She hadn’t meant to reveal the temper that got the better of her sometimes. She looked like a pushover, but she wasn’t.
Nevertheless, the way his cheeks hollowed with thinning patience and his gaze frosted over gave her pause.
“What did you hope to accomplish by coming here, Ms. Toth? You’re wasting my valuable time.”
She scraped together her own patience, trying to salvage this trip. “I want to make you an offer for the earring.”
“No.” Flat and unequivocal.
“At least let me see it!”
“No.”
“Why not? Even if Grandmamma had stolen it, which she didn’t, what’s the use in punishing me for that?”
“Why do you want to see it?”
“To take photos.” She searched for her most reasonable, professional tone. “I’d like to appraise it properly.”
His brows went up.
“I’m a fully qualified gemologist and goldsmith.” She had apprenticed with her uncle Ben at Barsi on Fifth, the shop her grandfather had started after arriving in America. “I make custom pieces all the time. I’d like to take the measurements of the stones and grade them, make some sketches. If I can’t purchase the original, I’d like to re-create the earrings for my grandmother. She’s quite elderly.” She also had health problems that had given them all a scare this winter, making it that much more imperative Rozalia succeed in her mission. “If I could give her that much, it would make her very happy.”
“Aside from the fact I have no investment in your grandmother’s happiness, am I to understand you want to make a copy? My mother has considered that several times, but the one-of-a-kind rarity is part of the earring’s value. She’d rather have the authentic match and own the only pair. I’m in the process of acquiring the other one.”
“Are you?” she asked with enough skepticism to turn his expression even stonier.
“You don’t have the other one,” he said with confidence.
She effected a casual shrug. “Not yet, but my cousin is in San Francisco right now.” Probably getting shot down by a man Gisella considered to be her mortal enemy, but Viktor didn’t know that. Rozalia held Viktor’s gaze while the pressure of his simmering anger nearly compressed her blood to a solid inside her veins.
“I suggest you advise him against getting in my way.” His gaze slid to the fabric bag she had been carting around on her shoulder and held slouched in her lap.
“Her,” Rozalia corrected with a blithe smile, not bothering to dig out her phone. She couldn’t move. He would see she was trembling at the intensity of this confrontation. “The women in our family are very persuasive.”
“I’ll bet.”
Hey.
“We’re also very stubborn.” She showed him the point of her chin. “I could call her, but Gisella is as determined as I am. Probably as determined as you are, seeing as she’s Istvan’s descendant and carries Karolyi blood. I’d say that gives her as much right to the earrings as you have.” She blinked with innocence.
“Is she as foolhardy as you? Throwing herself in the way of a man with my resources?”
Rozalia refused to betray the seesaw of fear and exhilaration sending shivers through her whole body.
“If the earring is your mother’s, she ought to be the one who decides whether to sell it to me. I only came here because she canceled our appointment. Why don’t you call her and reschedule our meeting? Us womenfolk can work it out amongst ourselves.” Yes, she assured him with a smile, she was patronizing him.
“My mother had to run to Visegrád. She won’t be back for a week, at least.”
“To see your great-aunt Bella? Istvan’s sister?” Istvan had had two sisters, Bella and Viktor’s grandmother Irenke, who had had Viktor’s mother, Mara, and passed away some years ago. Rozalia had planned to track down Bella if she had time, thinking she might be interested to know her brother’s daughter and granddaughter lived in New York but—
“Do not interfere in my family, Ms. Toth. I will make your life very uncomfortable. In fact—” He pulled out his own phone and tapped to signal voice activation. “Text Kaine Michaels,” he ordered, then dictated, “If you sell that earring to anyone but me, I will become a bigger problem than any you already have.”
He hit the screen and a whoosh sounded.
Rozalia internally winced at the complication she’d just caused her cousin. Sorry, Gizi.
“Look, I didn’t come here for a war.” Time to try placating again. “Is it so unreasonable that I’m curious? Your mother was willing to talk to me. Why won’t you let me buy you a drink and ask a few questions?”
“Because I don’t like liars, Ms. Toth.”
“When have I lied to you? I’m exactly what I appear to be. A long-lost relative—”
“You’re not my relative,” he stated with enough force it pushed her back an inch.
On the surface, it sounded like a rejection. Part of her was even a little stung by his vehemence. He didn’t want to be associated with her, which was very insulting. Her brain was already gathering to make a haughty reply.
But as she met his gaze, a current of electricity crackled between them. His words took on new meaning. Even a necessary truth.
Her grandmother had been pregnant with Istvan Karolyi’s daughter, Gisella’s mother, when she came to America. Rozalia’s mother was the product of Eszti’s marriage to Benedek. All Rozalia’s fascination with the Karolyi connection was wrapped up in the romance of the story. She didn’t have a drop of blood tie in it.
Which made fantasizing about this man’s bottom lip okay. Or rather, it was still a dumb thing to do, but at least it wasn’t morally wrong.
Staring at it, she found herself longing to soothe the tension from the wide shape of it, lick and discover his taste and textures, feel his mouth cover hers and—
A strange light grew to a hot gleam in his gaze.
She realized she was leaning in.
With a small gasp, she pulled back, but he stayed exactly where he was, moving nothing but his eyes. He took his time sliding his perusal down her clean if wrinkled T-shirt and clean, faded jeans. Her chest grew tight, nipples stinging. Heat burned into her loins. Finally his gaze came back to what had to be a culpable expression on her face.
“Where are you staying?” His tone had gone from sandpaper to whiskey.
She swallowed. Licked her lips, drawing his gaze to her own mouth. Oh, dear.
“Um.” For a second, she honestly couldn’t recall. Then managed to give him the name of her hotel.
He dismissed it with a curl of his lip. “My place, then. We’ll have dinner. You can show me exactly how persuasive you claim to be.”
VIKTOR WATCHED THE pert Ms. Toth sit straight, looking wary and disconcerted when a moment ago she had been looking very...receptive. Her delicate scent had closed around him as they’d sat here, beguiling with its notes of vanilla and fresh air, sunscreen and something sensual and light and a tone he instinctively identified as her.
“You’ll show me the earring?” she asked, eyeing him while showing him her profile.
“I’ll give you an opportunity to tell me why