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‘I know you hurt her, Count Quisvada. I know your absence bewilders her. And I also know that you’re the only man, apart from our brother Tyr, who isn’t frightened of my sister. But I’m going to ask you one last time, why do you need to know where Eva is?’
‘Try this,’ he said, dumping the case. ‘Eva works for me and I need to catch up with her. Does that do it for you?’
‘How about you miss her?’ Leila countered. ‘That might work for me. How about, you can’t function without her, because my sister has taken up permanent residence in your head? That would also work for me.’
‘And you’re the quiet sister?’
Leila chose to ignore that. ‘I know you have resources, Count Quisvada. Why don’t you find her yourself?’
Because using them would take too much time. He wanted to see Eva now. Right this minute, Roman reflected impatiently as he lifted a slat on the blind at the window to stare out. ‘I’ve tried all the usual numbers. She’s not answering.’
‘And suddenly it’s an emergency?’ Leila demanded sceptically.
‘Yes, it is.’ He missed Eva more than he could say and he wanted this conversation over with. Missed her was in fact a preposterous understatement. He couldn’t think straight without her. He wanted Eva back in his arms where she belonged. He had driven her away and now he had every intention of making things right. He tried another tack. ‘Come on, Leila,’ he coaxed in what he hoped was a winning voice. ‘I thought you were supposed to be the easy-going sister?’
‘The pliable one, do you mean?’ she said, surprising him with her heated response. ‘Appearances can be deceptive, Count Quisvada.’
Tell my friend Raffa that, he thought, remembering the third man in the consortium’s reaction when Raffa Leon had first caught sight of Leila’s photograph. Raffa had thought the youngest Skavanga Diamond innocent and appealing. Roman had always thought her shrewder and more obstinate than she looked. Guess who’d been right?
‘Call me Roman,’ he said politely. ‘And tell me where she is today. Please,’ he added, holding on to his patience by the slimmest of threads. ‘If you care anything about your sister, do it. And do it now. I need to find her, Leila.’
He closed his eyes and let out a long, relieved breath as Eva’s sister finally dished up the information he craved.
‘Are you still there?’ Leila demanded.
‘Thank you,’ he whispered on autopilot, his mind full of Eva.
‘Do you love her?’
That woke him up. ‘Forgive me, Leila, but you’re not going to be the first to hear how I feel about your sister. And now, if you will excuse me—’
He ended the call on some platitude or other. Urgency had entered his thinking when the plane landed, and it was at crisis point now. It wasn’t enough to admit the word love and keep it to himself, he had to tell Eva face to face how he felt about her. And he had to do that right now.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
SHE HAD TO accept that sometimes she made terrible choices, and that potentially this was one of those times. The assistants had just assured her that the tight blue dress with the bright pink collar looked amazing with Eva’s flame-red hair and ivory complexion.
‘As in, amazing I can look this bad?’ she said, reaching for the back zip.
‘As in let me do that for you...’
‘Roman!’
‘Eva,’ he murmured, holding her stare.
Her world had just tilted on its axis. How could Roman Quisvada be standing right in front of her in a dress shop on the main street of Arctic Skavanga? No one knew she was shopping today...except for her sisters.
‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded as if he didn’t have every right to be there.
‘Window shopping.’
His voice was low and his stare was direct, while she wasn’t even sure his name had made it to her lips, or that she’d even said hello properly.
And he was her boss, Eva reminded herself as she filled her eyes with him. The shock of seeing him had rendered her speechless. Tall, dark and preposterously handsome, Roman was standing in the doorway, muffled up in a dark ski jacket, jeans, boots and scarf, staring into her dazzled eyes. He was like the one fixed point in an increasingly uncertain reality. Even the assistants had backed away, and were cowering together as if they had never encountered such a powerful force. She didn’t blame them. Roman wasn’t someone you instinctively stepped in front of. Rather, you stood to one side in the hope that he didn’t notice you. Unless you were Eva Skavanga, of course.
