mean your mother’s in serious trouble.’
Fear clawed at Ravenna’s throat and she swallowed hard, taking in the pitiless gleam in his silvery eyes.
Understanding hit. ‘You’re not here to help, are you?’
His bark of laughter confirmed the icy foreboding slithering along Ravenna’s spine.
‘Hardly!’ He paused, as if savouring the moment. ‘I’m here to see she goes to prison for her crimes.’
CHAPTER TWO
RAVENNA LOCKED HER knees as the room swirled sickeningly.
She reached out a groping hand to steady herself and grabbed fabric, fingers digging claw-like as she fought panic.
The last few months had been tougher than anything she could once have imagined. They’d tested her to the limits of endurance. But nothing had prepared her to confront such pure hatred as she saw in Jonas Deveson’s face. There was no softness in his expression, just adamantine determination. It scared her to the core.
Shock slammed into her and the knowledge, surer with every gasping breath, that he was serious. He intended to send her mother to prison.
A hand covered hers to the wrist, long fingers encompassing hers easily, sending darts of searing heat through her chilled flesh.
Stunned, Ravenna looked down to find she’d grabbed the only thing near—the lapel of Jonas Deveson’s tailored jacket. Now he held her hard and fast.
‘Are you all right?’ Concern turned his deep voice to mellow treacle. She felt it softening sinew and taut muscle, easing her shocked stasis enough that she finally managed to inhale. The spinning room settled.
She tugged her hand away. Worryingly, she felt cold without that skin-to-skin contact.
Ravenna spun on her foot and paced to the window. This time when she clutched fabric it was the heavy gold swag of curtain. It was rich and smooth under her tingling fingers, but not as reassuring as the fine wool warmed by Jonas Deveson’s body.
She shook her head, banishing the absurd thought.
‘Ravenna?’
Her head jerked up. She remembered him calling her by name years before, the only time they’d really talked. In her emotionally charged state then she’d imagined no one but he could ever make her name sound so appealing. For years her unusual name had been the source of countless jibes. She’d been labelled the scrawny raven and far, far worse at school. It was disturbing to discover that even now he turned her name into something special.
‘What?’
‘Are you okay?’ His voice came from closer and she stiffened her spine.
‘As okay as you can expect when you barge in here threatening my mother with gaol.’
For a moment longer Ravenna stared out of the window. The Place des Vosges, elegant and symmetrical with its manicured gardens, looked as unchanged as ever, as if nothing could disturb its self-conscious complacency.
But she’d learned the hard way that real life was never static, never safe.
Reluctantly she turned to find him looming over her, his eyes unreadable.
‘What is she supposed to have done?’
‘There’s no suppose about it. Do you think I’d come here—’ his voice was ripe with contempt as he swept the salon with a wide gesture ‘—if it wasn’t fact?’
Ravenna’s heart dropped. She couldn’t believe her mother had done anything terrible, but at the same time she knew only the most extreme circumstances would bring Jonas Deveson within a kilometre of Silvia Ruggiero. There was hatred in his eyes when he spoke of her.
‘You’re too angry to think straight.’ At her words his lowering dark brows shot up towards his hairline. Clearly this was a man unused to opposition.
She drew another, slower breath. ‘You’ve despised my mother for years and now you think you’ve found a way to make her pay for the sin of falling in love with your father.’
The sizzle of fire in his eyes told her she’d hit the nail on the head. Her hands slipped onto her hips as she let righteous indignation fortify her waning strength.
‘I think you’ve decided that, without Piers here to defend her, she’s easy prey.’ Her breath hitched. ‘But she’s not alone. You’d do well to remember that.’
‘What? She’s moved on already?’ His voice was contemptuous. ‘She’s found another protector to take his place? That must be some sort of record.’
Ravenna wasn’t aware of lunging towards him but suddenly she was so close she saw his pupils dilate as her open hand swung up hard and fast towards his cheek.
The movement came to a juddering halt that reverberated through her as he caught her wrist. He lifted it high so she stretched up on her toes, leaning towards him. Her breasts, belly and thighs tingled as if from an electric charge as the heat of his body, mere centimetres away, burned hers.
His eyebrows lowered, angling down straight and obstinate over eyes so intent they seemed to peer into her very soul.
His scent—clean male skin and a hint of citrus—invaded her nostrils. Abruptly she realised she’d ventured too far into dangerous territory when she found herself inhaling and holding her breath.
A shimmy of reaction jittered through her. A reaction she couldn’t name. It froze the air in her lungs.
Instinct warned he was dangerous in ways that had nothing to do with her mother.
Ravenna tugged hard but he refused to release her hand.
Leaning up towards him like this, almost touching along the length of their bodies, Ravenna became fully aware of the raw, masculine power hidden beneath the designer suit. The clothes were those of an urbane businessman. The burning stare and aura of charged testosterone spoke instead of primitive male power, barely leashed.
She breathed deep, trying to douse rising panic, and registered an unfamiliar spicy musk note in the air. Her nerves stretched tighter.
Never had Ravenna felt so aware of the imbalance of physical power between male and female. Of the fact that, despite her height, she was no match for this man who held her so easily and so off balance.
‘Nobody slaps me.’ His lips barely moved, yet Ravenna felt his warm breath on her face with each terse word.
‘Nobody insults my mother like that.’
Even stretched taut against him, her mind grappling with a multitude of new sensations, she refused to back down. She stared into those glittering, merciless eyes and felt a thrill of fear, realising he was utterly unyielding.
‘Then we’re at an impasse, Ms Ruggiero.’
Did he tug her closer or did she sway towards him? Suddenly keeping her balance was almost impossible as she teetered on the balls
