Diamonds Are For Lovers: Satin & a Scandalous Affair

Until the day she’d left the house to go to a wedding dress fitting and found ten journalists camped outside the gate in the rain. To this day, Dani loathed large black umbrellas. They reminded her of vultures waiting for someone to die.

The journalists gleefully filled her in on the details. While she’d been sitting at home happily planning her wedding, Nick had been entertaining a well-known soap actress in an alleyway beside a nightclub. The photographs were pornographic. When confronted, the louse drunkenly accused Dani of misrepresenting her position in the Blackstone family. It had finally sunk in, despite her repeated insistence, that far from being an heiress, his fiancée was penniless and illegitimate.

Howard came to her rescue, just as he had for her mother years before. Dani wanted nothing more than to disappear. A few months backpacking around Asia eased her pain a little but caused her mother tremendous worry. Tired of the constant media scrutiny, she refused to return to Sydney, and Howard agreed to bankroll her business here in Port, where no one knew or cared that she was Danielle Hammond of Blackstone fame.

The sunrise was beautiful, reminding her of why she loved this place. She filled her lungs with sea air, knowing she had to resist Quinn, because if she didn’t, there would be far worse heartache than Nick had inflicted. And that would spoil this beautiful place for her forever.

She turned around at the halfway point, feeling stronger and determined to finish this job quickly and eliminate the temptation. But her heart fluttered as a figure in blue shorts and a black sleeveless T-shirt jogged leisurely toward her. She had forgotten he liked to run in the early morning before the heat and humidity gained purchase.

Quinn slowed as she approached. “Too hot to sleep?”

Whether it was there or not, Dani imagined a sardonic twist to his mouth, and her hope that he would ignore her stammering reaction to him last night faded. He knew. And he wanted her to know he knew.

“Have a good run,” she said as politely as she could muster, still walking steadily toward the turnoff through the trees.

But Quinn began jogging backward, facing her. “Did you know Matt Hammond is coming to town?”

That was unexpected. She slowed. “No, I didn’t.”

Dani had never met Matt in person. He’d attended Howard’s funeral in February but kept an icy distance from the family. She’d wanted to introduce herself but decided, under the circumstances, to present a united front with the family of the man who had raised her.

She’d met Matt’s brother Jarrod a couple of times and liked him immensely. But Matt was understandably bitter about Marise’s presence on the ill-fated plane and her inclusion in the diamond magnate’s will. Especially when a lot of the bad press zeroed in on the paternity of little Blake, Matt and Marise’s son.

“How did you know that?” Dani asked.

“He called last night.”

“Called you?” She frowned.

Quinn stopped jogging and propped his foot on a half-buried log to retie his laces. “We’re both in the gem trade. That’s not so odd, is it?”

Dani hovered nearby, curious.

“When I told him where I was, he said he was on his way here himself. I assumed, since you’re his cousin, it was to see you.”

She shook her head. “He wouldn’t come here to see me.”

Quinn utilised the log to stretch his calf muscles. Dani couldn’t help but notice the dark hair salting his long strong legs.

She wrenched her mind back to Matt. Why would he seek her out? And what was his business with Quinn? A mutual dislike of Howard Blackstone was their only connection as far as she could see. “What exactly is your business with Matt?”

Quinn stilled, his hands on his thighs. “Is that anything to do with you?”

“Is it to do with the Blackstone Rose diamonds?”

“What do you know of the Blackstone Rose diamonds?”

Dani exhaled. “How they mysteriously turned up at Howard’s lawyers a month ago and they had no choice but to send them to Hammonds.” Suddenly it all fell into place. “You found them. You sent them back.”

“I didn’t find them. I was given them. A simple authentication job.”

“Who from?”

“You’ll have to ask Matt for the details, but they’re his property, fair and square.”

“I told you, I don’t know him.” She sighed. “He came to the funeral but wouldn’t have anything to do with us.”

“You should be more picky whom you fraternise with,” Quinn said lightly. “Is there anyone in the world Howard Blackstone hasn’t rubbed up the wrong way?”

“The feud wasn’t all Howard’s doing, you know.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Everyone knows. You must know.”

“I know what the papers say.” Quinn sat down on the log and patted the space beside him. “I want to hear it from an insider.”

She sat tautly, aware of his big hot body just inches away, warming her side. A trickle of sweat crawled down his temple and she bet his back would be slick, too. Why didn’t that turn her right off, instead of accelerating her pulse to alarming levels?

She bent and picked up a handful of white sand, letting it run slowly through her fingers. Since Howard’s death, the Blackstone-Hammond feud origins had been printed and reprinted. Dani was sorry if her rendition was reminiscent of a bored teenage boy recounting his summer holiday to his class, but frankly, she was tired of the whole thing.

“Jeb, my granddad, and Howard were friends and partners after Howard married my auntie Ursula. Uncle Oliver, Mum and Ursula’s brother, was left behind in New Zealand to run the family business. Anyway, when Granddad Jeb got sick, he signed over all his mining claims to Howard. Naturally, this didn’t go down too well with Oliver.”

That was an understatement. According to her cousin Jarrod, even after a stroke five years ago, the old man still got apoplectic at the mere mention of Howard Blackstone.

“He was particularly upset when Jeb gifted the Heart of the Outback stone, his most famous find, to Auntie Ursula.” The massive pink diamond was part of Australian folklore, but as with many other exceptional diamonds, it brought its own share of bad luck with it.

“Howard had it cut and set into a fabulous necklace he called the Blackstone Rose.”

“Rubbing salt into Hammond’s wound,” Quinn murmured.

She nodded. Oliver was incensed that the name Hammond was now completely usurped of its rightful place in the history of the famous Heart of the Outback.

“But after James, Howard’s firstborn, was abducted, Auntie Ursula became depressed. To cheer her up, Howard threw a huge thirtieth birthday party. Everyone was there, even the prime minister.” Dani smiled, remembering her mother’s awestruck tone as she’d described the finery, the dresses, the beautiful decorations. “But it all ended in tears.”

“The night the necklace was stolen,” Quinn murmured.

Everyone had their theories. Some thought it was a failed ransom attempt. No doubt Quinn thought Howard had hidden the necklace to collect the insurance money. “Howard accused Oliver and things got pretty heated,” Dani continued. “Oliver denounced his sisters and said they were dead to him….” She turned to him, lowering the depth of her voice and adding some volume, “‘So long as you have anything to do with a Blackstone!’” She wagged her index finger at him.

He smiled at her. Really smiled, and her insides melted.

“You missed a bit,” Quinn admonished.

“What? Oh well, you obviously know about poor old Auntie Ursula toppling into the pool….”

“After drinking too much.”

She put her finger to her lips. “We don’t talk about it,” she whispered dramatically. “In the melee, Howard accused Oliver of engineering the kidnapping of wee James, as well.” That fact was probably not as well known as the rest.