The Sapphire Affair (Jewel #1)(42)
He rustled around in the passenger seat. At the red light, she glanced over. He was digging into his back pocket. He extracted his wallet and flipped it open, tapping the plastic covering his driver’s license. “Here you go. Take it. My identification. Can’t get anywhere without it. Plus, you’ve got all my credit cards in there, too, so you can have a spending spree if I turn out to be some crazy escape artist taking off with your diamond.”
He set the wallet in the center console, and her lips twitched up in a grin. “That’s a reasonable form of collateral.”
The light changed, and she pressed the gas, weaving through the afternoon traffic. “What happens if someone sees us together? What do I say? Who are you?”
He flashed a lopsided grin. “Well, you’ll be waiting in the car, so no one will. But if someone does, that’s easy. I’m a customer of Ariel’s Island Eco-Adventure Tours, and you hit on me on your dive tour.”
She rolled her eyes. “As if I would do that.”
“You totally hit on me. You couldn’t resist. I was underwater in my swim trunks, and you couldn’t stop staring, so you hit on me,” he said, the cocky bastard, as he dropped his hand onto her bare thigh. She hitched in a breath.
“You wish,” she said, trying to ignore the fact that she liked his hand on her leg.
“It’s true. I speak the full truth,” he said as he tugged the ball cap lower on his head. “You picked me up and you insisted on having me.”
“Just like you insisted on kissing me back in my hotel room,” she said as she flicked on her blinker and turned onto Wayboard Street.
“I’ll try to do a better job resisting you,” he said, but as she locked eyes with him, the look in his said resistance would be tough.
She nearly swerved when a car honked its horn at her.
Better pay attention to the road than his sexy eyes.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
International Diamonds commanded the corner of the street. The sign above the shop glittered, with huge cutout gems bookending the name.
He pushed open the door, and a blast of cool air-conditioning greeted him. He was nearly blinded by the dazzling displays of gems. Cases upon cases. Row upon row. Necklaces, and bracelets, and rings, and watches, and even barrettes.
The shop was busy, thronging with curious tourists, judging from the attire. But also a few businessmen, he reasoned, when he spotted a pair of men in slacks and button-down shirts at the far counter. They were engaged in what looked to be a deep discussion with an employee. This was good. The busier the shop was, the less likely anyone would remember him, even though the diamond he had was memorable.
He wandered along the counters, peering through the glass at the loose gems, absently drumming his fingers along the case.
“May I help you, sir?”
The question came from a young woman in a white lab coat. She wore black glasses and had her dark hair twisted up in a bun.
“That’d be great,” he said, reaching into his pocket to remove the gem. “My sister’s husband gave her a diamond to try to win her back after he broke her heart. But he did it again, and we’re just trying to figure out how much this pretty little number is worth, even though nothing’s worth the cost of the heartache he gave her.”
The woman shot him a sympathetic smile. “I’m so sorry to hear that. Diamonds are a wonderful gift, but so much more wonderful when it’s a true expression of love.”
“Couldn’t agree more. And she just wants to donate the money to charity now. She doesn’t plan on keeping it. She wants something good to come of that bastard’s cheating ways.”
“I completely understand. Let’s see what you have,” she said, spreading out a velvet cloth on the counter. Jake laid the diamond on it.
“Oh my,” the woman said under her breath. She looked up at Jake. “He really did mess up.”
Jake laughed lightly. “He sure did.”
Using a tweezers-like object, the woman carefully plucked the diamond from the cloth, raised it to her face, then peered at it through a small magnifying glass. “This is gorgeous,” she said as she regarded the stone.
Jake waited as she considered it from all angles.
Once she set it down, she fixed on a closed smile, then spoke in a crisp tone. “This is watermarked.”
A bolt of nerves crashed into him. Shit. Watermarked had to be bad. Was that like trying to use counterfeit money? Was she going to press a button behind the counter, shutter the metal blinds, and set off alarms to keep him caged in?
“Is that so?” he asked, keeping his tone as even as it could be. “Where does it come from?”
“Not all diamonds are watermarked. But some are, and a watermarked diamond means it comes from a particular mine. This is from the Frayer mine in the Northwest Territories in Canada, which specializes in conflict-free, politically correct diamonds mined from the subarctic north.”
Jake nodded and released his breath. Whew. “Well, at least the ex has that point in his favor,” he said, though his mind leaped several steps ahead to Eli “The Thief” Thompson. Was he a thief with a politically correct conscience?
“Yes, this is one of the best-regarded diamond mines in the entire world. And these diamonds with the blue tint are highly valuable. At this size and carat, I would estimate this is worth at least ten thousand dollars.”