Chapter 3

The greatest treasures were most often guarded by the slyest and cruelest dragons.?

―Adam Nevill,?House of Small Shadows

Diamonds are my best friend The words hummed through Piper Linwood's head as she stood in the showroom of the Victoria and Albert Museum, staring at the glass-encased display of jewels with longing and fascination. Never in her life had she seen such an impressive and awe-inspiring collection. As one of the premier gemologists in North America, she'd seen hoards that would make a queen emerald-green with envy.

But all of those paled in comparison to this.

No one back home in Massachusetts would have guessed she'd end up in glittering, aristocratic London, overseeing a trove of this magnitude. After ten years, multiple jobs, double course loads for classes, and a heavy caffeine addiction, she'd clawed her way up from small-town life to cataloging this remarkable find.

And I am going to help sell them. She still couldn't believe it when Thorne Auction House had contacted her for the position, along with her friend and colleague Jodie Harkness. As a consulting gemologist, her job was to identify and place a starting value on each piece in the collection. It was a huge honor. She was only thirty, but they'd chosen her over a handful of even better qualified gemologists.

She looked around the exhibit room, full of tourists snapping pictures and taking selfies next to the hoard of jewels, several of them pretending to make a grab for them. A group of blank-faced security personnel protected the collection. Only a small number of jewels were currently on display, and they would rotate the pieces between the vaults and the exhibit.

But this exhibit was temporary. The pieces would soon be sold at auction, so this was the only chance for the public to see them. A camera crew was recording the event, with a reporter standing next to a collection of salamanders encrusted with diamonds and sapphires.

The display room was crowded and warm and noisy. She was more accustomed to a tiny room with a gemological binocular microscope, a set of jeweler's loupes, a refractometer, and a dozen other tools of the trade she used to assess a gem's quality. The bustle of so many people made her slightly edgy, especially when they strayed too close to the display. She couldn't help but feel a little protective of the collection, even though they were secured beneath thick pressurized glass cases.

As she studied the room, her eyes lit on one person and stayed attuned to him as he stood next to one of the glass displays. She shifted her position and frowned, taking in the tall, dark figure, with black slacks and a dark gray sweater that fit him almost regally. Taking a few steps closer, she began to follow him slowly through the exhibit.

He meandered from case to case, like any tourist, but there was a precise, controlled quality to his movements. Whenever he stared at tourists blocking his view of the display case he was currently gazing at, the tourists moved away like startled rabbits. Piper couldn't help but look at him, fixated on his tall, lean form. He was handsome, very handsome, but in a too-intense sort of way that made her heart pound and her head feel fuzzy.

His hair was long enough to fall over his eyes, but he didn't brush it away or even seem to notice it. He stood transfixed at the final display in the exhibit case, which contained a bag of partially decayed pearls that had been uncovered where the trove was found. Next to the artfully scattered pearls on a blue velvet cloth was a clock made entirely of emerald. It looked like a pocket watch with an emerald lid that folded down to cover the delicate gold filigree face. The clock's hands had vanished sometime during the last five centuries, but one could still see the numbers around the dial. A few of the other gemologists who'd seen it believed the housing had been carved out of a single emerald the size of a man's fist. If that was true, then it increased the clock's value to nearly priceless.

With a flush of heat that she tried to ignore, Piper approached the man by the case. He wasn't dressed like a tourist, and he wasn't acting like one, either: no pictures, no casual flipping through the exhibit brochure. He stared at the case as though it contained all of his answers. His fixation was unsettling, but she had to admit, it was not unlike her own. Perhaps he was a gemologist? No one else would look at jewels that intensely.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" she said as she came beside him. Her words came out a little breathless, but he didn't seem to notice. He didn't turn to face her the way most men would when a woman spoke to them.

"The pearls" he whispered, his tone dark with a smooth but bold Russian accent. "They used to be so beautiful. They gleamed like moonlight trapped in frozen drops of dew." He raised a hand as though he wanted to reach through the glass to clasp a handful of the age-pinkened pearls.

The features of his face, which Piper could only see in profile, were cut of marble and destined to break a woman's heart. This man was as beautiful as the pearls and the emerald clock, but far more dangerous. Jewels were a girl's friend. A handsome man was not. He looked like the sort who could seduce any woman he wanted and leave her brokenhearted.

Piper gave her head a shake and focused back on the jewels. Gems would never stand her up on a Saturday night.

"If left in the ground without proper protection, pearls will decay, just like any other organic material. They are far more delicate than the gemstones."

She felt silly rambling to this stranger. This was why she didn't have a boyfriend. They always said she talked too much about her work and never focused on them. They acted like it was her fault that she'd never really been that into them or their relationships.

The man slowly turned to face her, and she was struck by his green eyes, so bright, like emeralds.

Oh, wow

Eyes didn't come in that color of green. They had to be contacts. His mouthit was a thing of dreams, and its sensual fullness made her want to lean in and nibble his bottom lip andwhat was she thinking?

"You understand treasure?" he asked.

"Treasure? You mean gems and" She was flustered, too distracted by his eyes and lips. Was it crazy that she was picturing him leaning down and kissing her right now? Yeah, super crazy. Had she had too much caffeine today? Not possibleshe'd only just had her fifth cup from the cafeteria. If anything, she was due for another.

He nodded, and his eyes now watched her with the same intensity he'd given the jewels. Her entire body flooded with awareness like some kind of sixth sense. Every hair on her arms seemed to rise, and her blood began to pound in her ears. A slow wave of heat started from her face and moved down to her toes. Her body rebelled against her, all because this dark stranger was staring at her in a way that reminded her she was a woman, making her think of all the things that a woman wanted from a man in the dark of night.

Whispers, sighs, limbs entwined and bodies writhing

Piper came back to herself with a jolt and tried to remember what they were talking about.

"I'm a gemologist. My job is all about treasure." She couldn't help but use the word he had. Funny, she never thought of gems and precious stones as treasure, but they were. This amazing new discovery was by definition a treasure trove.

The man cocked his head and leaned toward her. His nostrils flared as he inhaled deeply. The predatory move into her personal space made her tense and try to move back, but she was too close to the jewel case. She'd bump into the glass and set off the alarms. The corner of his mouth twitched up as though he almost smiled at her realization of being trapped.

What the?

"A gemologist." He tested the word, making it sound decadent on his lips.

"Yeah," she answered, a little breathless, trying to regain her composure. "I've been hired to appraise the gems of this collection before they go to auction."

A sharp gleam in his eyes made her freeze in place.

"Have you now." It was a statement rather than a question, and for some reason that unsettled her. When she met his eyes again, the green seemed to melt into liquid gold. She jolted and he blinked, the yellow glint vanished. There was something predatory about him that made her both excited and uneasy at the same time. She'd always been into men who were dominating, but she'd never been around a man who actually put off those dominant vibes before. Her skin flushed at his dark, knowing look.