Say It With Diamonds Read Free Page A

equilibrium, and had had to drum up every ounce of control he possessed not to haul her into his arms, push her back and spread her over the table.
    Once he’d managed to rein in that oddly violent reaction,he’d toyed with the idea of asking her out for dinner. God knew after spending the last couple of months sorting out his father’s estate, he could have done with a bit of distraction and some light female company.
    There was nothing particularly unusual about that. Will liked women; they liked him. He was currently single and he had no problem with affairs, as long as they remained hot and short. With his DNA anything else was out of the question.
    No, what was unusual was that to his growing frustration it appeared that, while he still ached with raging desire, Bella had obliterated whatever spark of attraction she’d experienced, and had retreated behind an air of aloof detachment.
    Which wasn’t just unusual. It was baffling. And strangely disappointing, since he could barely remember the last time he’d had the opportunity to explore the heady delights of searing mutual attraction.
    Not that he let it show, of course. No. He’d got used to arranging his face so that it didn’t reveal what he was thinking or feeling years ago.
    Perhaps a bit too well, Will thought, frowning and shifting in the chair. From the way her head was tilting and her eyebrows were creeping up, Bella was obviously waiting for some sort of response.
    He rubbed a hand over his jaw and snapped his mind from perplexing women and evaporating dinner plans to the startling revelation that the samples he’d grabbed from the front of the safe and brought to be valued were synthetic.
    How the hell could the stuff be synthetic? The collection had been built up over decades. Generations of his male ancestors had given the finest jewellery to their wives, and he was pretty sure that while virtually every single one of themhad been lousy at keeping their marriage vows, they’d always bought the best.
    Setting his jaw, he arched an eyebrow. ‘Synthetic?’ he echoed.
    Bella nodded. ‘The settings are real. The metal is genuine. And original. But the stones are paste.’
    ‘Are you sure?’
    ‘Pretty much. You see here?’ She held up the engagement ring his father had given to his mother, and leaned forwards.
    Will’s initial instinct was to jerk back, but as that would imply he considered her some sort of threat—which was absurd—he held himself steady, even if it meant her proximity made his skin tighten and tingle.
    Forcing himself to keep his eyes on the ring and well away from her mouth and the alluring way it moved, Will dragged his attention to what she was saying. ‘The lustre is too dull and the light comes in at all the wrong angles. I’d need to double check, but I suspect the originals have been replaced with cubic zirconia.’
    As her words sank in Will’s blood chilled and he ruthlessly suppressed the mind-scrambling effect Bella seemed to have on him.
    How on earth could this have happened? As far as he knew, the collection hadn’t left the safe it was stored in for years. ‘When?’
    ‘It’s impossible to say, but the settings look as if they’ve been manipulated recently. Probably within the past year or so.’
    His jaw tightened and he sat back, making sure that his expression didn’t reveal any hint of his thoughts. He might not care about the collection per se, or even the unforeseen plummet in its value, but he did care that the discovery that someone had been ransacking it had been made on his watch. He was its current custodian and it was therefore up to himto find out who and why and how far they’d gone. And then decide what he was going to do about it.
    ‘I am sorry,’ she said quietly, giving him a look full of sympathy he really didn’t need.
    Resisting the temptation to toss the whole lot in the bin, Will stuffed the jewellery back in his pockets. ‘I trust your conclusions will remain