by LETO, JULIE
Ariana wasn’t the least surprised that Stefano would find out all he could about Max. And it wouldn’t have been hard since Max came in the restaurant all the time.
“Yeah, well, making a success of himself in this town means a lot to him. He goes to charity functions and all the right parties. I need to be here, where my dream is. A wife should be with her husband.”
Stefano snorted. “Yeah, you were with Rick. You used to call the clubs and book his shows before he got a promoter. Used to inventory his equipment. Hell, girl, you used to help lug his speakers in and out of that beat-up van. You were a damn good wife by your definition. Where did it get you?”
“Divorced. Single. Which is maybe where I should be. I have dreams of my own, Stefano. You know that more than anyone. I can’t give them up.”
“Is he asking you to?”
“Max? No! Of course not. He’d never ask. He just figures we’d find a way to make it work.”
Stefano nodded and stood, dragging the stool with him and stashing it in the bare alcove that had once been their hostess station. “You’re afraid to fail again, Ari. Afraid to have your heart broken. That’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it’s also no reason to be stupid. If you love this man, if you believe he loves you, then you’re a damn idiot to walk away.”
Stefano huffed when he finished his tirade, just to make sure she was paying close attention. Then he waited…for her to agree? Ari sighed, joining Stefano in the alcove after lifting her stool and stacking it atop his. She knew her uncle was right. Knew only a “damn idiot” would let a man like Max go. And even though she’d claimed for years—including the first night they’d made love on his balcony—that a fear of heights was the only thing she was scared of, she knew now she’d been telling Max a big fat lie.
She was afraid of falling in love again. Of getting her heart broken yet again. Of losing herself in a man after she’d fought so hard to gain her independence after her divorce. And she also worried that this fear was one she’d never overcome.
“Stefano, I’m sorry if I embarrassed you with that photograph. We should have been more discreet.”
Draping his burly arm over her shoulder, he led her toward the back office. There was work to be done today, and none of it could be completed at the restaurant. “I’m your uncle, not your father. You don’t live in San Francisco for fifty-five years without developing some tolerance for unusual behavior. You don’t worry about me.”
He kissed her on the cheek and she knew the incident was done. “Thank you.”
His “you’re welcome” was a chesty grunt. “So, do you need any help making this matter right? I know a couple of mean sailors who might be looking for some extra cash.”
Ariana laughed, not doubting for a moment that Stefano did indeed know someone she could pay to break Leo Glass’s legs—and his camera—for little more than a night’s worth of tips. “Thanks, Uncle Stefano. I’ll keep that in mind.”
He kissed her other cheek, then unlocked the back door and checked in both directions for any sign of trouble, waving her through once he was certain the coast was clear. He pressed a set of keys into her hand. “Take my truck and do what you have to do. Leo doesn’t know who he’s messing with.”
That might be true, but, for that matter, neither did Max Forrester. But after tonight they’d both know. And maybe she’d know herself. As she skipped over a puddle and ducked around a trash bin to where Stephano parked his truck, Ariana realized that she couldn’t deal with Max and his suggestion that they extend their affair until she first dealt with the contents of her own heart.
15
ARIANA’S FIRST INSTINCT was to hold her breath. Pungent smoke, thicker than fog and ripe with marijuana and tobacco, drew the multicolored haze into a sickening swirl. Sweetened by the overpowering mixture of cheap perfumes, colognes and sweat, the air stung her eyes and burned the back of her throat. But she carefully kept a disgusted snort to herself. This world of raves and music wasn’t hers, but she needed to exist here long enough to find Leo Glass.
Ty Wong had assured her that Leo would be at this party. And after infiltrating several rave parties and dance clubs all night, she just wanted to find his scrawny, deceitful butt, force the whole truth out of him and leave.
To go back to Max. Back to adulthood. Back to worrying about the contents of her heart rather than the safety of her body.
“There. In the corner.”
Ty pointed toward a shadowed spot far from the front door of the abandoned building the teens and twenty-+ somethings had commandeered for the rave. Techno-music blared from speakers that probably cost more than her apartment. Girls in barely-there tank tops and hip-hugging capri pants chatted between sucking on pacifiers and drinking bottled water by the gallon. Guys made the rounds, a few hanging tight to helium balloons, some made from inflated condoms. Ty had already explained the uses and reasons for such odd sights, incongruous and childlike. Pacifiers. Balloons. Toys used to play with drugs like Ecstasy, the psychedelic of choice with this partying set.
This wasn’t her world, thank God. She preferred her ecstasy to be of the sensual kind. The kind Max gave her rather than some chemical wrapped in a pill.
Ty started to walk away, but she grabbed his arm. “Where do you think you’re going?” she asked, delivering her toughest sneer to the reed-thin excuse for a man she’d been forced to take on as her guide.
“I told you I’d help you find Leo Glass. I did that. I’m outta here.”
She didn’t release him, even when he tugged. “You still want me to ask your uncle not to throw you out of your rent-free apartment?”
He stopped struggling. “Hey, man. That was the deal.”
“Well, man—” she poked his chest, not surprised to instantly meet the feel of bone through his T-shirt “—then you better get Leo for me and bring him outside. This place stinks. I need air.”
Ty hesitated, but nodded. The strands of hair he’d dyed blue swung into his face. Until she got an explanation from Leo Glass, if not his head on a platter, she would manipulate Ty however she could. It had been a long time since Ariana had been this angry. Unfortunately for Leo Glass and Ty Wong and anyone else who got in her way, she was going to settle this score on her own terms.
That’s why she’d left without returning Max’s half dozen calls. At the time, she told herself she had to prove to Max that she could take care of herself. He was so powerful, so commanding, so at ease in the world of giving orders and orchestrating events to his advantage. But after the first descent into this foreign social world, she acknowledged that her fear of falling in love had sent her running from Max. She was afraid of trusting again. Loving again.
Once certain Ty was doing as she requested and wasn’t trying to sneak out a side door, she made a beeline for the exit. She took a deep, invigorating breath of garbage-scented air outside, thinking it the freshest fragrance she’d inhaled in a long time. She stepped toward the truck she’d borrowed from her manager, Ray, when she heard her name shouted over the residual pounding of music from inside.
She turned, expecting to see Leo. Instead she found Max. She should have realized he’d find her. That he wouldn’t let her get away so easily. Her admiration for this man warred with her need to put this matter to rest on her own.
“Max? What are you doing here?”
“Looking for you.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans, rage firing his green eyes and tempered only by the unmistakable softness of relief. “I know you said you needed to find Leo on your own, but…these parties aren’t safe. Ford and I have been all over town looking for you. What were you thinking?”
She bit back her anger when his tone altered from concern to condescension. She didn’t need Max following her, tracking her down, playing knight in shining armor to her damsel in distress. She’d taken damn good care of herself so far. She didn’t need his rescuing. But, God help her, his concern felt like a soft, wool blanket on a wet, cold night.
&nbs
p; She pushed the warmth away. “How did you find me?”
Max glanced over his shoulder. Ford, lingering on the sidewalk beside Max’s Porsche, waved. “My brother is very good at finding people.”
“Yeah, well,” she murmured, impressed despite her annoyance. “I should have let you throw him to the sharks when I had the chance.”
“Probably.” Max chuckled. “Did you find Leo?”
She glanced behind her at the battered steel door of the building, barely lit by the glow of a nearby street lamp. The parking lot was full of cars. At least twenty kids hung out on the weed-infested blacktop, sitting on the hoods, talking and laughing and having a much better time than she was.
“He should be coming out any minute.”
Max nodded, then scanned the area as he took Ari’s arm and led her into the light. Gazes darted at them from all directions and conversations stopped.
“You look like a cop,” she pointed out, gesturing at his clothes. He was dressed casually in faded jeans, a polo shirt and dock shoes, but he still looked out of place in this setting.
“Sorry, my oversize Tommy Hilfiger outfit is at the cleaners.”
His attempted joke succeeded. She chuckled, briefly imagining Max in baggy jeans slung low on his hips, boxers peeking out at the waistband beneath an oversize T-shirt and a sideways ball cap. She liked him better in his jogging clothes, or in those sexy, tailored suits. She liked him naked most of all, but now didn’t seem the time to admit her preference.
The door behind them opened and Ty emerged. Ariana turned, then sought Max’s gaze.
“Please let me handle this, Max. Leo betrayed me most of all.”
He hesitated, but then nodded and stepped back into the shadows. Close, but out of sight. Her heart swelled. Max trusted her, even though his own success with the Pier deal could be on the line.
She suddenly felt like a fool. Not because she had absolutely no idea what to say now that Leo was approaching, but because she’d let one minute pass without realizing how much she loved Max Forrester. Yeah, he’d found her when she’d wanted to confront Leo alone, but he was backing away, giving her control, just as he had when they made love. Just as he had since the very beginning, whenever she wanted to take the lead. She’d simply been too afraid to see that, unlike her family, Max trusted her to make good decisions. And, unlike Rick, he didn’t need to control her choices in order to elevate his own sense of power.
“Well, if it isn’t San Francisco’s sexiest homewrecker,” Leo said with a slur, kicking up gravel as he shuffled closer. She defensively held up her hands, palms up. She didn’t think Leo would strike her, but she had a strong suspicion he might lose his balance and topple over. Ty poked his head out of the door, then slinked back inside.
“Hello, Leo,” Ariana greeted, her tone even. Once certain of his balance, she slid her hands into the pockets of her leather blazer. “You’re not an easy guy to find.”
“Can’t say the same, can you?”
She conceded his point with a shrug. “You got me. You got me good. Care to tell me why?”
He rolled his eyes and chortled; his breath nearly knocked her a few steps back, but she held steady.
“Easy money. The old man wanted the inside scoop on that Forrest guy, and he paid cash.”
“Old man? What old man?”
“Burrows. The bank guy.”
Ariana shrugged. The only Burrows she knew was Charlie, and he was in real estate. Oh, and Maddie.
Wait a minute. Wasn’t Maddie’s father, Randolph Burrows, the president of First Financial? Ariana glanced over her shoulder at the shadow where she knew Max lingered, where she was certain he could hear every word they spoke. He stepped slightly forward into the light. The rage in his eyes easily bored through the darkness.
She turned back to Leo. “Randolph Burrows put you up to this? Did he say why?”
“Something about his daughter. Something about Forrester cheating on her or some shit. I don’t know. I don’t remember. I just know I was supposed to get pictures of the guy with some chick, any chick. But the man was a fuckin’ monk—until I placed that roofie in his drink, until you came along. You’re one hot piece of ass, you know that?”
Ariana clenched her mouth tightly closed, willing her dinner to remain in her stomach and her hands to remain by her sides. “Yeah, you told me that once, remember. I set you straight about talking trash to me. I don’t suppose my lecture had anything to do with this?”
Leo only laughed. “I saw you watching Forrester all the time. Heard his friend talking about fixing you two up. Pairing you was fuckin’ brilliant, don’t you think? Brought you both down at the same time.”
“Brilliant,” she begrudgingly agreed. She’d always suspected Leo Glass was a smarmy type, but so long as he showed up to the restaurant on time, worked his entire shift, got the orders right and was polite to the customers, she’d been a satisfied boss. She’d forgiven his one breach of decorum, ascribing the crude come-on that she barely remembered to a case of youth and hormones.
This time, he’d crossed the line. But she held back her retribution until she had the final piece of the puzzle. “And the newspaper? Did the old man arrange for the photos to be printed there?”
Leo clucked away her suggestion. “Hell, no. He wanted to keep the whole thing private. But I’m no idiot. I do read. I knew the press was all over Forrester for that thing with the Pier, so after I collected from the old man, I went to see the editor with a second set of prints.”
The hollowness in her chest expanded as more and more anger burbled up from the pit in her stomach. As Leo had said, it had all been too easy. Ruining her reputation and Max’s deal. Well, it was just as simple for her to put a crimp in Leo’s future. “I hope you got paid well…since you’re unemployed.”
“You can’t fire me!”
She tilted an eyebrow, but didn’t say another word. She sure as hell could fire him. “Already spent your payoff, didn’t you?” she asked.
His glazed eyes betrayed him. Leo was back where he’d started from. Good.
“Doesn’t matter,” he spat. “I can get another job.”
She nodded. “Yeah, you can. However, unless you want me making sure your new boss knows all about this incident, you’re going to take us back to your apartment and watch us burn whatever is left of your film.”
Max didn’t miss the “us” she purposefully placed in her demand. He stepped forward and waved for Ford to join them. Not only wasn’t she stupid enough to go anywhere with Leo without protection, she no longer wanted to.
She’d proved her point. To him. To herself.
Being in control, being strong and independent, wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. She’d won with Leo, but the victory was somehow hollow without Max at her side.
Leo cursed the minute he saw Max.
Max placed a protective arm over her shoulder and, this time, she allowed the warmth of his concern to flow through her.
“Ari, why don’t we let Ford take Leo home for that little fire party. You and I have someone else we need to see.”
She pushed the button on her watch, her weary eyes widening at the hour. “It’s 3:00 a.m., Max. Do you think Maddie’s father wants to see us in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t much care what Randolph wants at this point.” He skimmed his hand down her arm, then back up from wrist to cheek, as Ford led Leo to Max’s car. His caress ignited a burning deep within her, incinerating her residual anger at Leo’s self-serving actions.
“You handled Leo incredibly well,” he murmured.
She leaned her face into his palm, reveling in the soothing feel of his skin against hers. Max was a balm more potent than any of Mrs. Li’s teas, more intoxicating than the ouzo her uncle served. She wanted nothing more than to take him home and show him, as he’d shown her, that she was more than willing to find some compromise that would make their relationship work beyond the end of the week.
But they had one sto
p to make first. One last piece of the scandal to put to rest.
THOUGH THE CLOCK in the Porsche read three-thirty, the windows of the Burrows mansion in Nob Hill were ablaze with light. Max hadn’t called ahead, preferring the element of surprise to ensure that Randolph told him the entire truth of his involvement with Leo Glass, Donalise Parker and the scandal that had nearly ruined his relationship with Ariana, not to mention the development deal at the pier.
But Charlie had beaten him to the punch. Max pulled up behind Charlie’s car and parked the truck Ariana had borrowed from her uncle. Max hoped his friend was there because he’d heard from Maddie—and that the news was good.
The butler opened the door shortly after Max knocked, not the least ruffled by greeting visitors in his pajamas and robe. He ushered them into the study and offered freshly brewed coffee from a silver serving set.
“Mr. Burrows will be down momentarily,” the butler assured them, then left.
Ariana stood in the doorway, surveying the opulence of the house with wary eyes. “So this is what old money looks like.”
“Some of the oldest in the city,” Max verified while he poured and mixed two cups of strong java for both of them. He handed her a cup and gestured for her to sit. She shook her head, taking her first sip without moving farther into the room.
Max couldn’t help but grin. She wove her way through raves and clubs with ease. She handled Leo with conviction and control. But Randolph’s wealth gave her pause.
He recalled with all too much clarity the intimidation he’d faced the first time Maddie had brought him to her parents’ home. He understood perfectly what Ariana was thinking as her gaze scanned the antique furniture and original artwork. I don’t belong here. I don’t fit in.
“Money is money, new or old,” he assured her, cupping her elbow with his palm and leading her to a leather love seat tucked near the window.