Part 25 (1/2)
Saying nothing, Archer bent over Hannah's shoulder. The expression on his face was that of a proud parent watching a beloved child perform. His hand on her b.u.t.t wasn't that of a parent. Absently he caressed one sleek, firm cheek.
”Like it, b.u.t.tercup?” she muttered.
”Prime. Really prime.” He squeezed gently, deeply, before he released her.
When she turned and looked over her shoulder at his eyes, there was laughter and something much hotter in them. Slowly she licked her lips and made a soft, growling-purring kind of sound. Before he could recover, she bent back over the pearls. With a casual, deliberate movement, she slid her b.u.t.t firmly over his thighs. It was caress, promise, and warning in one: two could play the intimate-couple game.
Archer laughed softly and wished he had nothing more on his mind but the feel of her taut cheeks nuzzling up close to his crotch.
”See this one?” Hannah said. ”It doesn't look so hot with this one.”
”Note the position of the clasp, madame,” Paul said quickly. ”When on your neck, the pearls would not be next to each other.”
Disdainfully she lifted her elegantly outlined eyebrows. ”So the deal is, a matched necklace means the pearls only have to match the ones touching them? Is that what the diamond s.p.a.cers are for distraction from a so-so color match?”
Paul's teeth came together with a muted click. The b.i.t.c.h might have the cla.s.s of a hooker, but she did have an exceptionally keen eye for color. The pearls were separated by the width of a necklace because they weren't a truly fine match. Ninety-nine people out of a hundred wouldn't have noticed that the match wasn't excellent across the whole strand. Unfortunately, this woman wasn't one of the ninety-nine.
”Pearls are as individual as people,” Paul managed. ”Just as no two people are exactly alike, no two pearls are exactly alike.”
”Uh-huh,” she said. ”But I'm not asking about a matched-people necklace.”
Archer snickered.
”I'm talking pearls here,” she continued, ignoring him and focusing on Paul. ”Is this the best color match you have?”
”The silvery blue semibaroque necklace ” he began.
”No,” she cut in impatiently. ”I told you, I want big, round black pearls with lots of color. So is this the best big, round black pearl necklace you have?”
”Black pearls are the most difficult to match. The differences in orient are very great, much more so than is the case with white pearls.”
”Uh-huh. So this is the best you have.” She looked at Archer and jerked her head toward the exit. ”C'mon, darling. We'll just have to tell the Rothenbergs that they were wrong about this shop being the best of the best. It ain't.”
”However, we just happen to have an unstrung, triple strand necklace of large, round black pearls,” Paul said quickly. ”They are exceptionally colorful, and exceptionally well matched.”
She froze as the words echoed in her mind. Black. Unstrung. Triple strand. Large. Round. Exceptionally colorful.
The Black Trinity.
”Yeah?” Archer said, drawing Paul's attention away from Hannah. ”Where are they?”
”In the vault.”
She clicked back into her role. ”Well, what are they doing in there? You'll never sell them that way. G.o.d, don't the French know anything but food and rags?”
”Excuse me,” Paul said, tight lipped. ”I will need a.s.sistance.”
He stalked off to a back room.
Lazily Archer pulled Hannah close, nuzzled against her neck, and asked very softly, ”What bothered you about that other necklace?”
The hidden, leisurely caress of his tongue against her skin sent heat scattering over her. ”They looked like Pearl Cove goods.”
”What do you mean? They certainly weren't rainbows.”
”I can't remember every pearl I've ever sorted, but I do remember the difficult or special ones. I'd swear I've sorted pearls in just that combination of pink-orange orient and deep black background, with the faintest of parallel lines in the surface. They were a right b.i.t.c.h to match with the usual run of Pearl Cove product.”
”Probably because they came from Tahiti, not Pearl Cove.”
”Why would Never mind. Quotas, right?”
”Bingo. Laundering pearls from Chang's Tahitian pearl farms through Australia's Pearl Cove would be a good way to evade quotas.” Archer hesitated, then gave in to temptation. With the tip of his tongue he tasted the soft, fragrant skin just behind Hannah's ear. ”Or the pearls could have been stolen and then sold at bargain rates to Len. Another kind of laundering. It's possible the pearls could have been stolen from Len and sold to Chang, but it's not likely. To my eye, the orient is Tahitian rather than Australian.”
”I agree.” She s.h.i.+vered, caught between the sultry heat of Archer's tongue tracing her hairline and the cool a.s.sessment of his words. ”Would Ian have known about this?”
”Likely. Why?”
”If Chang wasn't evading the quotas, if Len was fencing stolen Chang pearls...”
”It would be a motive for murder, is that it?” She nodded, though the thought of Ian Chang ordering Len's murder made her cold. She had never wanted Chang as a lover, but she considered him a friend.
Abruptly Hannah turned her face in to Archer's neck, burrowing, inhaling the musky mixture of heat and soap and man. Instead of being like rough silk, he felt rough, period. The individual hairs that just barely poked out from his skin were like wire.
”Why do they call it beard burn when you only get it from a man who shaves?” she muttered.
Archer laughed softly at the non sequitur. ”Are you telling me I need to shave again?”
”I'm telling you I miss your beard.”
”I'll throw away my razor.”
”Lovely.”
”Tell me that in a week.”
”Okay.”
He hesitated, then gave in to a need to touch, taste, cherish. He tilted up her chin and kissed her, a kiss as soft as his voice whispering, ”You're a very special woman, Hannah.”
”Because I like beards?”
”Among other things.”
”What other things?”
Before he could answer, the door leading into the back of the shop opened and Paul strode out. ”Madame, monsieur, if you will come this way, I will show you the finest of pearls.”
”Matched?” Her voice was a nice blend of eagerness and doubt.
”Mais out.” He turned and barked out some fast orders in Chinese. Another man appeared. Like Paul, he was slender, expensively dressed, and quite beautiful except for the suggestion of a sneer on his full lips.