He quirked a brow.

  “True story.”

  “What was the code?”

  “I can’t tell you! It’s a secret. What if I want to get away from you?” Beneath the table, she slid her feet around his ankle.

  He leaned forward and captured her wrists in each of his hands, kissing her pulse in the tender underside of each. “Why would you want to do that?”

  She wouldn’t. She didn’t.

  “Rozi didn’t want an excuse to leave Rohan?”

  She had to concentrate to remember what they were talking about. “She said they were on their way to visit Viktor’s great-aunt. Istvan’s sister.”

  “She’s still alive? How old is she?”

  “Eighty-one, same as Grandmamma.”

  “Why does she want to see her?”

  Gisella shook her head. “That’s Rozi. She’ll be in her element, traveling into the country to interview an elderly relative.”

  “Not your thing.”

  Not if she could sit here being seduced over scrambled eggs, but... She licked her lips. They tingled as his gaze followed the motion.

  “Is it yours?” she asked. “Because my grandmother is home from Florida. I ought to go visit her. I’d like to introduce you, if you’re willing.”

  “Why?” He released her and sat back. Even his feet disappeared from beneath hers.

  “I don’t want her to hear from someone else that I’m dating. She would expect me to introduce you if we were...” She swallowed. “Serious. I can’t tell her anything about Benny. That would—”

  “I understand.” His expression was enigmatic. “Of course. Today?”

  She nodded. “I’ll call to make sure she’s up for it.”

  * * *

  Kaine was feeling quite the hypocrite. He had reflexively withdrawn from Gisella’s desire to introduce him to her grandmother, then he’d been offended that it was another facet of their ruse.

  Did he want her to introduce him as a genuine suitor? No. He had given up thinking of family ties as anything but a hindrance years ago, certainly not something he wanted or needed.

  Nevertheless, the more he witnessed Gisella’s attachment to her family, the more he was drawn in by that web. She lit up at any communication from one of them. It might be only some banter with one of her younger cousins about a movie or a recipe from her aunt, but it made him wonder what it was like to be included in her world.

  “Your grandmother lives alone?” he asked when they arrived in front of a well-kept older building.

  “All of us have invited her at different times to live with us. Will you forgive me if I gloss over the part about staying with you? She’s old-fashioned.”

  He stopped himself from asking why the woman who’d been pregnant and unmarried held others to higher standards.

  “And don’t mention the earring. She won’t talk about something so personal with a stranger.”

  “Would you like me to excuse myself so you can ask her about it?”

  “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “No. But how will I know when it’s appropriate to leave without insulting her?”

  Gisella’s mouth twitched into a pert smile. She knew he was asking about her secret code with Rozi. With a groan of capitulation, she tugged her earlobe.

  “It’s this, okay? Sometimes we say, ‘Did you lose your earring?’ or ‘Did you find your earring?’ But the joke was on me with Rozi this week. We were texting and it turned into a Who’s on First? routine with her saying, ‘Viktor has it,’ every time I asked.” She rolled her eyes in exasperation. “She finally said, all caps, ‘My earrings are totally fine.’”

  “And your family has never figured out this extremely sophisticated ploy?”

  “I know, right?” She led him out of the elevator and down three doors where she knocked briefly, then tapped a code into an electronic door lock. “It’s me,” she called as they entered. “Oh, it smells good in here.”

  The aroma of fresh bread with cinnamon was layered over the scent of strong coffee and the dry heat of a well-warmed apartment. He wished he wasn’t wearing a suit, but Gisella had insisted he dress as though attending a high-stakes business meeting. As her grandmother appeared, he understood why.

  “They’re from frozen, but they’re your auntie’s, so they’ll be good,” Ezti Barsi said in a heavily accented voice.

  The octogenarian moved slowly from the galley kitchen, but she was the epitome of old-world elegance. She wore a collared jacket over a skirt, pearls, lipstick and neatly coiffed white hair. She looked ready to attend a wedding at an orthodox church, complete with polished dress shoes that had a low, chunky heel.

  The women exchanged a warm embrace, kissing each other’s cheeks before Gisella drew back to introduce him.

  “So handsome.” Ezti pinched his cheek.

  Gisella buried a snicker into her scarf and took over preparing the coffee and rolls while he waited for her grandmother to lower into an armchair before taking a seat on the love seat.

  She grilled him without apology, wanting to know where he came from, how they’d met, what he did for a living and why he was in New York.

  He didn’t see a lot of Gisella in her physically, but the sharp wit and lack of intimidation had definitely been passed along to her granddaughter. It was a perfectly pleasant half hour.

  Eventually, she turned her attention to other matters, saying to Gisella, “Your aunt said Rozi is having the time of her life, but I know when my children are keeping something from me. You’ll tell me the truth, won’t you?”

  “Always, Grandmamma. And Rozi is fine. I’ve been in touch with her, but there was a small incident.” Gisella’s hand went to her ear self-consciously.

  Kaine took the hint and rose. “I’ve just remembered. You wanted new earbuds. I saw an electronics store down the block. I’ll run and get those while I’m thinking of it.”

  * * *

  As Kaine left, Gisella’s grandmother repeated, “Earbuds?”

  “The things you put in your ears to listen to music,” Gisella explained in Hungarian.

  “He must be something if you’re teaching him your secret code.” Nothing got by this woman. “How did you meet him?”

  She led with her attempt to buy the earring at auction and got as far as Rozi going after Viktor’s in Hungary. By that point, her grandmother was becoming quite agitated.

  “We thought it would be a nice surprise for you,” Gisella said, pleading for understanding. “You’ve always been so sad when you talk about Istvan. We wanted you to at least have the gift he gave you.”

  “I had your mother. That’s always been enough for me. Tell Rozi to let it rest,” she said firmly.

  Gisella promised she would pass that message along and changed the topic to something less volatile while she cleaned up their dishes. She met up with Kaine a short while later.

  Since it was a gorgeous day and they were only two blocks away, he arranged to meet his driver on the other side and they walked through Central Park. The city fell away and the scent of spring filled her nostrils. Trees were coated in pastel blossoms and couples made out amid the wildflowers beneath them. Families pushed strollers and set out picnics while dog walkers tried to keep their clients from charging after the chattering squirrels.

  She needed this restorative moment. Her heart was heavy.

  “I upset my grandmother,” she admitted. “I feel awful. I think the earring became our personal treasure hunt, more about our ability to retrieve it. We told ourselves we were doing it for Grandmamma, but we just stirred up old heartache. My mother was right and I should have grown out of this quest a long time ago.”

  Kaine slid her a sideways look. “What does that mean? I went to a lot of trouble myself for that earring. Now you don’t want it?”

  “You can sell it to Viktor Rohan.” She hugged his arm. “When I get hold of Rozi, I’ll tell her to give up on his. Let his mother have both.”

  “You’re serious. You don’t want it.”

  She watched his skepticism turn to confusion. Part of him had still thought she was sleeping with him for the earring, she realized, and she let go his arm.

  “It’s not worth the hurt it’s causing. Grandmamma was so upset to learn about Rozi being arrested.”

  “You told her about that?”

  “I had to! It’s my fault Rozi was there. I was supposed to go and we switched at the last minute. I thought Grandmamma was going to get the wooden spoon,” Gisella muttered.

  “She hits you?” His outrage was palpable.

  “No! No, it’s just something she would threaten sometimes when one of us was out of line. It’s a family joke to say that. It means we know we screwed up.”

  He had left his jacket in the car and his shoulders remained tense beneath the cut of his shirt. She eyed him.

  “Did—?” She wasn’t sure she could bear to know that someone had ever hit him.

  “Once,” he said quietly. “With a belt. I was moved right away. To the family that took me to the beach.”

  She swallowed. No wonder he had been terrified by something that should have been a fun outing.

  “That’s when...” He trailed off.

  They had reached the pond. On the far side, a dad was showing his kids how to run the controls on a pair of remote control toy speedboats.

  Kaine shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “That’s when I asked about my mother’s family. I’d been in care for a couple of years. I was old enough to know there might be a chance at something else. Something...real. I nagged for them to see what they could find out. The social worker told me they had already been in contact with my mother’s sister and they had financial problems. A sick kid. They couldn’t help me.”

  It didn’t matter that it sounded like a legitimate excuse. Maybe they hadn’t even been allowed to take him on, under those circumstances. She still felt his pain at having his young hopes dashed.

  “They didn’t even ask to see you?”

  “No.”

  He had taken an emotional chance and lost. No wonder he refused to take any more.

  “You never tried to reach out to them?”

  “They sent a note a couple of years ago. An invitation to a quinceañera for—I guess she’d be my cousin? I had just been featured in a list of California’s richest tech billionaires. It was obvious what they wanted. I sent a check and my regrets. I haven’t heard from them since.”

  Maybe they hadn’t known how to find him until they saw him in the news. She wanted to suggest there was still time to form ties, persuade him that cousins were as good as siblings in a lot of ways, but her throat ached too much. She could see he would rather put up a wall than open a door.

  “I look at you with your family and it’s like watching a foreign film,” he said with a shake of his head.

  “In Hungarian?” She tried to lighten things up.

  “Yeah.” His mouth twitched. “Without subtitles. It’s one of the hardest languages to learn. Did you know that? I looked it up,” he said in a self-deprecating aside.

  She knew he was throwing that out as a joke, but she was touched that he would take that step of curiosity. It sounded as if he wanted to know more about her, have a future where he spoke her mother tongue. But she also read the subtext in what he was saying, too. Family was beyond his ability to grasp.

  * * *

  Gisella entered Kaine’s Manhattan office with one hand stifling a yawn and sank into the sofa that faced a wall-mounted television. She thumped her bag onto the floor beside her, but kept the coffee she had picked up on her way from the shop.

  “TGIF,” she declared. “My dad has offered us his courtside tickets if you want to use them tonight. But I don’t know how much longer I can keep this up. I never go out this much.”

  “Do you like basketball?”

  “Not particularly, but if your goal is to be seen with me, the game is going to be televised. There’s a restaurant on the way where paparazzi hang out looking for celebs.”

  He came from behind his desk and she tilted her head back to look at him, expecting him to ask whether they should go home and change or some other logistical question.

  Instead, he showed her a velvet box. It was faded but wore a gold stamp that was an elaborate, primitive version of the one stamped onto the boxes that her own pieces were sold in.

  “Were you serious when you said you no longer want this?”

  She realized her mouth hung open and clamped it shut, then set down her coffee and picked up her feet as she twisted on the sofa.

  “I don’t—I mean, if you’re asking whether I want to buy it—” If he offered to give it to her, she would die. “No. I don’t want it for myself or my grandmother. But...” She started to tremble the way she had as a little girl, when it was Christmas morning and she had to contain herself. “Please, can I look at it?”

  Something passed behind his eyes. “Of course.” He continued holding it out to her.

  Had this been a test? Had she passed? She took the box, then sent a pinched frown up at him. “Are you telling me this was never in a safe-deposit box? You’ve had it on you all this time?”

  He only shrugged.

  She tsked, then took her time with the big reveal, gently prying against the lid to ease it open. He stood over her, able to see how much she was shaking.

  She laughed self-consciously. “These old boxes can snap shut and take your finger off—Oh...”

  The satin bed was revealed and there it was.

  The photograph hadn’t done it justice at all. The beaded granulation in the gold that rimmed the clover shape was exquisitely crafted. Even without her loupe, she could see the slight imperfection in the cut of the four square-cut blue sapphires, but it gave it such character, such depth. Dozens of diamonds no bigger than a twentieth of a carat sat in rose settings and formed petal patterns around the oval sapphire in the center. A second, slightly smaller blue gem hung from the bottom, framed in more of the intricate beadwork.

  “The paperwork says she wore it as a scarf pin sometimes,” Kaine said. “Before the pin broke off.”

  The backing of the earring was missing, which was why it had been locked away, she supposed. Such a shame. It was a beautiful piece, obviously made with the greatest of care.

  She absently shifted so she could reach for her purse. A moment later she had her loupe and a notebook. She settled in to start sketching and making notes, adjusting the lamp on the end table so the light fell where she needed it.

  “I guess we’re not going to the game,” Kaine said drily.

  “Hmm?” She lifted her head.

  “Nothing. Would you like a drink?”

  “Coffee is fine,” she murmured, and promptly forgot about it as she fell into the artistry of a long-ago craftsman’s opus.

  Ages later, she came out of what felt like a meditative state to see Kaine sitting in an armchair, a look of bemused interest on his face.

  “Am I boring you to tears?” She realized she’d been schooling him on metallurgy and the mysterious technique used by ancient Etruscans.

  “Am I crying?”

  “I get passionate about my work sometimes. I know how finicky and time-consuming it is to get the effect I want with modern methods. I can’t believe they were able to do such sophisticated things with such primitive tools.” She nestled the earring back in its case and offered it back to him.

  He took his time leaning forward to accept it, watching her.

  “It’s okay,” she said truthfully, stomach still fluttery with excitement, but she was coming down from her high. She had taken photos and felt a lot of things in giving up the desire to own it, but not regret. “It was enough to see it.”

  He set it on the side table at his elbow.

  “Thank you.” She rose and moved to straddle him in the armchair. “This was the best date you’ve ever taken me on.”

  “So easy to please.” He set his hands on her hips. “You were funny to watch. Your tongue comes out the corner of your mouth when you’re sketching.”

  “I know,” she groaned, ducking her head into his shoulder. “Rozi teases me all the time. But seriously, thank you.” She shifted to stroke his shoulders and kiss him lightly, then drew back to smooth her hands on his cheeks, growing solemn. “I’m glad to give it up, if you want the truth. I hate that you ever thought I would sleep with you for it. Now you know I only want you.”

  He didn’t react beyond a shift of his gaze as he weighed her statement.

  “Of course, if you want me to express my appreciation for letting me hold it...” She tried to lighten the mood by slinking her hand between them to squeeze the flesh firming in his lap. “Hold this, I mean. Not the earring.”

  His mouth twitched while his expression became the relaxed yet intent one that told her desire had its hooks in him.

  “You don’t owe me anything for showing it to you.” He shifted his legs beneath her, though, making it easier for her to fondle him. “The earring, I mean. Or that.”

  “It was a sweet thing to do,” she said, unable to keep from growing serious. In the couple of weeks they’d been together, they had taken to leaving a lot unsaid between them, preferring to lose themselves in sensuality without having the hard conversations that might impact their pleasure.

  She couldn’t hold him like this, though, and look into his eyes and pretend that she wasn’t moved by his wanting to make her happy, even if only for an hour.

  The earring might have brought her to him, Benny’s situation might have kept her with him, but this... This wasn’t about any of that.

 

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