Jaeger frowned. “If it’s yours, then why is it going up for auction?”
Piper stared out of the custom windows, still not seeing the view. “I’ve just found out it was owned by my father through a company, and it’s now part of his estate. It has to be sold to repay some of his debts.”
Fair enough. Jaeger picked up her glass of whiskey, drained it and stared across to New Jersey, his mind tumbling. Essentially, he needed those sapphs; Piper needed the money. He wasn’t prepared for Ballantyne and Company to take the risk, but he could.
Along with this property, Connor had also made him—and his siblings—a beneficiary on a multimillion-dollar insurance policy. Adding up the money he’d received from the policy, his personal savings and the money he’d inherited as his share of his parent’s estate, he had a heap of cash sitting in the bank, doing nothing.
He could offer Piper a loan against the future sale of the sapphires provided she sold the sapphires to Ballantyne and Company. If she reneged on the agreement, which he doubted she would, he could afford to lose the three million. Hell, he could afford to lose a lot more.
His offer would secure the sapphires, and it would get Piper out of a hole. It was one risk he felt reasonably comfortable taking. This way, he and Piper could keep looking for provenance, which would ensure a bigger profit for all of them.
And it would keep Piper from walking out of his life...
It was a no-brainer.
Jaeger calmly made the offer and watched the emotions dance through Piper’s eyes. He saw relief and temptation and suspicion.
“You’re offering to buy the stones? Yourself?”
“I am offering you an advance against the sale of the sapphires,” Jaeger replied, trying not to use the word loan. He thought the word would make Piper twitchy.
He was right. “It’s a loan, Jaeger.”
“It’s a temporary advance, Piper.” Jaeger pushed his hand through his hair. “Once the gemology report comes back, Ballantyne will offer you a lot more for those stones, and you will repay me the money. It’s not rocket science.”
Piper opened her mouth to argue, shut it again and repeated the action. He lifted his eyebrows and waited another thirty seconds before speaking again. “Okay, that’s settled. I’ll get the money to you, maybe by the end of day tomorrow, but definitely by Monday.”
That sexy mouth opened again, and Jaeger thought she was the most gorgeous goldfish he’d ever seen. Deciding it was past time to change the subject, he leaned back against the couch and folded his arms. “You’re looking very businesslike, Miss Mills. How’s Ty feeling?”
“He’s fine, back to normal. I haven’t seen him today and when I get home he’ll be asleep.”
Piper fingered the hem of her skirt. “I was in Washington earlier and on my way home when I got a call from the lawyers telling me about the house.” She licked her top lip, and Jaeger nearly offered to do it for her. “Um, thank you. For the advance. I promise I’ll pay you back.”
“I know you will,” Jaeger replied. “That’s a given.” If she kept looking at him like that, all soft and grateful, then he wouldn’t be able to stop himself from taking her in his arms and seeing exactly how she looked wearing just boots and glasses and crazy curls. “Tell me about the art you saw today.”
Piper looked at him. “Why are you doing this? You don’t even know me.”
Jaeger stood up and walked around the couch to the window, resting his forearm on the glass and his head on his arm. He felt the air behind him move, inhaled Piper’s perfume as she joined him. She placed her hand on the center of his back. He felt connected, for the first time in a long time, to something bigger and deeper than himself. It scared the crap out of him.
He swallowed, thinking he could tell her he didn’t want the gems to go to Moreau’s, that securing the sapphires was all he cared about. The sapphs were important—of course they were—but he didn’t want her to lose her house, lose her connection to her mother. He suspected emotional connections were vitally important to Piper. It wasn’t necessary for her to be this stressed, this worried. This was a solution he could well afford. But his impulse to offer the money went deeper than business; he was trying to protect her. Seeing her so frazzled caused his intestines to knot.