Lucius shrugged. “Suffice it to say, I’ve been keeping an eye out on my baby brother. And I can see how much he’s come to care for you and vice versa.”
“You can?”
Lucius grinned, and Tahlia could see why Naomi had fallen for him. When he wasn’t annoying Maximus, he was quite attractive. Of course, she had eyes only for Maximus, who now was so angry with her he didn’t even want to talk to her, much less look at her.
“I can because I know it’s how I felt when I fell for Naomi. My grandmother said it was written all over my face, and I can see what she means because it’s written all over yours.”
Tahlia attempted a laugh. “It won’t do much good now. Maximus hates me.”
“He doesn’t hate you. He may be angry with you. He may even feel a bit betrayed by you since you sided with me about going public, but he doesn’t hate you.”
Why hadn’t she thought through her vote? She’d cursorily glanced over the expansion prospectus without giving it due consideration. She’d been so focused on honoring Arthur’s wishes and projecting her own opinions and views about the man who’d been a father figure to her that she’d neglected to take into account Maximus’s feelings. “What do you suppose I do?” Tahlia inquired.
“Ah.” Lucius leaned back in his chair. “That’s where you have me at a loss. I wish I knew my brother better to offer you some sound advice, but I don’t. I only know how I would feel in this instance, and I would say to give him some time to settle down and let cooler heads prevail.”
“Why are you telling me all this?” Tahlia inquired. “I’d think you’d want him to be unhappy.”
He frowned. “Why would you think that?”
“Because,” Tahlia responded, “you don’t miss a chance to antagonize him. Get his goat. You know you do.”
Lucius grinned mischievously. “I suppose I do sometimes, but isn’t that what big brothers are supposed to do? Give their little brothers a hard time?”
Tahlia stared at Lucius for long moments, and then it hit her. “You want a relationship with Max, don’t you?”
Lucius’s mouth compressed and he was silent, and Tahlia wondered if he was going to answer her, and then he said, “Yes, I do. I grew up an only child, Tahlia, and I’ve always wanted siblings, and now I have one but he doesn’t want me.” His eyes drifted to the closed door beyond which Maximus was down the hall in his office, probably seething with fury at what he considered her betrayal.
“I think he wants it, too,” Tahlia said. “He’s just afraid to admit it.” She knew she was revealing a confidence, but maybe there was a way she could finally bridge the gap between these two proud and powerful men. So she continued. “Just because Arthur acknowledged him doesn’t mean Maximus had it easy growing up, Lucius. Arthur was cold and distant with Maximus. Constantly pushing him to excel but never showing him affection. And in the end, giving you, us—” she pointed back and forth between them “—half the company he’d worked so hard for. He has a right to his anger. But I also know he doesn’t blame you about your parentage. In fact, he’s been angry with both your mothers and father for how they all handled the situation. You both could have known each other, grown up together, been a family if they’d all let go of their individual agendas.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more,” Lucius said. “About our parents, that is. And thank you for sharing with me about Maximus’s childhood. Being acknowledged as Arthur Knight’s son wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I’d always thought the grass was greener on the other side. Clearly, I was wrong.”
“I need to go to him.” Tahlia rose to her feet. She couldn’t just wait and see what happened between them. She had to know now, make him see that her vote today had nothing to do with her feelings for him or what he meant to her.
“Tahlia.” Lucius touched her arm. “I know how much you want this, want my brother, but be careful. He’s angry right now and he might lash out.”
She nodded. “I understand.” But she had to act. If she waited for the dust to settle, it might only push them further apart. She had to trust her instincts. He may not be ready to say he loved her, but deep down she knew Maximus would never hurt her.
Chapter 13
Maximus returned to his office after his epic fail of a board meeting and found Griffin waiting in his office. He frowned. “What are you doing here, Griff?” He tossed the folder with his proposals on the desk. He might as well burn it for what good it had done him today. He’d known Lucius would vote against him, but he’d been hoping against hope that he was wrong about Tahlia and that she’d pull through for him. For once, he needed someone to be on his side. But yet again, he’d been wrong. Why did everything have to be so hard?
“I thought you might need to see a friendly face,” Griffin said. “When you texted me yesterday that today was the big vote, I wasn’t sure how it would go for you.”
“Well, it didn’t.” Maximus stalked to his desk. He reached inside his drawer and pulled out the bottle of bourbon he kept for special occasions to toast a good deal with the executives. But today was different. He needed it to take the edge off. He produced two small glasses. “Care to join me?”
“If it’ll make you feel any better, then sure, I’ll have one.” Griffin regarded him from the sofa, where he was perched.
Maximus poured two generous glasses and then walked over to hand one to Griffin. “Bottoms up.” He didn’t wait for Griffin and instead chugged the amber liquid back in one gulp.
“Take it easy, Max,” Griffin said. “I know things didn’t go your way today, but that doesn’t mean it’s over.”
“Doesn’t it?” Max’s brown eyes stared at him. “It’s over, Griffin. I’m tired of beating my head against a post and going nowhere. Maybe Lucius—” he pointed to the door, glass still in hand “—and Tahlia should see what it’s like when there’s no one at the helm. Let’s see how they fare without me. I’m going on an extended vacation.”
“To punish them for voting against you?” Griffin inquired. “Won’t this hurt you in the process? You’re a major shareholder, too, Max. Think about what you’re saying.”
“I don’t care,” Maximus replied, walking over to the bottle of bourbon and pouring himself another glass. He gulped down the second drink. “Damn my father for putting me in this position.”
“There’s nothing you could have done.”
“Clearly, I didn’t do a good job seducing Tahlia,” Maximus said bitterly. “I should have never gotten involved with her when she was just a means to an unfruitful end. Our entire relationship was a complete and utter waste of time.”
“Don’t say that, Maximus, because I know that’s not true.” Griffin put down his glass and stood. “I’ve seen how you’ve changed since you’ve been with Tahlia. You’re more relaxed and carefree. Lighter even. She’s been a good influence on you.”
“I don’t want to talk to her right now.”
“Why not? Why can’t you say how you feel about her?” Griffin inquired.
“Because she betrayed me today,” Maximus hissed through clenched teeth. “She could have been on my side, but instead she sided with him.”
“Your brother.”
“My enemy.”
“I don’t believe that’s how you truly feel. We’ve always been like brothers and you’ve always wanted a sibling. Well, you have one now. Maybe if you opened your heart, like you’ve done with Tahlia, and let love in. Then maybe...”
“Love has n-e-v-e-r done anything for me,” Maximus responded bitterly, cutting him off. “Anyone I’ve ever loved has either lied to me, thrown it back in my face or betrayed me. I can do without that emotion, thank you very much.”
“Fine. Then wallow in self-pity, Maximus, but I have to say the look of poor little rich boy doesn’t look good on you.”
Seconds later
, he was gone, leaving Maximus alone. And this time, he truly felt that way.
* * *
Tahlia hid behind a planter as Griffin stormed out of Maximus’s office. She’d heard more than she’d ever wanted to. And now her heart was breaking just like Maximus’s. She caught sight of him sitting on the floor with his drink just as the door closed.
Tahlia swallowed the bile in her throat, and with as much decorum as she could muster after hearing that Maximus had purposely set out to seduce her, she made her way through the front doors of Knight Shipping and out to her car.
She sat inside for minutes, hours—she truly couldn’t count because all she could do was hear Maximus’s words reverberating through her mind. I should have never gotten involved with her... Our entire relationship was a complete and utter waste of time.
She was in stunned disbelief. He truly felt like getting involved with her was a complete and utter waste of time? Sobs took over her, bubbling over, and she cried until there were no more tears left. She knew people had to wonder why she was still sitting in visitor parking, but she physically was unable to move until the sobs subsided.
Eventually, Tahlia drove herself home. On the way, she called Kaitlynn, who promised to be there waiting for her. And she was. As soon as she opened the doors to her apartment, Kaitlynn was there, enveloping her in the warmest of embraces.
“Thank you, Kaitlynn.” Tahlia clung to her baby sister as she closed the door behind her. Kaitlynn led her to the sofa, and Tahlia curled into a ball in the corner. She felt like such a fool for believing that Maximus had ever meant one word he’d ever said to her. She was just a means to an unfruitful end. Maximus’s harsh words still stung hours after she’d heard them.
“Tahlia, what happened?” Kaitlynn asked. “You were kind of incoherent on the drive home, and I couldn’t make out what you were saying.”
That led to another round of fresh tears, and Kaitlynn stopped talking and merely held Tahlia as she let out the grief. “It was all a lie, Kaitlynn,” she finally was able to say. “He was using me.”
“No!” Her sister didn’t want it to be true, and neither did she. She’d believed Maximus, in him, that he would never hurt her, that somewhere deep inside him, despite the trauma of losing his father and experiencing his indifference that he was someone capable of genuine feeling, but she was wrong. Maximus Xavier Knight was a cold, heartless bastard who cared about no one but himself.
“It’s true,” Tahlia responded. “He hoped that by seducing me, I’d be more pliable and would vote his way.” She laughed, and her laughter turned to tears. “Of course, he got the shock of his life today when I voted against him, despite the fact that he’d made sure I fell for him. And I did, I fell hard for a liar. Are all the Knight men untrustworthy?”
Tahlia thought of Arthur and the years he’d lied to Charlotte and Jocelyn, to his sons, to himself. Maybe Maximus just didn’t know any better. Look at his role model.
“I don’t know what to say, Tahlia,” Kaitlynn said. “I was rooting for Maximus. I was hoping that my sixth sense was wrong and that he was on the up-and-up. I’m sorry I was wrong and that I didn’t do more to dissuade you from going down this path.”
“Like you could have stopped me. I wanted Maximus from the moment I first saw him, and when he opened the door for a possible relationship, I walked right through it. Knowingly and happily.”
“That still doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”
“Nope. It hurts like hell. It feels as if I’m literally being torn asunder.” Tahlia held her stomach, which had been tied in knots since the board meeting. It had only worsened after she’d overheard Maximus’s angry words.
“What are you going to do now?”
“At this very second?” Tahlia asked. “I’m going to stay on my couch until the pain hurts a little less. And then tomorrow, I’m going to go into the gallery and run my business.”
After Paul, she’d sat on the couch in her pajamas eating pizza and ice cream and in general feeling sorry for herself, but not anymore. She’d become stronger after him and knew that eventually the hurt of losing Maximus would ache a little less.
Kaitlynn smiled at her. “I’m proud of you, sis. If this had been Paul, you would never leave this house.”
“Oh, I want to curl up in a ball and die,” Tahlia said. At Kaitlynn’s shocked look, she clarified, “Not literally, that is. But as much as I love Maximus, I can’t change what’s happened. Somehow I’ll have to find a way to go on without him.”
* * *
Maximus’s head was pounding and his mouth tasted vile. He glanced around and realized he was at his penthouse and had fallen asleep on his sofa wearing yesterday’s suit. The last clear memory he had was of being in his office yesterday with Griffin and having a bourbon. The room was spinning, so he laid his head back down, and that was when he recalled that his assistant, Elena, had called him a cab when she’d found him passed out in his office. He must have stumbled up to his penthouse on his own. Thank God he hadn’t driven.
He sucked in a deep breath. Drinking hadn’t changed the situation, it had only given him a hangover. Maximus vowed not to do that again. He was still in the minority at Knight Shipping, a company he’d always thought would be his someday. And now that he was no longer angry, he felt defeated. His father had set all of this in motion, but that still didn’t mean that he wasn’t hurt that Tahlia didn’t believe in him, wouldn’t stand by his side. She knew how he felt about Lucius, about the entire situation, and still she’d voted against him.
The more he thought about it, the angrier Maximus got. He needed to talk to Tahlia, if only to clear the air so he’d have no regrets. Gingerly, he eased himself off the sofa and headed for the shower.
Fifteen minutes later, he felt refreshed from the hot water and was dressed and ready to face the day. He thought about calling Elena or checking his email, but he’d been serious yesterday when he’d told Griffin he was taking a break from Knight Shipping. He’d let Lucius and Tahlia run the business in his absence. Instead, he spent the remainder of the afternoon making arrangements to take out his father’s sailboat. Maximus had always loved the boat, and that was the one thing Arthur hadn’t managed to give away during the reading of the will.
Once he had a captain lined up and arranged for provisions to be delivered to the sailboat for that evening, he packed a large suitcase because he wasn’t coming back. At least not for a while. But before he could head to the marina, he needed to have a chat with a certain lady.
He took the Bugatti and arrived at Tahlia’s apartment after 7:00 p.m. But he wasn’t prepared for the reaction that greeted him. As soon as Tahlia opened the door and saw it was him, she slammed the door in his face.
* * *
Tahlia couldn’t believe Maximus’s nerve. He’d actually shown up on her doorstep after all the hideous things he’d told his best friend. What did he want? One for the road? A quick roll in the hay for old times’ sake? She didn’t want to let him in, but his incessant knocking and calling out her name was causing a disturbance to her neighbors.
She swung open the door but hung on to it. “What do you want, Maximus?”
His eyes widened at the use of his full name, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he just stood there staring at her. “Can I come in?”
“Why?”
“Because we need to talk.”
“We have nothing to say to each other. I heard quite enough yesterday.”
His brows drew together in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Does ‘I should have never have gotten involved with her when she was just a means to an unfruitful end,’ or, ‘Our entire relationship was a complete and utter waste of time’ ring a bell?” Tahlia inquired, her arms folded across her bosom.
His face clouded with uneasiness, and his dark eyes
shuttered. “Tahlia.”
He stepped forward, but she held out her hand as a defense mechanism. “Oh, no, you don’t.” She shook her head. “I’m not letting you in. So, what, you can sweet-talk your way out of this? I’m not that gullible, Maximus. You may have fooled me once, but not again. I won’t be made a fool of for a second time.”
“It’s not like that,” he replied. “You heard that conversation out of context.”
She frowned. “By all means, explain.”
“Not out here,” he whispered when one of her neighbors passed by. “Let me in.”
She glared at him and widened the door so he could enter, but she remained rooted to the spot. She wasn’t getting comfortable. She would never be that way with him again, and that broke her heart after everything they’d been to each other. They’d been together only a short amount of time and it may not have meant anything to him, but it had meant everything to her.
“I’m sorry you heard what you did,” Maximus said, turning to face her at the door. He stood rigidly in the middle of the living room as if afraid to come near her.
“No, I heard the truth, the unvarnished truth. And I’m thankful for it because now I know everyone was right when they warned me to stay away from you. My sister, hell, even Lucius, warned me to be careful, but I wouldn’t listen. I had stars in my eyes where you were concerned.” She shook her head in dismay. “What a fool I was.”
“You’re not a fool, Tahlia,” Maximus replied. “Our relationship was real.”
“Was, as in the past tense? So you admit it’s over?”
“It’s what you want, isn’t it?” he inquired. “Because I don’t see how we can go on. You’re angry with me because of what you heard, and I get that. You have every right to be. I did intend to seduce you, Tahlia, to use you for my own gain, but somewhere along the line that changed and I abandoned that plan because I came to care for you. Truly care for you. But yesterday, you hurt me, too.”
“What? You’re going to put this on me?” Tahlia stared back at him in amazement.
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