Reckless Encounter Page 5

  Barely registering that Joe had reappeared and was busy unwrapping a clinking array of bottles from two brown paper bags, Elena forced her fisted hands to uncurl. She released the napkin she’d picked up from her lap and dropped it on the table. Rising, she collected her briefcase. Her voice was low, and she managed to keep her tone even. “I don’t think I’m hungry after all. Please excuse me. I’ll walk back to the hotel.”

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Max Glaser told her. “This is a business meeting, and your presence is required. I don’t give a damn if you’re hungry or not, and nobody is forcing you to eat. Sit down.” He pointed at her chair.

  Her heart pounding, Elena settled at the table once more.

  By now, Joe had lined a quart of Wild Turkey and two bottles of Californian Merlot on the table. No specific instructions had been relayed, so Elena assumed that Joe knew what the boss liked, and others didn’t matter. The waitress brought out a tray of glasses and a bucket of ice. She remained standing by the table, pen poised over her pad.

  Elena hadn’t even looked at the menu. It always took her ages to decide, and she didn’t dare to do anything to invite Max’s anger. There had to be some kind of fish. On the list of specials, she spotted a broiled salmon with asparagus in hollandaise sauce. That would have to do.

  Max ordered a steak, very rare. Good practice for chewing people up, Elena thought, and emitted a squeak of laughter as a bubble of hysteria broke through her composure. A scowl from Max calmed her down. Joe ordered a steak too, no doubt to emulate the boss, but at least he asked for his cooked.

  The next two hours were among the worst Elena had ever experienced.

  Max knocked back drink after drink and systematically attacked everyone, including the poor waitress who was getting more and more flustered, unable to keep the orders straight or the wine from dripping down the side of the bottle when she topped up their glasses.

  Mercifully, the uneaten food was eventually cleared away and the dinner was over. They drove the few hundred yards back to the hotel in complete silence. Max got out of the car and stalked to the reception without a backward glance. Joe and Elena stared after him, almost expecting to see a trail of fire and brimstone in his wake.

  “Look,” Joe said awkwardly. “I’m sorry that you should be subjected to this kind of aggravation, and on your first trip, too. Max is demanding, and he can be harsh, but he is usually fair.” Joe scraped the toe of his shoe against the ground and looked perplexed. “I’ve never seen him behave like that before. I don’t know what’s gotten into him.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Elena said, trying to keep her tone casual. Acting wasn’t one of her talents, but she did her best to appear unruffled.

  Joe went on, his face in a frown, “Max must have some problem that is bothering him, and he’s taking it out on you. I understand if you want to pack it in. I’ll help you explain the situation to McKenzie and Harris.”

  Elena shook her head. “It’s not that easy.” She sighed, and then continued, “I’m broke. Totally and absolutely broke. This job is the last chance I have of keeping my practice afloat. It needs to get a lot worse before I’m prepared to walk. But thanks for your support.”

  “Let me know if there’s anything I can do.”

  “I’m sure Max will come around,” Elena said lightly. “I screwed up the first location, and he’s worried that the rest will go no better.” She paused and shrugged her shoulders, a small, futile gesture. “Let’s just wait and see how we get on with him tomorrow morning.”

  Relief crossed Joe’s lean features. They wished each other good night and went inside.

  In her room, Elena frowned at the sight of the frayed carpet and the thin bedspread in foul shades of orange and brown. Hello seventies, nylon and bad taste. She couldn’t wait to get out of the place and back to civilization…and away from Max Glaser.

  Had he really been in such a temper because she wouldn’t sleep with him? He was behaving like a petulant child whose toy had been snatched away. A toy. That’s what she’d be for Max if she let him have his way—something to be played with and then discarded.

  He was exactly the type of man her mother had warned her about.

  And yet, as she slipped beneath the thin blankets, Elena couldn’t help feeling an odd twinge of empathy toward him. There had been a sense of despair about him tonight, a gruff anger that had made her suspect that Max Glaser was an unhappy person, a deeply restless soul whose life had not been easy.

  He had almost seemed…vulnerable. Elena shook her head in disbelief as she snapped out the light and dismissed the thought. She was a fool to waste her pity on Max Glaser.

  ****

  Max stripped out of his suit and hung it neatly in the closet, damning the big body that made it possible for him to hold his liquor so well. He wanted to be drunk. Roaring drunk. All day, he’d fought between the anticipation of seeing Elena again and the reluctance to face her after she’d rejected his advances.

  Why the hell did she rattle him so badly? He barely knew her, and yet he had directed the brunt of his pent up anger and frustration at her, displaying a full range of ill manners, as well as an unacceptable management style.

  He probably ought to apologize to her.

  His eyes strayed to the telephone on the desk, cluttered with brochures and a small television set. He ambled over and picked up the receiver. Pressing zero for the reception, he waited. The phone rang and rang, but no one picked up.

  With a sigh, Max dropped the receiver into the cradle. Perhaps it was for the best. He wouldn’t have known what to say to her anyway.

  He turned and paced the room.

  A good dose of steamy sex with another woman. That’s what he needed. Max lumbered back to the desk, finally feeling the effects of the vast quantity of alcohol he’d consumed. He picked up the phone again but didn’t have a number to dial. Unlike in the city, he couldn’t take a walk to the nearest street corner to collect a free circulation newspaper full of escort advertisements on the back pages.

  With a sigh, Max replaced the receiver once more, his movements slow and measured as he fought another wave of frustration. Since that night, no other woman would do for him. For four months, he’d avoided facing the situation, telling himself that he was too busy to have time for a romp in bed.

  When, in truth, one woman had such a hold on him that others failed to appeal.

  Elena Rodriquez. What had turned her into a thorn that festered in his side? She wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, far from it. And yet, there was something about her that drew him like no one else ever had.

  Beneath her cool, polished surface, he saw something primitive and earthy, as if Elena had always had to fight for things she wanted, just like he had. He’d had girlfriends from privileged backgrounds before. Most had been happy to rely on their families for a luxury lifestyle, but Elena seemed fiercely independent, determined to prove that she could make it on her own.

  And despite her elegance, Elena had a defensive quality about her, a wary and slightly combative caution that resonated within Max. His instincts told him that if she learned about his background, she would understand him, would accept the sense of loneliness and doubt that the lack of a family history gave him.

  Regardless of how or why, she’d cracked open the locked doors in his mind, reaching into the dark chambers where his emotions lay carefully hidden. She made him feel raw and exposed inside.

  Max cringed at the thought and raked his hands through his thick tangle of coal-black hair. Elena was someone he ought to fear, because twice already she had done to him what rocked his composure the most. She had left him without saying goodbye.

  ****

  In the morning, Elena met Max and Joe in the reception at eight o’clock, and they set off to meet with the client. Lack of nourishment made her feel lightheaded. She had ignored the room service breakfast she’d ordered in the evening, her stomach too knotted up with nerves for her to allow for any appe
tite.

  Max seemed preoccupied during the drive, although a few times he turned around in the front passenger seat to give her a long thoughtful look, as if he had something he wanted to say to her.

  Each of those looks caused alarm to flutter inside Elena. How could she have thought him vulnerable? He was like a stone monolith, hard and impenetrable. A normal man would show some signs of the vast quantity of alcohol he’d consumed. But, instead of the waxen pallor of a hangover, Max Glaser appeared alert and fully awake and his skin hadn’t lost its usual healthy, bronzed hue.

  When they arrived at the empty store premises, Joe introduced Max to the owner, Harry Sawyer, and Hamish Delancey, the lawyer.

  “Gentlemen, I’m sure you are busy, so I’ll get straight to the point,” Max said in his rumbling voice that echoed from the walls of the unfurnished space. “I understand that we haven’t been able to reach agreement. Can you tell me what the problem is?”

  Harry Sawyer glanced uncertainly at his lawyer. “Hamish tells me there have been problems with the legal side. Perhaps he can explain. I’ve left the details to him.”

  “Mr. Delancey. What’s the problem?” Max switched his focus to the portly lawyer.

  “Well, you know how it is. You’ve sent this slip of a girl over to do a man’s job. Now that you’re here, I’m sure we’ll have no trouble coming to an agreement.” He spoke jovially, one chauvinist to another.

  Max nodded. A sharp smile came and went on his face, and he threw a quick glance over at Elena. She was about to launch into a hot outburst in her defense, but Max silenced her with a gesture before speaking again.

  “Mr. Delancey, what would you say makes a good lawyer?” he asked.

  Hamish Delancey rocked on the balls of his feet, flattered by the attention. “Well, education and training, of course, and experience. And a good mind, with logical thought and attention to detail.”

  Max turned to Elena. “Ms. Rodriquez, that sounds like a good description. How would you rate yourself against it?”

  She felt it then, a current of support from Max, as clear as a physical contact. He was on her side, and he wasn’t going to pander to the client by belittling her. Elena considered her words carefully and made an effort to keep the heat out of her voice.

  “Let’s see, education, I graduated third in my year at UCLA, and I trained with McKenzie and Harris, one of the top law firms in Seattle. Experience, I’m thirty-two, and I’ve been a practicing attorney for eight years. Logical thought and attention to detail, well, I have drawn up hundreds of contracts, and none of them have ever been fought out in a court of law.”

  Max turned back to the opposing lawyer with a hard look. “Mr. Delancey, it is clear to me that the only qualifications Ms. Rodriquez is lacking in your eyes are a pair of testicles and an Anglo-Saxon last name. In my business, I won’t tolerate discrimination on any grounds, be it sex, religion, or ethnic origin.”

  He ducked down to pull a document from the briefcase he’d laid by his feet. “This is the latest draft agreement you and Ms. Rodriguez have come up with. We either sign it here and now, or we walk away.” Max shoved the stapled document at the stunned lawyer. Then he turned to Harry Sawyer and gestured at the coffee and pastries set on a rickety table lined against the wall. “I see that you’ve provided some refreshments. Perhaps we could have a cup of coffee while you confer with your lawyer?”

  As they hovered, waiting and drinking their coffee, Elena stole covert glances at Max. A sense of elation welled up inside her. He’d leapt to her defense, had been prepared to sacrifice the deal in order to stand up for her. She tried to catch his eye but he avoided looking at her, instead holding a murmured conference in the corner of the room with Joe.

  Ten minutes later, the agreement was signed, and the meeting was over.

  Max made efficient use of the journey to the airport. He asked Elena to drive, and sat on the back seat with Joe, reviewing the plans for the store layout. Elena adjusted the rearview mirror to study him.

  The hard planes of his face no longer seemed so stern. In fact, the curve of his mouth made her want to trace her fingers along the contours, and there was a certain appeal in the dark crescent his lashes made over his cheeks as he examined the documents before him. The frown lines on his brow could be from grief rather than impatience, and…

  Stop it. Stop it. Stop it.

  Elena forced herself to concentrate on the road ahead. Nothing good would come from letting herself continue to be attracted to Max Glaser.

  When they got to the airport, she pulled over outside the terminal and got out to stand beside the car. In the back seat, Max was stuffing his papers into the briefcase that he balanced over his knees.

  Elena opened the door and leaned down to talk to him. “I should have been able to deal with Mr. Delancey myself before the problem got this far.” Her tone was carefully controlled. “I’m sorry for any concern the situation may have caused you.” She paused for a second, then lowered her voice and added, “Thank you for the way you stuck up for me.”

  Max climbed out of the car and spoke gruffly. “It was nothing personal. Discrimination is bad for business. I would have done the same for any one of my employees.”

  “Nevertheless, I appreciate what you did,” Elena said and held out her hand.

  Max hesitated, almost as if he disliked the idea of touching her, but then he reached out and clasped his fingers around hers. The contact of his bare skin against hers brought a rush of memories. She blushed and tried to pull her hand away, but he tightened his grip. His eyes met hers. The look in them was so fierce that she gasped in alarm.

  “I’ll see you in again in a couple of weeks,” Max said curtly and released her hand.

  “I didn’t expect to be working for you at all,” Elena lowered her voice and glanced at Joe, who’d got out of the back seat and was circling around to get to the trunk. “Not after I walked out on you at the Fitzroy,” she finished in a cautious murmur.

  Max scowled at her and spoke equally quietly, careful to keep the words private between them. “The fact that you refuse to sleep with me might put me in a foul mood, but it doesn’t give me a right to fire you.” He sighed, a tired, almost mournful sound. “I hope you’ve figured out that I’m not totally without integrity.” He turned to pick up his overnight bag from Joe, who’d lifted it out of the trunk, and then strode off without another word.

  Elena settled back into the driver’s seat and merged into the traffic. Ray Charles crooned on the stereo. ‘Ain’t no sunshine when she’s gone’. With Max Glaser it wasn’t the sunshine that was gone, but the thunder and lightning. Whatever her new boss was, he wasn’t dull.

  Chapter Four

  She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  In her rational mind, Elena knew that Max Glaser had caught her at a low point in life. She’d been lonely and depressed, and just for one night she’d thrown herself into the mindless abandon of having sex with a stranger.

  That had been her intent—a single night of anonymous passion.

  Now, the usual cool composure and caution had returned to her daily life, but somehow it seemed that Max Glaser had been left on the wrong side of those defensive walls. His image crowded her mind. Not only the visions of his naked body and their heated coupling, but little glimpses of him that had barely registered while the incidents took place.

  The odd stricken expression on Max’s face when she walked out on him at the Fitzroy, leaving him stranded in the corridor after she backed out from sleeping again with him.

  The current of support from him when he defended her against the chauvinist lawyer.

  The firm yet gentle clasp of his hand around hers when they said goodbye at the airport.

  Elena shifted her shoulders in frustration and reached for another file on her desk. She’d better get her head together. If she didn’t, she’d walk into exactly the same trap her mother had, and end up a rich man’s plaything, only to be cast aside when he got bored with h
er.

  The phone on her desk rang.

  It was Joe Vanstone, calling with instructions for her to travel out to the next location.

  Elena put the phone down. Inside her, a sense of excitement roared to life. What was it that drew a moth to the flame, sent a sparrow fluttering in front of a hawk, a rabbit darting into the path of a wolf? Whatever it was, the same lure drove her toward Max Glaser.

  ****

  The next store was in a somnolent farming town in southern Utah. Elena’s task of negotiating the lease was completed in a single day. She offered to help Joe, who was busy drawing plans for the store layout. They stood at the dusty counter, dressed in jeans and sweatshirts, working on Joe’s laptop.

  “How well do you know Max?” Elena asked, trying to sound casual.

  “I’ve worked with him for ten years now. Ever since he left a big firm of chartered surveyors and set up on his own.” Joe wiped beads of sweat from his brow with his forearm and left a smear of dust.

  “Chartered surveyor, is that what he is?”

  “Yes, but he moved into management years ago. He had a big bust-up with the company we were both working for. Max thought we were letting clients take the safety standards too close to the wire. He put his views in writing to the board of directors. He was out by the end of the week, but he managed to negotiate a good severance package. The money helped him to get started on his own.”

  Elena could picture the confrontation—Max standing in a roomful of people, aloof and proud and unrelenting, driven by his principles. A thread of admiration joined the already confused medley of emotions he inspired inside her.

  “How did he end up in retailing?” Elena asked.

  “After he got fired, he managed a refurbishment project for a chain of grocery stores. He saw how the business was run, and decided he could do better. He's expanding to video rental because he enjoys movies but likes to stay at home in the evenings. He thinks he understands the market and knows what people want.”