by Neesa Hart
He gave a tendril of her hair a slight tug. “You weren’t.”
“Most men would find it offensive to have their, uh, companion conk out on them.”
“Most men are jerks.” His expression was dead serious.
Sidney laughed. “I see your opinion of yourself is still intact.”
“Absolutely.”
“We could have used the ride home to discuss the layout of the Carlisle.”
“We could have. We can also do it later. I asked Lois to reschedule our appointments at the other two hotels to this weekend.”
“Um, about that—”
“Yes?”
“What exactly is it that you want from me?”
“Exactly?” he asked carefully.
Sidney swallowed. “Regarding the hotels. I mean, I don’t need to tour them to tell you which one will work best for you. I’ve staffed and managed events in all three.”
“I wanted to see the layout myself.”
“That’s understandable. Still, what do you need me for?”
He gave her a probing look that made her blush. Max reached for her hand. “I wanted to talk to you about that on the way home, but you were exhausted. I spoke with Philip on Sunday morning.”
“You did?”
“Yes. And he suggested that Greg’s engagement is going to significantly broaden my social calendar for the next several months.”
“I don’t doubt it.”
“I’d like you to help me.”
She looked at him closely. “What do you mean help you?”
Max leaned back against the black leather seat. “Philip suggested that perhaps your professional expertise could be beneficial in this.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’d like to have you under exclusive contract until after the wedding.”
Sidney blinked. Maybe the fatigue of the last couple of nights was dimming her concentration. “Max—”
“I’m going to have the engagement party, the wedding, and, considering the merger, an extensive number of professional obligations to fulfill. And I’d like your help.”
Sidney’s eyebrows drew together as she studied his inscrutable expression. “Let me get this straight, Max. You’re feeling a little stressed about your social life, so you want me to manage it for you?”
Frustration marred his features. “I’m not handling this well.”
“You could say that.”
He drew a deep breath. “What I’d like is a business arrangement that guarantees your professional assistance through the next few months.”
“And you want to pay me for this?”
“Of course.” He looked genuinely baffled.
Sidney scowled at him. “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a real jerk, Max?”
“I didn’t realize you’d be offended by a lucrative business deal.”
She reached for her door handle. “I’m offended that you’d offer me something entirely different over the weekend and then show up here and offer to pay for my company.”
He had the grace to wince. “I’m not offering to pay for your company. I’m offering to pay for your services.”
“Color me flattered.”
“I’m screwing this up, aren’t I?”
“Yep.”
He drew a deep breath as he reached for her hand. “Okay, look, let’s start this over. I’m not trying to offend you.”
Sidney shook her head. “Just tell me what you want.”
He searched her face. “I want to acquire you.”
If she hadn’t known him as well as she did, she might have laughed. Instead, she shook her head and laid her hand against his face. “Oh, Max. How did life get to be so hard for you?”
“Sidney—”
She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “Why yes, Max, I’ll be happy to help you manage your social life. For free. That’s what friends do.”
“That’s not a sound business decision.”
“Bummer.”
“I’d feel better if I had you under contract.”
“I don’t doubt it, but you’re going to have to trust me on this one.”
He searched her face. “I don’t want to take advantage of you. I’m more than willing to pay for your professional expertise.”
“So noted, and gratefully acknowledged. Don’t worry about it. I can take care of myself, and if you get out of hand, I’ll let you know.”
Relief filled his eyes. “I’m sorry I offended you.”
Amusement made the corner of her mouth twitch. “Don’t mention it.”
“If I’d known you were so exhausted, I never would have taken you into town today.”
“I’m sure you were anxious to get this settled.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Then why the siege at my apartment this morning?”
His lips twitched. “I didn’t want to wait any longer to see you. It didn’t have a damned thing to do with Greg’s wedding.”
Sidney laughed. “You could have just asked me, you know. You didn’t have to go to all this trouble.”
Max nodded. “Next time, I’ll know.” He swept her hair from her forehead. “You’re beat, Sidney. Are you sure you don’t want me to carry you to bed?” he whispered.
With a slight shake of her head, Sidney pushed open her door. “And you said you didn’t have the fortitude to tease me today.”
“I’m not teasing.”
Pushing open the door, she said, “I think I can make it on my own steam.”
She would have exited the car then, but Max grabbed her hand. “Wait.”
She glanced at him. “Yes?”
“I’ve got to go. Lois has been begging me since this morning to go into the office and handle some of this merger mess. But I want to take you to dinner tomorrow night. What time should I pick you up?”
“Is this another command performance?”
He frowned. “What?”
She smoothed the fierce expression from his forehead with her forefinger. “Don’t worry. You’ll get the hang of it. Won’t it be easier if I meet you downtown at your office?”
“Do you have to come into the city anyway?”
“Yes.”
“All right. What time?”
“What time suits you?” she asked.
“Oh, hell,” he muttered, and pulled her to him for a kiss that thoroughly muddled her brain. “Right now,” he said, when he finally raised his head. “Right now suits me.”
“Lois needs you.”
“And I need you,” he growled.
She placed her fingertips on his lips. “Duty calls, Max.”
“Doesn’t it always?”
There was something very sad about that statement. She pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth. “What time do you want me tomorrow?”
His eyes drifted momentarily shut. When he looked at her again, she saw the banked fire in his gaze. “Six-thirty.”
“I’ll be there.” She stepped onto the curb, then ducked her head back into the car to smile at him. “Have a nice day at the office, honey,” she chided.
Only Max could make the name he called her sound so affectionate.
Chapter Seven
“Then what happened?” Gertie leaned across the table in the kitchen of Max’s Manhattan penthouse suite and pinned Charlie with a shrewd look. “Exactly.”
Charlie frowned at her. “I couldn’t say. Exactly.”
Philip chuckled. Charlie was one of his closest friends, and, he had no doubt, felt as strongly about Max and Sidney as he did. “Come on, Charlie. Had Max closed the window between the seats or not?”
Charlie’s eyes twinkled. “He closed it on the way home. As far as I could tell, Sidney was asleep, and Max was on the phone.”
Sam frowned. “That’s it? He had her alone in the back of the car, and he stayed on the phone? What the hell’s the matter with that man?”
Elena laughed. “Give him a break, Sam. He’s a little new at this.”
“At women?” Sam asked. “Where have you been?”
“At chasing women,” Elena corrected. “They normally chase him.”
Charlie nodded. “That’s true enough.”
Gertie clucked her tongue in the manner Philip found oddly endearing. “He is going to need a little help with the romance.”
Elena concurred. Sam grunted. Philip regarded them all with an amused smile. “I think you’re underestimating him.”
“Philip,” Gertie said, her voice slightly strained, “he took her an accountant.”
“She needed an accountant.”
“Women need lots of things,” Elena interjected. “When I was first married, I needed an iron. But when Paulo gave me one for my birthday, I was furious with him. Men have trouble with this.”
Gertie nodded. “And Max has more trouble than most.” She looked at Philip. “If you want this to work, you’d better help him.”
“What do you suggest?”
“Well, for one thing,” Charlie said, “keep Max’s sister, Colleen out of the picture.”
Elena uttered a frustrated oath. “That Colleen. She is determined to keep Max to herself.”
“I don’t think she likes the idea of Max getting involved with someone,” Gertie said.
“Someone,” Philip asked, “or someone like Sidney?”
The small group fell silent. Sam spoke first. “I don’t think it’s Sidney, exactly. I think Colleen is worried that Max could be serious about her. Colleen doesn’t like the idea of things changing around here.”
“Shows what you know.” Elena rapped her fingers on the table. “Colleen, she’s completely different from Natalie. She’s selfish. Like her mother was. She’s got an unhappy marriage, and she wants everyone else to be unhappy, too. Even Max.”
“Especially Max,” Philip said quietly. They all looked at him for an explanation. He shrugged. “It’s just a feeling I have. Colleen blames Max for her problems with her husband.”
“That’s true,” Charlie concurred. “I drove her out to the Hamptons the other day, and I heard her telling someone on the phone that Max would never understand how miserable she is.”
“Colleen was miserable long before she married Mr. Wells,” Gertie said quietly.
The small group nodded. Philip released a slow breath. He didn’t like the turn of the conversation. Generally, he tried to avoid gossiping about Max and his private life. He’d made the decision to draw his friends into his confidence about Sidney simply because he knew he’d need their help. Max was many things, and Philip loved him like a son, but they were right: he had no idea how to court a woman. He took a sip of his coffee and studied them all over the rim. “All right,” he finally said, “we’ll help. I’ll suggest something at the first opportunity.”
“Flowers,” Elena said emphatically. “Suggest flowers.”
Sam nodded. “Sidney wouldn’t respond well to something extravagant. If you just tell Max that he might want to give her something a little more personal than George Hampton, he’ll buy her a refrigerator.”
“Or an iron,” Gertie quipped.
Philip set his cup down with measured precision. “This may be harder than I thought,” he admitted.
AT THREE O’CLOCK the following afternoon, Max was thinking the same thing. He glanced at the clock on his office desk as he slowly rotated a pencil between his thumb and forefinger. Paul Wells, his brother-in-law and vice president of administration for AppleTree Toys, was briefing him on a labor problem at their southeast facility. Max hadn’t heard a word he’d said. Belatedly, he realized Paul had stopped talking. He seemed to be waiting for an answer. So Max nodded and said, “Sure, Paul. If that’s what you think is best.”
Paul’s eyebrows lifted. “Max, I just recommended that we burn the Georgia plant to the ground and relocate the operation to Liberia.”
Max frowned. “Why the hell would you want to do that?”
“I don’t. I was just pretty sure you hadn’t heard a word I said.”
“Oh.” Max shook his head. “Sorry. I’m a little distracted.”
“You’re kidding.”
Max ignored his sarcasm, carefully placing the pencil on his desk. “You were saying?”
“Uh-uh.” Paul dropped the file he was holding on Max’s desk. “I’d rather talk about you.”
“I wouldn’t.”
“I don’t doubt that.” His eyes danced with amusement. “What’s going on, Max?”
“It’s not going to do me any good to say, ‘nothing.’ Is it?” Afternoon sunlight streamed through the window of his seventy-third-floor office. The amber glow that slanted across his desk gilded the polished cherry.
“No.”
Max genuinely liked Paul. He especially liked that the man had had the good sense to fall wildly in love with his sister, Natalie, and the even better sense to marry her. Paul was one of the few people in Max’s acquaintance who had the nerve to stand up to him. Paul, Max mused, and Sidney Grant. He leaned back in his chair. “When you first wanted Natalie,” he said carefully, “What did you do?”
Paul sat down. “Well, I wrote out my letter of resignation. I figured you’d fire me for hitting on your sister.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Max shook his head. “I have better sense than that, you know.”
“You fired Ed Lasen when he dated her.”
“Ed Lasen was a bastard. He didn’t want Natalie. He wanted to ingratiate himself with me.”
“Yeah, well, you can see why maybe I was a little concerned.”
“Not really. I don’t fire competent people. I already knew Lasen was a fool. The only reason he had a job is because I inherited him when we acquired Toy Land.”
“And you wanted an excuse to fire him?”
“I didn’t need one. But after Natalie, well, let’s just say I knew that any man stupid enough not to see that my sister is an incredibly gifted, remarkable woman, wouldn’t have much of a future at my company.”
Paul laughed. “You’re not going to get any arguments out of me.”
“That’s just one of the things I like about you. But you still haven’t answered my question.”
“What question?”
“About Natalie.”
“Oh.” Paul regarded him with a curious look. “Why are you so interested in this all of a sudden?”
“I’ve never chased a woman before,” Max admitted. “I’m not exactly sure how it’s done.”
Paul let out a low whistle. “I see.”
“I’m not kidding.”
“I didn’t think you were. Natalie told me this weekend that she thought maybe there was something going on between you and Sidney Grant. I didn’t believe her.”
“My sister is a little too observant sometimes.”
“Evidently. So I take it the lady is resisting?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then what’s the problem? Exactly?”
“I told you. I’ve never chased a woman. I don’t want to screw it up.”
“Poor Max. Always had the girls falling at your feet, have you?”
Max stifled a frustrated oath. “Look, forget I mentioned it. It’s not important.”
“You’re serious about this, aren’t you?”
He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes.”
The teasing glint left Paul’s eyes. “Okay. What do you want to know?”
“I don’t know,” Max admitted. “I want to know the seven habits of highly effective romances.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that.”
“That’s what I was afraid of.”
“Does Sidney know you’re, uh, interested?”
“Yes.”
“What did you tell her, exactly?”
“I told her I’ve wanted her for years, and I think the timing is finally right for us. And that I don’t see any reason to wait any longer.”
“I see.”
Max frowned. “What’s that
supposed to mean?”
“Well, sometimes it helps not to be quite so blunt.”
“I don’t see why I should lie to her about it.”
“It’s not lying. It’s being tactful,” Paul said.
“I hate that word.”
“I know.”
Max leaned back in his leather desk chair. “Damn. I didn’t think it would be this hard.”
“Maybe it’s not. Is Sidney putting up a fight?”
That brought a slight smile to his face. “No.”
“She doesn’t argue with you?”
“Are you kidding? She’d take me down in a second if she wanted to.”
Paul studied him, his expression thoughtful. “Is that so?”
“Absolutely. What I like about Sidney is that she doesn’t play games. I know exactly where I stand with her.”
“So what did she say when you indicated your, ah, readiness?”
Max felt a surge of satisfaction. “She said yes.”
Paul blinked. “Why are you arguing with a yes?”
“I don’t know. It’s different this time. It matters more. Not only do I have the utmost respect for her uncle, but I respect her, too. I don’t want her to get hurt.”
Paul nodded. “I see.”
“And you still haven’t answered my question.”
“About chasing women?”
“Yes.”
“Something extravagant usually works.”
“I gave her an accountant.”
Paul blinked. “Excuse me?”
“George,” Max said. “She was having tax problems. So I gave her George for a few days.”
“How romantic.”
Max frowned. “I realize that it must seem a little practical—”
“A little?”
“Okay, a lot practical, but according to Philip, she was completely stressed out. I wanted George to help her.”
“It could have been worse,” Paula conceded. “You could have given her a calculator.”
Max winced. “I bought her a laptop this afternoon.”
“Oh, Lord.”
“I didn’t give it to her yet,” he hastened to explain. “Geez, Paul, she was doing her taxes by hand.”
“A computer?” Paul’s expression looked pained.
“It’s a top-of-the-line machine.”
“Max, didn’t Natalie tell you about the time I bought her a blender for our anniversary.”
