Page 2 of Tempting Max

I cut him off, because I can tell he’s actively trying to scare me away and now I want to make his life difficult. “I’m here for good.”

The second I set foot in Paintbrush I knew I was meant to be here. It was the first time since before Ethan blew up our engagement that I felt some semblance of peace. It also helps that this is just the kind of place Ethan would rather be caught dead than step foot in. “I mean, I don’t know if I want to work in the industry for the rest of my life, but I won’t be running out any time soon.”

He scowls. No, his entire body scowls at my answer. I didn’t even know a person could do that, but the proof is right in front of me. Even his massive shoulders look like I’ve wronged them somehow.

The minute of silence that passes before he speaks nearly kills me. “Fine,” he looks up at me, “training starts tomorrow. Can you be here at eight?”

Relief, excitement, hope, and a dozen other emotions course through me. I nod. “I can be here at eight.”

His lips flatten into what I thinkhe thinksis a smile but definitely isn’t.

“Uh,” I start when there is no further information forthcoming. “I should probably know your name before I devote forty hours a week to this place.”

He grimaces. “Sorry, I’m not great at this. I’m Max.” He holds out his hand. “Max Sutton, I own the place with my brothers Liam and Elliot.”

I stare at his giant fingers and shut my imagination down before it takes me places it shouldn’t. I’m over men. The last one I liked destroyed me. Clearing my thoughts, I hold my hand out. It looks comically small next to his and not because I’m unusually tiny. “Augusta Carper. Call me Gus.”

I feel every inch of each finger he wraps around my hand and when his eyes meet mine again, it feels as if I’ve touched an exposed electrical wire.

I don’t remember saying goodbye, or ending the handshake, all I know is that a few minutes later, I’m standing on the sidewalk, the warm spring sun on my shoulders, with a job.

I smile and soak in the feeling. The first step of becoming New Gus is complete. Now I just need to find a place of my own, rediscover my innermost self, and find peace with the universe.

Piece of cake.

2

MAX

The second Gus is gone, I drop my head into my hands and try to draw a steady breath. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid—feelings of any kind. And the second I saw the tiny, feisty, curvy redhead, I felt nearly all of them at once.

The anger and irritation that I felt made sense—I feel those all the time. The attraction, on the other hand, made me want to throw a chair through the plate glass wall that protects the brewhouse.

I can’t be attracted to her. Not just because she’s twenty years younger than me, and my employee, I can’t fall foranywoman. Not after what happened the last time.

Not after we lost our birthright to my uncle and that woman he hired... Not after we put every cent we had left into Redpoint.

This new start for my brothers is too important to risk for anyone.

“‘Sup?” Liam asks me, breezing through the bar with his open laptop, as usual doing twenty things at once, drawing my attention away from the problem of Gus. He’s the brains of this operation—the books, the finances, the analytics—everything that I avoid.

I’m the brewmaster. I know beer forwards and backwards, everything that it takes to create the perfect taste, texture, and temperature. Not because I have magic skills, but because I was raised to take my father’s place at the head of Sutton Brewing, the international juggernaut that took the alcohol world by storm in the eighties.

“Just hired a full-time employee.”

Liam pauses and studies the expression on my face. I have a feeling he reads every single emotion down to the fact that the tag on my t-shirt itches, but he chooses not to comment. “Do they have experience?”

I nod, trying not to remember the way her hand felt in mine. “Uh, college bar in Boulder, she says she’s used to a packed house. Also waitressed at a steak joint.”

“She?” Liam’s eyebrow crests his forehead. “I thought the morning interview was with a Gus.”

“Gus is a she.” I explain, trying to sound as if I handled the situation calmly and not like an idiot with an anger problem.

Liam’s expression doesn’t change, he also doesn’t blink, which means he’s reading every line of subtext about my body language and tone of voice again. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be in his brain—collecting, collating, and comparing information every second. It has to be so noisy. “I thought after Sloane…” He trails off after he glances at my face.

I put my hand up to cut him off. “Donotsay her name again.” Anger, no, undiluted rage ties my body into seventeen knots at just the sound of her name. My fists curl, my jaw tightens, and I swear on all that’s holy, I would tear this place apart if I didn’t catch the look of apprehension on Liam’s face. He’s seen me go full berserker only once and I don’t want to do that to him again. I take a breath and release the tension in my shoulders. “I’m sorry, it’s just…”

“I know,” Liam lets me off the hook with an understanding nod.

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