His Ex's Well-Kept Secret(10)

Few people knew what it felt like when grief plunged its icy hand into  your rib cage and ripped out your heart. He couldn't even call it pain;  it went beyond that. He'd had his heart replaced with an organ pumping  cold regret, hot anger, crippling guilt and searing agony all at the  same time. Those emotions gradually faded, but he remembered enough to  want not to go there again.

Besides, even if he desired to revisit that madness-he didn't; he'd  rather have been stabbed in the eye with a red-hot poker-the nature of  his work made it difficult to sustain a relationship. He dropped in and  out of New York like a yo-yo, and his schedule could turn on a dime. If  he received a tip from any of his numerous contacts around the world, he  was on the next plane out, hoping to be the first to do the deal. He  had no illusions about the loyalty of his contacts-they passed the same  information to his rivals-but they generally gave him a head start,  probably because he paid them a slightly higher commission than his  competitors did.

International gem dealing was a cutthroat business, and Jaeger cut  throats, metaphorically, very well indeed. He was ruthless, demanding  and persistent. He liked his life, liked the opportunity to see places  few people did, to meet with people from different cultures, to visit  villages where time stood still. He liked the freedom his work gave him,  and he loved the adrenaline of making a deal.                       
       
           



       

He'd never, not for a single second, thought he'd find the same  adrenaline kissing Piper, someone he'd met before but whom he couldn't  remember, a woman with a kid.

A baby...a species he'd vowed to avoid after he'd chosen a tiny white coffin painted with delicate pink roses.

"Bro."

Jaeger turned to see his younger brother walking into his kitchen,  scratching his bare chest. Beckett looked like someone had dragged him  backward through a bush, but his blue eyes, darker than Jaeger's, looked  lazy and satisfied.

"Is she still here?"

Beck shook his head. "Nope, she left a half hour ago."

Thank God, Jaeger thought, not in the mood to make small talk with one  of Beckett's short-term women. Hypocrite, his inner voice mocked. Until  eighteen months ago, their women would've bumped into each other in the  kitchen. But since his accident, the revolving door to his bedroom was  broken, and he'd slept with only a select few. He hadn't lost his  libido-it was working just fine-but he wanted something more than a  quick bang, a roll in the sack.

He didn't want a relationship, though, which left him in no man's-or little sex-land.

"Jay, coffee?"

Jaeger nodded and walked into the kitchen. He sat on one of the  uncomfortable seats at the sleek granite island separating the kitchen  from the rest of the open-plan apartment.

Jaeger watched Beckett, who was far more at home in his kitchen than he was, make coffee.

"Do you really think those sapphires you saw yesterday could be part of  the Kashmir Blues?" Beckett asked, pushing a cup of coffee over the  counter toward him. Jaeger nodded his thanks and lifted the cup to his  mouth.

"There's a good possibility." Jaeger smiled as excitement jumped into  Beckett's eyes. Although he was their director of finance and their  master strategist, Beck loved the hunt for gems as much as Jaeger did.  He knew finding the Kashmir Blues was a freakin' big deal.

"Holy crap, Jay, that's unbelievable."

Jaeger told Beck about Piper, about them meeting in Milan, that  Ballantyne security had kept her away when he'd been in the hospital and  afterward.

"She must've been desperate to sell those sapphires," Beck stated,  leaning against a counter and crossing his legs at the ankles. "But if  she was, why didn't she sell them to someone else?"

"It would be easier to answer that question if I could remember meeting her in Milan."

"The doctors say you probably never will."

And that pissed him off. He wanted to remember Piper, wanted to remember  what they spoke about, talked about, whether there was something else  he was missing. And dammit, he really felt like he was missing  something. Something huge.

"Could the sapphires be stolen?" Beck asked, pulling Jaeger back to the present.

He wanted to say no, but he wasn't sure. "I'm running a background check."

"If the sapphs are the Kashmir Blues then we are looking at paying her  five million or more. That's a hell of a payout, but we'd make a massive  return."

Yeah, he was aware.

Beck tapped Jaeger's shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen to shower  and dress. Jaeger thought he should get ready, too. He had a busy day  ahead. He was valuing a collection of vintage jewelry belonging to a  rapacious, childless scion of New York society. He couldn't wait to see  what Amelia Grant-Childs had in her vault.

His thoughts wandered back to his own vault and the sapphires within it.  From there it was a mini-jump to Piper, remembering her slim body in  his arms, her soft lips, her spicy mouth, the passion that flashed and  ignited when he kissed her.

No married women. No kids.

He ignored the mantra in his head, walked back into his bedroom and  picked up his phone off the credenza where he'd left it to recharge.  Piper's card was under the phone, and he quickly dialed her number and  waited for it to ring. Calling her just because he wanted to hear her  voice was pathetic.

That didn't stop him.

"Hello?" She sounded exhausted, Jaeger realized.

"Hi, it's me... Jaeger."

"Oh, hi. Listen, it's really not a good time for me. We're just walking  in, Ty is screaming for me and I need to give him some medicine."                       
       
           



       

"Walking in from where?" It was barely seven, for God's sake!

"Ty took a turn for the worse late last night. I took him to an  after-hours clinic at around four this morning. He had a miserable  night."

"Is he okay?" Jaeger asked, his heart lurching. His thoughts immediately went to a tiny white coffin with pink painted roses.

"He has an ear infection and it's nothing serious," Piper replied. "Ceri says he'll be fine in a day or so."

"I find it incredible that your source for all things baby is a  twenty-year-old with a nose ring," Jaeger said, smiling as he sat on the  edge of his bed.

"My parents are dead and I'm a single mom. My friends, the ones who  didn't ease away after I became pregnant, have even less experience with  babies than I do. I don't have time to attend mommy groups, so Ceri,  Rainn, the internet and a massive book on the subject are what I use."

She shouldn't be dealing with this alone, Jaeger thought.

"Anyway, you called me. How can I help you?"

Jaeger did some fast thinking to come up with an excuse. "I was wondering if you have any documentation on the sapphires?"

"Provenance. I should have thought of that. Well, there are boxes of  stuff my mom inherited from her mom in the attic. I'll go up there and  get them down. She was a hoarder, so if she had anything on the  sapphires, then it'll be in there. Actually, I might need Rainn's help  to get the boxes down, so depending on his schedule, I'll let you know  when I've been through them."

"Don't bother the kid. I'll help you."

Piper's silence indicated her surprise. "It's pretty chaotic and dirty up there."

"And the jungles and villages I wander into are perfectly pristine? I'm  capable of digging through a dirty attic, Piper," Jaeger said, gripping  the bridge of his nose, irritated. Yeah, he lived in a fancy apartment  and wore designer threads, but God, he wasn't a wuss.

Not that he really wanted to dig in a dirty attic, but he did want to see her again. As soon as possible...

He'd obviously picked up a brain-eating bug on his last trip abroad. It  was the only explanation for the absurd way he was acting.

"Oh, okay. Thanks," Piper said, and Jaeger heard Ty's wail in the background. "Sorry, I really have to go."

"Sure. Try to sleep this morning."

Piper's laugh was strained. "It's better if I don't sleep. I'll push  through and sleep tonight. The trick is finding ways to keep myself  awake."

He could think of more than a few ways to keep her from falling asleep. All of them involved being naked.

Jaeger banged his hand against his forehead, hoping to smack the sexy  images of Piper out of his mind. Why was he going there? He couldn't  have a relationship with her; he didn't have relationships. And even if  he did, a relationship-an anything-with a single mom was absolutely out  of the question.

Yet he still wanted to see her again.

"Jaeger, are you there?"

Physically holding his phone? Sure. Mentally, he had his doubts.

"Yes. Well, I hope your little guy feels better soon."