So Much Trouble When She Walked In (4 page)

Maximillian
Davidoff stepped forward and, bold as you please, he reached out and cupped her
chin in his hand.  Then slowly, mercilessly, he drew her face to his, closer
and closer, until all she could do was close her eyes tight and wait in
breathless anticipation.

And
then she felt it, his lips on hers, so firm and demanding, so masterful, just
like she’d expected.  He kissed her close-mouthed, taking his own sweet time as
his lips roamed over hers, exploring, tasting, teasing.  Then, inexplicably,
his mouth softened, expertly caressing, seducing until, of their own accord,
her lips parted on a soft sigh.

It
was then that he moved in for the kill.  Her guard down, her body pliant, he
dropped his hands to her waist and pulled her into him, molding her hips to
his, pressing her against his hardness.

And
he was hard…like rock.

The
shock of it, his manhood pressing into her belly, made her gasp.  It was so
forward even for her, seeing this man for the second time in her life and
having that most intimate part of him branded into her, body and mind.

But
then he swept all thought from her brain.  Even as the arm around her waist
tightened, he slid the other up her back till his big hand was cupping the back
of her head and then he tilted her face, ever so gently, giving himself total
access to her.

When
the leather strap slipped off her shoulder and her bag slid to the floor,
Silken was past caring.  All she could do was cling to the broad shoulders of
the man who was kissing her like she’d never been kissed before.  At first he’d
taken it slow, teasing her lips with soft kisses and nibbles.  But now as she
yielded to him, all resistance melting away, he took full control, his lips
opening her to him, his tongue boldly searching, exploring then plundering,
stealing her air, leaving her helpless in his arms.     

Finally,
when she had no more strength and lay limp in his arms, he lifted his head to
gaze down at her with hooded eyes.  He drew in a slow, deep breath, and she
could tell he was not as unaffected as he would probably like her to believe. 
Still, he gave her a satisfied look and a slow, enigmatic smile.  “You handled
that pretty well,” he said then gave a low chuckle.  “Now as long as you don’t
go chameleon on me, we’re good.”

Silken
frowned.  Go chameleon?  What the beeswax was he blabbing…oh, yeah.  The mix-up
with her and Suave.  She dropped her eyes and bit her lip.  Then she stepped
back and out of his arms.

“I
have something to tell you,” she said, her voice coming out slightly hoarse. 
“I’m not who you think I am.” 

***

Oh
God, not again
.  Was this woman, Suave or whatever her name was, going
batty on him again?  Max gave her a long, hard stare, glad she’d put some
distance between them so he could have a really good look at her.  Thankfully,
she didn’t look ready to curse him out or slap his face.  For the moment, at
least, she looked like she still had a grip on her fiery emotions, if not her
sanity.

Finally,
he spoke.  “Meaning?”

She
gave a little laugh and actually looked embarrassed.  “Meaning, you think I’m
Suave, but I’m not.”

Oh,
Jesus.  She’s losing her grip again
.  This was one crazy woman for sure. 
He certainly knew how to pick ‘em.  “I’m one hundred percent certain,” he said
slowly, not wanting to trigger her anger, “that’s what they called you back at
the sports complex.”  His eyes narrowed as he watched her.  “So who do you
think you are today?”

She
laughed.  “I’m Silken,” she said, her eyes flashing with what looked like
amusement.  “I’m her sister.”  Then, as if that cleared up everything, she bent
down, picked up her bag from the floor then straightened and looked back at him
with a satisfied smile.

He
cocked his head to one side, trying to figure her out.  “Your sister, you say. 
So you’re not Suave…”  Of course, he didn’t believe her but he didn’t want to
come right out and say it.  You never knew what set these people off.  He had
to take it slow.  “You’re not the woman who chewed me out two days ago.”

“Of
course I am,” she said with another laugh, looking like she was enjoying this
little game she was playing.

“Okay.” 
He dragged the word out.  And as he watched her he folded his arms across his
chest.  The woman was making not a lick of sense but he’d be patient. He was
sure she would come up with some sort of explanation.  He could only hope it
would have some semblance of reason.

“Can
I…”  She looked around then back at him.  “Oh, I forgot.  You don’t have any
furniture.  I was going to ask if I could have a seat.”  Then she frowned. 
“What kind of a place is this, anyway?  Not planning on receiving visitors?”

Max
unfolded his arms and slid his hands into his pockets.  He shrugged.  “Just
moved in.  I don’t even have staff yet.”

That
seemed to pique her curiosity.  Brows raised, she tilted her face up to him. 
“What kind of business are you setting up here?”

He
was about to say, but then he paused.  She was a curious one.  Right after
dropping a big bag of mystery into his lap she’d moved on to a totally
different topic.  He shook his head.  “I’ll answer your questions as soon as
you answer mine.  If you’re not Suave, who the hell are you?”

The
dark-haired beauty rolled her eyes.  Crazy or not, she was damn easy on the
eyes.  She gave an exasperated sigh.  “I already told you.  I’m her sister. 
We’re twins.”

“Well,
I’ll be damned.”  Things were finally beginning to make sense.  “So Suave was
the one the guy hit on.”

She
nodded.  “She came out to the tennis court and told me what happened.”

“And
you tore back inside and blasted the man sitting at the bar,” he said finishing
the sentence for her.  “The man who happened to be me.”

She
had the grace to give him a rueful smile. “Sorry.”

He
couldn’t help but smile back.  “Well, I’m glad about one thing.”

“What’s
that?”

“You’re
not insane.”  He shook his head.  “For a while there you had me convinced you’d
lost more than a few screws upstairs.”

“What?”
 She jammed a fist on her hip and gave him an indignant glare.  “You thought I
was crazy?”  A mischievous smile tickled her lips.  “Now I wonder what gave you
that idea?”

“Probably
when you marched in with fire in your eyes and proceeded to lambaste an
innocent man.”  He laughed.  “For a moment I thought I was in the twilight
zone.”

She
shook her head.  “I’m sorry.  I really am.  It’s just…I tend to fly off the
handle pretty quickly…especially if it has to do with my little sis.  I don’t let
anybody take advantage of her.”

“Your
little sis?  I thought she was your twin.”

“She
is, but I got here first.”  She lifted a hand to push a curly strand away from
her face.  “So anyway, she insisted that I find you and apologize, so here I
am.”

He
gave her a crooked grin.  “So this apology, it was her idea.”

She
shrugged.  “Yeah, well.  I came, didn’t I?”  It sounded like she was done with
apologies.  Apparently, once she’d said her piece, that was that.  “So what’s
your answer to my question?  What kind of business are you running here?”

Max
almost smiled.  The more he listened to this woman speak – and now he’d have to
stop thinking of her as Suave and remind himself that she was Silken – the more
intrigued he was by her.  Within the space of mere minutes she had moved from
defiant to crazy to seductive to apologetic.  And now to demanding.  He could
see she wasn’t going to give up till he’d given her an answer.  “This is my
brand new office,” he said.  “I’m here in Cupertino to finalize the building of
a racetrack.”

Silken’s
eyes opened wide.  “Shut up.  You’re not serious, are you?”

Now
his face broke into a smile.  He couldn’t help it.  So he was supposed to shut
up and answer her question at the same time?  “I’m serious as a judge,” he said. 
"The project is already underway.  Half completed, in fact.”

She
frowned.  “Hey, now that you mention it, I did hear something through the
grapevine about some big construction taking place just outside of the
Cupertino city limits.  That’s your project?”

“The
same.  I think the city could do with some NASCAR Racing.” 

“NASCAR,”
Silken repeated, her eyes full of wonder, “in my very own town?”

“You
like the idea?”

She
turned eager eyes on him.  “Are you crazy?  I love it.  Cars are my life,
especially fast ones.”

Max
almost did a double-take.  So far he hadn’t found a woman who got excited in
the least about his latest project.  Finally, here was one who seemed to share
his passion.  An idea came to him.  He didn’t even think twice before he threw
it out to her.  “Hey, want to come see the racetrack?  I can take you there
right now.”

Her
eyes sparkled and she gave him a toothy grin.  “Take me to it.”

CHAPTER
FOUR

“You’re
going where?  Silken, are you crazy?  You don’t even know this man.”  Suave’s
voice was so high pitched she was almost shrieking into the phone.  “You get
out of that car this instant, do you hear me?  You’ve got to stop acting on
impulse.  You’re a grown woman, Silken, not a little kid.”

Silken
held the phone away from her ear, looked over at Max and grinned.  “My sister,”
she mouthed to him as the wind whipped her hair around her face.  Her very able
driver smiled back at her then turned his attention back to the wide-open
highway as his Benz sports convertible sped past car after car.  He was going
at a healthy clip but she didn’t mind.  She could see that he was an expert
driver.  She had no doubt that she was in good hands.

Silken
put the phone back to her ear.  “It’s okay, sis.  I’m just going to look at the
site with him and then I’ll head right back.  I’ll even take him to the office
so you can meet him and see that he's harmless.”  She glanced over at Max. 
He’d raised his eyebrows but he hadn’t said a thing.  Actually, she hadn’t
asked him first but she guessed he wouldn’t mind it if she dragged him off to
meet her sister.  That way he’d know for sure that she had a twin and wasn’t
just making it up.  “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

There
were more grumbles from Suave but eventually she calmed down enough for Silken
to be able to hang up without worrying that her sister was going to have a
heart attack.  Suave was such a worrywart – unlike her, always quick to try
something new.

Sliding
the phone back into her purse, she turned to Max.  “How much farther?” She had
to yell to be heard over the wind whipping at their faces.

“Ten
minutes and we’re there,” he yelled back.  “Everything all right?”

“Perfect,”
she said and settled back in her seat to enjoy the rest of the ride.

Within
minutes they were pulling into a massive parking lot, now totally empty except
for Max’s car that was pulling up to the entrance to a stadium that was still
under construction.  He swung the car into a nearby parking spot then hopped
out to open the door for Silken.

“Welcome,”
he said with a dramatic flourish.  “My latest and greatest project – NASCAR
racing at its finest.  Coming soon to your town.”

She
laughed.  “Your latest but surely not your greatest.  What about your Davidoff
cosmetics empire?  I checked you out, you know.  I know who you are.”

For
a second his eyes narrowed and the smile on his lips hardened.  Obviously, he
wasn’t thrilled that his identity was no secret, at least not to her.  But what
did he expect?  She’d found him so, of course, she would also have found out
who he was.  She stared up at him, ready to douse him with a cold dose of reality
if he questioned how she knew about him.

But
he didn’t.  As if he realized she was no threat to him, the tight lines in his
face smoothed and he relaxed visibly.  “Okay,” he said, the smile returning to
his eyes, “you got me.  It may not be my biggest project but it’s the one I’m
most excited about right now.  Come on.”  He jerked his head.  “Let me show
you.”

He
held out his hand and Silken took it, surprised at how eager he seemed.  One
minute he was stern and suspicious, the next he was like a kid showing off his
new bike.

She
put her hand in his and his hand swallowed hers up, making her feel
uncharacteristically fragile and small.  She wasn’t used to feeling like this
and she wasn’t sure she liked it.  Silken McCullen was a ‘take-charge’ kind of
girl who always set the pace.  In the company of this man she didn’t feel quite
so in charge.

Before
she could ponder further he’d pulled her to her feet, slammed the car door shut
and was heading for the entrance with her in tow.  “Hang on a sec,” she said,
pulling her hand from his.  “I’m in high heels, remember?  I can’t go dashing
across the gravel like you can.  I'll trip and fall flat on my face.”

He
slowed down and gave her a wry grin.  “Sorry.  Forgot how challenged you
females are when it comes to balance.”

“Yeah,
because of you men,” she grumbled, giving him a mock glare.  “It’s because of
you that we wear these things, uncomfortable though they are.” She shook her
head.  “The things we do to look sexy.”

He
looked over at her.  “You don’t have any problem in that department.  Trust
me.”

At
his words Silken’s body went tight and her breath caught in her throat.  She
bit her lip and looked away.  It wasn’t so much what he said but how he said
it…like he would take her right there in the parking lot if she’d let him.

She
was impulsive and she was daring, she’d be the first to admit.  But she wasn’t
that crazy…as much as she would love to feel his lips on hers again.

“Uh,
so when did you start construction?” she blurted out, desperate to divert his
attention, to get him to look at anything but her.