Purchased for Passion: Shackled by Diamonds / A Mistress for the Taking / His Bought Mistress

Damn Anna Delane. Turning him on—and then turfing him out! Well, she’d made her decision and so had he. He would not waste any more of his valuable time thinking about her.

With a rasp of irritation he realised his mobile had started to vibrate again. Hell, was he to have no peace at all? Impatiently he jabbed his ski-sticks into the snow and yanked out his phone.

‘Yes?’ he demanded icily, wanting only to dispose of the call and detach his skis.

But when he heard Justin’s strained, panic-stricken voice, his body stilled completely.

Anna kept walking along the corridor. Her hands felt clammy, her heartbeat erratic, every muscle tense.

What am I going to do?

She still hadn’t the faintest idea how she was to return the bracelet. She had to do something with it—anything—anything other than keep it on her person or in any way let its loss be linked back to Jenny.

She must have been mad to take it—

No! No time to think about that now! She’d cope with Jenny’s breakdown later—her only priority now was to get rid of the bracelet.

She could just dump it somewhere. Somewhere it would be easily found by one of the household staff or something.

For a moment she thought of trying to tell someone that it had been taken completely by mistake, that its catch had got caught up in some material or something. But even as she ran it through her brain she knew it wouldn’t wash. They hadn’t been wearing their own clothes when the jewellery had been collected back in. They’d still been in their fashion shoot dresses. If any jewels had got caught they’d have been caught in them, not in the girls’ mufti clothes.

How had she managed to take it?

Out of the blue, Anna suddenly knew. There’d been a shot with the four of them gathered around the table, their four pairs of hands buried wrist-deep in the golden bowl of priceless Levantsky jewels, spotlights blazing down at them to bring out every last glittering facet. Then Jenny had given a low moan. Anna had looked round at her immediately and realised that she was feeling nauseous.

She’d acted instinctively. Pulling back with deliberate clumsiness, she’d dragged on the edge of the bowl and it had tipped over, spilling jewels all over the table.

And some had slithered on to the floor.

She and Jenny—and half a dozen others—had scrambled around on the floor, mostly feeling with their fingers in the sharply delineated shadow under the table on the cold stone flags. While she was down there she’d managed to whisper to Jenny, ‘Are you going to be sick? I’ll call time and say I need the loo—come with me—’

All the other model had done was to shake her head vigorously and go on searching for bits of jewellery, almost head to head with three security personnel, a dresser, Kate, and one of the photographer’s assistants.

Jenny had been the last to stand up, Anna recalled. She’d deposited an emerald ring, a ruby brooch and a sapphire bracelet back into the bowl, while Anna herself had contributed one ruby earring and a diamond choker. As Jenny had got to her feet, Anna, still watching her worriedly, had seen her wince.

I thought it was because she still felt nauseous, but it wasn’t.

She slipped the ruby bracelet inside her shoe while she was getting to her feet…

That was how she’d done it. Kept it hidden inside her shoe for the rest of the shoot, and then somehow, in the crush of the changing room, she must have transferred it into her sleeve.

Dismay hollowed out again in her. How could Jenny have been so insane?

No—no time to think about what had driven her friend to such folly. All that was important now was getting rid of the bracelet in such a way that its temporary disappearance could not be linked to Jenny.

She gained the head of the staircase leading down to the guest level upper floor. From there, the huge main staircase flowed down to the hall. At the top, she paused a moment. Instinctively, she realised, she’d been heading back to the scene of the crime—the main hall, where the huge oaken table sat solidly in its splendour.

Her eyes blinked, even as her stomach flushed with icy water again.

Two of the security guards were systematically working their way along the length of the table on either side, feeling underneath the surface.

Anna watched, frozen with horror. Even as she stood there, unable to move, there was the sound of a vehicle approaching, drawing to a sudden halt, and then, moments later, the huge front door of the Schloss swung open and Leo Makarios walked in.

He was in skiing clothes, Anna registered absently. And he was also, she realised, fully cognisant of the fact that the ruby bracelet was missing.

He strode up to the security guards and barked something at them. Anna saw them shake their heads and then resume their painstaking search. Anna found herself wondering quite what they were doing. Then it came to her.

They must have realised that the only opportunity the thief had had was when the jewels had been spilt. Which meant—

Oh, God, she felt sick—if they thought that, then they could also severely limit the number of suspects.

For one long moment she stared down at Leo Makarios, standing hands on hips, thick skiing jacket pushed back, continuing to watch the guards. His face was expressionless, but his eyes—his eyes made a sick, cold punch go through her. Then, appearing out of the nether regions of the Schloss, she saw his gofer, Justin, come hurrying up to him. His face looked like curd-cheese, and Anna almost felt sorry for him.

But she couldn’t think about him now, or the kind of tonguelashing, and worse, he was about to get from his employer. She had to think of herself—and Jenny.

You can’t just stand here—go—move! Clear off!

She jerked back from the balustrade.

It was a mistake.

The movement caught Leo Makarios’s eye. His head whipped up from where he was on the receiving end of Justin’s agitated discourse.

He saw her instantly.

And in that moment, Anna knew that she would rather die than have him discover the bracelet on her.

She just stood there, frozen. And then, from somewhere, she found a strength of mind she’d never even known she possessed. Slowly, she began to walk down the stairs. A model’s walk—almost a saunter.

As she did so, she saw Leo Makarios’s eyes narrow. Something leapt in them, and for a second she reeled from it. Then a flood of relief went through her.

She knew that look. And though at any other time she would have felt her hackles rise automatically, now, for the first time in her life, she could have gone down on her knees at being on the receiving end of such a look.

Casually, knowing she absolutely, totally and completely must not—must not behave in any way other than utterly ignorant—utterly innocent—she kept on walking downstairs.

Think—think! What would you do if you were seeing Leo Makarios for the first time after that scene last night?

But she was, of course. Seeing him for the first time since last night…

And it just so happens—the cold poured through her insides again—that you currently happen to have his priceless Levantsky ruby bracelet in your pocket.

For one overwhelming moment Anna felt the urge to just walk up to him, fish the bracelet out of her pocket, and hand it to him with some kind of smartass remark like, Is this what you’re looking for?

But it was impossible—completely impossible. To reveal she had it, however innocent she might be as to its original theft, would simply be to condemn Jenny. And she couldn’t, wouldn’t do that. She’d promised herself she would help Jenny get through this ruination of her life, and she would stick by that. Jenny’s problems were far too great to have to cope with being accused of theft as well.

So, instead, she had to behave as she would have if she’d had no idea what was going on. As if her only concern was ignoring the man who had almost got her into bed last night.

She reached the bottom of the stairs. Leo was still looking at her, standing stock still. At his side, Justin stood, silenced and cowed. The two security guards were impassively continuing their search.