The Flaw in His Diamond

As in emperor? Conqueror?

The count’s stare suggested either description was apt. One thing was sure, Roman Quisvada only accepted one rank, and that was Commander-in-Chief. Where he led others followed. When he spoke others listened. And much as a wolf wouldn’t trouble himself about the ants he trod on, she barely registered a blip on his radar.

Were those black eyes laughing at her again? Arrogant man!

Infuriatingly, her body didn’t seem to care. There didn’t seem to be an insult he could deal her that could stop her wilful body craving him. Or her eyes devouring him, Eva reluctantly conceded. ‘Well, I’m glad I’ve got your interest at last,’ she said coolly, checking her towel was securely fixed.

‘Oh, you’ve got my interest,’ he confirmed as he started to mount the stairs. ‘Though there may come a day when you wish you hadn’t.’

‘Are you threatening me?’ Her voice sounded much smaller than she had intended.

‘I’m just letting you know I’ll be watching you.’

Her pulse leapt at the thought, while her mind warned her frantically that this was not a good thing. ‘That’s fine by me,’ she said with a careless shrug. ‘You can waste your time watching me all you want. I don’t know what you think I’m going to do.’

‘Right now you’re going to take a shower and change your clothes, and then you’re going to meet me in the hall.’

She bridled at his orders. And wearing what? A tee bearing the name of an ancient rock band and a fresh pair of jeans? A wedding had been the very last thing on her mind when she left Skavanga, and it certainly wasn’t in her nature to insult the bride and groom by turning up wearing something like that. ‘I’d much rather wait on the sidelines for you.’

‘I’m sure you would. But that’s not how it’s going to be, Eva. We’re going down to the village together, and we’re going to attend the wedding together.’

‘Won’t people ask questions?’

‘And if they do?’

‘Wouldn’t it be easier for you to spare a few minutes to talk to me before you leave for the wedding?’ she suggested, trying hard not to register Roman’s intoxicating, warm and spicy scent.

‘Easy isn’t my way, Eva.’

‘Well, if a wedding’s more important to you—’

‘That’s enough,’ he rapped, shocking her into silence. ‘Shall we both examine our motives for being here, Miss Self-Righteous? I’m here on the island for my cousin’s wedding. What’s your excuse?’

CHAPTER FOUR

THIS MAN DIDN’T just bore out her eyes with his stare. He bore down on her. Physically. Until they were standing just inches apart. Eva tried not to flinch or step back. If she did she’d fall down the stairs. ‘You know why I’m here.’

‘Do I? Do I, really?’ Roman pressed, smiling in a way that chilled her.

‘You should do.’

‘Should I?’

His experience was so far in advance of hers, she didn’t stand a chance. He actually thought there was some other reason for her visit than concern for the mine.

And wasn’t there?

‘Nothing to say?’ he murmured, the light in his eyes making her feel more awkward than ever.

There was a lot she could say, but nothing she was going to share with him. She wasn’t used to being pinned down and made to answer. She wasn’t used to a man staring into her eyes as if he could read her private thoughts. ‘My only reason for being here is Skavanga. I would have thought that was obvious.’

‘To you, perhaps,’ he said with that same disquieting look. ‘Shall we go upstairs, Eva?’

She moved past him into this very different world, and was almost home free when he put out an arm to stop her. ‘You have done your research on the mine, haven’t you, Eva?’

That compelling gaze was far too close and far too dangerous. ‘Of course I have. I grew up with it.’

‘Things change over time.’ Roman shifted position slightly, making a little more space between them, but also reminding her of how intensely charismatic he was. ‘Iron ore and minerals run out, Eva, and without the diamonds the mine is worthless.’

‘Britt said the traditional minerals are close to running out. She didn’t say they had run out.’

‘It’s only a matter of time.’

She shook her head—not just to disagree with this, but to break the disturbing eye contact. ‘They’ve been running out for as long as I can remember.’

‘And this time it’s true.’ Roman stepped in front of her so she had to look at him. ‘The mine has only survived this long because Britt has been holding it together as well as she has. She kept the truth from you and your sister so you didn’t have to worry. But that’s not a situation you and I can allow to continue, is it, Eva?’

Oh, he was good. ‘Britt doesn’t have much choice but to follow the party line now you and the consortium are in control.’

‘Your sister is in full agreement with everything we do. Perhaps you should have asked her about that before you left Skavanga.’

Instead of arguing with Britt as she had. Another wave of guilt washed over her and for once she bit back all the angry words on the tip of her tongue. ‘But, honestly, diamonds? Expensive trinkets? Is it really worth ruining the polar landscape for that?’

‘You have a lot to learn about diamonds, Eva.’

She remained unconvinced. ‘There must be some other way to save the mine.’

‘When you find one, let me know. Meanwhile, you’re welcome to use one of the guest suites.’

‘But we haven’t finished talking yet.’

‘I have,’ Roman said flatly.

And she was in no position to attract a potential landlady while she was dripping wet with a towel wrapped around her.

‘You’ve got twenty minutes, Eva. And then I’m leaving,’ he warned as she jogged past him up the stairs

‘I’ll try not to keep you waiting.’

‘Please yourself. I won’t wait.’

‘Where is this guest suite?’ The palazzo was so huge. She turned back to look at him. ‘Where do you want me to go?’

Roman’s look suggested he’d like to tell her. ‘When you get to the top of the stairs, turn left, and take the last door on your right. You can’t miss it—it’s got a lion’s head handle. And hurry up, Eva, I don’t have all day.’

‘Thank you, Roman.’

Her attempt at meekness earned her a withering look. Lion’s head handle. No doubt the handle on his door was a fist.

Building bridges? Not blasting them sky high...

She felt his gaze following her as she ran up the stairs. Roman was so confident in his masculinity he made her feel awkward and inexperienced, as if all her past failed encounters with men were an open book to him. No doubt he was having a good laugh at her expense. She had left it too long to risk intimacy with a man. She didn’t like to do anything unless she did it well, and intimacy was one skill she didn’t possess.

‘Don’t look so worried, Eva.’

She gasped as he bounded in front of her, taking the stairs two at a time.

‘You couldn’t be safer than you are with me.’

His voice was deep and husky and vaguely amused. He did sense her embarrassment, and he was laughing at her.

So let him. She shrugged as she reached the landing. ‘I don’t know what makes you think I’m worried. I can handle myself.’

‘So I hear,’ he said dryly.

She hated herself for reacting so violently. All the tiny hairs on the back of her neck lifted, and heat pulsed insistently through her veins. The power emanating from him flowed around her, embracing her whether she liked it or not. Her sisters would be amazed to see her shaken like this—when they’d stopped laughing. What was so special about tall, dark and perfect, anyway? Why was her body insisting on behaving like this? Roman was so not her type. He was autocratic and overbearing. He was the most insufferable man she’d ever met.

And the most attractive.

He showed no interest in her as a woman, which was a relief. An absolute relief. But it wasn’t normal. He could at least pretend. That would be the polite thing to do. And weren’t aristocrats supposed to be courteous? Weren’t they all raised to behave differently from other people by ferocious nannies with thick rulebooks on how to behave?

‘Turn left, I said,’ he called out to her.

I knew that. She casually retraced her steps, vowing to keep her thoughts restricted to what she had to do—which did not include fixating on Roman Quisvada.

She checked each door down the long and airy corridor, longing to be safe behind one of them, and away from him, so she could calm down and cool off. Roman had disappeared somewhere in the opposite direction. Good. She’d had enough of Count Roman Quisvada and his sardonic face to last her a lifetime. But look at it this way: she only had to get through tonight at the wedding party. She would just have to bite her tongue.

So long as she didn’t bite anything else, that should work.

* * *

He groaned with pleasure beneath an ice-cold shower. To his overheated skin the freezing water felt like soothing balm. His senses were heated thanks to Eva. She infuriated him. She attracted him, and that was distracting. There was unfinished business between them. Strength and fire had been his first impression of her at her sister’s wedding. His impression of her hadn’t changed, but Eva was more complex than he had first thought. She was elusive and thoughtful, passionate, and doggedly determined. And he had always liked a challenge. Eva Skavanga needed taming or she would continue to plague his mind.

Quitting the shower, he grabbed a towel and rang one of his trusted aides in Skavanga. He needed more detail about her.

‘Mark? I need a briefing. Yes. Eva Skavanga. She’s here. What do you mean you knew that? Why on earth didn’t you tell me?’

He listened to some rambling excuse and quickly realised that young Mark had fallen under Eva’s spell. ‘Well, now we both know.’ He cut his aide off impatiently. ‘Yes, of course she’s all right. Which brings me to my next question. You seem to be an admirer of this woman. Why? She seems to me to be more trouble than she’s worth?’

‘Don’t write her off,’ Mark advised. ‘Eva’s a hothead and likes to think she’s one of the boys, but she’s got a heart of gold—too trusting, maybe.’

‘Not in my case.’

Mark ignored this. ‘She has her heart set on eco-tourism saving Skavanga. She’s terrified that our mining project will reduce the town to a smoking pile of steel, with panhandlers drinking in the streets and plastic tables and plastic food replacing the cultural traditions of her Arctic home.’ This much Roman already knew.

His young aide was besotted. The thought almost made him veer away from asking the question uppermost in his mind. ‘Didn’t you explain that our work will cause minimal upheaval, and that any damage done will be repaired?’ And that wasn’t all of it.

Mark laughed in an admiring way as his mind turned to a woman it was clear they were both interested in. ‘Have you tried reasoning with Eva?’

‘Enough.’ His voice came out a roar. So much for subtlety. ‘Tell me about her relationships.’

There was a silence as Mark considered this. ‘There are none,’ he said at last on what sounded like a very dry throat.

‘Why is that?’ He didn’t let up the pressure. His hand tightened on the phone. ‘She’s an attractive woman...’

‘Who has half the men of the Arctic Circle racing each other to the South Pole, rather than tangle with her.’

‘I thought they bred them tough at the North Pole.’

‘They do, but Eva Skavanga is a special case.’

‘She has a problem with men?’

‘She has an unfortunate attitude with men.’

Mark was being careful with his choice of words. ‘Explain,’ he insisted.

‘The older sister you know—Britt is confident and a great businesswoman. She’s self-confident, decisive and married now. The younger girl, Leila, is a bit of an unknown quantity, because she’s always been overshadowed by Britt and Eva—’

‘Eva’s reputation?’ he pressed. ‘I’m not interested in the other two. They’re not out here. She is.’

‘Eva’s a loner. Maybe she’s been hurt at some time.’

‘But not so hurt and broken she couldn’t turn up here, break into my house and swim in my pool—’

‘She broke into your house?’

Now Mark did sound shocked. ‘She terrorised me,’ Roman said dryly. ‘Until I agreed to speak to her about her beloved Skavanga.’

‘That sounds like Eva.’

Mark’s voice held the same note of admiration that had annoyed him the first time round and that now made him snarl, ‘That’s enough, Mark. She’s a nuisance at best. Forget I even rang you. I’ll sort her out. And I’ll get rid of her.’

There was a long pause, and then Mark said, ‘She’s staying with you?’

‘Don’t worry. She’s not my type. I’m taking her to the wedding, and that’s all.’

‘You’re taking her to the wedding?’

‘Did I employ a parrot? I’m taking her so I can keep an eye on her.’

As Mark gave a nervous laugh Roman guessed his young aide was in no way reassured as to the immediate fate of one Eva Skavanga. ‘Relax, Mark. I have no immediate plans for her.’ Later perhaps, he mused.

‘If you had allowed me to put her through to you when you were in Skavanga I guess she wouldn’t have made the trip.’

‘You sound worried, Mark. Whose side are you on?’

‘Yours, of course,’ Mark protested, ‘but—’

‘I didn’t avoid Eva’s earlier requests to see me. I ignored them. You should know by now that misguided pleas from emotional women cut no ice with me. Eva’s a small shareholder with no special privileges just because she happens to be a member of the family that gave its name to the mine. I’ll treat her the same as any other small investor, no better no worse.’

But on a personal front?

Taming Eva Skavanga held considerable appeal.

He ended the call, having found out what he wanted to know. Eva was unattached. And doubly intriguing. His thoughts turned to having her passion pinned beneath him. He shrugged and smiled faintly as he ditched the towel. There were sound business reasons for keeping her close. While she was here she couldn’t disrupt work at the mine. Any damage caused by the drilling would be made good, which Eva would have known if she had attended the meetings he’d held in Skavanga instead of picketing them. Now she was trapped on an island with a ferry that operated at his command and he’d send her home when it suited him.

Slinging on a pair of chinos and a clean shirt, he thought about shaving then parked the idea. As an image of Eva’s body flashed into his mind he reached into a cupboard to find a bottle of suncream. This was no godly act on his part. She lived in the Arctic and the sun was strong here. He didn’t want her too sore to have sex with. Giving his thick black hair one final run-through, he glanced in the mirror and imagined Eva’s defiant face glaring back at him. If there was anything he enjoyed more than a tussle with a hot-blooded woman, he couldn’t think what it was. Eva would be his guest at the wedding, and then, just as she had requested, he would give her his undivided attention.

* * *

She had found the door with the lion’s head handle. Thank goodness. This place was like a city. The door was heavy, silky cream, and as she closed her hand around the lion’s head it was a surprising degree of pleasure. Would everything be so tactile here? Including the count?

Stop with the fantasies. She had around fifteen minutes to shower, change and meet him downstairs. All of which might have been fine if she could only stop gazing round like a country yokel. She had opened a door onto a wonderland of art and luxury, functionality and extravagance combined. Like the rest of the palazzo, the decor was discreet yet obviously expensive. Taupe, ecru, ivory and chalky-white, with a couple of showpiece ornaments and a huge unframed painting, picked up the tints of the throw on the bed—

Okay...that unframed piece? The homage to Picasso? On closer inspection she discovered it was a Picasso. The last time she’d seen the painting it had been hanging in a gallery in Stockholm, labelled ‘on loan’ from an unnamed benefactor.

Roman Quisvada lived in quite some style. And grudgingly, she had to admit she liked it. It did surprise her that such a powerful brute of a man lived like this in the home of a discerning connoisseur. The count was an interesting man—in more ways than one.

Dropping her backpack on what was probably an extremely expensive rug, she tried not to draw unnecessary comparisons between the count’s seductive lifestyle and the seductive count. She scrunched her toes appreciatively in the soft wool as she crossed the room to inspect the balcony overlooking the placid azure sea. The scent of blossom was heavy and intoxicating, and she wished she could remain dreaming a little longer as she leaned over the stone balustrades, but the clock was ticking and she still had to shower and dress.

Four doors faced her in the room. The first turned out to be a dressing room, for the guest who had everything, and who was only used to the best. Not Eva Skavanga, that was for sure. The second door revealed a gym. The third, a marble-lined bathroom. Her jaw dropped. And stuck. With its sunken bath and shower big enough for two, the bathroom could best be described as sumptuous. There were enough white fluffy towels for an army, and the water pressure was fierce enough to fill a lake. She wandered back into the bedroom, where she couldn’t resist a few bounces on the mega-sized bed where inviting crisp white sheets still held the faint scent of sunshine, and the throw, with its tints echoing those of the fabulous painting on the wall, reminded her of a fading summer sky. How was she ever going to drag herself away from this?

A sharp rap on the door gave her that answer.

‘Eva?’

She hadn’t even showered yet! ‘Five minutes?’ she yelled back.

‘Not a minute more.’ Roman sounded less than amused.

How would he punish her if she was late?

She absolutely had to stop thinking like that. Even as a joke! She might forget herself and come on to him. She could act tough back in Skavanga, but she was playing well out of her league here.

Drying off after her shower, she twisted her hair into a messy up-do on top of her head, securing it with the single hairclip she had retrieved from the bottom of her pack. It was just a boring old plastic thing that came in a pack of six, but there was no time to dry her hair properly. And right on cue the hammering on the door started again. If she left Roman hanging much longer he’d crash the room.

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