And he liked being under that spray with Natalie even more.
It had been a natural progression, from bed to shower. All in the effort of cleaning up.
Sex had been great before. But after tonight...
A line in the sand had been drawn—their rhythms and chemistry syncing.
Heart pounding, he recalled when they’d eased into the stall in his private bathroom. He’d guided her in with a strong, stable arm, made sure she didn’t slip on the beige tile as her smile—demure, once upon a time—turned feral with that arching eyebrow. She’d immersed herself in the water, enjoying every moment.
No one had ever been sexier. He was convinced of that.
Max wanted this borrowed time to last longer. Especially when she kissed him thoroughly like that.
As she leaned into him in the shower, Max took in a deep breath, the sensation of steam filling his lungs. Chest expanding, he wrapped his arms around her, spun her around to meet his still hungry stare. She seemed just as eager, just as awake as he was. Thick spirals of red hair settled on her back once she stopped spinning. He felt the wild abandon in her green-eyed gaze and it damn near singed his hair.
He kissed her deeply, his tongue grazing hers. Her kiss was literally sweet—chocolate still present in her breath.
They’d moved to another level, one where he suspected a two-week affair wasn’t going to be long enough. Which presented a problem. He had to go home, back to work, while her home and work were clearly here.
Sure, he could return to Royal, Texas, every now and again, but that wasn’t sustainable. And she wasn’t a booty call. So he needed to start exploring other ways they could see each other. And if she wasn’t comfortable with those options outside her newly adopted hometown?
He refused to entertain the notion of defeat. He hadn’t built a multimillion-dollar corporation from pure sweat and grit by thinking negatively or admitting defeat easily.
He stroked back her wet hair. “Now, let’s figure out where you want to go for our next date. New Orleans? Miami? Or maybe you’d like to go west? Las Vegas? Chicago?”
When she was quiet for a long moment, he acknowledged maybe those spots weren’t the most kid-friendly. He tried to think of what would appeal to a young mother and came up with a new angle. “An RV trip to take in some national parks? I hear Yellowstone is something to see.”
“Why so far-flung?” she asked him at last. “There are plenty of local places we could go.” Switching spots with him, she leaned against the tile, arms crossed over her chest.
He regretted putting her on the defensive even more than he mourned losing the view of her beautiful breasts. Gently, he untwined her arms and stepped back into them. “I have a personal jet. Anywhere is local. Would you like to go overseas? We can do that as well with an extra day’s notice if you need to arrange things with the kids. Surely you take an occasional day off from work.”
A dismissive smile appeared on her lips. “You’re overwhelming me. I’m a simple, small-town girl.”
He lowered his lips to her face. Kissed her cheek, nose, forehead. In a too quiet voice, he made his plea. “And you also moved around the country. I grew up simply, too. If you don’t want to do a tourist kind of date, we could go to Seattle...my home.”
The water pattered on the stall floor. Otherwise, their steam-filled world stayed silent for more than a few heartbeats.
Finally, she swiped shower spray from her eyes and said, “You’re moving things along at light speed when I think we’ve already moved mighty fast.”
“Okay, I’ll concede this is a quick step forward, but, Natalie, you have to know I can’t stay here indefinitely. I have a business to run back in Seattle. But I’m not ready to call our time together just a fling.”
Natalie was worth so much more than such a flippant description. “What if that’s all I can give you?”
Her words slapped over him in an icy wave as if the hot-water tank had just run out. He forced himself to stop and think, to study her face rather than just react. As he looked deeper into her eyes, he saw the contradiction to her words.
He saw vulnerability.
Protectiveness pumped through his veins. He was right in pursuing her. He just needed to persuade her. “Trust me on this, Natalie. We can have more than a couple of nights and one dinner out.”
Her throat moved in a long swallow. “When I wake up each morning, it’s all I can do to think through twenty-four hours. And that’s because dough has to rise for the next day’s breakfast. I don’t have the energy to think longer than that. Maybe it’s because hope saps my reserves. Perhaps that makes me a coward—”
“You’re one of the strongest people I’ve met, and I have come across some of the toughest of the tough in the business world.”
“Thank you. Regardless, though, I can’t promise you anything more than one day at a time.”
He needed to retreat for the moment, and he knew it. He wouldn’t push his luck so hard that it cost him this woman. He straightened, finding that familiar devil-may-care smile that had gotten him this far. “Twenty-four hours at a time? I can live with that.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, give me twenty-four hours to convince you we can enjoy twenty-four more on our own, away from here, just the two of us.” He sealed his mouth to hers, water sheeting down his back, trickling over them as he backed her against the tile wall. “Mmm...” He moaned against her mouth, then said hoarsely, “Can you arrange an overnight sitter? Or would you like to take the kids? I can hire a nanny.”
She leaned her head back against the tile, water clinging to her eyelashes as she blinked them open, full of passion. “I think it’s best the kids stay in familiar settings for now. You’re new to their world. For that matter, you’re new to my world. I don’t usually—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. “You don’t need to explain anything. I understand. Now, where do you want to go?”
She kissed his fingertips, staring at him. “Vegas sounds fun.”
“Vegas it is.”
A shift in her eyes matched the twitch in her lips. “But I was actually thinking perhaps Seattle. If it’s not an encroachment on your space, I would like to see your home.”
Not at all what he had anticipated. But a home-turf advantage? He could handle that. “I would like to show you my home and my offices.”
“What about the investigation here?”
“Actually, I’ve hit such a brick wall on that, I’m thinking fresh eyes would help. I had already been considering consulting with my CTO—chief technology officer—Will Brady. This would be the perfect time for him to scope out the town and data collected with objective eyes, without me here to skew his impressions. Then when you and I finish our date trip, Will and I can put our heads together.”
“You are quite the multitasker.” Her words barely registered as she pressed her mouth to his with another kiss.
He’d won the battle here, if not the war. A victory. For now, he could accept that much.
But for how long?
* * *
Tall snowcapped peaks stood as sentinels, providing a backdrop for Seattle that seemed, to Natalie’s eyes, magical. The jutting mountains and deep green pines bit into the clear blue sky. An impossible blue rendered crisper from the cool weather in the Pacific Northwest. She had no doubt she would experience Seattle’s infamous gray skies, but for now, in the moment of her arrival, the sky stretched before her. Endless possibilities.
Or perhaps that more accurately described her feelings about this trip.
She hoped her time here could help reassure her of ways she and Max could be together, ways they could blend their two very different lifestyles.
She vacillated between hopelessness and total optimism and back again, over and over. Perhaps because she’d had t
oo much time to think while traveling on her own. Max had flown out early on a chartered jet because of a work emergency while Natalie had settled her children, and tried hard not to chicken out over flying on his private jet.
At least no one had outright questioned her. The knowledge in their eyes was clear, though. Gossip spread like wildfire in a small town. Everyone in Royal had known she was dating Max, so she gave up trying to keep their relationship quiet.
Both the town and her B and B were abuzz with her news. Even her friend Brandee had called the trip “serious.”
Settling deeper into the limo’s leather seat, she bristled at the word serious, turning the weight of the word over in her mind. Natalie’s heart was still heavy from the loss of her husband and the marriage that had started to fray. Her children at least seemed to accept that Max was a “friend.”
Her eyes flicked from the mountains to the buildings, noting the way bookstores, tech companies, music venues and coffee shops pressed into each other. It was a spread of literary and tech culture merging together.
Undeniably beautiful. A place she could enjoy visiting...but living here? She shook off the thought. She needed to be in the moment and not make decisions quickly either way.
Fluffing her scarf around her neck, she caught a glance of her reflection in the dark window of the limo Max had arranged to be waiting for her when the flight landed. Her skin glowed brighter—the result of some serious pampering at a spa. Much needed, she’d realized, during the massage.
Her dear new friends—Brandee and Emily—absolutely insisted on treating her to a spa day. They said she worked too hard, spent too much energy on everyone else. “Where is that attention to you?” Emily had asked, her brows arched heavenward. When Natalie didn’t respond, they had arranged for a sitter and whisked her away to the day spa for relaxation.
And a makeover.
Her friends had recruited fellow TCC member Naomi Price, a stylist with her own local TV show, who’d brought in racks and racks of incredible designer duds. They’d even commandeered Royal’s St. Tropez Salon. It had been a fun and magical experience. She would be lying to herself to think otherwise.
Gazing at the shadowed reflection in the window, she realized that her apprehension didn’t just stem from being whisked away to Seattle, or having so many people so publicly aware of her dating life. Those were factors, of course.
But the brimming tension in her tummy came from wondering what he’d make of her new haircut—the shorter strands of strawberry that framed her face called more attention to her green doe eyes.
She touched the silky strands that still seemed slightly chilled, despite the warmth of the limousine.
As Natalie surveyed the skyline, she smiled. Bold buildings—as bold as the mountains in the background—seemed to erupt into the sky. Nothing demure or subdued about this space.
It suited him, she thought to herself.
Much like the small B and B suited her and her children. How strange the way people took on the qualities of their geographies.
Natalie inhaled, absently drinking in the way couples huddled to each other in the cold weather. Texas had yet to become this chilly—it was still only late September. She wondered how her children were doing without her, even though she knew they were fine thanks to constant text updates and photos.
Margie had offered to watch the children while Natalie visited Max. Over these past few months, the dog trainer had become family—a mother she didn’t have. A mother she self-selected. There were no words to convey her level of appreciation for that, or for how wonderful she was with both of Natalie’s kids, especially with Colby. Margie even offered to stay at the B and B, which would be the least disruptive to Colby’s routine. And if anything were to go wrong overnight at the B and B, Margie could attend to that, as well.
Brandee, Emily and Max’s good friend Chels had offered to run the B and B in her absence. Her heart squeezed as she realized how lucky she was to have such friends in her life.
Small gestures were all she had ever had to offer. Small, intentional gestures. Natalie left Margie a fresh-baked casserole for breakfast, tons of fruit already sliced and diced and her to-die-for strudel. She’d also made Emily, Brandee and Chels strudel, as well. A small thank-you, but she’d poured her soul into the baking.
As they drew closer to the St. Cloud tower, her heart beat wildly, disrupting her normally steady demeanor. Shiny black glass dressed the spire in a dark elegance. Power seemed to cling to every aspect of the building, which was as mysterious and seductive as its owner.
The limo driver pulled up to the sidewalk, hopped out of the car to let Natalie out. Cold air caressed her cheeks, deepening the newly acquired blush—another result of Brandee and Emily’s makeover.
The driver helped her out of the car and handed off her luggage to the doorman, who ushered her inside, out of the wind.
Max lived in the penthouse. As the elevator rose, her heart sped up, butterflies returning to her stomach. She wondered as they passed the floors that housed his company what he’d be wearing, how he would react to her new look.
The door to the elevator opened with a ding. Her stomach turned with nerves.
There he was. Waiting for her. It looked like he might have been pacing, the way his muscled frame seemed to lurch forward as she met his gaze.
His lips parted ever so slightly. Eyes turning wide, growing with delight. His smile was genuine and deep as he took her hands and looked her up and down. “Well, hey.”
“Well, hey,” she teased back, his obvious pleasure warming her inside and out.
With a quick head shake, Max picked up her bags from the doorman, eyes staying fixed on her as she stepped through the threshold. And the second the door closed, he took her by the hand again and swung her into his arms. His kiss was fast, intense, deep.
Familiar.
They’d crossed into a new realm. A relationship. This was real. Toe curlingly so. She kissed him back with a familiarity that strummed her senses.
His hands skimmed down her spine and up again. “I missed you.”
“I saw you this morning.”
“Hours ago. Too long.” He kissed her nose.
She felt her nerves settling at the rightness of being with him. She winked and then looked past him to a huge two-wall corner window sprawled in front of her, revealing a perfect view of the Space Needle. A small gasp leaped from her lips. “You have to know your home is incredible. The view is...indescribably gorgeous. No wonder you love it here.”
“It was the logical place to make my mark. A techie mecca, home to companies like Amazon and Microsoft.”
Max shrugged in his flannel button-down shirt. A casual look for a casual answer and a man who she was realizing didn’t have a typical billionaire glitz she would have expected.
Her mind skated back to his words about Seattle. So he didn’t feel attached to the town?
As quickly as she formed the thought, she tossed it away. This was about taking things twenty-four hours at a time. To think about him calling somewhere else home implied something she wasn’t able to consider.
Just being here alone with him at all felt...surreal.
He placed her suitcase and his computer bag on the sleek black leather bench by the door. She immediately discarded her scarf, but elected to keep her jacket on. A chill lingered.
“I thought we could eat here tonight, on the balcony. Unless you would prefer to go out and see the city?”
Even though his private jet had been tricked out with every luxury she could have asked for, she’d been too nervous to eat or nap, which left her famished and drained. “Let’s eat in tonight. Tomorrow you can give me a quick tour of the city before we fly home.”
At least they would get to return to Royal together.
For how long?
; She shushed her thoughts again before they could ruin their time together before it even started.
“Supper here, then.”
She wondered if he planned to call in a catered meal or if there was something already here. He seemed so in control and not concerned she figured he must have plans A, B and C.
He strode toward the kitchen. Envy for a space like this tugged at her baker’s heart. The counter space alone made her drool. But the top-of-the-line steel appliances were stunning—paired perfectly with the industrial aesthetic of the concrete. A chef’s stove—gas with additional burners. A wine refrigerator.
What she could do with a kitchen like this at her bed-and-breakfast!
Max opened the refrigerator, eliciting a hiss from the mingling of air. She leaned on the countertop, the concrete cool against her fingertips. He pulled out a parcel wrapped in butcher’s paper. “I had the ingredients delivered for me to cook supper for you.” He grinned over his shoulder. “I do enjoy my kitchen, so I gotta confess I’m glad you opted to eat in. I ordered beef, since you appeared to like our dinner out.”
“I did. Very much, thank you.” She appreciated his thoughtfulness in noticing her preferences. “What would you have done if I’d chosen a restaurant instead?”
“I had my assistant make reservations as a backup at two different places.” He opened the paper to reveal two generous portions of filet mignon. “Once I get this rib eye seasoned with porcini mushrooms and a rosemary rub, I need to head down to my office briefly. I hope you don’t mind. You can make yourself at home here.”
“If you don’t mind, I would enjoy seeing where you work. Heaven knows you’ve seen every inch of my place, even the sewing room. If I won’t be disrupting employees?” She had to admit, his world intrigued her. A lot.
“There’s a private elevator from here to my office. But since it’s Saturday, you won’t have to meet a bunch of strangers. Most likely just my partner, Will, if he hasn’t already left for Texas.”
“I’m glad you’ll have some help with your partner in Royal.” She shifted her weight from right to left. The allure of the window called to her, and she found herself staring at the backdrop again.
Taking Home the Tycoon Page 13