He walked over to stand behind her, silently looking down at her drawings. He was startled to realize that they were drawings of dresses. Things she wanted to wear? He wasn’t sure, but he was determined to find out more about this woman. She intrigued him and enchanted him in unexpected ways.
Stepping back, he moved into the shadows, just watching the lovely woman for a long moment. She looked too beautiful to disturb. He’d thought about having a short conversation with her, talk to her and see if he could somehow ease her anxiety towards him. But as he watched her, Laithir changed his mind. He was going to hold off for now. After his experience with his first wife, he needed to fully understand this latest temptress. He refused to enter into a relationship blindly again. Once was disastrous enough.
When he’d had his fill of her profile, he stepped back into the building and walked towards the exit. He had some serious thinking to do.
Chapter 3
“What did Laithir say to you?” Ramzi asked when she walked into his office later that afternoon.
Shantra almost tripped over the carpet on his floor. “What do you mean?” she asked as she tried to right herself without looking like she’d actually tripped. Good grief, just the man’s name was making her stumble? This had to stop!
One dark eyebrow went up as he watched Shantra try to appear casual, but he didn’t comment on her gracelessness. “He asked for a private conversation with you before he left. He didn’t find you in the garden?”
Shantra stopped, her fingers clenching the back of the leather chair. “In the garden?” she replied weakly. She’d felt something strange, but hadn’t realized that it was the man in question. He’d been on her mind so often over the past twenty-four hours, she wasn’t sure what was real now. “I didn’t see him,” she told her oldest brother, her voice sounding strange even to her own ears. But she’d felt him! Oh yes, that strange, tingling sensation must have been him!
“That’s odd,” Ramzi commented, but he shook his head and tapped his pen on his desk. “So what do you think of him?”
Shantra shrugged, wishing she could appear more blasé about the man. “Think of him? What do you mean?” Her evasive answers were only a stalling technique. Looking at her oldest brother’s impatient expression, she knew she wasn’t going to get away with it.
“What did you think of him, Shantra? As a man? He’s a damn good leader, his people respect him, and he’s a strong military leader. But what do you think about him personally?”
Shantra turned away from her brother, not wanting him to see the blush staining her cheeks. Again!
She tried to come up with something normal to say, something completely non-committal. Giving her brother any encouragement would be very bad. “I’m sure he’s a very good person and I’ve read about his leadership. He’s a good man to have at the head of the Piora government.”
Ramzi leaned back in his chair again, crossing his arms over his chest. “You know what I’m asking, Shantra.”
Shantra sighed, her shoulders drooping. Why couldn’t her brother be slightly less astute? Or barring that, why so tenacious? Couldn’t he see that the conversation bothered her? A kind man would just move on, change the subject!
“Yes. I know what you’re asking me. And I’ll tell you the same thing I told him.” Spinning around, she faced her brother head on. “It won’t work. The man’s previous wife was beautiful and gregarious and totally different than me. He isn’t looking for a quiet type of a woman. He wants his old wife back. He’s been out of the public eye mourning the woman for five years, shunning prospective ladies, and not becoming involved. He’s obviously still in love with his first wife, and I’m not putting myself in that kind of a situation to be hurt.”
Ramzi knew for a fact that the man in question didn’t live the life of a monk. Laithir was particular and didn’t publicize his affairs, just as Ramzi had done before meeting his Mia. “I doubt that you know the whole story. Why don’t you give him a chance?”
Shantra shivered as her imagination kicked into overdrive. She could just picture Laithir and Angela laughing as they trotted about around the world, looking beautiful and chic, surrounded by the world’s intellectuals. She just wasn’t that kind of a person. She loved her job, but it kept her behind the scenes and anonymous. She wasn’t a globetrotting kind of woman. She didn’t have sophisticated conversations with glamorous people. Obviously, since she’d defended butterflies over dinner last night!