The Purest of Diamonds(21)

                Then he wouldn’t be surprised when her stiletto hit his foot.

                ‘What’s wrong now, Leila?’

                She sniffed. ‘I’m waiting for the right beat of the music.’

                ‘Ah, a perfectionist.’

                ‘No. A novice.’

                ‘A novice?’ Raffa’s warm breath brushed her ear. ‘I could soon change that.’

                Her sharp intake of breath could probably be heard outside the hotel. ‘Practice makes perfect.’

                ‘Another topic on which we agree. Have you got the beat yet, Leila?’

                She’d got something!

                How could they move so well together when they were a complete mismatch? Fire and ice. Raffa’s great size compared to her— Well, truthfully, she wasn’t exactly small, but she was a lot smaller than he was. But as the music wove its spell and she began to relax she started to enjoy herself, so that by the time they danced past her sisters there was mischief in her blood. She had always been content to stay beneath the radar, allowing Britt and Eva to slug it out, but not tonight. Not with Raffa. So as they danced past her sisters, instead of shrinking into the woodwork, she threw back her hair and sighed, leaving Britt and Eva in no doubt that she wouldn’t have dusty archives on her mind tonight.

                ‘Do you know? I think we’ve done our duty—’

                Leila gasped as Raffa took her hand to lead her off the dance floor.

                ‘I’m ready to leave,’ he explained as he forged a passage for them through the milling crowd.

                Oh, he was? ‘But the party’s just getting started,’ she pointed out, hanging back.

                ‘Haven’t you had enough? I know I have...’

                She could see the cabs lined up outside the hotel through one of the windows. Raffa wasn’t talking about the party, she realised, cursing herself for being such a dope. He’d had enough of her. She’d get her coat from the cloakroom, he would put her in one of the cabs and she’d be drinking cocoa before you knew it.

                ‘We’ll grab our coats before we go up,’ he said as they headed for the door.

                ‘Go up where?’

                ‘To my suite,’ Raffa said, frowning as if that were obvious.

                ‘Your suite?’ She sounded like a parrot now, which was hardly surprising when his suggestion had turned her brain to mush.

                ‘We need to talk,’ he said, ‘about the project for the museum? Your visit to the island to choose the gems, Leila?’ he prompted. ‘There are a lot of details we need to sort out before I leave Skavanga after the wedding tomorrow.’

                ‘But I thought that was—’ A joke, she had been about to add when Raffa turned away to speak to the cloakroom attendant.

                ‘Ticket, Leila.’ He held out his hand as she fumbled in her bag.

                So Raffa was serious about her visiting his island. Her throat dried at the thought of working with the man at her side. She wasn’t worried about the business side of things—she knew her stuff. But where anything else was concerned...