cool, Jaeger told himself. If it sounds too good to be true then it usually is. But the color and her family history suggested there was a possibility of these stones being real.
“What else do you know about the original owner?”
“Just what I told you,” Piper said. She tapped her screen with the tip of her finger. “Well, what do you think? Could they be real? I’ve taken them to other gem dealers who say they aren’t.”
Of course they would say that. She was young and pretty and an easy mark. They’d make her a token offer, resell the gems and make a freakin’ killing. “Stay away from dodgy dealers,” he muttered.
“But do you think they could be worth anything?”
Maybe she’d been in Ballantyne and Company because she was thinking of selling them. If they were genuine, he was definitely interested in buying. He slid his habitual I’m-not-impressed expression onto his face—his excitement tended to inflate prices—and handed Piper a casual smile. “I don’t know. It’s really difficult to tell from a photograph. Let me look at them when we’re back in the States. Can you send me the photo?”
“Sure.”
Jaeger rattled off his number, and within twenty seconds he heard the beep telling him the photo was on his phone.
“I really hope they aren’t real,” Piper stated, her expression glum.
Now there was a statement he’d never heard from a prospective seller before. “Why on earth would you not want to be the owner of a collection of stones worth, potentially, a lot of money?” Jaeger demanded.
“Because then I’d feel morally obligated to sell them to help my...to help someone out of a financial jam.”
“You have people in your life who owe millions?”
Piper wrinkled her nose. “They’re worth as much as that? No, tell me they aren’t!”
“They could be, possibly, if they are Kashmir sapphires. But don’t bank on it,” Jaeger warned
“Maybe I should’ve just taken the first offer I received. A grand a stone.” Piper muttered.
Ten thousand dollars? Jaeger felt sick. Although he was trying to remain calm, trying not to overreact, he knew, somewhere deep inside him, that he’d might’ve made the discovery of a lifetime. If they were real, then hers were special stones.
“Will you promise to bring them to me, in New York? No one else?” He couldn’t let the stones slip through his fingers.
Piper nodded. “Sure.”
“I’ll call you to set up a time.”
Piper swung her legs around and placed the balls of her feet on Jaeger’s bare thigh. Their eyes met and sparks flew.
Seeing desire flash and burn in her eyes, he slid his hand between her thighs, sighing at the smooth, warm flesh. He opened his mouth to ask whether he could see her again like this, not just at Ballantyne, when they both returned to New York. Then he frowned. Why her and why now?
For more than a decade, since his early twenties—after crawling out of the deep, dark mine shaft that grief and loss tossed him into—he’d seldom pursued a woman beyond three or four nights. He didn’t want to raise expectations, didn’t want any of his very temporary lovers to think there could be a chance of them becoming permanent fixtures in his life. He’d worn permanence once. He’d—briefly—been a father, and when his daughter Jess died, he’d lost his lover, too.
Permanence now felt like an itchy, scratchy, ill-fitting coat.
Why was he thinking about losing his baby girl and the woman he’d once loved while he was with this sexy stranger? He’d thoroughly enjoyed his easy conversation with Piper, loved her offbeat sense of humor and, hell, the sex was off-the-charts amazing. Three damn fine reasons he couldn’t see her again when they both returned to the city.
He liked her a bit too much...and that meant he had to move on.
“When are you going back to the city?” Jaeger asked.
“My flight leaves in the morning. You?”
He’d leave as soon as she did; she was the only reason he was still in Milan. “Tomorrow, as well.” Jaeger moved the pad of his thumb up her smooth calf.
“When we meet in the city,” she said, “let’s be all business.”
Whoa! What?
Piper’s toes dug into the bare skin of his thigh.
“Don’t look so shocked, Jaeger. If not for the sapphires, I’d never hear from you again,” Piper stated, her voice not accusing.
Jaeger dropped his hand from her thigh.
“It’s okay, Jaeger, I get it. It’s not what you do.” Piper continued. “The problem with being the biggest playboy on the East Coast, one of the famous Ballantyne siblings, is that the world knows how you operate. You date a girl for a couple of days, maybe for a couple of weeks if she’s really, really lucky, and then you move on.” Piper lifted her hand when he opened his mouth to respond. “Don’t look so worried. I knew the deal going in.”
“The deal?”
“This was fun, a moment in time, an unexpected encounter. So when we meet again, we’ll just chat about the stones and pretend we never saw each other naked.”
Jaeger didn’t know he was going to speak the words until they flew out of his mouth. “What if I wanted to? See you naked again, that is,” he clarified.
Surprise flashed across Piper’s face, but it was quickly followed by a healthy dose of doubt.
“I’d probably ask you not to.”
Okay. So not what he’d expected to hear.
Piper tipped her head to the side, her expression thoughtful. “Jaeger, I’m a normal woman who has her feet firmly on the ground. I enjoy my job as an art appraiser. I date. I have a full life. I don’t need you to sweep me away and into your world. I don’t like your world.”
“My world?”
“Big money, Manhattan, socialite city. It’s not me. It’ll never be me,” Piper said, her tone and expression earnest.
“I’m not asking you to marry me, Piper, or even date me,” Jaeger replied, feeling irritated. This wasn’t how the conversation normally went. Usually he fielded the demands about when he’d be calling, when their next date would be. He didn’t particularly like that the shoe was very firmly, and uncomfortably, on the other foot. “I was just wondering if you’d like to—”
“—hook up again sometime?” Piper cocked her head, the corners of her mouth lifting. When she exposed her neck, he wanted to nibble on her collar bone, kiss that spot under her jaw. “Thanks, but no. Hooking up is not something I make a habit of. This interlude will be a lovely memory, but recreating this back home won’t work for me.”
Piper
