The Diamond Affair (12 page)

She opened her eyes.
His own eyes were glassy, intent on watching her nipples. When he caught her
looking, he smiled. Lazy. Wicked. Hungry.

Then he sat up
and sucked a nipple into his mouth. Ruby gasped and arched into him. Heat
spiraled through her, coiling around her insides and heading south.

"Yes,"
she hissed between her teeth. "Oh, yessssss."

He suddenly withdrew.
Hey
! "More," she begged.

He chuckled. "Soon,
my sweet. First," he rasped, "take these off." He tugged at her
track pants. She stood and drew them down with her underwear, throwing them on
the floor with the T-shirt.

She was
completely naked. Normally she'd be self-conscious about her body, especially
in front of a man built like Hercules, but the way he looked at her—with heat
and want and need—made her feel utterly beautiful.

"I think I'm
at an unfair disadvantage," she said. She undid the fly on his jeans and
together they removed them without him standing. He lay back on the couch, his
hands behind his head, gloriously naked.

Nope, definitely
no bruises down there. But he did have one huge...weapon. She simply
had
to handle it.

She circled her fingers
around his thick erection, relishing the way his hips bucked and his eyelids shuttered.
He mumbled something unintelligible then removed her hand.

"I'm a man
not a machine," he said. "If you keep going, it'll end too soon."

"You want me
to do something else?"

"I want you
to lie here and enjoy." Before she could protest, albeit weakly, he
shifted his weight and flipped her over so their positions were reversed.

He kissed her
again, ravishing her mouth, none of the tenderness of earlier. As if he were
starving.

But he broke the
kiss all too soon to move onto her throat. That was good too. Very good. She
tipped her head back to expose more flesh to his expert lips. He licked and sucked
her neck, her earlobe, her collar bone. Then to her nipples again and she
nearly begged him to stay there but he moved south and she was fairly certain he
was about to hit the jackpot so she kept quiet.

He nipped at her
stomach, teased her bellybutton with his tongue and licked her...WOW!

She bunched her
fists and bit down to stop from crying out. She should tell him to slow down,
to let her savor the moment, but she couldn't speak, could barely think clearly
enough to form actual words.

The pressure
quickly mounted until she thought she'd combust or burst or both.

And then she did.
The explosion ripped through her. She screamed. Her hips bucked. Her body
tightened and relaxed over and over until every last drop of ecstasy was squeezed
from her.

Breathless, she
tried to think of something to say, something appropriate like "Thanks"
but her tongue wouldn't work. So she lay there, eyes closed, and allowed her
body to relish its newfound sense of lushness.

She'd had orgasms
before but this one...this one was something else. She couldn't put her finger
on it but her body had never felt so sated, so replenished. Complete?

Not quite.

She opened her
eyes to see him propped up on one elbow watching her. Where his face was
usually guarded, expressionless, it was slack with desire and...wonder?

"Enjoy that?"
he said, a coy smile revealing he already knew the answer.

"Yeah,"
she said on a breath. "But if you don't enter me now, I'll go mad."

He grinned. Actually
grinned! "Can't have that." But instead of reaching for her, he
reached for the jeans and pulled out a condom. He tore it open and sheathed
himself then crept panther-like up to cover her body with his.

She cupped him
and he growled low in his throat. She guided him inside her and his thick
erection slid in all the way. He moaned into her mouth as he kissed her. Small,
teasing kisses as he built up a steady rhythm. Unable to stand it any longer,
she pressed her hand to the back of his head and held him there. She deepened
the kiss and he thrust harder into her.

She wrapped her
legs around his waist, loving the feel of him buried inside her, wanting it to
go on. Then his pace quickened and she felt him swell and she thrust up to meet
him, hips to hips.

"God, Ruby,
you drive me—"

He never finished
his sentence. A primal groan erupted from deep within his chest. She swallowed
it with her mouth. One, two, three hard thrusts and the groan became a roar. His
body suddenly shuddered and he arched his back as he came into her.

When the aftershocks
had lessened, he withdrew and removed the condom. With a sigh, he collapsed to
one side of her, his back against the couch's back. She nestled into him,
breathing in the scent of sex and man and bruise cream. The powerful throbbing
of his heart echoed her own but his breathing soon returned to a more even
rhythm.

Now she felt
sated, replenished,
and
complete.

They lay like
that, with his hand resting on her stomach, his leg covering hers and his chin
above her head, until his body grew heavy. He was asleep. She couldn't lie with
half his weight on top of her all night, but she didn't want to wake him.

She put her free
leg on the floor, edged her hips out from under him and—

His hand clamped
down on her waist, trapping her. Then, as if he realized what he'd done, he
sprang up off the couch. He rubbed a hand through his already messy hair and
looked around the room, everywhere but at her.

"Sorry,"
he said.

"Sorry?"
She blinked at him. "What for?"

"For..."
He waved a hand at the couch. "I shouldn't have taken advantage of you
like that. It's unforgivable." He bent and picked up her T-shirt.

"Unforgivable?
Not exactly the word I'd use." She snatched her T-shirt from his
outstretched hand. "And you most certainly didn't take advantage of me. If
anything I took advantage of you."

He gave her a
sideways glance. "Don't be ridiculous." He picked up her track pants
and held them out.

She ignored him. "Are
you giving me the brush off? After..." She drew in a deep breath. "After
what just passed between us?"

"Nothing
passed between us, apart from some body fluids and not much of that thanks to
the condom." He shook the pants at her. "Take them, will you!"

"Why?" She
threw the T-shirt on the floor again. "Does my nakedness bother you?"

"Hell, yes."

"It didn't
before."

"I wasn't
functioning properly before."

"Back to
being the machine again, I see. Well, I hope you enjoyed your grease and oil
change. Don't bother calling me when it's servicing time again because I'm not
a bloody mechanic." She stormed past him, still holding out her track
pants, and headed straight for the hall and the main bedroom.

She didn't turn
round but she could swear her butt was turning hot from his stare. Good. Let
him see what he was missing out on.

CHAPTER 10

He'd screwed up
big time. Jake knew it as soon as he woke up in Ruby's arms. He'd slept with
her. He'd broken the golden rule he'd set out for himself on his return to
Melbourne after his last tour of Afghanistan. No mixing business with pleasure.
Actually, that was his second rule. His first was not to let anyone get under
his skin again.

There'd been too
many. Those kids, his parents... And now Ruby. He'd thought his resolve was
stronger than ever these days. He'd proved that with his Dad. But Ruby had
worked some powerful magic on him. Her hot kisses and her even hotter body had
got him into major trouble.

But if he was
being honest, it was more than that. It was her ability to make him laugh, her
tenacious attitude and the sheer force of her personality. She was incredible. Beautiful.
She made him feel...human.

She was Trouble.

The sooner this
job was over the better. Sydney never looked so good.

He finally fell
asleep in his own room but it was filled with dreams of Afghani kids and
hospital beds and a naked Ruby. Four hours later he was glad to get up and
start thinking about who really had stolen the Florentine.

After a brief
shopping trip for groceries, he sat at the kitchen table and wrote a list of
suspects on a notepad. At the top was Sinestri, the double-dealing broker with
links to the black market. Second was Sonya Beauvoir with her killer nails and
desire for the diamond. Third, but by no means least, was Aaron, Ruby's
assistant. He could have milked Ruby for information about the Florentine's
movements and taken it upon himself to do a little thieving of his own.

This last
suspicion he'd keep to himself.

His phone rang—or
really it was Damien's phone. He checked the screen. A number but no name came
up. "'Lo," he said into the phone.

"Son? It's
me." Jake recognized his Dad's voice, or rather, his new voice. Ever since
the stroke, he sounded weaker, thinner. It wouldn't scare a fly off a wall now.

"How'd you
get this number?" Jake barked down the line.

"I rang your
apartment and your friend answered and said I could contact you on this number.
I want to speak to you."

"You are
speaking to me."

"Not like
this, not over the phone. Come see me."

"I can't. I'm
on a job then I'm going to Sydney as soon as it's over."

A pause, then, "You
can't even spare me ten minutes?" The voice shook with frailty and
something else. Emotion? No, couldn't be. His dad didn't even know the meaning
of the word.

Jake sighed and
looked up to see Ruby watching him from the doorway. She tucked her hair behind
her ear and came into the kitchen. She was dressed in a pink tank top and a
white skirt, made from some kind of thin material that flipped around her
thighs as she walked. Damned summer. As if it wasn't warm enough without having
a hot woman walking around dressed in tiny clothing. A hot woman who was off
the menu.

"Jake, are
you still there?"

"Yeah, still
here," he said into the phone. "Look I've got to go. I'll try and
drop in before I leave for Sydney." He hung up. "I went out and
bought some supplies while you were still asleep." Maybe if he talked to
her as if the couch incident hadn't happened, he could return their status to
what it had been before. Friendly, comfortable. The flirting part would have to
get left out of the equation from here on. Too dangerous.

She opened the
fridge and went straight for the orange juice. "You've been up for a
while?"

"Yes." It
was early afternoon. She'd been asleep nearly five hours. "There's fresh
coffee in the pot on the stove."

She nodded but
said nothing. He watched as she made herself a sandwich and poured a glass of
juice, but then he had to look away because he couldn't stop remembering how
she'd felt beneath his hands. Smooth and lithe and willing.

He returned to
his list but he couldn't think straight. His body was all too aware of her. The
way she moved about the kitchen, the way she tipped her head back to drain her
glass, the way she had looked on that couch, flushed all over from their
love-making.

Crap.

"Look,"
he said, because he had to say
something
. "Let me explain." But
he was damned if he could think of the right words. He'd never been good at
talking. Give him action over speeches any day.

"Don't,"
she said. "There's no need. You're not interested beyond a bit of...fun. End
of story. I don't want to talk about it any more."

Perfect. Neither
did he.

He just wished
she didn't look so miserable. Some of the light in her eyes had gone out and he
hated that he was responsible for that.

Ruby tried to eat
her sandwich but it tasted like dirt. She felt like crying and shouting at the
same time. Her plan had backfired. She'd tried to get him to talk about his
feelings by using reverse psychology, but Jake obviously hadn't got the memo
that stated men never did as they were told and he took her suggestion not to
talk literally. So now she had to pretend everything was all right between them
when her heart was crumbling into little pieces.

After five
minutes, the painful silence became too taught for her nerves and she had to
break it. "Tell me what happened at Sinestri's office and about the
accident. I got the feeling from Frankie that he caused it."

Jake looked relieved
that she'd said something that didn't involve feelings. "He was doing a
little night research himself. We had an encounter at Sinestri's office."

"Did you
injure his hand?"

He shrugged. "I
should have done more damage because the sonofabitch could still drive. I
couldn't out-run him."

"He ran you
off the road?"

"No, he
tried to shoot me. It was a little distracting and I didn't see the other car. No
one else got injured thankfully."