that in the field when I have nothing to rely on but my gut. But I’m not prepared to do that now when I don’t need to take the risk.” Jaeger stood up and pushed his hand through his hair. “I’ll make you a solid offer after I’ve done some research—”

“What type of research?” Piper asked, obviously frustrated.

“We use various databases, including those set up by Interpol and the FBI, to check whether any similar gems are reported stolen. I want my siblings to look at the stones.”

“How long will it take?”

Jaeger shrugged. “As long as it takes.”

“I can always take them to Moreau’s.”

Ballantyne and Company’s biggest competition.

“That’s your prerogative, but you won’t,” Jaeger said, watching her eyes, watching frustration chase fear through all the green. “You won’t because you want me to buy these stones. For some reason you want me to have them. Why?”

Piper tried to dismiss his statement, but he saw the flash of agreement in her eyes. Why did he think there was so much more happening here than her wanting to sell the stones? He felt like she had a story and he was part of it.

“You have two weeks to make me a solid offer,” Piper told him, picking up her bag and pulling it over her shoulder. “After that, I start shopping around.”

Jaeger nodded. “I need your contact information. If you’ll give me a little time, I’ll enter the details of the stones into our database and print you a receipt, stating that they are in our custody.”

“I’ll give you my card. Just send the receipt. I know you won’t steal them or swap them.”

Her instinctive trust in him made him feel warm.

“All I need is for you to keep my name, and the fact that I have these jewels, confidential. Can you do that?”

Why was she so concerned about privacy and confidentiality? Could these sapphires be stolen? God, he hoped not. If they were, he’d have to report her, and he did not want to see Piper arrested and jailed for handling stolen property.

The only thing she should handle was him.

Jaeger gave himself a mental punch to the head. It was time to act like an adult, a partner in Ballantyne and Company, like the hard-ass gem hunter he was reputed to be.

“You did hear me say I’ll be running these stones through the Interpol and FBI databases, didn’t you?”

Piper’s only response was a searing look. Shaking her head, she pulled a business card out of her bag and handed it over.

Jaeger looked down at the card and flicked the edge with his finger. “You’re an art appraiser?”

Piper shook her head. “You really did take my words to heart, didn’t you?”

Jaeger frowned. What did that odd comment mean? From the moment she’d walked into his office, he’d seen half-formed statements on her lips, in her eyes. She’d start to speak, but then she’d bite the words back, acting as if there was something she needed to say but wouldn’t. What was going on behind those pretty eyes?

Mind your own business, Ballantyne. She’s a client, nothing more.

But there was definitely something odd about the very gorgeous Ms. Mills, Jaeger decided as he watched her walk across his office and yank open the door. She turned back to look at him and lifted her index finger to point at him. “I’m trusting you to look after my stones. Trusting you, after everything that’s happened, is a very big deal for me, Ballantyne.”

Before he could reply, she walked out of his office. Jaeger stared at his half-open door, feeling like she was leaving him with just a few pieces of a puzzle.

He’d find the missing pieces, he thought, sitting back down behind his desk. He’d start by running her name through as many databases as he had access to and see what popped up.

Because, he was damn sure, something would.

* * *

Why hadn’t she called Jaeger on his BS?

The question played on repeat in her head, like nails on a chalkboard, since she’d hurried out of Jaeger’s office eight hours before. Why hadn’t she mentioned their past to get it out in the open? Why did she go along with his I’ve-never-met-you-before attitude?

Piper turned the corner onto her street, her tote over one shoulder and her arms around two brown sacks of baby food and diapers. And chocolate... After a day like today, she needed chocolate. Baby food, diapers and chocolate... God, her life was so exciting.

Not.

Well, it had been! Back when she was with that six-foot-something slab of sexiness... No, that wasn’t what she meant to think! Dammit! So why didn’t you say anything about the time you spent together in Milan, Mills? What was with that nonsense?

Piper shifted her sacks and tried to blow a curl out of her eye. Pride...pride was a factor. She’d wanted him to mention Milan, to be the one to go there, to say how nice it was to see her again. She’d wanted him to ask if he could take her to dinner...to bed. She’d never thought, not once, not even after he’d shut her out completely, that she’d be so utterly forgettable.

And, man, it killed her—in a dagger-to-the-heart way—that he didn’t remember her. Spending the night with him was a highlight of her life. Conversely, she was, for him, a forgettable experience in what was obviously a long line of sexual encounters.

And Jaeger forgetting her, forgetting about Milan, made all her feelings around her father and his neglect bubble to the surface. She was an adult, and she should have been over feeling hurt by Mick’s actions, but she couldn’t help remembering the times she’d opened the door to him and watched him struggle to remember her name. Her mother and whatever she gave Mick were important to him, not Piper. When her mom died, her father stopped visiting the house in Brooklyn altogether, and the only time he’d spoken to Piper after the funeral was to demand she give him the sapphires.

She’d lived with rejection all her life. Jaeger not remembering her was just another version of the same thing.

That being said, Jaeger’s actions still didn’t make sense. Why the pretense? They’d agreed to keep it businesslike when they met again, so why not take her calls right after Milan? Why did he go to such lengths to ignore her and then pretend not to remember her?

What game was he playing?

Maybe she should’ve avoided Jaeger altogether and gone directly to Moreau’s. Why hadn’t she?

Jaeger paid better, according to Mr. Hendricks, than all the other gem dealers. She’d also, in Milan, promised Jaeger she’d bring the stones to him. Thanks to her father being a thief, it was important that she kept her promises. Piper strongly believed in keeping her word, in doing the right thing.

So, was not telling Jaeger about Ty the right thing to do?

The thought slammed into her, holding all the power of a rogue wave. Of course it was. Meeting Jaeger again changed nothing! She knew, everyone knew, that Jaeger wasn’t daddy material. He’d openly admitted a wife and kids weren’t part of his plans.

There was nothing worse than knowing who your parent was and knowing he didn’t care enough to be a part of your life. Piper wouldn’t put her son in the same position she’d been in.

Approaching her house, she pushed the wrought iron gate open with her hip and noticed her lemon verbena and geraniums needed water and the pots needed repainting. Yeah, that probably wouldn’t be happening anytime soon.

“Piper!”

Standing on the top step, Piper whirled around quickly. She wobbled, her bags tipped and she struggled to find her balance.

“Dammit, Ballantyne!”

Jaeger walked up to her, his hands in the air. “Why so jumpy? I just called your name.”

He didn’t need to know she’d been thinking about him and felt like she’d conjured him out of thin air. “It’s been a long day. Why are you here?”

Her skin prickled as Jaeger slowly approached her, his long legs eating up the space between them. As he came closer, she caught a hint of masculine cologne, warm skin. God, she remembered the smell and texture and taste of him—spicy, warm...

He interrupted that train of thought by taking her groceries from her and looking into the bags. “Wine, baby food, diapers, a popular men’s magazine, tampons, chocolate and hummus. That’s quite a mixed bag.”

Piper blushed, then frowned. “Stop examining my shopping. It’s rude.”

“Are you going to invite me inside?” Jaeger demanded, and Piper knew it wasn’t a suggestion but an order.

Piper shifted from foot to foot as she thought about what to say. Ceri, her nanny and good friend, was upstairs with Ty, and Piper really, really didn’t want Jaeger and Ty meeting. She didn’t know what game Jaeger was playing by pretending not to remember her, but until she’d figured out the rules, she wasn’t going to introduce a new player into the arena. Especially when that new player was her innocent son.

The decision was taken from her when the front door opened behind them and Piper turned to see Ceri and Rainn standing there, each with a hand on Ty’s stroller. Piper immediately dropped to her haunches and kissed her son’s cheek. “Hey, there’s my favorite guy.”

Ty wasn’t as excited to see her as usual, but he did pat her face before pushing her away so he could look around to see who was out and about.

Piper stood up, glanced at Jaeger and saw nothing but mild interest on his face when he looked at Ty. Her heart slowed down when she realized he didn’t see what she did; he didn’t see anything of himself in Ty. Thank you, God.

“We all needed some air, so we’re going to take a walk,” Ceri said, worried. Her eyes bounced off Piper’s face, onto Jaeger’s and her mouth fell open. “Wow, you’re—”

“Jaeger Ballantyne.” Jaeger smiled at Ceri, his eyes crinkled and Piper’s stomach flipped over once, twice. She’d forgotten how sexy his smile was, how it transformed his face from hard-ass to gorgeous. Jaeger shook hands with Rainn after the twins carried Ty’s stroller down the steps.

“I’m Ceri Brown, and that’s Rainn. And the cutie is Ty.”

Piper started to explain that Ceri was her nanny, that Rainn was her twin and that they lived in the apartment below hers, but she stopped. She didn’t owe him explanations of any kind!

Ceri managed to pull her admiring gaze off Jaeger to look at Piper. “Do you want to join us? We’ll be back in about a half hour.”

Piper bit her lip and shook her head. “I think I’ll skip. Jaeger needs to have a word.”

Ceri tipped her head to the side, curious. “How do you two know each other?”

“That’s a long and complicated story,” Piper replied. So long and so complicated. “I’ll see you in a bit, okay?”

Piper and Jaeger stood on the top step and watched Rainn tip the stroller back on two wheels. Ty’s belly laugh drifted over to her; it was another of his favorite games. There went her heart, she thought. Her kid and the two people as close to her as siblings.

“Cute family,” Jaeger said. “They are young to have a kid.”

Piper started to tell him Ty was hers, not theirs, but she just managed to catch the words. She darted a look at him, her interest caught by the emotion in his eyes. Longing, sadness, pain? Why would Jaeger Ballantyne—who’d routinely told the world he would follow in his uncle Connor’s footsteps and remain resolutely single—look envious of what he erroneously assumed was a young family on their way to a park? She had to be misinterpreting his look and his emotions, Piper decided. This was Jaeger Ballantyne, after all, who thought the world was overpopulated.

Who’d refused her calls and pretended not to know who she was.

He didn’t deserve her explanations.

At the corner, Ceri waved at them, and Piper rolled her shoulders.

“Are you here to make an offer for my stones?” Piper asked, wincing at the eagerness in her voice. Maybe this ordeal would be done sooner than she’d expected.

“I’m no closer to offering you a deal than I was earlier,” Jaeger replied.

Damn.

“Invite me in, Piper.” Jaeger reached past her to push open her front door. “We both know that we have a lot more than sapphires to talk about.”

Now he wanted to talk about what happened in Milan? And really, after all her unanswered phone calls, what was there to discuss? Apparently everything they’d needed to say had been captured in the last kiss they’d shared outside the hotel entrance. It had been tender and sweet, regretful and poignant but very, very final.

Thank you and goodbye, think of me occasionally, remember this time we spent together with a smile. Have a wonderful life.

A silent but powerful acknowledgment that when they met again, they would not pick up where they left off...

They hadn’t agreed to treat each other like strangers...but maybe it was better if they did. Jaeger still had the ability to keep her off balance.

“You’re giving me the silent treatment again. I can’t decide if it’s because your mind is revving or because you are being stubborn.” Jaeger bent his knees so their eyes were level. “Either way, we are doing this. We can talk either here or over a cup of coffee or, if the gods are smiling on me, a glass of whiskey. But we are going to have a conversation, Ms. Mills.”

Yeah, they were. Piper saw the determination in his eyes, saw the hard-ass negotiator who bought and sold valuable gemstones on six continents. Jaeger wasn’t going anywhere until he’d said whatever was on his mind. She had to be very careful to keep control of this conversation; they had to stay on topic. She wanted to know why he’d blocked her from contacting him after Milan, but Ty was firmly off-limits. As was the fact that she wanted him naked and panting.

Why did she keep thinking that?

She felt like she was standing in a field planted with land mines and she needed to carefully pick a path to safety.

“I would give a rare red diamond to know what you are thinking,” Jaeger said, breaking into her thoughts.

Piper blinked and refocused. She pushed her hair back and briefly closed her eyes.

“I’ll make us coffee,” Piper capitulated, resigned.

Jaeger put a hand on her lower back and pushed her toward the stairs leading up to her living quarters. “Sounds good. It would sound better if you offered a shot of whiskey with it. I’ve had a rough day, too.”