Chapter 7 The Deal is Done
THE DEAL IS DONE
ORI
“What are you doing here?”
Her shock was more than my knowing where she lived.
Frankly, that was easy. Even if we didn’t already have that information from the moment her father had popped up on our radar, he’d offered it up to me.
Something that I couldn’t understand. He seemed far too eager to have this situation solidified.
I knew he was worried about his country but damn, what about his kid?
The idea that her people were fucking her over bothered me.
A lot.
A lot more than I wanted to dwell on but my mind often went there.
She would be good because she was with me.
I wasn’t some grand prize for most women, despite the money, looks and power I could wield.
I was closed off. Hard. Desensitized as fuck to a lot.
Not just from my job but from my upbringing as well.
It was easier for me to use the club when I wanted a second of female attention.
But being the size I was, looking the way I did, that was rare.
Yacouba and I were the tallest among my brothers and he understood how I felt.
He had it worse since his ass was darker skinned than me.
We’d talked a lot about the stereotypes that plenty of people had when they saw him coming.
Or when they had to meet with him at the bank and he would walk out from the back looking intimidating as hell.
It was something that he’d gotten used to over his life but I was still struggling.
I didn’t give a fuck if I intimidated people, but having to manage their fucking emotions when I scared them shitless by just existing was what pissed me off.
Would the same happen with her when I had to come home to her at night?
I’d given her as much time as I could. A week to let her acclimate to the life that was waiting for her.
She seemed content with things staying the way they were but she didn’t realize that no longer worked.
The ink had dried; the contract completed.
Pappy was pissed that I didn’t want a hand in the negotiations and prenup but I told him to give William Avery whatever he wanted for his daughter save handing over Nakoa Industries.
Pappy would look at that contract with a loving heart, whereas I would see it as a negotiation.
Dominating her made me feel queasy so I gave him that task.
Now we were at step two.
“I came to check the place out.” I stuck my foot out so that she wouldn’t be able to slam the door in my face once she realized it was me. She frowned at the motion before glancing back up to meet my eyes.
“Check it out? For what?”
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 to records, 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.
I did him a favor by hitting him in his stomach instead of his face but he took my actions as further confirmation.
Pretty bastard.
“And to whom are you referring when you say Vega? You mean Alec?”
“It’s a nickname of his.”
“Well, since he hasn’t given me leave to use it I won’t.
But no. You have no need for charm because it doesn’t work on me.
I’m friendly with Alec because he hasn’t done anything wrong and I find him a competent human from the standpoint of the interactions we’ve had with one another.
I can’t say anything about his personality or how he would behave in other situations because I haven’t interacted with him in that way. ”
“And you never will.”
I knew I couldn’t mutter, the tone of my voice too deep to muffle. The words had escaped before my brain could muzzle my mouth. The delight in her eyes was worth the annoyance of her hearing my thoughts breaking through. “My, touchy are we?”
“I’ve never cared about anything enough to be possessive about it. But if I had to put a name on what I felt it would be that. The last thing I would want is for my future wife to be secretly enamored and cuckolding me with one of my closest friends.”
“One of? You mean there’s actually people who get along with you outside of a work setting? I’d like to meet these unicorns.”