In the center of the case sat an ornately framed image of the Abrams brothers standing in front of the newly completed department store, smiling in front of a huge crowd of onlookers. In between Silas and Max stood a slender, petite blonde holding an oversized pair of scissors poised just above a ribbon around the entrance.
“Miss Rousseau, I presume,” a voice echoed across the room from behind Audrey.
Chapter Six
Practically jumping out of her skin in surprise, Audrey quickly turned to see Max Abrams standing in the arched doorway.
“Y-yes,” she responded, desperately trying to regain her composure. “And you must be…Max.”
He walked across the room towards her, and she couldn't help but gasp as she took in his appearance. He was much larger than he seemed in the magazine photo spread, towering above her small frame as he came to stand in front of her. He wore all black from head to toe, just like his picture, and his brown eyes shined with a dark intelligence. She couldn't tell if Max was amused or annoyed by her appearance.
“You distracted me from my work, Miss Rousseau. I see you know your way around horses. I've never seen Ace take such an immediate liking to someone before.”
“Do you always spy on people at your parties and hide from your guests?” Audrey didn't mean to sound so harsh, but she was disturbed by Max seeing her in such a private moment.
“It's not my party. Silas doesn't bother to ask permission from me these days.”
An awkward moment of silence passed between them as they looked at one another, unsure what to say.
“Why don’t you come into my office?” Max finally said, his request sounding less like a question than a command. “I'll fix you a drink and help you forget about Silas' disappearance.”
* * * *
Without a word, Audrey followed him into his private room. As he silently poured the whiskey into two fresh glasses, he watched her watching him. Despite trying to cover it up in front of him, she had such a look of vulnerability on her face, of sadness. Could she be this affected by his brother's absence? What had happened between them already?
He couldn't believe he had invited her into his private space on a night when he promised himself he would make progress on his work. But watching her at the stables with the horses, he couldn't help but feel drawn in by her carefree beauty. He loved watching the way she didn't hesitate to get close to the animals, unlatching and stepping just inside the doors as she let her hands gently stroke their sleek frames. She was both fearless and gentle, a rare and seductive combination of qualities to find in a woman.
The smile he witnessed on her face during her quiet solitude with Ace had regrettably disappeared, replaced with an expression difficult to dissect. One dash anger, with a tincture of anxiety and a generous helping of curiosity? Whatever it was, she looked alive and overflowing with emotions.
“Here's a bit of medicine, Miss…may I call you Audrey?” Max couldn't believe the tenderness this stranger had awoken inside of him. He handed her his favorite drink, a dry Manhattan, after dropping two maraschino cherries in the concoction with a bit of flair and a smile.
“Of course. I'm in far too deep to care for formalities at this point.” She flopped down in Max's favorite chair, one of his own designs, seemingly exhausted.
“I'm sorry for Silas' inconsiderate behavior. I can't explain it to you right now, but I promise it was for a good reason.”
“He left me there to flounder. I felt like a party crasher without an invitation,” she responded, the anger flashing in her eyes.
“I suppose you've always been the life of the
fête
. I bet you were the queen bee of every debutante ball in Paris.”
“Oh, how wrong you are, Mr. Abrams. I think the closest I came to a debutante ball as a girl was sewing their dresses late into the night at my first job. I knew nothing of that life.”
Max was taken off guard by the honesty and sincerity in her response and didn't know what to say. For once, he had no comeback, no sharp reply.
“Forgive me, Max. None of this is your fault. Although I'm admittedly still intrigued by your antisocial tendencies.” She took a long gulp of the cocktail and forced a smile onto her lips.
A stirring deep from within made him desperately want to hold her, to apologize for ignoring his brother's request for his assistance. Her awful evening could have been avoided if he hadn't insisted on remaining a recluse in his own damn house.
A long moment of silence passed between them as he sat beside her and looked into her emerald eyes.
“I should have come to find you, Audrey. Silas asked me to see to you, but I was too preoccupied with work and was annoyed by the interruption. Then I saw you with the horses and knew I had made a terrible mistake leaving you to the wolves out there. I’m glad I found you in here. I was just coming to look for you.”
“Are they that bad?” she responded quietly, her eyes widening as they stared at one another. He wondered if she, too, was struck by the chemistry between them.
“Well, they’re very different from you, that’s for sure. I doubt Silas has told you anything about Male Order, or Dallas for that matter. It’s a close-knit community, and everyone—especially the women—is surprised when an outsider arrives. They'll devour your designs, though, I'm sure of it. I can practically hear them talking about you from here. They're looking around at one another and realizing that something new and different has arrived.”
Audrey visibly blushed at his honesty with her. She broke their intense gaze by looking down into her drink, clearly contemplating every word Max shared with her.
She cleared her throat and changed the subject. “What did you put in here? Do all Americans make such strong cocktails, or is it a family trait?”
“We're just trying to loosen you up, that's all.”
With that statement, Audrey frowned. Max couldn't remember the last time he'd put his foot in his mouth like that. “Come on, now! That's not what I meant.” He took a deep breath and tried to shift the mood. “So, tell me something, will you? It's quite an adventurous move to come all this way. Was it really us you came to see?”
She smiled at the question. “Yes, but not for what you might think, Mr. Abrams. Let's get that straight. I think you need me,” she replied, the confidence back in her voice.
You have no idea.
Max cleared his throat and tried to quiet the growing bulge between his legs by readjusting his position in the chair. It didn't help that she was sitting so close to him he could smell her signature perfume. The scent was so uniquely hers it alone aroused something profound inside him.
“Is that so, Miss Rousseau? And why do you think that?” he replied, leaning out of his chair just enough so their knees were an inch from touching.
“Hasn't Silas shown you my drawings? I assumed you two talked about everything.”
“Not these days. We’ve been living quite separate lives since…” He trailed off, unable to find a way to neatly explain the rift between them. “I would like to see your designs, of course.”
“Well, Silas has the only copy of the drawings. But I made a muslin mockup of a few of the garments from memory yesterday. It's a men's line for your store. Would you like to see them?”
“A men’s line, yes, Silas mentioned it to me. I would love to see them. Of course.”
She was gone from the room before he had a chance to ask another question.
* * * *
As she returned from her car with the rough garments, her pulse raced. Why was she on the verge running? She wasn't sure, but she felt as if her heart was ready to explode.
She reentered the room breathless and dizzy and held up her experiment for Max to see.
“Go ahead, try it on. I'll just…turn around,” Audrey said in response to his confused look as she handed him the garments.
He smiled and nodded in agreement as she turned to face away from him.
“Drop the blinds, will you?” Max requested. She eagerly obliged his request, careful not to inadvertently see anything she wasn't supposed to. She heard his clothes drop to the floor once he had sufficient privacy from any prying eyes.
The sound of the fabric hitting the floor stopped her cold in her tracks. Immediately she felt her pussy soak with the image of Max standing so near to her almost naked. Why had she started this? What was she expecting? And even if she was frustrated with Silas for abandoning her at the party, that certainly wasn't a reason to mistakenly seduce his brother.
There was no doubt in her mind about it—she was equally attracted to both Abramses, despite the vast differences between them. But there was no way she could ever have them both, and the idea of having to choose between them caused a ripple of pain to echo through her body.
“Audrey? I…need a little bit of help here, I think,” Max said, awakening her from her thoughts.
She turned around and smiled to see him in the rough version of her design. Even in the coarse fabric, he managed to look dapper. How did he do that?
She crossed to him and began making adjustments, immediately making mental notes about what needed to be changed. She was used to tailoring men's suits, but never for a man like this before. Her heart raced as she kneeled to adjust the wide leg of the pants she designed specifically for him. Looking up at him, she took out the measuring tape from her sewing kit and examined the changes she would need to make.
“I'm afraid I underestimated the necessary size for you…” She knew at that moment her face was turning a deep shade of crimson. Bent up from the floor, it was impossible to miss the unmistakable sight of the erection stretching the inseam of the delicate pants to the hilt.
He looked down at her, his nearly obsidian eyes turned black with desire. Before she knew what was happening, he was on the floor with her, his thick, muscular frame draped over her. For a single moment they lay on the cool stone, their eyes locked and both their chests panting an ecstatic rhythm.
Before she could protest or even grasp onto logical thought, Max had flipped her on top of him and was kissing every surface of her mouth, neck and cheeks with an almost ferocious hunger. His massive hands explored every surface of her body. Straddled above the thick muscles of his torso, she looked down in amazement as some feral beast seemed to be unleashed from inside him.
She had never been wanted like this before. He invaded the inside of her mouth with his tongue and conquered each part of her he explored. His hands firmly smoothed their way down her torso and roughly grabbed hold of her hips, grinding her into his erection with a ferocious rhythm.
With a surprisingly smooth action, Max managed to unzip Audrey's dress in one swift movement, immediately exposing her bare torso to him before she could do anything to protest. He suddenly stopped, pausing to look up at her and take in the sight of her exposed flesh. He smiled widely as he ran his hands up the gentle curve of her hips and pressed her down on top of him.
“Audrey…you are too damn much…” he growled in her ear. He sat up and wrapped her arms around her neck as he deftly came to standing in one smooth motion. Her legs straddled his torso as he carried her to his desk, swiftly pushing off the stacks of neatly piled papers onto the floor.
He spread her body down across the newly bare surface and pulled her half open dress all the way off of her. She was completely nude from the waist up except for her locket necklace, with only stockings and her garter belt covering her lower half. Her nipples pebbled at the sight of him standing over her still fully clothed in her design.
Her heart leapt inside her chest as he stared down at her. He looked identical to the American pioneer man she had always imagined finding in Texas, his massive muscles heaving as his breath grew heavy with desire. She couldn't believe this man was actually related to Silas. The differences between them were stunning.
Silas. Dammit.