Diamonds in the Rough Read online

  Diamonds in the Rough

  A Diamond Magnate Novel

  Charmaine Pauls

  Published by Charmaine Pauls

  Montpellier, 34090, France

  www.charmainepauls.com

  Published in France

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  * * *

  Copyright © 2020 by Charmaine Pauls

  All rights reserved.

  * * *

  Photography by Wander Aguiar Photography LLC

  Cover model Dina Auneau

  Cover design by Simply Defined Art

  * * *

  ISBN: 978-2-491833-02-2 (eBook)

  ISBN: 979-8-656678-81-0 (Print)

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Foreword

  Previously in Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1)

  Diamonds in the Rough

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Afterword

  Also by Charmaine Pauls

  Book Blurbs

  About the Author

  Foreword

  Diamonds in the Rough is Book 2 of the Diamonds are Forever Trilogy. Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1) must be read first to follow the story.

  * * *

  Read Diamonds in the Dust Now

  * * *

  * * *

  Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1, Diamonds are Forever Trilogy)

  * * *

  Men like us, we see things.

  * * *

  We do things, things that make us unfeeling.

  * * *

  That’s the price of power and money, of living la belle vie and running the French mafia. Then she came along like a pretty wildflower pushing through the cracks on a dirty pavement—fragile yet resilient, a breath of beauty among the filth. She was supposed to be just another job, a nameless person I was to pluck from her life and hand to my brother, nothing but a pawn in the gamble of our diamond business.

  * * *

  There’s a psychological label for men like us.

  * * *

  We lack empathy and guilt.

  * * *

  We do things to have what we want, things that make flowers wilt.

  * * *

  Read Diamonds in the Dust Now

  Previously in Diamonds in the Dust (Book 1)

  A Short Summary

  Damian Hart was sent to jail for a crime he didn’t commit in a ruse to steal his diamond discovery, leaving his younger sister, Zoe, to fend for herself in a poor and dangerous neighborhood in Johannesburg, South Africa. Damian works on building an empire from the inside by making mafia connections. His ultimate goal is taking back the mine when he walks free. Damian and Zoe’s only means of contact is Zoe’s letters, since all other forms of communication are compromised.

  * * *

  Damian’s cellmate leaks Damian’s plans to the Belshaw family who purchases diamonds at a low cost from the mine. Maxime Belshaw, a French mafia underboss soon to take over the reins from his father in Marseille, drugs and kidnaps Zoe from her apartment in South Africa to blackmail Damian, once he takes over, into selling diamonds directly to the Belshaw family. Cutting out the middleman secures a substantial profit. The money is used to finance the family’s criminal activities.

  * * *

  Zoe wakes up in Venice, a destination of her dreams. Maxime keeps her in the dark as to why he kidnapped her. He only tells her Damian’s life depends on her obedience. Instead of handing her over to his brother, Alexis, as planned, Maxime decides to keep her for himself. After manipulating her into becoming his mistress, Maxime takes her home to France. This is to be her fate until her brother is released from jail, officially reclaims the mine, and signs the diamond supply deal. In the meantime, Zoe continues to write to Damian with Maxime’s permission, hoping to convey her situation via the secret code language of their childhood.

  * * *

  Carefully designed lessons teach Zoe that cooperation is rewarded with kindness. In the psychological game that ensues, Zoe is always at a disadvantage. Maxime is skilled in manipulation. Little by little, she discovers her kidnapper’s cold personality and unfeeling disposition. Maxime’s behavior is anything but normal. More questions about her captor’s sanity arise when Zoe witnesses him diving naked in the middle of winter from the cliff on his property into a sea full of sharp rocks.

  * * *

  Carving a life as a captive is difficult, especially with no friends and Maxime’s family as enemies. His mother, aunt, and cousins make no secret of hating her. Alexis seems to have his own sinister agenda. As long as Zoe holds up her end of the bargain, Maxime makes good on his promise to protect her. After Maxime offers Zoe to be auctioned at a charity event, a dispute follows in which Zoe must choose to fully accept or reject her status as Maxime’s mistress. The choice to be treated as a whore or a cherished lover is hers, but Zoe battles with embracing the lie. Just before giving Maxime her answer, Alexis’s true nature is revealed when she helps Maxime rescue a tortured woman from Alexis’s apartment. She’s simultaneously grateful Maxime didn’t hand her over to his much crueler brother and resentful of being held against her will.

  * * *

  With the relationship between the brothers already strained due to Alexis’s envy of Maxime’s birthright and inherited position in the criminal hierarchy, they become irreversible enemies when Maxime pays Alexis back in kind for the torture he inflicted on the helpless woman. In the shocking aftermath of the traumatic experience at Alexis’s apartment, Zoe confronts Maxime once more about his reason for kidnapping her. Zoe can’t know Maxime has no intention of killing Damian. In order for her not to run, Damian’s life is the sword Maxime must hold over her head. Maxime continues to withhold the truth, telling Zoe the choice of how he treats her is in her hands. Emotionally exhausted and wrought out, Zoe grabs the illusion of freedom and control. Escaping into Maxime’s garden, she steps over the cliff into the sea.

  Diamonds in the Rough

  Book 2

  Diamonds are Forever Trilogy

  * * *

  A Diamond Magnate Novel

  * * *

  by

  * * *

  Charmaine Pauls

  Chapter 1

  Maxime

  * * *

  Jesus.

  I dive for the edge, going after Zoe over the cliff. The thought of losing her hurts my chest. It hurts a thousand times more than the cold water. When I hit the surface, I don’t go down far. I turn and swim up like a madman. The sea is flat. I should easily spot her, but there are rocks all around. Shouting her name, I scout the water like a lunatic as a vise of fear closes around my heart.

  Then I see her. Than
k fuck. The relief is so great I’m not even angry. I swim with powerful strokes and reach her in five seconds. She’s gasping and splashing, treading water. Grabbing her around the waist, I turn her onto her back and swim us to the shore. There’s no way she could’ve made it out on her own, not knowing where the underwater rocks give way to form a channel.

  I’m out of breath when we reach the beach, but not from exertion. It’s the fear. I’ve never felt anything like it, never cared enough. Dragging her out onto the sand, I put the revelation to the back of my mind to dissect later. I peel my jacket Zoe is still wearing off her body and cover her slender frame with my body, letting some of my heat warm her skin. Her teeth are chattering, and her limbs are shaking.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck.

  I lift her into my arms and start the steep ascend. The guards are waiting at the top, staring down with concerned faces, offering hands and assistance.

  I brush them away. “We’re fine.”

  Holding her close to my chest, I hurry to the bathroom where I run a shower. When the water is warm, I push her under the spray and undress her. Since I destroyed her underwear, she’s wearing nothing but the red evening dress. Her lips are blue. So are her fingernails. I rub each of her hands between mine to warm them, and then her arms to aid the blood flow and increase her body temperature.

  Somewhere between soaping her body and rinsing her hair, her teeth stop chattering. I brace her against the wall and drop to my knees in front of her. Droplets of water cling to her eyelashes as she stares at me, keeping her balance with her hands pressed on my shoulders. Her dark hair, normally wavy or curly, hangs straight and silky over her shoulders. Her breasts are big for her small body, her nipples a dark shade of pink. She doesn’t shave or trim the triangle between her legs, but even there her hair is soft and perfect, a pretty womanly shape. There are many kinds of beautiful and plenty of norms to define it, but she’s all of them, everything condensed into one.

  Lifting her thigh, I hook it over my shoulder and worship her body with my hands. I circle her narrow waist and drag my palms over the curve of her hips, all the while watching her telltale eyes. They go hazy with need, the blue turning a shade darker, like the depths of the ocean. Her cheeks turn pink, and her nipples harden. I sweep a path down the outside of her legs and back up inside to her pussy. She’s slick and swollen, her flesh needing what I’ve denied her earlier at the hotel.

  I hold her eyes as I go down on her, eating her like she’s my last meal. It doesn’t take long for her to break. When she comes in my mouth, her long lashes brush her cheeks, and she catches her bottom lip between her teeth. I eat her out through the aftershocks of her orgasm, lapping up all her honey with lazy strokes of my tongue.

  She’s legless when I wrap her up in my robe and towel her dry. The exhaustion is a combination of my earlier punishing lesson, the sleepless night, the shock of what she’s seen at Alexis’s place, the afterglow of the orgasm, and coming down from the adrenaline of her goddamn jumping stunt. That’s a lot for one small flower to take in all at once.

  She doesn’t protest when I carry her to my bed and pull the covers over us. I curl up with her back against my chest and her ass in my groin. I fold one arm under her head and the other around her waist. Like this, she’s secure in the prison of my arms, finally warm and sated.

  Kissing her neck, I inhale the sweet scent of her skin. “What the hell were you thinking, Zoe?”

  “I wanted to know if I could do it,” she says, her voice already thick with sleep.

  “You could’ve fucking died.”

  “That would’ve been a bad thing?”

  “Yes,” I say vehemently. “You’re never to do that again. Ever. Understand?”

  “You did.”

  “I know what I’m doing.”

  “I did it, didn’t I?”

  I sigh. “You did, but there was no way you could’ve come out on the beach on your own. The rocks would’ve shredded you to pieces.”

  “Don’t worry. I know why you’re concerned.” Her tone turns bitter. “It’s this thing going on with Damian. Rest assured, I’m not going to kill myself.”

  Damn right, she isn’t. Damn wrong, too. It’s not just the thing with Damian. It’s not about the diamonds or the business. It’s about what I realized out there in those dangerous waters.

  “Go to sleep,” I say, tightening my arms around her.

  She abides with a little sigh, her breathing soon evening out. Me, I lie awake, my heart thundering in my chest as I hold the woman who makes me feel, the only person in the world who makes me fear.

  Chapter 2

  Zoe

  * * *

  In the days that follow, Maxime behaves differently toward me. Sometimes, he worships me on his knees like he can never get enough of me, and at other times he pushes me away, deliberately keeping me at a distance. It’s a never-ending push and pull. Through it all, he treats me well. As long as I’m sticking to my end of the bargain, he does. He’s proving to me that he’s good for his word, that he’ll make my stay pleasant if I’m obedient, but he won’t hesitate to punish me cruelly if I step out of line.

  When I ask about the woman Alexis tortured, he only tells me she’s fine. I ask about Alexis too, but Maxime says he’s paid for what he’s done and that’s that. He refuses to divulge anything more. I know his family is wealthy. I’ve seen their properties and the lifestyles they live. Maxime told me they were powerful, but I didn’t register exactly how much until now. Who gets away with what Alexis did? It’s wrong. There’s something disturbing about it, something significant, but there’s already so much to deal with I block it out. Survival isn’t only about the physical. It’s also about the emotional and mental, and I’m processing as much as my mind can handle.

  On a spring evening when Maxime seems to be in a good mood, I dare to bring up the subject that has been bothering me ever since the night he saved that woman from his brother. We’re sitting on the couch in the library, me with a book in my hands and my feet in Maxime’s lap. He’s reading work related documents while massaging my feet.

  “Maxime?”

  He doesn’t look up from the paper in his hand. “Mm?”

  “Why wasn’t Alexis convicted?”

  He strokes a thumb along the curve of my sole. “Some punishments are better doled out by ourselves.”

  “You mean taking the law into your own hands.”

  Flicking over the page with one hand, he says, “Something like that.”

  I drop the book in my lap, no longer interested in the story. “Didn’t the woman lay charges?”

  “She didn’t have to.” Abandoning the massaging, he drags a palm over the bridge of my foot. “Alexis was punished, and she was compensated.”

  “She was okay with that?”

  He lowers the papers. “Not with what happened, obviously, but she was satisfied that justice was done.” His mouth tightens. “What’s with all the questions? It’s over. You should stop thinking about it.”

  “I just don’t understand.”

  “What don’t you understand?” he asks with impatience.

  “How you could get away with something like that. Is it because your family is powerful? Because you have the right connections?”

  He squeezes my foot. “Don’t worry your pretty little head over that. As I said, you should forget that night happened.”

  “Just like that.” I sit up straighter. “It’s not something I’ll ever be able to forget.”

  He sighs. “I regret taking you there. In hindsight, it was an error.”

  “Why did you?” When I try to pull my foot from his grasp, he holds tight.

  “I’ve been asking myself the same thing.” He stares at the empty fireplace. “I knew I’d need your help and that the woman was going to be more comfortable with the presence of another woman than more men descending on her, but I also wanted you to know who Alexis truly is.”

  “You took me there to see for myself.”

&n
bsp; He meets my eyes squarely. No remorse shines in his. “That was part of the reason, yes.”

  “Are you involved in worse crimes than kidnapping?”

  His smile is cold. “What do you think?”

  “What is it?” I pull my leg again, and this time he lets my foot go. “Drugs? Is that why you have all the guards around? I mean, the diamonds are legal if you buy them from Dalton’s mine like you claimed, right?”

  “You think too much.”

  “But—”

  “No more.”

  The harsh tone shuts me up.

  In a gentler voice, he continues, “No more speaking of this. Understand?”

  Holding his gaze, I lift my chin. I hate how he keeps me in the dark. His look turns more predatory, lust bleeding into the gray pools that were flat and emotionless only a second ago as he grips my jaw in his big hand. Sexual awareness filters into the moment. The air becomes charged. With the innocent foot massage suddenly forgotten, I turn into prey. When he drags me closer, a tinge of fear mixes with anticipation. I do forget. I forget as long as he kisses me, and when he undresses me, we no longer speak.