Page 36 of Maximus

“Fine. Keep your secrets.” She rolled her eyes. “I need to make calls to carpenters and the trucking company.”

He tapped her on the butt when she turned around. “Fresh,” she said over her shoulder.

“Absolutely,” he agreed and went to his desk to do something on the ancient-looking computer that could do things she didn’t understand. Maybe it was better she didn’t.

When she finished arranging the carpenters and the shipment of the artwork, it was way past time for dinner. They closed up, she activated the alarms, and they walked hand in hand down the boardwalk to her regular café.

After they were seated at her regular table, they ordered tea and their meal. The sound of diners' conversations was quiet in the background as most people had already had their dinner and left to go to the evening’s activities or home.

Elena laughed at Max’s antidotes about his sister’s attempts to fix him up and the types of women she’d thought Max would go for. “She was a model and didn’t eat. Literally, she drank all her calories, and any energy she got was because she snorted it up her nose.” Max groaned. “My mother drew the line after that and then proceeded to grill Martha on how she knew a person who used cocaine as an energy source.”

“That’s a good question. How did she?” Elena asked as she sipped her after dinner tea.

“Martha’s a photographer, and they’d met during a shoot. Martha had no idea the woman was as dependent on chemicalsas she was. Or so she said. I think she was desperate for me to have a girlfriend.”

“She worries about you, true?” Elena asked as he took a sip of his tea.

“Worries about me?” His brow furrowed. “That could be the case, but I think she wants me to be normal, and working with my computer systems in my basement isn’t, at least in her opinion. She once told me serial killers were spawned in that fashion.”

Elena barked out a laugh. “She did not say that!”

“She absolutely did, and it was at dinner with my entire family around the table.” Max laughed. “It’s a good thing she’s the baby of the family because I’m sure if my brothers had said that my mother would have ended them.”

“She sounds like a character.”

“She’ll love you,” Max said. “All my family will.”

She wasn’t so sure. She hoped that was the case, but in reality, what would cause them to love her? She was a stranger. “How could you possibly know that?”

“They’ll love you because I do.” He stared at her and reached for her hand. She blinked at him, and her mouth slackened.

“What did you say?”

He smiled at her and whispered so only she could hear him, “I’m a man of logical enterprises, yet there’s nothing logical about the feelings I have for you. They won’t change any of the facts, but they do change me. You have changed me. I’m falling in love with you, Elena. Please tell me you feel the same way.”

She snapped her mouth shut and nodded. “I do. God, I do. If I admitted it, I thought you’d run away as fast as possible.”

“I’m never going to run away from you. Only toward you.” He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. She shivered, and her core clenched at the sexy and gentle gesture.

“You should take me home now, Max.” Her whisper was just as quiet but edged with desperation.

He stood and dropped a roll of notes on the table, not bothering to count them for the bill. He extended his hand to her, and they moved through the small establishment and out the door. She wrapped her hand around his bicep and stared up at him. “How am I so lucky?”

He covered her hand with his and smiled down at her. “Luck has nothing to do with what we have. I have to believe it’s destiny. I’m not a firm believer in fate, luck, or destiny, but there’s no logical divination as to why we found each other, how circumstances led me to this assignment, or …”

“Or?” She smiled and looked up at him. His face had turned to stone. “What is it?”

“Don’t look back, but we’re being followed.” He tightened his grip on her hand when she jumped.

A jolt of fear shot through her. “Are you sure?”

“Positive. One man on our left back about fifty feet. I’m going to stop and kiss you. I want you to look discretely and see if you recognize him.”

“I can do that.” She nodded and he stopped, turned to her, and tipped her head in exactly the angle she needed to see the man following her. Max moved a bit and blocked her view.

He whispered against her lips. “Sokolov?”

“Yes,” she responded. Max kissed her and then started them on the way back to her apartment. “Why’s he doing this?”

---