Page 9 of Maximum Risk (The Andrades 3)
“Your gift was insulting. It felt like you were trying to buy me.”
“I was.” There it was again, that twinkle in his eye, suggesting a private joke between the two of them.
She refused to bend. “That’s disgusting.”
His lips curled with a hint of a smile. “No, that’s realistic. People say money doesn’t matter, but stand between them and a dollar and you’ll see their true colors.”
Tara smoothed the napkin on her lap. “You won’t get an argument about that from me. People suck.”
Max threw his head back and laughed. “I did not expect you to say that. I thought for sure you would lecture me on sounding jaded.”
Tara shrugged and said dryly, “No, eighty percent of people are assholes. Possibly eighty-five.”
Their conversation was briefly interrupted by the arrival of their drinks. When the waiter asked for their order, Max deferred to Tara. Without thinking, Tara ordered as she normally did in a new restaurant. “Could you bring me two dishes? The most popular and the least requested on the menu.”
Without missing a beat, Max requested the same. Once they were alone again, he said, “If I can tell you why you ordered the way you did, what would you give me?”
“Are we betting on how well you know me? Because I’d say so far the odds are against you being correct.”
“So, make it interesting. If I’m wrong, what would you want from me?” His voice was deep and filled Tara’s mind with a multitude of things she’d like to ask him for, but none of them were appropriate for why she was there that evening. She couldn’t forget that. The spark between them, although fun to flirt with, could not lead to anything else.
“Okay. If you’re wrong, I get to ask you five questions about your family, and you have to answer them.”
“My family?”
Is now a bad time to tell you I’m being paid to ask you? “Maddy talks about all of you so much, I’m curious.”
“Agreed. And if I’m right, you’ll owe me a kiss before the night is over.”
Heat spread up Tara’s neck and warmed her cheeks. “No.”
He leaned forward, his mouth close to her ear, and whispered, “I didn’t take you for a chicken.”
Tara pulled away from him and smoothed her napkin on her lap. “I’m not afraid to kiss you. I told you, you’re not my type.”
He sat back, smiling, and waited.
Oh, he’s so smug.
And, thankfully, most likely wrong.
Tara laid her hands flat on the table in front of her. “Fine. Five questions if you lose. One kiss if you win. Now, wow me with your insight into why I ordered the way I did.”
Max rubbed a thumb across his chin. “You’ve heard wonderful things about Richard’s talent, but you’re not easy to impress. You want to enjoy this experience, but you also want to know his weaknesses. Someone you trusted betrayed you, and now you test everyone.”
Tara scoffed, “You sound like a long-winded fortune cookie.”
“But am I right?”
Tara wanted to say no. She met his eyes and told herself the truth didn’t matter. A lie would serve her better. She could say it was simply a silly game she played wherever she went and then she could ask him the questions and possibly get the answers Maddy sought. She opened her mouth to lie but found she couldn’t. “Yes.”
A sexy smile spread across his face.
Half excited, half cornered, Tara said, “You and Maddy have more in common than you know. She also doesn’t hear the word no.”
Max reached out and took one of her hands, lacing her fingers casually with his. “Is that what you’re saying each time you run your tongue over those luscious lips of yours? No isn’t what I see in your eyes when you look at me. It’s only a matter of time before you give in and admit you want me.”
Tara’s heart was beating loudly in her chest. She knew she should pull her hand away from his, but she didn’t. When she spoke her voice was husky. “Never going to happen.”
“Want to bet on that?” he asked and released her hand when the waiter arrived with their dinner.
Over dinner, Max asked her questions about her family, her friends, what it had been like growing up in the suburbs. He was attentive, reflective, and downright funny with some of his dry comments.
It didn’t hurt that he was also gorgeous. And the way he looked at her, as if she were the most beautiful woman on the planet, made Tara giddy in a way she thought she’d outgrown. He ordered a bottle of wine, and the two of them toasted the good food and company. It didn’t take Tara long to forget the real reason they were having dinner together.
Maddy?
Maddy who?
***
The next few hours flew by in a blur of drinks and conversation. Max and Tara had switched over to water, but Tara was still riding high on a royal buzz that Max blamed himself for. She’d told him she wasn’t much of a drinker, but each drink had lowered her guard more and more, and he couldn’t resist getting to know the unguarded side of her.
Tara was slowly sobering up, but she was every bit as amusing now as she had been when she’d been slurring her words earlier. Max threw his head back and laughed at her description of what it had been like for her the first week she’d moved to New York City. “I moved to New York after my parents retired and went South. I thought it would be easier to find work in the city. It’s been quite the learning experience. My first apartment was a ten-by-ten studio with an outrageously high rent that only someone new to the area would pay, given the location. The place was so small with such thin walls I literally learned Portuguese by listening to the woman in the next apartment talk to her Brazilian boyfriend on the phone every night.
The worst thing about the place was the number of times I dreamed I was engaging in a threesome. I’d feel all awkward and guilty then wake up and realize it was just the Brazilian stud visiting next door again. On the positive side, I never felt lonely. And I ended up being marginally bilingual, which I suppose is a small price to pay for a few inappropriate dreams. Although, I still don’t see the lure of a threesome.”
“Good to know,” Max said with a smile. “So, when did you move in with Brigitte?”
“It’s been three years now. I went to a party with some guy . . . I can’t even remember his name. It was our first official date, if you call taking someone to a place where the food and drinks are free a date. Anyway, he saw Brigitte and completely forgot about me. Brigitte can do that to a man. She has a presence. It’s hard to explain. You know when you watch the History channel and you hear about how wars were fought over certain women? I could see that happening to Brigitte, and she wouldn’t be impressed.”
“That’s an interesting way to find a roommate.” He refilled Tara’s glass with water, and she took a healthy swig. She was still beautifully tipsy. Her cheeks were pink, her smile wide, and her eyes were unguarded. Max wasn’t normally a man who sat around and drank a night away with a woman, but he loved the sound of Tara’s voice. He kept asking questions merely because he was enjoying watching how animated she was as she told humorous story after story.
“I’m probably not telling the story well. Picture me sitting there, hating her from across the room. She walked away from the guy who doesn’t matter now and sat down next to me. Then she apologized. She freaking apologized for his bad behavior. It’s funny now; it was mortifying at the time. At first I thought she was screwing with me, but she meant it. We started laughing about it and that’s it, we’ve been friends since.” Tara propped her chin up on her hand and asked, “What about you? Do you live alone?”
“I do,” he said. Before their second bottle of wine, he’d had every intention of ending the night at his place, but when her words had begun to slur he’d decided that could wait. He was enjoying how the alcohol had loosened her tongue, but he wouldn’t take advantage of more than that.
