Unfinished Business. Cat Schield

want more than twenty minutes,” she corrected him, letting her thick southern accent slide all over the words. “You probably don’t need more than …” She paused and peered at him from beneath her lashes. “Ten?”

      Max rose from the couch and prowled her way. She turned her back as he stepped into her space. He loomed over her in order to peer at her phone’s screen. So, she wanted to mess with him. Two could play at this game. A minute quiver betrayed her reaction to his proximity. Tension drained from his body. The chemistry between them was textbook and undeniable. His palms itched to measure her waist, reacquaint themselves with her breasts.

      “I wasn’t so much thinking of my needs as yours,” he said, his voice low and intimate. “I know how much you like it when I take my time.”

      She sized him up with a sideways glance. “I thought this was the sort of thing you were trying to avoid doing with your assistant.”

      Max shook his head. “I was trying to avoid losing my freedom in one of your matchmaking schemes.”

      “You were trying to avoid marriage?” She slipped the phone back into its cradle at her waist. “Or falling in love?”

      “Both.”

      “Because they don’t always go hand in hand, you know.”

      “I’m all too familiar with that truth.”

      As she well knew. The four days they’d spent together hadn’t been limited to learning about each other physically. Max had shared his soul, as well. Whether because they’d been two strangers sharing a moment with no thought of a future, or because being with her had thawed places long numb, he’d told her everything about his childhood and the problems with his family, delving into emotions he had no idea lurked beneath his skin.

      She’d been a damn good listener. Made it easy to be vulnerable. He’d felt safe with her. And she’d left him. Gone back to her husband.

      What an idiot he’d been.

      “I’ll go get Chuck Weaver on the phone,” she said, retreating from his office.

      It wasn’t until he sat behind his desk and answered the call she put through that he realized she’d completely distracted him from getting answers about what sort of financial mess she was in.