then did she realize she’d given herself away and was absently twisting the plain silver band on her middle finger. She dropped her hands and lifted her chin.
“So you’re really going through with this?”
“If by this, you mean quitting, then yes. I’m really going through with this.” Emma pushed a small metal statue of a horse’s head with a mane of flames out of the way so she could perch a hip on the corner of his desk before she crossed her left leg over her right. It was a bold move, not one she’d ever made before, but this was a now-or-never situation—and she was Team Now, all the way. At least until he cocked an eyebrow at the liberty she’d just taken.
Her heart thudded in slow, thick beats as he trailed his imperious gaze down her body and let it linger for a moment too long on her knee, making her excruciatingly aware of how far her dress had slid up her thigh when she’d sat.
God, if having his eyes on her could make her feel this good, she couldn’t wait to get his hands on her.
She waited patiently until he’d looked his fill and flicked his attention back to her face.
The raw power of him made Emma’s skin hum with potential, but she faced down the electricity’s source. Max didn’t respect cowards. He lived in a world of high-stakes negotiations where death was preferable to shows of weakness.
“I don’t know what more I can say.”
“That’s easy,” Max countered, leaning back in his chair. “Say you’ll stay.”
The statement hung between them, suspended in air so thick it brushed against her skin and left goose bumps in its wake. They’d always had chemistry. Since the first time they’d laid eyes on one another. And with the same sardonic expression on his face as he wore now, he’d given her the research and development job she’d so brazenly demanded. In the space of a handshake, the sexual awareness bubbling between them had been leashed, muzzled and banished by unspoken agreement to the dungeon of professionalism.
But ever since she’d handed in her notice three weeks ago, and he’d countered with the very generous terms outlined in the unsigned contract she’d just placed on his desk, the sensual beast had awoken, prowling in the shadows, growing bolder, encroaching more often and more forcefully as their time together drew to an end. And tonight, she was going to let it loose.
Emma didn’t move. And this time she would not speak first.
There was a note of respect in his voice when he conceded. “What will it take?”
“I’m sorry?”
“How much? Name your price.”
It was as close to begging as she’d ever heard him get. She didn’t like the answering flutter in her chest that made her want to stay. Max had a way of taking control, and she couldn’t afford to let him. Not tonight.
“This isn’t a negotiation. I don’t have a price.”
Max steepled his fingers, looking like every titan of industry in every anti-capitalist movie ever made. “Everyone has a price.”
Her answering laugh was tinged with scorn. “Really, Max? Resorting to tired clichés already? I’d always credited you with more stamina than that.”
The slow grin that dawned across his handsome features stirred something deep and primal in her belly, a silent refutation of her verbal jab that let her know that he could more than provide whatever she needed for as long as she needed it. It was a rare smile for him, not the feral one he used for business, but the charming one that slipped out sometimes when he was genuinely amused.
“What can I say? I have a deep appreciation for the classics.” Max dropped his hands, then sat forward in his chair. “Now, get off my desk. You don’t work here anymore.”
Emma had already followed the command before she realized she’d done it. Dammit. No retreat, she reminded herself, straightening the seams of her black pencil skirt, wishing the slit was a little more daring, achingly aware of the garters beneath. Ignoring the implied dismissal, she crossed her arms over her chest, taking care to enhance her cleavage as she did so. “You’re right. So maybe you should pour me a drink. We can toast the end of our working relationship.”
Oh God. Had she just said that?
He raised a contemplative eyebrow.
It was hard to breathe.
Without a word, he stood in that dangerously graceful way he had and walked over to the sideboard near the window. Her heart gave a funny little lurch at the realization it was the last time she was going to see him.
She allowed her gaze to linger a moment, to fix the height and breadth of him in her mind. The quiet authority of him as, with quick, efficient movements, Max pulled the stopper from the crystal decanter and poured a drink.
Then he poured another, which caused a completely different kind of lurch, this one much, much lower than her heart.
This was going to happen.
Emma’s palms prickled as he grabbed both glasses and joined her in front of his desk. The fact that he stood about a foot closer than he’d ever stood before was not lost on her. She accepted the drink he held out to her, her skin slick against the expensive crystal.
Max regarded her for a moment, his expression unreadable, before he raised his glass. “To whatever comes next.”
His voice was deep, rich and more intoxicating than the premium liquor he’d handed her.
She clinked her glass to his and joined him in a sip of his preferred single malt Scotch.
The liquid was smooth and strong as it slipped over her tongue.
“Tell me it’s not Kearney.”
“What?”
“Tell me you’re not leaving to work for that son of a bitch.”
Emma was oddly touched by the surly order that namechecked his most hated rival, the CEO of Cybercore. In Max-speak, that might be as close as she would ever get to “It’s been nice working with you.” Not that she was fishing for compliments.
“Why would you think that?” she asked, taking another sip.
“Because business is war. You have to take what you want. And Liam Kearney has a long history of taking what’s mine.”
Emma choked on her mouthful of Scotch.
Surely he hadn’t meant...
She glanced up at his stern, handsome face, but his eyes were shuttered, focused on the liquid swirling in the glass thanks to a practiced flick of his wrist, like he was lost in an unpleasant memory.
Her voice was soft when she finally spoke, and despite her better judgment, held the reverence of a vow. “I’m not going to work for that son of a bitch.”
Emma was vindicated by the twitch of his lips that betrayed, if not outright relief, at least mild amusement, though she wasn’t sure if it was at the solemnness of her response or at himself for stooping to ask the question. “Drink your Scotch, Emma.”
It sounded almost like a warning. She stared at the contents of her glass. “We’ve never had a drink together before.” The words were unnecessary, obvious, but she couldn’t stop them anymore than she could stop her gaze from lifting to his.
If she hadn’t spent the last three years working with him, day in and day out, she might have missed the tick in his jaw, the subtle darkening of his eyes.
“You’ve never not worked for me before,” he countered, raising the glass to his lips.
Heat flared in her belly, incinerating the oxygen and making it hard to breathe. Her skin buzzed at the change in the atmosphere.
She fortified herself with another sip of the amber