Desire Wears Diamonds Read Free Page B

then.”
    Michael turned and waved him off. “There’s
no need. It will pass.”
    Rowan crossed his arms as he sat on the edge
of his desk. “Your absence was noted. Couldn’t you at least pretend to be happy for them?”
    “I am happy for them. I am happy for
all of you. I am brimming with joy.”
    “I can tell. You look like a man on the edge
of a giddy collapse,” Rowan said dryly. “Perhaps if you smiled, it
would come across better. But then, it is your turn next
even if you do try to hide from it.”
    Michael crossed his arms. “If you’re
implying that I’m somehow slated to get married next, you’re
daft.”
    “Careful, Rutherford. Every bachelor who
ever makes a proclamation of his determination to die alone
invariably brings down the wrath of Aphrodite herself and lives to
take it back.” Rowan crossed his arms to mirror his friend’s
stance. “Ask any of us, if you don’t believe me.”
    “Leave me be. I can’t help but feel as if
we’re making a mistake, sitting back on our heels and pretending
that nothing is wrong. And this public show of—” Michael sighed.
“By all means, go enjoy the party, Rowan, but I…I can’t.”
    “It was months between incidents last
time—”
    “Why?” Michael cut him off. “Why so long
between every attempt? Is he baiting us? It takes veins of ice to
demonstrate that kind of patience, wouldn’t you say?”
    “I wouldn’t know. I may have many faults but
excessive patience is one I may have skipped, Rutherford.” Rowan
dropped his arms, yielding the fight. “Which is what brings me in
here to find you, friend. The wedding party? Remember? Darius has
been desperate to marry his Isabel for weeks now and if not for the
legal tangle, this happy day would have occurred over two months
ago.”
    “Damn it, Rowan. Why hasn’t the Jackal
snapped at our heels yet?”
    “You yourself agreed that after that fire,
Darius probably wasn’t the only one requiring time to recover.
Perhaps we were lucky and the man has succumbed to pneumonia.”
Rowan stood to head over to the side table and pour himself a
drink. “And we’re not sitting back on our heels. Galen, Ashe and I
are having all our stones discreetly evaluated by different London
jewelers and in small lots to avoid raising too many questions.
Even Darius has suggested that Josiah’s pearls be weighed to see if
any of them are false and have something hidden at their center.
We’ll find the “diamond in disguise”.”
    Michael closed his eyes against the pounding
at his temples. Ever since he and his friends had escaped from a
dungeon in India, a prophecy involving the gems they had tucked
into their pockets from their insane host’s treasury had haunted
their every step. Over time, they’d learned that they were actually
the guardians of a mystic ‘diamond in disguise’ but in order to
keep it safe, first they needed to identify it. Each man of the
Jaded held a different stash of stones after a casual ceremony
where they’d divided the gems they’d taken by color. Galen had
taken the rubies; Rowan, the emeralds; Ashe, sapphires; Josiah had
taken the pearls; Darius, opals, and Michael had ended up with the
diamonds. As a result, it was Michael’s cache that was exempt from
scrutiny. They’d all agreed a diamond disguised as a diamond was a
bit redundant.
    Michael shook his head, opening his eyes.
“And then what? You see? Even when we figure out which of your
gemstones is the ever elusive sacred treasure, we still have the
Jackal at our heels and I don’t like running.”
    Rowan took a small sip of his brandy before
answering. “We could bury all the remaining treasure somewhere
impossible for the Jackal to ever find and…”
    “And spend the rest of our lives fending him
off,” Michael supplied. “It’s a nightmare I’m not willing to
entertain. We’ll need to face him and end this.”
    “True. But the answer on how to make that
happen won’t come any easier while we hide in