by Jo Leigh
Yeah, she’d have no problem finding someone else like him.
“You make one hell of a good brew,” he said. “I can’t wait to thank you properly.” He lifted his cup. “Can we take these into the boudoir?”
“I insist.”
He kissed her, then got behind her again to follow her down the hall.
Three steps in, her doorbell rang. Natalie’s happy bubble burst. “Oh, no.”
“Fred’s back?” Max asked.
She shook her head and shushed him with a finger to her lips. They both listened, and seconds later she heard voices. Which meant they were already inside and coming up the stairs. “It sounds like Uncle Victor and God only knows who else.” She took his free hand and hurried him to her room. “I’ll try to get rid of them, but it’s not always easy.”
He looked as disappointed as she felt. “Can you just not answer?”
“I would, but they have keys. For emergencies. They’re coming up the stairs now. They have no personal boundaries. Usually, they at least call...” She groaned when she realized her mistake.
“What?”
“They probably did call but I turned off my cell at the carnival. No doubt I’ve got a half dozen messages.”
“So they just come over if you don’t call back?”
Natalie sighed. “Yes, if they think I’m depressed because you dumped me.” She shrugged. “That night. We left abruptly... Maybe they thought... Never mind. I have to go deal with them.”
Glancing at his rapidly drooping cock, he sighed. “I’ll get dressed. Do you want me to hide in here?”
She thought about it as she grabbed her underwear from her top drawer. As much as she’d like to shoo them away, her relatives had no social skills to speak of and considered her home fair game. “No, somehow that’ll just bite us in the butt.” She dressed so hurriedly, she nearly tripped and fell as she pulled on her panties. “But they know I work today, so I should be able to get rid of them quickly.”
He looked up from zipping his jeans. “Dammit, I forgot. I thought we had the day—”
She nodded. “I know. I didn’t want to say anything earlier. But I can go in a little late.” She put on her blue dress, the one that had the subtle flower pattern, and slipped into her comfy flats. Thank goodness she’d brushed her hair after her shower. “I’ll meet you out there.” With one last kiss before the swarm hit, she touched his cheek. “There aren’t enough apologies in the world for my family, but I’m sorry, anyway.”
“It’s okay. Go.”
* * *
MAX WATCHED HER leave as he finished dressing. Her family ruining their morning wasn’t the worst thing in the world. That she had to go to work was higher up the list. So was the fact that he’d forgotten. He’d planned on taking her to breakfast and thought they’d go back to his place after. Now he felt like a dick for announcing he had nowhere to be today and was in the mood for sex and deli. As if the damn universe revolved around him.
He could make it up to her. But he wasn’t sure how he was going to get through the next...however long it took her to get rid of her relatives. They certainly weren’t quiet. He recognized Victor’s voice coming from the living room and hoped Ivan wasn’t there, too. So far, there hadn’t been any yelling. That had to be a good sign.
He wasn’t going out there without finishing his coffee, though. He had to admit it was damn good, but what he liked more was the way she was so into it. When Natalie felt passionate about something, she didn’t hold back. Last night she’d been amazing. So enthusiastic and responsive it made him want to grab her and run.
Instead, he squared his shoulders and headed out to meet the family. Oh, man. There wouldn’t be any doubt that he’d spent the night. Guess she wouldn’t be able to pull off the “he’s only a friend” deal anymore. And they’d know he definitely hadn’t dumped her.
Her small galley kitchen was packed. Victor and Hanna were there, as were an older woman and a young man Max didn’t recognize. Everyone but the young guy seemed to be talking, all at once, and a plate of blintzes was being uncovered. Then he was noticed and the chatter wound down as one person after another turned to stare at him.
“Yes,” Natalie said. “It’s Max.”
Victor’s mouth opened.
Natalie’s hand went up in front of his face. “Don’t even start. In fact, you should just put the foil back on the dish and take it with you. We have somewhere to be before I go to work.”
“You didn’t answer your phone,” Hanna said, her voice accusing.
Natalie sighed and turned to the older woman Max had never seen before. “Hello, Aunt Luba. Good to see you,” she said. Then she looked at the young guy. “What are you doing here, Joey?”
Max recognized the name as belonging to Natalie’s recently graduated attorney cousin. Joey’s eyebrows shot up for a second, then furrowed. “I should have known better. I was told you were expecting us.”
“Oh, God,” Natalie said, letting her head sag to her chest.
“What?” Hanna looked indignant. “You didn’t answer any of our calls, so we come over. You could have been lying sick. Robbed. Who knows in this city?”
“This is insane. Joey, I’m sorry.”
He glowered at Hanna. “They haven’t stopped talking about this idiotic business since I saw you on Friday. Mom says I have to have a legitimate reason not to take the case because ‘it’s stupid’ isn’t good enough.”
“Don’t be disrespectful,” Luba said.
At the same time, Victor said, “Hey, big-shot lawyer, you think you can speak to me like that? I’m still your elder, and your cousin, and you should show me respect.”
“Why are you people discussing this?” Natalie said. “You and Ivan can disagree all you want, but when you start to bring in innocent people...” She shook her head. “I’m not getting involved. And neither is Max. I mean it.” She grabbed her French press and rinsed it out. “You know what? You can stay here, eat the blintzes. Just clean up after yourselves, and from now on, you have to wait forty-eight hours before you can barge into my home, whether you think I’m sick, depressed or if I eloped with the postman.”
That caused another outburst, but Max was now inching his way to the front door. He found Joey was doing the same from the other direction. They met in the middle and shook hands. “Joey Balaban,” he said. “Recently situated as temporary counsel at the Legal Aid Society.”
“They do good work. Max Dorset, Latham, Kirkland and Jones.”
“I’ve heard of them. Didn’t they just win a huge ruling?”
The craziness in the kitchen had mostly died down, and Natalie had turned his way. She’d asked him before about his work, and he’d hesitated. Not that he was ashamed of what he did, it was just that most people wouldn’t understand. Especially when the winning side was so unpopular. “Pretty big, yeah. So what’s your specialty?”
“Criminal law, although I may need counsel of my own if my family doesn’t stop with this absurd lawsuit. Sadly, I don’t know that I’ll have a choice, unless I can convince them to drop it. That’s the main reason I came today. I know Natalie is the only rational one in the bunch that they actually listen to, and I figured the two of us would have a better shot at nipping this in the bud than just me.”
“So the whole family’s like this?”
“Oh, yeah. Every last one, including my grandfather who turns ninety-four this month.”
“Amazing. On the plus side, you guys will never be lonely.”
“True. And there’s always lots of great food.”
“Max?” Natalie approached. “You ready to go?”
“I am.”
“You cannot be serious,” Victor said, his voice louder and lower. “We came all the way over. The blintzes, they take me hours to make. By hand. With my own pot che
ese, not what I use in the restaurant. Although the restaurant blintzes are plenty good. First place two years. The New York Post!”
“They look delicious,” Max said, “but we were already on our way out. Perhaps another time?”
“Perhaps,” Victor repeated, not very nicely. “Natalie. You call me when you’re done with your very important appointment, okay?”
“Remember, I have to go to work.” She took Max’s hand. “And please stop harassing Joey. He’s got his own life to worry about. If you’re so desperate to work things out, get some boxing gloves and the last man standing wins.” Before another word was spoken, she’d pulled Max out and they raced down the stairs.
Finally, they were on the street, and scurried like thieves around the corner. When the coast was clear, Natalie let his hand go as she stopped. “That went pretty well, I think.”
“We made it out alive. And I really liked that bit about duking it out.”
“I feel bad not taking Joey with us, but he’s a big-shot attorney now. This is good practice.”
Max grinned. “I’ve got to say, those blintzes did look great.”
“Do you want to go back?” Her lips twitched. “We can do that.”
“Uh, no.” He laughed and grabbed her hand. “Any idea where we’re headed?”
“None.”
“We can always go to my place.”
“You have coffee?”
He nodded. “Not as fancy as yours, though.”
“We’ll survive.”
They started walking again, and it was nice, just holding hands and not being in any particular hurry. “We could go to Katz’s Deli if you want.”
“There’s bound to be a huge line,” she said, “but if you want, sure.”
If it was going to be a choice between eating and going to his place... “What time do you have to be at work?”
Natalie’s smile made it all the way to her gorgeous brown eyes. He doubted he had to verbalize his vote.
“Not for another hour and a half.”
She leaned in to him to let a family walk by. The stroller had twins in it, and there were three other toddlers with them, all connected by leashes. “What made you decide your specialty? Tort law, right?”
He wished he’d steered the conversation to something else. “Basically. I specialize in civil law. Mostly because of the research. It’s a little like being a detective. I search for the right precedent, the more obscure the better. I’ve even used ancient Greek references to make a point.”
They’d slowed almost to a standstill. Her head was tilted up, and their eyes met for a few seconds. “If it’s okay with you, I’d rather not talk about work. It’s supposed to be my vacation and it seems I’ve had to be on too much lately.”
“Of course,” she said, but he caught a hint of worry in her expression seconds before she broke out in a smile. “If I’m not mistaken, we’re pretty close to your loft, right? Let’s get moving.”
He stepped up the pace, but his thoughts weren’t so much on what they were about to do as what he’d just done. He’d dodged her questions again. He knew why. For the same reason he’d stayed off-line and away from newspapers for the past week.
In his world he was a hero, but he wasn’t so self-centered that he didn’t realize how most people viewed the victory. Natalie definitely fell in the most-people category, and he wasn’t anxious to let her know he might actually be the villain.
13
THE FOLLOWING MONDAY, Natalie arrived at Omnibus just in time. It had been a difficult morning. With Max in her bed, she’d been sorely tempted to play hooky, but then he’d have had to skip his meetings, which could mean the difference between a good position and a great one. So they’d showered separately, behaved like grown-ups and gone their separate ways.
The memory of him was still with her, though. The feel of his hands was like a map of her erogenous zones, some undiscovered until he’d touched her. She wondered if the sensation of lips nibbling on the inside of her wrist had always held the capacity to make her ache, or if her desire was triggered by his lips in particular?
While she was able to focus on her work for the most part, snapshots of moments she’d shared with Max kept sneaking to the fore. Good thing she didn’t have to operate heavy machinery or she could have had a problem.
First up for her at work was a review of her upcoming article for the International Federation of Film Archives. But instead of going directly to her draft, she typed Max’s name into the search engine on her computer.
She’d done a quick Google search after their first night together, but she hadn’t gotten much farther than his Facebook bio. Everything there had been what she’d expected: his education, the firm he worked for, his serious lag in posting due to being so overworked.
This time, however, it wasn’t Facebook she was interested in, but LinkedIn. And a quick glance at his profile told her what made him such a sought-after attorney.
His firm had won a hard-fought toxic tort case that could have cost its clients millions. Max was mentioned in two articles as being resourceful and dedicated. The partners took the lion’s share of the credit, but anyone could read between the lines.
She didn’t understand much about the case until she looked at some articles not written by and for attorneys. One, in particular, made the repercussions of Max’s victory achingly clear.
The case truly was major, and the win had been completely unexpected. At issue were levels of mercury in commercially sold tuna, and the fact that there were no warnings that eating canned tuna more than a few times a week could be dangerous. Not because those suing the seafood industry didn’t have a strong position, but because there was a legal precedent already in place that made it impossible to challenge the status quo without changing the way the U.S. Food and Drug Administration worked. Evidently if a product was regulated by a federal government, consumers weren’t allowed to sue.
Natalie had had no idea that was the case, and while finding that precedent was very impressive, she wasn’t all that thrilled with the idea as a result consumers could be at risk.
A gentle tap on her office door made her jump. “Come in,” she said.
Her colleague Veda stepped inside. “Got a minute?”
“Sure.” Natalie smiled and closed all her open tabs. Her stomach and chest were both tight, but she had to let her personal life go for now. She never should have looked him up at work, where she didn’t have time to make sense of what she’d read. Veda sat in one of the guest chairs. She’d worn one of her more colorful outfits today, very demure and pretty like the woman herself. Her smile dimmed as she leaned forward. “Are you all right?”
“Yes. Fine. Thanks. Just going over my schedule for the day. What can I do for you?”
Veda hesitated long enough to signal she didn’t believe things were fine at all, but she didn’t push. “The folks starting the new film course at Yale can only make it here right after the Historic Preservation Symposium, so we’re going to have to shuffle some things around. I was hoping you and Rick and Danny could work with me this afternoon so we could get the meeting schedules squared away.”
“If we can do it between four and six, that would be great, because I have to teach a class after that and I won’t be done until ten.”
“Great.” Veda didn’t stand. “I don’t want to intrude, but maybe you shouldn’t be here at all today. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you look so pale.”
“It’s nothing. Well, it’s something, but it’s not my health. I’m just confused. It’s a guy problem, which is ridiculous. Especially with all we’ve got going on here.”
“Did something happen with you and Oliver?”
Oliver? Right. She hadn’t told anyone. “We broke up, but that was my choice and I’ve got no regrets.” Natalie could hardly b
elieve she was even talking about this at work. Although Veda was nice, they didn’t connect that way. But now that the door was open...
“I’ve got some time now if you want to talk.”
Before she could stop herself, Natalie said, “I don’t even know the whole story yet. I’ve been seeing this man. He’s more of a friend than anything else because we don’t want the same things. But I’ve just learned something about him that upsets me. It shouldn’t. I mean, I’m sure he was just doing his job, but I’d imagined him being...better.”
“He’s someone new in your life?”
She nodded. “We met by accident, but he’s funny and smart and he’s honestly interested in film...and me. He doesn’t even mind my crazy relatives, which is something, trust me.”
“Sounds to me like you two are still in the honeymoon phase...”
“Oh, no. He doesn’t want anything more than a friendship, and I’m looking for someone completely different. Well, mostly different. Someone who wants to get married and start a family, so—”
“I just meant that you’re in that new space where you’re excited to be together and you can talk for hours and everything’s shiny and thrilling?”
“Of course.” Natalie felt her face heat. Not only had she crossed the professional lines she’d established, she wasn’t even listening properly. Or making any sense. “He’s very different from anyone I’ve ever known before.”
Veda smiled at her, but it was gentle, not mocking. “I’ve been there. I met him in London when I was at university there. A gorgeous guy with an Irish brogue so thick and smooth you could spread it like butter. I’d only known him for two weeks before I was convinced we would be together forever. We couldn’t get enough of each other. I thought he hung the stars. Then his wife came to visit.”
“Oh, God.” Natalie sat back in her chair. “You’re right. I’ve made Max impossibly perfect, haven’t I? Now that I’ve seen something that doesn’t fit, I’m blowing it all out of proportion.”
“Maybe. Or maybe there’s something you need to discuss with him. But your reaction, given the timing, sounds pretty normal. Sad, because it’s not fun when the illusion is spoiled. Especially for us, right? We, who are so in love with the magic of film. I used to wonder if Gregory Peck had ruined me for all other men.”
