They did? She had noticed that he’d become rather quiet after making that comment about teaching her how to ride a horse. Did he regret saying it and now wanted to take it back?
The elevator quickly reached his floor, although, it wasn’t just his floor. The elevator opened to his entire suite. The moment she stepped out into what appeared to be a massive living room, she turned to him. “I’m curious. What do we need to talk about, Skylar?”
“Will you share a glass of wine with me while we talk?”
She’d rather just get the bad news over with, but she nodded anyway. “Okay.”
When he left the room, she went to go sit on the sofa, but a huge painting on the wall caught her eye. She crossed the room to get a closer look. It was a beautiful seaside painting by the artist Bristol. A few years ago, it had been revealed that Bristol was the daughter of the famous artist, Randall Lockett. Her paintings were now as popular as his.
Haven was about to turn when she noticed a packet on the table beneath the painting. It had her name on it. Picking it up, she frowned when she saw it was an investigative report…on her.
“Now we’re ready to talk,” Skylar said, coming back into the room carrying two glasses of wine.
“Is this what you want to talk about, Skylar? The fact you had me checked out?”
Skylar glanced at the packet in her hand, then placed the wine glasses on the table. He walked over to her. “No, but we can include that in the discussion. Come, let’s sit on the sofa.”
A part of her wanted to leave, but then another part of her felt she should give him a chance to explain himself. “Fine.” She placed the packet back on the table, but when he reached for her hand, she refused to give it to him. Instead, she moved closer to the sofa.
He remained where he’d stood and picked up the packet. “First of all, I did not order an investigation on you, per se. Because of who I am, Dante ordered one for my protection.”
“Dante?”
“Yes. In addition to serving as the general manager of my hotels and resorts, Dante is also responsible for overseeing my security team. For him, it’s standard procedure toorder an investigative report on anyone I associate with. That morning, when we accidentally bumped into each other, it was imperative for me to know who you were.”
“Why?” she asked.
“I don’t think you truly need to ask me that, Haven. We both know that the contact left us shaken. We connected in a way that defied logic, and I desperately wanted to see you again. To get to know you.”
She frowned at him. “But wasn’t this ‘getting to know me’ all a pretense? After all, you’d learned all you needed to know from that report.” Her voice was flat, lifeless, because at the moment, that was how she felt.
“No. The report only gave me the basics. I much preferred listening to you tell me all about yourself.”
He paused for a moment. “Trust me. Had Dante found anything damning in that report, you wouldn’t be sitting here now. He promised my father that he’d protect me, and he takes his job seriously. But Dante likes you. In fact, he said you were different, like a breath of fresh air. He said you had personality.”
She was confused. “None of the other women you dated had any of those qualities?”
“Dante claimed that they lacked common decency and manners. That’s why he likes you so much.”
“Whoa.” She had read somewhere that it wasn’t uncommon for successful businessmen to investigate people before they signed any contracts with them. And in a way, she couldn’t blame them. There were a lot of unscrupulous people in the world.
“The reason I wanted to talk to you tonight is because I feel I owe you an apology. But not for that report because like I said, it’s standardsecurity procedure.”
“If not for the report, then what?”
“I think I did the one thing I swore I would not do.”
She tilted her head and met his gaze. “Which was?”
“Rush you. We agreed to get to know each other. Yet earlier, when I mentioned teaching you to ride at my ranch, I couldn’t help but notice that you became quiet afterward. I now realize it was pretty damn presumptuous of me to assume you would want to continue to see me after your conference ends.”
Haven turned to face him. “You read me wrong, Skylar. The reason I got quiet is that your words gave me hope, but I was too afraid to believe it.
“Hope?”
“Yes. This is only our second week together, and until you said what you did, I hadn’t known you would want to continue to see me after the conference ends.”
A confused look settled on his face. “Why wouldn’t I want to see you?”
