The area housed high-tech gym equipment: a treadmill, rowing and weight machines. A few feet from the back wall were two metal bars with a black mat on the ground between them. The bars were about thirty metres long. She knew this was where Jeff had spent hours working. Hands braced on either bar, willing his legs to start moving.
Emotions, seeing the evidence of the struggle he’d gone through alone, bombarded her. Tears welled up in her eyes and she was unable to stop them from falling. She made her way over to them. Touching the cool metal. Such innocuous items but they had the ability to cause a person so much pain.
Hands landed on her shoulders, turning her gently. Jeff’s thumbs wiped away at the tears.
‘Don’t cry, Angel.’
‘You were all alone,’ she whispered the words out. ‘How did you do it?’
‘Determination. Sheer bloody determination. I remembered how to walk. It’s not something that you can easily forget. But because of the injuries, my body needed to be encouraged to move again. As you know, my muscles still cramp. My skin has been pulled so tight in some places that sometimes it hurts. I had my designing. That saved me. Gave me something to strive for.’
He sounded so matter-of-fact. So detached. She guessed he had to be to be able to recover from everything he’d gone through.
She needed to pull herself together. Jeff didn’t need to see her falling apart. ‘Tell me about your designing. How did you get back into it? Nobody here knew you, right? You told me you had success in Europe but not here in Australia. Is that right?’
Jeff took her by the hand and led her back to one of his worktables. He sat down on the stool and pulled her onto his lap. She noticed a ring design on the table.
‘Is this what you’re working on now?’ She pointed to the design. If she hadn’t been sitting on his lap, she wouldn’t have felt his body tighten momentarily before relaxing again.
‘It’s something I’m playing around with.’
‘It’s gorgeous. Is it for a particular customer? You know, one of your custom designs.’ Greta wanted to pull the sketch closer to her, but she held back.
‘I’m not sure yet.’ He murmured. ‘I’m working on a necklace I think you might like. Let me get it from the safe.’
He lifted her off of him and walked over to a bookshelf. He moved a couple of books to reveal a keypad tucked on the back wall of the bookshelf. He punched a series of numbers in. She heard a succession of beeps and then Jeff pulled at the shelf and the bookshelf opened like a door.
She laughed out loud. ‘You have a secret room?’
‘Can’t be too careful, Angel, even in the middle of nowhere.’
He disappeared behind the bookshelf and returned a few moments later with some black boxes in his hand.
He returned to where she was sitting and placed the boxes on the bench.
She moved so she could get a closer look at the contents.
‘What I’m about to show you is a necklace I was commissioned to design for the wife of an American billionaire.’ He opened the box and handed it to her. Greta took the box and couldn’t believe the sight that greeted her.
The design was exquisite. A row of love hearts suspended from a thin delicate gold chain. The hearts ranged in size from small to large to small again. The largest heart in the middle had, at its core, the most exquisite diamond she’d ever seen. The diamond glittered brightly under the lights. The facets of the beautifully cut stone shone around the room. Moving like a light show when she moved the box.
She looked closely at the large diamond. The thin pieces of gold surrounding it, holding it in place, looked like two hands holding the diamond. She couldn’t tell how he’d created the illusion but it was masterful. The other hearts that flanked the large heart had a smaller diamond in their centre.
‘This is amazing.’
‘Thank you. I think it’s some sort of apology gift.’
She quirked her eyebrow at him. ‘An apology gift?’
‘I don’t ask. I just design what is asked of me. I don’t want to know. It’s better that way.’
Greta chuckled. ‘It’s wasted as an apology gift. Something this beautiful should be given to a person with true love. Not because they screwed up. I’m guessing the screw-up was probably him cheating on his wife.’ She cocked her head to look at him. ‘How many other “apology” gifts have you been asked to design and make? And how do you get these custom design jobs? Do you advertise?’
Just like when she first saw his designs, ideas were flowing through her mind. Ideas of how to get Jeff out into the public eye more. Have his designs in not just a small gift shop in a tourist town or high-class hotel, but exclusive jewellery stores across the country. She wished she had a notepad or her iPad so she could start making notes. Check out her contacts.
The possibilities were endless.
‘Stop it right now, Angel.’ His voice hard as the diamonds she held. Pulling her from the new campaign ideas flooding her.
‘Stop what?’
‘Coming up with a campaign for my jewellery. I’m not some circus animal to be paraded around.’
She reared back from him, as if he’d struck her. Insulted that he could even think that of her. ‘Have I ever given you any indication that I was going to parade you around like a circus animal? And what is wrong with getting your name out into the public’s notice more?’
‘Because I don’t want to be in the public’s eye. I don’t need to be there. I have an agent who sources work for me from all over the world. A person who has been helping me from the minute I was capable of working again. I have a reputation, Angel. A reputation I built all by myself without any advertising geeks telling me how I need to brand myself. You know that. I don’t need to be in any high-end stores because then the pressure will be on for me to make pieces for them and I will lose my exclusivity.’ He pointed to the box she held in her hand. ‘That is my major selling point. The reason I can charge obscene amounts of money for the jewellery I design. Every piece I design and make is a one-of-a-kind piece. No one will ever have to worry about turning up to an event and someone is wearing the same necklace as them.’
‘Then if everything you do is so exclusive, why are doing this collection for Luciano and Regents? Why have you entered into an agreement to supply his hotel with pieces and the gift shop at a pearl farm? And I’ve seen pictures of your designs in some magazines over the years. So you must have had a PR firm working for you before now.’
‘Yes, at the beginning my agent gave some pictures of my designs to a friend of his who owned a magazine. The owner of the magazine agreed to place the photos if I would design him a couple of pieces in payment. I agreed. But those pictures you keep seeing are from years ago. I don’t pay for those spots in the magazine. The owner still runs them every now and then because he’s a friend. He wants to do it for me. And yes, those ads did help me get some initial work. Now it’s my reputation and word of mouth that gets me the majority of my work.’
What he said made sense. It still didn’t explain why he only sold his jewellery in Fierro’s.
‘But what about Fierro’s? Why them? Why not someone else?’
Jeffrey scrubbed a hand down his face. What a hell of a day. Greta was like a barracuda, asking question after question. He took the box containing the necklace from her and placed it on the bench. He then reached for her hands, pulling her toward him. When she was close enough, he slipped his arms around her waist and placed a soft kiss in the middle of her cleavage as his hands trailed down to cup her nice firm arse.
Greta swatted at his hands. He moved them to rest on her hips instead. ‘Don’t try and distract me, Jeffrey Courteux.’
‘I don’t want to answer anymore questions,’ he mumbled as he kissed her breasts again. She shivered in reaction and he knew a couple more kisses like that, and all thought of asking him about his business would be gone from Greta’s mind.
She grabbed his face in her hands and lifted it away from her breasts.
He looked up at her eyes, the light-coloured flecks within glittered like the finest gold he worked with. ‘I’m serious, Jeff. Why Fierro’s? Why design a collection for Luciano that’s going to put you front and centre in the public’s eye, when you say it’s the last thing you want or need to sell your designs?’
He blew out a frustrated breath, knowing that nothing he did was going to sway her from getting the answers she wanted. ‘Let’s go back to the main part of house.’
‘Fine. That will work.’
Jeffrey picked up the boxes and headed toward the safe.
‘Hey, wait, what’s in the other boxes?’ Greta’s question halted his departure.
‘Just some loose stones I thought you’d be interested in seeing.’ He didn’t know why he brought out the uncut diamonds and other gems to show her. Maybe to see which ones she would gravitate to. To see if they would fit what he had in mind.
‘Uncut? Or cut?’
‘Both. Some have been cut and others are still in their raw form.’
Her eyes lit up at the thought of seeing the stones and his annoyance at the direction her questions had taken disappeared. He placed the boxes down again and opened the one containing the loose stones.
‘Don’t think for a minute that I’m going to forget about wanting answers to my questions, Honey. You maybe able to distract me with pretty sparkles,’ she waved a hand over the boxes and laughed lightly. ‘But I won’t forget. Okay?’
‘Fine.’
‘Good. Now let’s see these stones.’
Jeffrey watched with an indulgent smile as she oohed and ahhed over the stones. There were different coloured diamonds, from bright whites to deep pink to dark champagne. There were some sapphires and emeralds mixed in as well.
‘These are so beautiful. I can’t believe the mining companies let you keep these stones.’
‘Angel, I have to buy them. They don’t just give them to me.’
As her gaze flicked from the box of loose stones to his face and back again, her hand came up to cover her mouth. ‘Oh my God, there must be hundreds of thousands of dollars in loose stones here.’
Greta wasn’t far off with her estimation.
‘True, but I need the stones to make my designs. With the raw uncut stones, I can look and see which ones will fit the designs best. Besides, I’ve worked with the same diamond company for years. We’ve got a good arrangement with regards to how much I buy the stones for.’
‘It makes sense that you’d need to have the stones on hand. But still, aren’t you worried about them being stolen?’
‘I’m basically in the middle of nowhere. No one knows where I live. Sure, the people who live in town have a fair idea but it’s a close-knit community. We look out for our own here. Plus I have a state-of-the-art alarm system with sensors and motion detectors surrounding the property. No one can move around the perimeter without being noticed, excluding the wildlife.’
‘Wouldn’t they set off the alarm?’
‘No, it cost a lot of money but they did a lot of testing until they got the right type of sensors that wouldn’t go off if a field mouse ran across them.’
‘Impressive,’ she said, as she went back to studying the gems.
‘So which ones do you like?’
‘All of them.’ She paused and her fingers moved over to the uncut sapphires. He remembered saying sapphires would look beautiful on her the day they first met. Her fingers moved through the stones as she separated the ones she liked. ‘They’re all so gorgeous, but I like this stone and its cut, and these ones too.’
Jeffrey closed the distance between them and put his hand on her shoulder, twirling his fingers through her hair. He looked down at the stones and the ones she pointed to.
‘The larger one is a marquise cut and the smaller ones are baguette cut. You have excellent taste; both of these cuts are used together a lot. Actually, baguette cut diamonds are a popular way to accent the main stone in engagement or dress rings.’
‘I’ll take your word for it.’
‘As you should,’ he said with a wink. He picked up the box and closed the lid. ‘Let me put these away and we’ll go sit in the lounge room and,’ he waggled his eyebrows. ‘Make out.’
She rolled her eyes. ‘After you’ve answered my questions.’
‘I was afraid you were going to say that.’
‘Told you, you couldn’t distract me from my questions with pretty sparkles.’
‘It was worth a try.’
As he led Greta out of the studio and through the main part of the house, Jeff wondered if he could distract her. He’d had enough talking for one night.
Greta settled herself on the couch while Jeff turned on his stereo system. Music filtered through the speakers. She knew Jeff was going to try and distract her from the questions she’d asked him in his studio.
When he sat down she turned to him and placed her hand on his leg, rubbing up and down his thigh.
‘So why Fierro’s.’
His leg tensed beneath her touch. His fingers curled around hers. ‘It was a favour for Scott, my agent. He knows the owners of the farm. There was going to be a celebration for the farm’s fifty-year anniversary. They were looking to have a piece created to showcase their pearls. Scott told them he knew a jeweller. The fact that I lived locally pleased the owner and his family. I’d been living here for about eight months and was just starting to build up a clientele. I was happy to help them out.’
‘So it was just a one-off piece?’
‘Yes, they really liked what I did. They had so many people at the anniversary celebration asking about it, they decided to approach me to see if I’d make the odd piece for them to display. They knew they would be able to get high-end customers to buy the pieces.’
‘Sounds perfect, but I saw more than just a couple of pieces. ‘
‘Well, as time went by, they sold more and eventually we worked out an arrangement that fitted in with my custom work.’ He lifted one shoulder. ‘It’s ended up being a great relationship. The fact the staff at Fierro’s respect my need for privacy, as well as everyone in town, meant I was happy to keep helping them out.’
Jeff was giving her a glimpse into small town loyalties. Any one person could’ve blabbed to the press about his location. But they hadn’t and he’d repaid them by keeping his jewellery exclusive to Fierro’s. Until now. He had a deal with Luciano.
‘And what about your deal with Luciano? Why do that now, after so many years of being so exclusive?’
Jeff smiled ruefully. ‘Basically, Luc wasn’t going to take no for an answer. And believe me, I said no. Numerous times.’
‘So why did you cave?’
‘Because Luc never gave up on me. I tried to push him away after I returned from Europe.’ As he rubbed his leg, she wondered if it was an unconscious movement or if his leg did ache. ‘Luc knew I’d been hurt in an accident. Not all the details, just that I’d been injured in a skiing accident. I didn’t let him know I was living here until about two months after I started walking again. He would come up and take me out to dinner. Spend a little time with me. Made sure I didn’t become a total hermit. I owe him. He’s done a lot for me. The only time he’s ever asked for anything, before designing this collection, was to make the weddings rings for him and his wife, Jasmine. He wanted something unique. I gave him that.’
Somehow, Greta had trouble reconciling the image of the man Jeff spoke about and the man who’d threatened her father.
‘There’s more to him than meets the eye, isn’t there?’
‘Much.’
‘I can’t picture him being romantic at all. He seems too closed off for that.’
‘Trust me, Luc is completely different when he’s around Jasmine. Even I don’t recognise him.’ Jeff took her hand in his and brought it to his lips. His eyes never leaving hers. ‘For the right person, anyone can be romantic.’ He bestowed a soft kiss on her knuckles. Her skin prickled in anticipation of those lips kissing more than just her
fingertips. ‘I think the time for talking is over.’
Greta leaned forward and whispered against his lips. ‘I think you’re right.’
Chapter 21
The plane tilted slightly as it turned to start its descent into Perth. Greta sighed, not sure she was ready to get back into working in an office again. Not after spending the last week and half finalising the ad campaign in such tranquil surroundings. She was confident when she met with her father he would be pleased with everything she had achieved.
God, she hoped he was pleased. He’d been annoyed she’d not responded to any phone calls or emails the first two days she spent with Jeff. But they had been working on getting to know each other better. To her, building their relationship was more important than the work. A thought that still surprised her.
The longer they’d spent together, the more she and Jeff had connected. They hadn’t said it in so many words, but by the time she stepped on the plane home she was confident they were in a relationship. He was coming down to Perth in just a couple of days, and instead of staying at the hotel he was going to be staying with her.
Greta pressed her fingers to her lips. Remembering the feel of Jeff’s lips on hers as he kissed her goodbye. It had been so hard to turn around and walk onto the plane. To leave him behind.
As the plane touched down smoothly, she could admit to herself that she was totally in love with Jeff. It scared the crap out of her.
She’d never felt this way about anyone before. She had no idea what to do with these feelings. Greta was almost certain Jeff cared for her. He was so gentle with her, holding her when she’d been sick, and she’d had a couple of episodes.
‘Ms Adamas?’ The voice of the hostess had Greta looking up.
‘Yes?’
The hostess smiled broadly. ‘Mr Courteux wanted me to let you know he has arranged for a car to take you wherever you need to go. It’s been a pleasure to meet you. I hope you had an enjoyable flight.’
‘Thank you.’ Greta unclipped her seatbelt and collected her purse from the seat next to her. She could definitely get used to travelling on private jets. It would be a step down to travel on domestic flights again.
Bound by Their Love Page 15
