AllFreeNovel
Share Us
id worth its salt would bother to give us houseroom,’ he said, punctuating his words with kisses.
With his mouth on hers, Veronica had never felt less respectable in her life! She was sure there was something fundamentally wrong with his argument, but right now her mind was too clouded to pinpoint the fault.
The assistant, who had came back to show off the new silver clasp that the jeweller had expertly substituted for the broken catch, was taken aback at the activity outside the window, but as Luc fastened the repaired pendant around Veronica’s neck he said something that made her light up like a Christmas tree.
‘Anneaux d’enclenchement? Ah, oui!’ She beamed at them both.
As Luc continued to talk Veronica found her right hand grasped and her ring finger meticulously measured.
‘What on earth are you telling her?’ Veronica whispered, as the young woman began pulling out selected ring boxes and lining them up along the counter.
A translation was no longer required.
‘I told you—I’m saving us from the clutches of notoriety,’ said Luc. ‘How about this one, chérie?’ he purred, holding up an obscenely large solitaire.
‘You must be crazy,’ she squeaked, pushing away the garish offering.
‘You’re right, far too ostentatious,’ he drawled, selecting another box. ‘We’re aiming for boring respectability, not outrageous bling. We better stay away from the pink diamonds, then. How about this heart-shaped one, then—conservative, conventional even…’
He took wicked delight at her confusion as he rapidly plied her with alternatives. Catching sight of the price on one of the boxes, Veronica thought it would serve him right if she took him seriously—she could trade it in for a small car when she got home!
‘Ah, yes, now this one looks much more like your style…’
She was certain that he was still mocking, and Veronica’s coruscating reply stuck in her throat as she stared at the ring he had removed from its box. It was utterly gorgeous in its severe simplicity—three flawless, round stones set in yellow gold, their brilliance and purity burning with a winter-white fire that flared through the entire spectrum as he tilted the polished facets to the overhead light.
‘Look, it could have been custom-made for you,’ he murmured, taking ruthless advantage of her semi-hypnotised awe to slide it onto her finger, saluting her acceptance of his devilish temptation with a teasing kiss.
Veronica didn’t even hear the little crow as the man outside got his money shot, or notice the attention he had drawn from a knot of curious passers-by.
‘It is rather beautiful,’ she conceded reluctantly, while at the same time giving in to the sinful desire to admire the way it flashed on her hand, delicate in design yet bold in its fiery message, timelessly elegant and enduring, a symbol of perfect love. She flexed her fingers, wallowing in a shameless moment of possessive craving. It was all only a fantasy, after all…
‘It’s perfect!’ he pronounced, giving the assistant a discreet nod over her down-bent head.
Ten minutes later they were slipping out the fortified back entrance to the store, Veronica still in a pale state of trembling shock.
‘I thought you just wanted to pretend—you didn’t have to actually go as far as buying it,’ she said in a shaken voice, cradling her hand in a protective fist. ‘Do you know how much it cost?’
‘Of course I do. I have the credit-card receipt to prove it,’ he pointed out in amusement, his total lack of concern demonstrating that the rich did indeed live in a different country, she thought. ‘And I couldn’t very well hand it back with that slime-ball still lurking about—that would have wrecked the whole plan!’
‘It wasn’t a very well thought-out plan, then,’ she said starkly. ‘I certainly can’t keep wearing it around.’ She halted while they were still in the deserted lane and tugged off the ring—which she found extraordinarily difficult to remove, considering how easily it had slipped on—and held it out to him. ‘I’d be terrified of losing it, or having it stolen before you got a chance to take it back. Besides, you’ll need to be able to say it’s never been worn, or they might not give you a full refund,’ she added, with a little frown at the thought.
His eyes glittered beneath his lowered lids, his mouth quirking, but he took the ring without argument and carefully placed it back in its leather box inside the black velvet jeweller’s bag. ‘Come on, we’d better make tracks before our getaway is rumbled and we get chased for words to go with the pictures.’ When he casually slid the velvet bag into the pocket of his jeans, she was horrified.
‘What if there are pick-pockets about? It could be gone before you know it—’
‘You really are a worry-wart,’ he said, setting off through a series of narrow streets that would take them to the famous St Bénézet bridge while keeping them away from the main thoroughfares. ‘Perhaps it would be safer if you kept it on,’ he suggested. ‘After all, jewellery is de rigueur here so no one would look twice at it on your hand. And if we do run back into trouble our engagement would seem more authentic if you were still flashing it—’
‘No, thank you!’ Veronica hurried to cut him off before he could persuade her against her better judgement. She knew it would be extremely unwise for her emotional health to allow herself to wear his ring, even as a temporary minder.
In fact, she brooded, he was actually being quite foolish in assuming that she would simply play along with his deception without extracting some sort of price. Did the man have no sense of self-preservation? she thought crossly. How did he know she wouldn’t take the ring from him and refuse to give it back? She could justifiably claim that he had freely given it to her, and she had witnesses—and photographs—to prove it! If she was a real gold-digger, she could even say he asked her to marry him and sue him for breach of promise.
‘Ma petite amie’ she had heard him refer to her at the jeweller’s, but he had publicly demonstrated he had more permanent plans for his intimate friend when he had asked to see ‘anneaux d’enclenchement’ and placed that ring on a finger traditionally reserved for engagement rings. In fact, he was leaving himself wide-open to extortion if Veronica suddenly decided to insist that she considered herself well-and-truly ‘enclenched’.
She was still fretting about the ring several days later as everyone in Mas de Bonnard geared up for Zoe’s birthday celebration. Luc hadn’t been back to Avignon and she knew there was no safe in the house.
‘Well, I hope you’ve at least got interim insurance on it,’ she muttered as she smoothed her short, tropical-print dress down over her hips. She had intended to go over to the house early to offer to help with the preparations for the lavish lunch Melanie was organising, but then Luc had wandered in and, as usual, had thrown her careful plans into disarray.
He showed no sign of cooling off from their sizzling affair, she thought with a profound thrill of delight, blushing as she saw his lazy-eyed survey of approval reflected in the mirror. In fact, he seemed daily more insatiable, no longer waiting until night to inveigle her into his bed—or prowl over to tumble into hers—and increasingly less careful to guard his simmering looks in the company of others. However, Veronica stood firmly on the side of discretion, not only for the sake of protecting her pride and too-vulnerable heart, but because she didn’t want to add to the awkward cross-currents in the household as Ashley and Ross’s uneven relationship was further strained by Justin’s disruptive presence, his coolness towards Ross and natural affinity with his twin leading her fiancé to feel on the outer.
