Fortune's Perfect Match

His sister smiled, though her eyes were plainly curious. “We could say the same. I haven’t seen you out since—”

“Jeremy,” Max said abruptly, not really wanting to have his sister announce in front of Emily just how long it had been since he’d been seen in public with any woman in his arms. He hadn’t dated in over a year. Back when he was thinking he was heading down the “family man” path, and his life was finally on the right track.

Until it derailed.

He let go of Emily so that she could see the other couple. “I guess you two don’t really need any introduction.”

“I guess we don’t,” Emily agreed. “Jeremy, how nice to see you.” Her gaze went from her cousin something-something-removed, to his wife, and she smiled wryly. “I should have connected the names.” She stuck out her hand toward Kirsten. “It’s good to see you again. I didn’t realize Max was your brother.”

Max suddenly felt like the odd man out. His sister was married to a Fortune and Emily was born a Fortune. While he was a guy just trying to make a place for himself in the world. “Our meal is probably getting cold,” he said.

“Why don’t you join us,” Emily suggested to his sister and her husband. “I’d love to get caught up, and we already have a table out in the courtyard.”

A table that only sat two people, and closely at that.

Max managed a smile, anyway. He and his sister had had their moments in the past, but she was his only family. He knew he could count on her, and more times than he wanted to admit, he’d had that point proven to him. She’d been the terminally responsible Allen, and for the past few years, he’d been working damn hard to prove to her—as well as himself—that he wasn’t the terminally irresponsible Allen. He loved her. And he respected Jeremy a hell of a lot. Both he and Kirsten had been there for him when he’d been at his lowest point.

He just didn’t want to share Emily with them at that particular moment.

“We’d love to,” Kirsten assured. Her hand was tucked around Jeremy’s arm.

And that was the end of that.

They headed back to their table, Emily chattering away easily with her something-removed cousin as they caught up with the family members they had in common, and the waiter managed to squeeze in two more chairs and place settings at their minuscule table.

She didn’t seem to show any remorse at all that she’d invited an interruption to their privacy. Which left Max figuring that she’d wanted an interruption.

Certainly wouldn’t be the first time he’d misread a woman, but usually—when it came to the physical matters—he wasn’t so far off the mark. It was just when it came to their emotions and honesty that he’d had a problem.

He ate his food, not really tasting any of it anymore. He guessed he smiled when he was meant to smile, and responded when he needed to smile, because by the time they’d finished eating and Jeremy slid his bank card to the waiter before Max could even get his hands on the check, not even Max’s sister was giving him any more curious looks.

“Here.” He pulled several twenties out of his wallet and tossed them on the table next to his brother-in-law’s elbow.

He saw Jeremy start to wave away the money, but Max gave him a hard stare. Jeremy was an orthopedic surgeon and a Fortune. He could buy and sell Max dozens of times over. But Max paid his own way now.

Fortunately, his brother-in-law seemed to take the unspoken hint and pocketed the cash along with his credit card when the waiter returned it.

There wasn’t even any need for him to hang around. Emily had her own car. And she and his sister were talking a mile a minute as if they were long-lost friends. Max caught snippets of their conversation. Talking and laughing about college and graduate degrees.

“Think I’ll call it a night,” he said abruptly.

The colored lights hanging around the courtyard reflected softly in Emily’s glasses when she turned toward him. It was only his own wishful thinking that she seemed to show some disappointment. “Do you want to set up a time now for me to meet with you again at the office, or should I call you in the morning? The only thing I have on my schedule is a conference call, but I’ll be finished with that by ten.”

“Call.” He realized how terse he sounded. “I don’t know what’s on my schedule from Tanner for tomorrow yet,” he added.

Her soft lips pressed together a little, but she smiled and nodded. “Okay. Thanks for dinner.”

“Sure.” Before she could say anything else, he leaned over and gave his sister a kiss on the cheek. He didn’t even consider a kiss for Emily—on her cheek or elsewhere. Not in front of his sister. Not when he’d already overstepped the lines of “business.”

He just gave a general wave meant to cover the whole table. “See y’all later.” And then he headed out of the restaurant.

Emily chewed the inside of her cheek, watching Max stride out of the courtyard. She suddenly dropped her napkin on the table. “Would you excuse me, too?” she said quickly to her cousin and his pretty wife. “I forgot to mention something to Max.”

“We’ll see each other again soon,” Jeremy said easily. Kirsten was nodding.

Emily smiled hurriedly and grabbed her purse before quickly following the path that Max had taken. When she reached the parking lot, she spotted him already at his truck and she broke into a trot to catch up to him. “Max,” she called as he unlocked his door. “Would you wait a minute?”

He turned to wait.

She felt breathless when she reached him and knew it wasn’t owed entirely from her sprint across the parking lot. But now that she’d caught up to him, she felt completely tongue-tied. “Thanks for dinner.”

“You already thanked me.”

“I know, but … I—” She broke off, shaking her head a little. “I just really enjoyed myself.”

“Catching up with your cousin?”

“No.” Seemingly of its own accord, her fingers touched his arm. Which was strange, because she wasn’t generally a touchy sort of person. “Well, yes, I mean it was good to see Jeremy. Of course. And your sister. She and Jeremy seem so perfect for each other. I meant I really enjoyed dinner with you.”

His right eyebrow lifted slightly. “You were pretty quick to add more company.”

Her lips parted. “She’s your sister. How could we not invite them to sit with us? Would you rather have had me be rude?”

“I’d rather have had you to myself,” he said bluntly.

That dark and sensual something that had wakened while they’d danced reared again, clenching hard inside her belly. “I’d have liked that, too,” she admitted and gave a little blessing to that margarita or she’d never have had the guts to say the words aloud. “Maybe we could do this again,” she added boldly. “Have dinner. Just … just the two of us.”

The parking lot was too dark for her to see the expression in his eyes. “Maybe.”

Maybe was just another word for no.

She swallowed hard and while she still had some nerve, leaned up and pressed her lips to his cheek. “That’s for being there after the tornado that day,” she said when she went back down on her heels.

He watched her for a moment that was so tight she felt almost sure that he was going to kiss her back.

Really kiss her.

But he didn’t. He just nodded and pulled open his truck door. “You know your way back to your sister’s from here?”

“Yes.”

“Drive carefully.”

“You do the same.” Her voice was faint.

He started up the truck engine and she backed away several feet and watched him drive away.

She wasn’t sure what had just happened.