His midnight black eyes seemed filled with the tempest that could boil over and sweep her feet from underneath her. "It is none of your business what I do or what my intentions are'' she whispered without having any idea why "Good God, you don't even know me."
The fact that she did not step back excited Maxwell beyond comprehension. The look in his eyes that had made men scramble most of the time and made some tremble only had her tilt her head back in a challenge as she gave him a defiant look. Maxwell knew he just had to have his hand on her. Her wedding ring and games, be damned.
"Oh yeah? Do you want to deny that you deliberately sat at my table, intending to make me notice you? Did you tuck your pretty little ring away just so you could have a free, wild night? Well, my lady. You have no idea just how wild the night could be," he whispered to her in a way that made her shiver slightly even as her blood heated.
"What are you talking about? Are you…" Her words died out as she felt her breath back up her lungs when he held her upper arms, none too gently. The jolt of heat that slammed into her system made her wonder briefly if she was having a heat stroke. Not that she would have any idea what that was, as she had never had it before. She was sure that his firm hands on her shoulder were the reason why she was not dissolving into a puddle of sensations at his feet.
She decided that she must be coming down with something when she felt his hot breath cross her lips as he said, "Damn it, lady. I don't care about whatever games you play, but I care when that game affects me and makes me want to...
"If you do not meet me inside in the next one minute, Maxie, I am leaving, and I don't want to see your call."
Reyona looked behind his shoulder to see a woman pass behind him to the entrance of the bar.
"Shit," Maxwell said, was the only person who called his name like that. He looked behind him just as the door swung close behind the burly woman. She couldn't think of a better term to use for the woman who seemed to have enough strength to knock down a man. She felt that the voice sounded familiar as well, but she shrugged it off. She knew nobody had that kind of build.
Reyona shrugged his hands off her shoulder. "Your meeting, I guess?" she scoffed. "You are one to talk."
She turned away from him and entered her car before he could say anything else.
"Assholes are a dime a dozen these days," she thought to herself as she left the parking lot of the bar.
She had no idea why she was so angry. The nerve of the idiot had to accuse her of playing games when he had been perfectly willing to flirt with her a few minutes ago, all while he was waiting for his burly woman.
She hoped the Amazon-like woman gave him enough grief and knocked him around too, for the record.
He was probably married as well, and the woman was just one of his many girlfriends. Yes, that would make sense why he quickly came on to her like that. He must be a casanova who jumped from one woman to the other.
Bastard.
She was sure he had intended to kiss her.
Not that she would have allowed it, though. No, she wouldn't. She was not a loose woman.
"No, just a jilted one," her subconscious whispered sinisterly.
Reyona sighed as her house came into view. What was she doing, thinking of the habits of an asshole that she would never set her eyes on again?
What did she care if the man slept with all the women on the side of the coast and beyond?
She had her licensed bastard waiting for her to come back so he would spin off more lies to her.
No, she had no business with a midnight-eyed stranger.
**********
The midnight-eyed stranger was currently ribbed by a woman whom most wouldn't have imagined her true identity.
"I tend to think that your urgent business was not so urgent after all, Max." Donald cum Serena, Alias Don spoke as she leaned back against her chair. She looked relaxed in her seat-even slouchy, in fact. Yes, she was about as relaxed as a cheetah would be. Right before he pounced on a prey. She had angled her chair in a way that had her eyes on both the entrance and most of the bar.
"You think wrong, Don. It is about as urgent as urgent could be," Maxwell said as he looked at the shrewd-looking woman in front of him. He still hadn't gotten over the huge transformation the man he had once known had gone through.
He still had no idea why, and Don had never been one to explain himself, or should he say herself, to anyone. It must have been for the illusion. Yes, Maxwell believed it would be hard for anyone to look at the sweet-faced woman in front of him and believed that she was the leader of a syndicate. No stranger could have an idea of what the woman was capable of.
"Are you going to tell me why you got me down here, or do you want to keep staring at my tits? Or better still, you might want to go back to your lady, to whom you had your tongue down her throat," she said with a drawl.
"What? I am not staring at... never mind, and she is not my lady," Maxwell said in annoyance.
"Oh, so she is what then? Your passing flame?" She raised her hand before Max could talk. "I don't care. For the record, I don't care about you staring at my tits either. They cost a lot of money, so they might as well be useful."
Maxwell leaned forward on the table. "Their usefulness is wasted on me. They would work better on someone who had no idea what you were before."
Don gave him a masculine, thin smile "I see you still have your smart mouth on you. Glad to see that living the CEO life had not changed that'' Her smile hardened. "Start talking."