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Chapter 9

Back at her desk, a smile on her face, Nikki realized that she had to bring Tony into her confidence and with that she fessed up to what had happened at the ball and what was going on now. Tony was her friend and besides that, he was way too astute not to figure it out, when, ten times out of ten over the past couple of weeks she had returned from her lunch break with her hair in a different style and a glow in her cheeks that she couldn’t begin to hide.

She opened up to him. While not giving the more intimate information, she told Tony that she and Max were seeing one another.

She’d expected Tony to go all gushy on her and completely over the top, but he surprised her, speaking with none of his normal flamboyance and theatrics, but instead sounding like a mix between a big brother who was concerned about her being taken advantage of by a supervisor—which technically Max was to her—and cautioning her against getting involved with someone from management, even if he was temporary.

She stored the caution in the back of her mind, but really, she had no intention of stopping the sensual train ride she found herself on...her new favorite motto was Toot Toot, All Aboard.

She sobered, thinking of Max and her newfound lust. The minute she thought it, she blushed. She shied away from calling it anything more than what it was. And whenever her mind took her there, she loudly hushed it.

While it might not be love, it was...new, exciting and different. She chuckled and put a hand over her mouth. Yeah, different was a way of putting it.

With Max she never knew what to expect.

They’d spent the weekend together that first time, and although she’d assumed it was going to be a one-time thing, and had actually convinced herself that she was perfectly okay with that, she knew that once was far from enough with Max Stele. He was intoxicating to her. Multifaceted.

Mysterious.

She bit the corner of her mouth, thinking that he was a little too mysterious. He’d been gone from the office for the past few days and when she asked him where he was, what he was doing, he’d smiled and told her he had some business to conduct. Which to her mind was him telling her it was none of hers. Business, that was.

She shrugged it off, again telling herself that what they had was not a long-term affair. And that fact had been made more evident after she’d asked him how long he’d be at MagHard Interior Design, and what his plans were after they found a replacement for him.

They’d just finished making love, and were sitting at her kitchen table, naked and eating leftover pizza. She loved the spontaneity he’d brought to her world. What she didn’t love so much was the mystery that seemed to be as much a part of the Max Stele package.

She’d started by asking him what he planned to do after...

“After?” he had asked, watching Nikki as she took a healthy bite of the gooey pizza he’d had delivered from her favorite neighborhood joint, Bosses Pizzeria.

As soon as she had swallowed, she had reached for a glass of sweet tea he’d poured for her and took a small sip, carefully gauging his reaction to her mild query about his future plans.

“Yes, after you leave the company. It is just a temp gig, right?” she had asked, knowing about as much today as she had less than two months ago when he’d started at the company. “And how did you get it anyway, the job?” she had asked. That was another thing that slightly bothered her. Although she was a new employee, she hadn’t been aware that they hired temps in management. She’d asked Tony about it and he’d said that in his five years with them, they hadn’t.

Max had taken a careful bite of the pizza, frowning slightly as though he was considering how to answer her question.

She had become aware of the small things he did, telling gestures to her that told her more than his words normally did.

While she had blabbed on and on about her life, about how she’d grown up with her grandparents and had a happy childhood, about the schools she’d attended, he’d told her...nothing.

Well, almost nothing. She’d been able to pry out of him that his mother had been a single mom, and that he was the youngest of three siblings. And the rebel.

She’d laughed. Yeah, she could totally see him as the rebel.

Small bits and pieces here and there: he had attended college, gotten a B.A. in architecture—which had surprised her—and later a master’s in business and...that was about it, she thought with a frown.

Telling her that although he’d grown up in Texas, he’d lived the past few years in the Midwest. Which accounted for his lack of a tan, she’d said with a snicker, earning her a swipe on the butt from him.

But it was the things beyond the what’s your favorite color and what did you want to be when you grew up that she began to want to know about him.

The longer she was around him, the more she wanted to know him. Beyond the superficial. She had sighed and shook her head.

“Forget it, it’s not a biggie,” she’d quipped. She had hopped up from the table, grabbed her dish and made for the sink.

He’d caught her, swinging her around, a frown on his face as he took the dish from her hand.

He had palmed both sides of her face, his look intense as he stared down at her.

He had opened his mouth to speak and shut it.

Making her want to smack him. She had known there was something he wasn’t telling her, and the more he held on to it, the harder it was becoming for her to pretend like it wasn’t there...that something between them.

* * *

Max needed to be prepared for anything Nikki threw at him. He thought back on that date with her, the mountain of questions she’d thrown at him.

That morning he’d gotten up and realized two things. One: that while he thought he’d been falling in love with her, he knew it was already a done deal; the woman had his heart on lockdown and the key hers to do with as she wanted.

Question was, would she throw away the key or store it within her own heart?

He’d left her sleeping and drove his car to the office. Wondering what the hell his next course of action was.

The answer had surprisingly come from his mother.

His cellphone had rang, indicating she was on the line. He had been in communication with his mother from the moment he’d taken over the office, and although the topic had stayed within the confines of business, i.e. a good replacement for Max, as she assumed he wanted out ASAP, it had, of course, gone to the personal.

“Mom, I’ve met someone...” he’d begun, and paused. “Someone I want you to meet.” He stopped, waiting. A shout, scream, exclamation...something.

He knew it had to be significant for his mother. He’d not only never brought anyone home to meet her, he’d never even discussed a woman by name, much less told his mother he wanted her to meet the woman.

“Well, it is about damn time, Maxwell! I’ve been waiting for you to bring Nikki to me for the last week. Or at least to tell me about her, from your own mouth!”

“What? You knew?” Surprise left his mouth wide open and had he not been paying attention as he drove he would have wrecked his car. As it was he barely missed swiping another one as he swerved to miss.

“Well, of course I knew, darling. Nothing goes on in the company I don’t know about,” she had said, her cultured voice smug and eliciting a reluctant laugh from Max. He knew how his mother knew....

“So, old dragon breath knows about us, huh?” he had asked and they had both laughed.

Max sobered and paused.

His mother waited for a minute before she had said, “That’s the reason I brought you to the company. You needed to meet someone special. But before you bring her to me, she has to know who you are, son.” Her tone had been quiet and motherly.

He had sighed. “I know, Mom, but it’s not that easy. There’s more to it. I know information about her that I wouldn’t know...shouldn’t know, I guess,” he had said, uneasily broaching the subject of how he’d used his influence with the chief of security to gather information about Nikki. “I’m not sure she’s going to be keen on how I, uh...acquired it,” he had said, not even comfortable with his mother knowing what he’d done. The way he’d invaded her personal life.

“The fact that you had James Green do a little digging into her past, Max?” she’d asked.

Why he was surprised was beyond him. As she had said...nothing went on that his mother didn’t know about.

The rest of the ride into the office, he’d listened as his mother both fussed at and guided him on his next course of action.

“At the end of the day, it’s your decision on how to go forward. Telling her who you really are...she’ll understand that. She’ll understand your reasons. They’re valid, son. As a woman I feel confident telling you that,” she’d begun and Max felt a semblance of relief.

Her next words snatched his security blanket away.

“But as for you digging into her past...go gently with that. You don’t have to tell her, she’ll never know...but tell her. If you want a real relationship, you have no other option.”

And with that sage advice, Max had gone into his office and downloaded everything onto a jump drive, both his dossier...and the one he’d collected on Nikki.

After he loaded the documents, he knew what a man facing life in prison or freedom felt like when waiting for the jury’s verdict.