‘No,’ Roman argued as he dipped his sunglasses down his nose. ‘You only think you do.’
He was right again. Their visit to his facility was a revelation for her. Everyone had heard about industrial diamonds, though Eva hadn’t realised that the demand for them far outstripped gem-quality diamonds.
‘Although the use of synthetic diamonds is on the march,’ Roman explained.
And he was on top of that too, Eva realised as he took her through another sterile white building. ‘I must admit I wasn’t aware of the many uses of industrial diamonds in medical situations.’ She paused and spoke her next words with care, sensing Roman’s particular interest in this subject as his hand strayed to the gold chain he wore. ‘I knew that diamond dust was used to coat various medical instruments, but I had no idea that it was used to target rogue cells.’
‘The list goes on and on,’ he confirmed.
She had wondered about Roman’s obvious obsession with the medical application of diamond dust, as explained to Eva by one of the technicians working in that particular department. Roman’s eyes had gleamed with fervour as he had stood beside her listening.
‘Our boss is one of the biggest supporters of medical research in the world,’ the technician had told her proudly. ‘Without him there would be no progress.’
‘It might be slower, Marco,’ Roman tempered, resting his hand on the man’s shoulder, ‘though I appreciate your confidence in me. But I can tell you, Eva, that without people like Marco nothing would be achieved.’
More surprises were in store when Roman took her for lunch. He chose a low-key beach shack rather than some high-tone restaurant.
And this was better, she thought as they kicked off their shoes. She could relax and be herself—maybe even forget who she was for a couple of hours, forget who Roman was and their respective roles in life. She could forget the fact that she was having lunch with a billionaire who just happened to have flown her here in his helicopter.
‘Is that okay for you?’ Roman checked with her when the handsome young waiter suggested the fresh catch of the day for lunch.
‘Perfect,’ she confirmed, resting back in the wicker chair. ‘This is heaven.’ And after the ups and downs of the past couple of days, to be sitting like this with her feet in the sand and Roman at her side, with the lazy surf rolling rhythmically back and forth in between them, this was heaven.
‘Have I convinced you?’ he asked in a lazy drawl, leaning back.
She smiled as his chair creaked. It hardly seemed substantial enough to contain such a significant force. ‘I can see the need for those diamonds now, and it goes far beyond what I thought...’
‘But?’ he queried, sensing a question in her words.
She waited until the waiter had served their cold drinks. ‘I suppose your particular interest in the medical application fascinates me. You seem...’ She hesitated.
‘Unusually passionate?’ Roman suggested. ‘That’s because I am.’
‘It wasn’t your passion that surprised me. It’s the direction it takes. Is there some particular reason for that?’ she asked carefully. ‘A personal reason, perhaps?’
He shrugged and finished his glass of water, pouring another before he spoke, and then he just said, ‘Yes.’
She waited, but then their food arrived and they were both distracted for a few moments. When everything had calmed down, she tried again. ‘So...’
‘Eat, Eva. Your food will get cold, and it looks delicious.’
‘Yes, it does,’ she agreed, but she didn’t make any move to pick up her knife and fork.
‘All right,’ Roman threatened as he shook out her napkin and spread it across her knees. ‘I’ll have to feed you if you won’t eat. You have been warned.’
‘No. Seriously. Please tell me—’ She jumped in with both feet. ‘Starting with the gold chain...I can tell it means a lot to you. Why do you wear it?’
When his eyes flashed she was sure she had gone too far too soon, and wished she could call the words back, but Roman quickly gathered himself.
‘It was my mother’s chain. She got sick and died,’ he said briskly, unemotionally. ‘I’m just trying to do some good, Eva. We all have to do what we can, even if it’s all too late. So now you know. Do you mind if we eat now?’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to pry. It’s just that I don’t know too much about you apart from what I read in the newspapers.’
‘And that’s largely lies and exaggeration.’
She shrugged and smiled briefly as their glances met and held for an instant. ‘I wouldn’t know, would I?’
A long moment passed, and then Roman said, ‘My adoptive mother died—my blood mother too...of the same illness.’
‘Fate can be very cruel sometimes,’ she said gently, treasuring his confidence in telling her what he had.
‘I still can’t believe it all these years on.’
Roman seemed lost to her for a moment. ‘It was a terrible coincidence,’ she said quietly, not wanting to intrude on his painful memories.
‘I still blame myself,’ Roman revealed as he stared out across a deceptively placid-looking ocean.
‘You can’t blame yourself for their illness.’
‘I blame myself for causing them the stress that might have provoked it,’ Roman explained. ‘I grew up the trophy son, praised to high heaven by my adoptive parents, but when I found out the truth about my birth on my fourteenth birthday, all I wanted was to be accepted by my blood family, but when I went to find them, they shut the door in my face.’
‘It was too late and your mother had died?’ she guessed.
Roman’s smile lacked any humour. ‘Worse. It was the day of her funeral, and having her fourteen-year-old son turn up out of the blue was the last thing her grieving family had expected. She bore more children after me, and it was just too much for them, my turning up, and at the worst time possible. They told me to my face I had no place there.’
‘So you believed you didn’t belong anywhere.’
‘My adoptive parents took me back without question and with open arms.’
‘But that was good, surely?’
Darkness still lurked behind his eyes. ‘They had never shown me anything but love—and how did I repay them? By becoming increasingly cold and unfeeling.’
‘But you were so young. You must have been so full of anger and bewilderment.’
‘And now it’s too late.’
‘It’s never too late,’ she whispered.
‘All I wanted was to make them proud.’
‘And don’t you think you have?’
‘I should have loved them more at the time, and then thought about making them proud of me. My adoptive mother fell ill, but I didn’t even notice I was so self-obsessed.’
‘Most teenagers are,’ Eva pointed