Page 7 of Maximum Risk (The Andrades 3)
You know you want to see me again, Tara.
Say yes.
Tara read the card twice because she was sure she read it wrong the first time. She wanted to be simply offended, but she couldn’t deny that his gesture was exciting. He was a man who knew what he wanted, and right now he wanted her. But for how long? As thrilling as it was to be pursued, she wasn’t looking for a one-night stand—or whatever length of a fling he was offering. She pushed aside the desire his card had elicited in her and focused on how it had stung her pride. She waved it at the man who was standing there waiting for her answer. “Gerald?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Do I look like a prostitute?”
The man’s face went red. “No, ma’am.”
“I told Mr. Andrade I didn’t want to see him, and this is what he does? He buys me a car? He offers me a trip? Why does he think that would change my mind? What would it say about me if it did?”
Gerald didn’t answer what they both knew were rhetorical questions anyway.
Confused by the mix of emotions swirling within her, Tara demanded, “What would you want your sister to do with this kind of proposition?”
Gerald’s expression didn’t change, but he said, “I’d want her to tell him where to shove it.”
That’s the sane choice. The only one that makes sense. “Do you have a pen?” Tara asked, smiling for the first time since she’d opened the door.
Without saying a word, Gerald handed her one.
Tara bent and used the top of a wide railing to steady the card as she wrote a message beneath his.
Thank you for proving to me that I was right to turn down your offer for dinner. You are everything I thought you were and more . . . oh, so much more.
Gerald will be returning the car to you. I don’t have one, and I don’t need one.
Please don’t wait for me at the airport because you will be waiting there until Hell freezes over.
Sincerely,
Tara
She slid the card back into the envelope and handed it to Gerald. “Please take this and the car back to Mr. Andrade.” She tried to tip him, but he refused it.
“It’ll be my pleasure, Miss Holmes.”
Tara was about to turn away, but she felt she should warn Gerald. “He won’t be happy when he reads my message.”
“Then his mood will be much the same as it always is, Miss Holmes.”
That should have been the end of it. Tara should have ended the conversation there and gone back up to her apartment, but she couldn’t help herself. She stepped toward Gerald and lowered her voice. “Have you ever seen him do this before? Is this how he gets dates? He sends women cars and offers to fly them somewhere?”
Gerald said nothing.
Tara couldn’t drop the subject. “Have you ever delivered a gift like this to a woman before?” When Gerald looked about to avoid that question as well, Tara changed her tone to a plea. “It matters to me.”
Gerald met her eyes. “Mr. Andrade doesn’t lack for female companionship. I’d say most things, women included, come too easily to a man in his position.”
Meaning he’ll have me replaced before the card hits the bottom of his trash bin. Which is good, because I am working a case, not looking for a boyfriend.
I made the right choice.
Tara thanked Gerald and went back inside. Once alone, she gave in to the fantasy of what it would have been like if she’d said yes to Max. They would have flown off to a warm, private island. Tara rode the elevator up to her floor and absently let herself back into her apartment, lost in the images of them together. Was Max the type of man to have a bed on his plane? Or would their first time have been on the steps of a house they tried to make it to, but failed because their passion for each other overrode all care of where they were or who could see them?
Wherever it happened, Max wouldn’t be a fumbling lover. He would know what he wanted, and he would accept nothing less than everything from the woman he was with.
Tara dropped her clothing near the tub and slid back beneath what remained of the bubbles. She ran the tap to warm the water, then laid back, closed her eyes, and imagined Max’s lips on hers.
In reality, being with Max made no sense.
Luckily, fantasies were held to an entirely different standard.
***
Max read Tara’s message and laughed out loud. Tara Holmes was a woman unlike any he’d met before. Her answer couldn’t have been more perfect. If she’d shown up with Gerald, Max would have enjoyed flying her anywhere she wanted to go, and there was no doubt in his mind how they would have spent the next day or so, but he would have been disappointed.
Her response left her a puzzle. A challenge.
Gerald looked as if he were wondering if Max had lost his mind, but Max didn’t care. He handed him a large tip and told him to drive him to his Manhattan hotel. On the way, he called Dale and told him to switch his meetings that week from in-person to conference calls. Normally he preferred to be at the site he was discussing; it kept people more honest. However, the project he was most interested in was not yet willing to leave New York, so New York was where he would stay—for as long as it took to change her mind.
He had just walked into his hotel suite when his phone rang. His breath caught in his throat at the possibility it could be Tara. When he saw the caller ID he was much less excited. He removed his tie and threw it over the back of a chair. “Nick, this is a surprise.” Luke called on a weekly basis. But his brother Nick? Max couldn’t remember the last time they’d spoken on the phone.
“You kn
ow why I’m calling, Max.”
Max shrugged off his jacket and threw it on top of the chair beside his tie. He undid the top button of his shirt. “Because you missed me?”
Nick sighed. “I understand why you don’t want to go to Gio’s wedding. I’ve spent half my life running as far away from this family as I could get. But this is important to Gio, so it should be important to the rest of us.”
“Since when do you care what Gio wants?”
“Things are changing around here, Max. I run Cogent with Gio now and, although it’s not perfect, it’s good. Luke is Luke. He worries about everyone, but he doesn’t drive me as crazy as he used to. Come to the dinner party Gio is hosting on Saturday. They want to choose the wedding date with all of us.” When Max didn’t say anything, Nick continued, “And before you tell me you’re out the country and can’t make it, let me assure you I am perfectly capable of flying to wherever you are and dragging your ass home for this.”
Max laughed. For just a moment he was reminded how they talked to each other when they were children. “I’d like to see you try.”
“Would you? I’m not proud like Gio; I’ll make it an embarrassingly public event if I have to. And I’m not Luke—I don’t care if you get mad at me. So, are you coming willingly, or am I flying to get you?”
“I’m already in New York,” Max said tiredly. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. His family would be relentless now that they knew he was in the area. Shit.
“Perfect. So we don’t have a problem.”
“I’m not going—” Max didn’t finish his sentence. It wasn’t worth arguing about a point he’d already taken a clear stand on.
“Hey, out of curiosity, have you met Maddy’s friend Tara?”
Max sat forward in the chair, instantly much more interested in the conversation. “Yes, have you?”
“Not yet. I’m going to dinner with her and Maddy on Thursday. Maddy said she wants me to get to know her. I’m engaged to Rena. I don’t know what Maddy is thinking. If this is about that stupid matchmaking bet she’s involved in, I’m already taken. You or Luke can have this Tara.”
