She stood there protecting her home from my invasion with her arms at her side ready to strike. Maybe today was the day I'd see her claws combined with her acerbic tongue.
Damn, is this what hope feels like?
“Because it’s where you live and where I’ll be.” I moved closer but she didn’t give an inch, earning more of my respect.
“Where you’ll be? What is that supposed to mean?” Her tone was apprehensive her gaze pensive and I could see her wondering what had happened in the negotiations that warranted my being here.
“What do you think it means, Dr. Avery? I know they’re not handing out multiple degrees and a doctorate to boot before the age of twenty-five to people who don’t deserve it.”
“How did you—” She stopped the question either recognizing that it was stupid to ask or not wanting to hear what I had to say. I was unbothered by either reason but I needed her to get used to this idea.
“Are you going to invite me in?” I nodded behind her into the sun-drenched room that was tasteful even through the sliver I could see.
Her eyes blazed at my pointing out her lapse in decorum. “Why? I didn’t even invite you over.”
“True. But I think there are a few things we need to discuss before we move forward.”
“Yes. Like, apparently, the security in this building. I pay far too much in amenity fees for them to let someone just walk up to my floor.”
“They didn’t just let me walk up. I’m on the approved list.”
Asha’s rich cacao brown eyes widened at my confession. “Since when?”
“Since this morning. I have the key code to your private elevator and all.” I flashed the white square that had been easy for Dom to replicate and watched her fury mount.
“How the bloody hell—”
“Inside. Right now. I hate being exposed.”
She hesitated for only a second before she took a step back and invited me in. I hadn’t expected obedience but I was grateful for it. Her penthouse encompassed the entire floor but that didn’t mean I wanted to be out on the hallway like I was.
Her place was massive, the largest penthouse floor plan that existed in her building. The views were remarkable from almost every window and she’d been lucky that her father had gotten in on the property before the latest housing boom. According torecords, her dad had purchased her penthouse almost as soon as she arrived in the States over a decade ago. It wasn’t her official place of record until four years ago when she was done with her doctoral program. Money clearly wasn’t an issue for him but the price he’d paid for this place was only about a tenth of its value now. The only benefit to being here versus my condo was that her house was closer to work. This place looked like a showroom for the fashionable and financed. The furniture was custom with fabrics that I knew were expensive, given the saturation of their color and parquet floors that gleamed. The walls were kept light to play up the airy feeling of the penthouse despite the richly hued furniture. The great room offered a full view of the river and my mind drifted back to the case. Asha’s penthouse was in the building and in the spot where the sun had landed. The idea that whoever had attacked Natalie Rawlins might be targeting Asha was the reason I was moving in. I wasn’t about to tell her that she needed protection because it was the surest way to have her moving recklessly. I’d given Vega the heads-up so that his people could keep an eye out around the area for her. But nobody was going to look out for her more than me.
My eyes landed on the fireplace where a portrait of her had been hand-painted by someone that seemed to capture the essence. She was dressed in a blue gown that was a deep cornflower blue. I knew immediately what the theme of her portrait was. From the curly way she wore her hair down to the ruby ring on her finger and the emerald pendant on her neck. She was representing her homeland in a beautifully elegant way.
“This outfit is very Scarlett O’Hara of you.”
Her body stiffened even more from the defensive way she was already standing trying to make sense of my presence. “Pardon? I know that reference but I have no idea how I’m at all like her.”
“The character hated patriarchy. So she was better than men at everything. And mostly, it worked. She had a great business mind and she broke the bounds of propriety.”
“She was a spoiled brat who grew up on a plantation and took advantage of the enslaved people around her. I would never do something so abhorrent.” If I’d gained any goodwill with her since we’d started working together the mug on her face screamed that I’d eviscerated all of it with this comparison.
“I never said you would. But you treat me with a certain disdain that I’ve seen before.”
She chuckled and moved to run her hands over the Louis XIV-styled chair that anchored one corner of the room. “That’s genuine.”
“I’m sure it is. Just like Scarlett, you can’t help but notice that you have a certain attraction to me. But you want to fight it. And just like she did Rhett you can’t handle facing the male version of yourself who gets just as good as you try to give.”
Her eyes flickered over me when I spoke of her attraction before she rebuffed the thought by shooing me away with her fingers. “Try? Don’t insult me. I swear, I feel as though every time you speak you’re insulting me.”
“I think you’re trying to find fault with everything I do.”
“You make it far too easy for me to have something to latch onto then. I can only receive what I’m provided. Try harder not to be such an ass.”
“Is that the golden ticket? Me being more like Vega and smooth-talking you?” Jealousy flared as I recalled the easy way the two of them worked together while I sat silently observing.
Brooding is what Vega called it.
