Embrace My Heart(19)
“I hope your shoes are comfortable,” she warned him while slipping out of her sandals for the second and final time that night.
At the party, she’d finally taken to socializing from a comfy spot in the Dazzles dining room. There, she’d removed her shoes after having had her fill of the chic heels.
“So have you seen the library?” she asked him.
“I know the lower level.”
Nodding, Vectra pushed to her feet. “Two more floors to go, then. Follow me.”
Qasim felt much better about the elaborate and way too “open” home by the end of Vectra’s impromptu tour. The upper level was where her office, a second den and an astonishing pool room were located. Guest rooms and a bar occupied that floor, as well.
The second floor actually branched off into a third level that only housed Vectra’s master bedroom suite and a sumptuous spa and hot tub area.
“And I thought I’d reached the top with my place at Sea Cliff.” He grinned, realizing Vectra had overheard him and started to laugh.
“My folks didn’t buy it like this.” She looked up and around, as well. “If you can believe it, the property was nothing but acres and acres of uncultivated land when they came here as newlyweds. They added on to the place brick by brick the more successful they got with the vineyard.”
Qasim’s gaze softened. “I can tell you’re proud of them.”
“They’re easy to be proud of.” Vectra’s cocoa-rich stare took on a faraway look. “Everyone should have parents that great.”
“You’re right.”
He’d agreed, but Vectra could tell that his heart wasn’t totally in it. She figured there was an unhappy story there, but she decided that it wasn’t the time to pry. “You said something about giving me answers?”
Qasim appreciated the subject change. though he’d expected them to return to the lower level first. The tour had ended in the entertainment parlor outside her bedroom suite.
Vectra didn’t believe she’d consciously ended things there on purpose. Subconsciously... She wouldn’t bet on it. Given how heated things had been between them earlier that night, serious discussion in the bedroom was perhaps not the best idea.
So be it, Vectra thought.
She got comfortable in the spot she’d selected on a wide chair upholstered in a print of violet, coral and hunter-green flora. The chair flanked an overstuffed sofa fashioned with recliners on either end of the U-shaped piece.
“Why can’t we be friends, Qasim?”
“I told you why. I want you in bed.”
“And wanting me in bed is a problem because...”
He began to walk the room, gradually pleased by her decision to talk there. It had a calming effect. An area rug covered gleaming hardwood and carried the same designs as the chair she occupied. The paint adorning the walls had a grainy texture, and the color was a mix of the same tones woven into the rug and furniture upholstery. The combination was sponged upon the walls and gave the image of a sky at sunset.
“Do you remember me telling you I was in the army?” He watched her nod.
“I went in right after high school, stayed until my midtwenties, started my business while I was in college afterwards.”
He smiled in a manner Vectra thought was adorably bashful.
“I have a talent for getting people to trust me with their money,” he added.
Vectra tugged her legs beneath her on the chair. “It’s a good thing you also have a talent for making them more of it.”
Qasim replied with only a half smile. “In the army, people trusted me to kill, and I had a talent for that, too.”
She blinked, a somberness filtering her wide, entrancing eyes. “And this is why you don’t want me in your bed? Because you enjoyed your army obligations a little too much?”
“Part of what led me to the army is still very much a part of who I am. I don’t have an insatiable urge to kill, but I believe deep down I’m still more prone to violence than I should be.”
She leaned forward. “You wouldn’t hurt me.”
“You don’t know me, Vectra.”
“Because you won’t let me.”
“Vectra, a guy like me...the kind of guy I have the potential to be...you don’t need that. Not after what you’ve had to deal with.”
Vectra shrank back, blinked. Reluctant understanding nudged aside the somberness in her gaze. “How do you know that?” Slowly, she shook her head. “You...you can’t know that...”
Qasim crossed to her, shredding the distance between them in that stealthy manner of his. He reached down, fingering the clipped strands of her hair before cradling her elegant jaw in his wide palm.