The Platinum Collection: A Diamond Deal. Susan Stephens

He did sense her embarrassment, and he was laughing at her.

      So let him. She shrugged as she reached the landing. ‘I don’t know what makes you think I’m worried. I can handle myself.’

      ‘So I hear,’ he said dryly.

      She hated herself for reacting so violently. All the tiny hairs on the back of her neck lifted, and heat pulsed insistently through her veins. The power emanating from him flowed around her, embracing her whether she liked it or not. Her sisters would be amazed to see her shaken like this—when they’d stopped laughing. What was so special about tall, dark and perfect, anyway? Why was her body insisting on behaving like this? Roman was so not her type. He was autocratic and overbearing. He was the most insufferable man she’d ever met.

      And the most attractive.

      He showed no interest in her as a woman, which was a relief. An absolute relief. But it wasn’t normal. He could at least pretend. That would be the polite thing to do. And weren’t aristocrats supposed to be courteous? Weren’t they all raised to behave differently from other people by ferocious nannies with thick rulebooks on how to behave?

      ‘Turn left, I said,’ he called out to her.

      I knew that. She casually retraced her steps, vowing to keep her thoughts restricted to what she had to do—which did not include fixating on Roman Quisvada.

      She checked each door down the long and airy corridor, longing to be safe behind one of them, and away from him, so she could calm down and cool off. Roman had disappeared somewhere in the opposite direction. Good. She’d had enough of Count Roman Quisvada and his sardonic face to last her a lifetime. But look at it this way: she only had to get through tonight at the wedding party. She would just have to bite her tongue.

      So long as she didn’t bite anything else, that should work.

      * * *

      He groaned with pleasure beneath an ice-cold shower. To his overheated skin the freezing water felt like soothing balm. His senses were heated thanks to Eva. She infuriated him. She attracted him, and that was distracting. There was unfinished business between them. Strength and fire had been his first impression of her at her sister’s wedding. His impression of her hadn’t changed, but Eva was more complex than he had first thought. She was elusive and thoughtful, passionate, and doggedly determined. And he had always liked a challenge. Eva Skavanga needed taming or she would continue to plague his mind.

      Quitting the shower, he grabbed a towel and rang one of his trusted aides in Skavanga. He needed more detail about her.

      ‘Mark? I need a briefing. Yes. Eva Skavanga. She’s here. What do you mean you knew that? Why on earth didn’t you tell me?’

      He listened to some rambling excuse and quickly realised that young Mark had fallen under Eva’s spell. ‘Well, now we both know.’ He cut his aide off impatiently. ‘Yes, of course she’s all right. Which brings me to my next question. You seem to be an admirer of this woman. Why? She seems to me to be more trouble than she’s worth?’

      ‘Don’t write her off,’ Mark advised. ‘Eva’s a hothead and likes to think she’s one of the boys, but she’s got a heart of gold—too trusting, maybe.’

      ‘Not in my case.’

      Mark ignored this. ‘She has her heart set on eco-tourism saving Skavanga. She’s terrified that our mining project will reduce the town to a smoking pile of steel, with panhandlers drinking in the streets and plastic tables and plastic food replacing the cultural traditions of her Arctic home.’ This much Roman already knew.

      His young aide was besotted. The thought almost made him veer away from asking the question uppermost in his mind. ‘Didn’t you explain that our work will cause minimal upheaval, and that any damage done will be repaired?’ And that wasn’t all of it.

      Mark laughed in an admiring way as his mind turned to a woman it was clear they were both interested in. ‘Have you tried reasoning with Eva?’

      ‘Enough.’ His voice came out a roar. So much for subtlety. ‘Tell me about her relationships.’

      There was a silence as Mark considered this. ‘There are none,’ he said at last on what sounded like a very dry throat.

      ‘Why is that?’ He didn’t let up the pressure. His hand tightened on the phone. ‘She’s an attractive woman...’

      ‘Who has half the men of the Arctic Circle racing each other to the South Pole, rather than tangle with her.’

      ‘I thought they bred them tough at the North Pole.’

      ‘They do, but Eva Skavanga is a special case.’

      ‘She has a problem with men?’

      ‘She has an unfortunate attitude with men.’

      Mark was being careful with his choice of words. ‘Explain,’ he insisted.

      ‘The older sister you know—Britt is confident and a great businesswoman. She’s self-confident, decisive and married now. The younger girl, Leila, is a bit of an unknown quantity, because she’s always been overshadowed by Britt and Eva—’

      ‘Eva’s reputation?’ he pressed. ‘I’m not interested in the other two. They’re not out here. She is.’

      ‘Eva’s a loner. Maybe she’s been hurt at some time.’

      ‘But not so hurt and broken she couldn’t turn up here, break into my house and swim in my pool—’

      ‘She broke into your house?’

      Now Mark did sound shocked. ‘She terrorised me,’ Roman said dryly. ‘Until I agreed to speak to her about her beloved Skavanga.’

      ‘That sounds like Eva.’

      Mark’s voice held the same note of admiration that had annoyed him the first time round and that now made him snarl, ‘That’s enough, Mark. She’s a nuisance at best. Forget I even rang you. I’ll sort her out. And I’ll get rid of her.’

      There was a long pause, and then Mark said, ‘She’s staying with you?’

      ‘Don’t worry. She’s not my type. I’m taking her to the wedding, and that’s all.’

      ‘You’re taking her to the wedding?’

      ‘Did I employ a parrot? I’m taking her so I can keep an eye on her.’

      As Mark gave a nervous laugh Roman guessed his young aide was in no way reassured as to the immediate fate of one Eva Skavanga. ‘Relax, Mark. I have no immediate plans for her.’ Later perhaps, he mused.

      ‘If you had allowed me to put her through to you when you were in Skavanga I guess she wouldn’t have made the trip.’

      ‘You sound worried, Mark. Whose side are you on?’

      ‘Yours, of course,’ Mark protested, ‘but—’

      ‘I didn’t avoid Eva’s earlier requests to see me. I ignored them. You should know by now that misguided pleas from emotional women cut no ice with me. Eva’s a small shareholder with no special privileges just because she happens to be a member of the family that gave its name to the mine. I’ll treat her the same as any other small investor, no better no worse.’

      But on a personal front?

      Taming Eva Skavanga held considerable appeal.

      He ended the call, having found out what he wanted to know. Eva was unattached. And doubly intriguing. His thoughts turned to having her passion pinned beneath him. He shrugged and smiled faintly as he ditched the towel. There were sound business reasons for keeping her close. While she was here she couldn’t disrupt work at the mine. Any damage caused by the drilling would be made good, which Eva would have known if she had attended the meetings he’d held in Skavanga instead of picketing them. Now she was trapped on an island with a ferry that operated at his command and he’d send