Loving the Bastard (3 page)

“I didn’t intend to start this
now
,” Zeta groused. Maximilian had to suppress the urge to grin. If nothing else, this merger was going to prove interesting in the extreme. Not only did there seem to be an undeniable magnetism between him and the lovely Zeta, but she was the most intriguing puzzle he’d ever come across. Now, as they sped across town in his Mercedes S65 AMG toward her apartment, she actually seemed vexed that he hadn’t let her have a day or so to “prepare herself,” otherwise known as a day or so to talk herself out of it. The infuriating woman didn’t even seem impressed she was riding in a six-figure car.

“If not now, when? Tell me when would be a good time to begin our…arrangement?”

“I don’t know,” she snapped. “After I’ve had a chance to fully realize what I’ve committed myself to.”

“You’re not getting out of this for at least six months, Zeta. But I’m confident I can convince you to proceed with the whole thing. It’s not as bad as you think. You can still find…companionship if you wish.”

“Yeah, yeah. I got that. I just have to be discreet. You’ve mentioned that.” Never had anyone spoken to him in this manner. Maximilian wasn’t sure if he wanted to throttle her or kiss her some more.

“You know, for a woman trying to save her family’s fortune, you’re not very deferential.”

“Yeah, well, get used to it,” she grumbled, turning to look out the window. “Don’t like it? Choose someone a little more suited to your station in life. Someone who’ll be a little more impressed with your money and power.”

The woman truly had audacity! There was no containing his chuckle this time. Zeta had no idea how she affected him, which was good. If she did, she’d use it to her advantage. In Maximilian’s experience, women used two things shamelessly to their advantage. Sex and tears. If one didn’t work, the other one usually would. Never had he seen a woman use vexation to her advantage the way Zeta did.

“I don’t see anything so goddamned funny about any of this,” she snapped. “Why I agreed to give you six months is beyond me. I can’t even stand to be around you six minutes!”

“No one says we have to actually be around each other,” Max said, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at her. “Which is what I’ve been trying to get through your thick skull.” He laughed. God, he was enjoying goading her! “The only time we need to be together is at social functions and to…conceive my son.” Even the thought of having her—no matter it would only be for a short time—made his blood boil with a raging lust. Why in the world he found it so was beyond him. Hell, even being near her in the confines of the car made him hard. There was a tantalizing smell about her. A combination of a light orange blossom scent and the musky heat of warm woman seemed to hover around his nose, taunting him with what he couldn’t have. Yet.

“You call that a marriage?”

He shrugged. “It worked for my parents.”

“Clearly not very well if your father has pushed you to this.”

How could he argue with that? Though he wanted to keep her riled. All too soon they arrived at her apartment.

“I won’t be but a minute,” she said, opening the door, obviously intending that he remain in the fucking parking lot.

“I don’t think so. I’ll be going with you.”

“Fine.” Zeta rolled her eyes at him, which really should have irritated Maximilian. Not turned him on even more. Woman—and men—generally fawned all over him. He found this insolence in her oddly stimulating. Like foreplay.

She led him to her apartment on the fifth floor. Though her father had money enough to put her in a house of her own—even in the city—her home was a modest one-bedroom. In other words, positively tiny. Still it was neat, with only her desk a mess of papers.

“So, what kind of work do you do?” he found himself asking, though he’d never asked it of another woman. It was understood any woman he dated was either wealthy in her own right—or her parents’—or was hoping to score his wealth.

“I help my father with accounting,” she answered as she hastily gathered a few things. “And I tutor math at the Y on Wednesdays and Saturdays.”

“Tutor math? College students?”

“No. Junior high and high school students. Most of them are from the inner city and would have no other way of getting help.”

She said it so matter-of-factly, as if it were her duty to continue. That thought was the first thing to put a damper on Max’s good humor. “You do mean the Y in this part of town. Right? I mean, your students are bussed in or are brought here some way.”

“No, Max,” she said, stopping her hasty packing to look at him. “I go to the Y downtown. Every Wednesday and Saturday. Surprisingly, I’ve managed to help several young people get through high school math as well as some lower level college courses, though those are few and far between. Most of them are lucky to get a high school education.”

“And your father lets you do this?” He tried to keep the censure out of his voice, but wasn’t quite sure he managed it.

“No, my father doesn’t
let
me do it. I do whatever the hell I want.”

“Not anymore,” he muttered.

“Oh, no, Mr. We’ll-Lead-Separate-Lives. You can’t have it both ways.”

“On this I will, but we’ll get to that later.” The very thought of her putting herself in danger like that made anger surge through him nearly as intensely as lust had before. The why of it wasn’t something he wanted to think about just yet.

Maximilian expected Zeta to lay into him again. Instead, she merely shrugged. “Think that all you want. But I’ll still be going to the Y on Wednesdays and Saturdays. If you want to come with me, suit yourself.”

“I might just do that,” he said. “Someone has to make sure you get home in one piece.”

“I’ve managed quite well for a very long time, thank you,” was her cool reply before she went back to packing. “It’s not like you’d actually be of any help. You wouldn’t last five minutes with that bunch. They’d eat you alive.”

Max stilled, sensing a trap, but getting distracted when Zeta bent at the waist to pick up her computer bag. “Just what’s that supposed to mean?” he said, not really following the thread of the conversation anymore.

“It means they’d likely peg you for a spoiled rich guy with more money than common sense. They’d have you throwing dice or some other nonsense so they could rip you off. It’s not like you’d be of use anyway. Unless you’re good at teaching math to kids.”

“High school students are hardly kids.”

She turned to face him then, a calculating look on her face. Then she snorted and shook her head, turning back to her packing. “No. You don’t have the patience for it. If you think I need a guard, I suggest you find one of those big guys with lots of muscles people like you always hire to protect them and send him with me. He’d be of more use.”

“Like hell,” he growled, his eyes still glued to her backside.

Zeta wore a black, straight skirt that came to her knees, but the material hugged her ass like a lover. The conservative white blouse was tucked into the waist, giving him an unimpeded view every time she bent over. Maximilian found himself wondering what kind of underwear she wore beneath it all. Would she be covered in lace or silk?

“Well, then, I guess you’ll have to brush up on your remedial math skills. Because I don’t miss those classes for anything.”

“Just get your things,” he groused, his mood suddenly not as good as it had been. Besides, he absolutely had to find out what kind of underwear she was wearing. If she was wearing lace, he’d buy her silk just so he could compare the two.

It was only then he realized he’d just agreed to go with her to something he not only couldn’t give two shits about, but absolutely didn’t want to do, thinking it a waste of his time. Not only that, but he knew without a shadow of a doubt he’d go.

Not long after her brief stop by her apartment, Maximilian drove Zeta down the long winding driveway that lead to a monstrous estate. It was all Zeta could do to keep her jaw from dropping at the sight of it.

The thing stood three stories with balconies on each window overlooking the grounds. Doric columns ran the length of the front of the house, top to bottom, giving it a stately air. To Zeta, it looked more like a resort than someone’s home. Could it be any more ostentatious? The house definitely fit the owner.

“You actually live here?”

“For eleven years,” he said proudly, as if she should be impressed.

“We could live here together for years, never leave the house, and never see each other!”

“That’s the point I’ve been trying to make, sweetheart. We can live together without actually getting in each other’s way.”

“Okay, first off, I’m not your sweetheart,” she said, needing to get that out of the way. Endearments would only lead to a false sense of security should he insist they have a more intimate relationship. Given the kiss they’d shared in his office, that was most definitely on his agenda. “Second, how can you possibly hope to have a successful marriage by never seeing each other in private?”

“Successful in my book equals no divorce. Since it’s in the prenup…success.”

As he pulled into the garage, Zeta decided two things. Maximilian had a very fucked-up idea of what marriage was and how a husband and wife should treat each other. Next, it might be foolhardy on her part, but she was going to show him.

“I tell you what,” she said. “We have six months before I give my final word. I get that you expect us to basically have nothing to do with each other after you get your heir, but I want you to see things my way. Just for this six months. If I’m going to go out of my comfort zone, then I expect you to do the same.”

“Has anyone ever told you you’re an exasperating female?” Maximilian didn’t look irritated or angry—he looked amused. As if this were all a grand experiment, a game they were playing.

She pretended to think about the question before answering, “No. Can’t say I’ve ever heard that one.”

“Fine. What do you propose?”

“Outside of your work, we do things as a couple. We have meals together. We watch TV together in the evenings or whatever. We pretend we actually matter to each other and see what happens.”

“Like me going with you to the YMCA to help you with your math tutoring?”

“No. You’ll do that because it will make a difference in the life of a young man or woman.” When he rolled his eyes, she amended, “And because you said you thought it was too dangerous for me to go alone. If you don’t want to help”—she shrugged—“fine. But these youngsters could certainly benefit from your vast knowledge and experience in the corporate world.”

“I’m still not sure how you managed to talk me into that one.”

Maximilian escorted her into his home with obvious pride as they spoke. Admittedly, he had much to be prideful of. The place was gorgeous. Spacious living areas, a kitchen that was to die for, and the promise that there were three more in different wings of the house if one didn’t meet her needs.

At length, he took her to a suite of rooms on the seconed floor. The balcony in back overlooked the pool in the center of an expansive courtyard. There was a sitting room, bedroom, spacious bathroom, and a full kitchen. The sitting room was bigger than her entire apartment with an entertainment area with the biggest TV she’d ever seen. A leather sectional formed a U for comfortable viewing. In the corner—almost as an afterthought, as if it had been put there because the designer thought it might be a requirement—was a white baby grand piano. A plush area rug as big as a room lay underneath the instrument but looked as if it had never been walked on. Zeta’s fingers itched to try out the piano. She bet it sounded so much better than her old upright. While still pleasing, the sound was likely nothing like what she could produce with this piano.

“Consider this yours while you’re here,” he said, startling her away from her musical envy. Which only brought her focus back to Maximilian. Every time she looked at him she felt like the place was closing in around her. He was that magnetic to her. Powerfully built, handsome, with more sex appeal than was legal, he was so far out of her league, Zeta had to wonder how in the world she was going to survive this. Yes, she now had a plan, but it was all so exhausting. Just being next to him, playing his little mind games, was akin to running a marathon. Living with him might prove to be too much for her.

Unfortunately, like her kids at the Y, Maximilian needed her. While she was still certain he was close to the devil incarnate, he was still a human being sorely in need of affection. True affection. Not the fake bullshit he got from everyone around him. Maximilian needed someone to genuinely care about him, to care what happened to him and try to make him happy. He also needed to know what it was like to care about someone else more than he cared about himself. Why in the world she felt the need to take him on, Zeta had no clue. But there it was. In that moment, she vowed to herself she’d figure out a way to make him see what true love really was.

After giving her a quick tour, he smiled at her. “I’d insist we sleep together tonight, but I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day. Unless, of course, you’re feeling adventurous.”

“You know, it’s really not nice to mock people.”

“No one ever said I was a nice guy, Zeta.”

“No shit,” she muttered.

“Oh, almost forgot.” He pulled a black card from his jacket pocket and handed it to her.

“What’s this?”

“You need clothes. An evening gown, cocktail dresses, business casual wear. That will get you anything you need. Don’t buy jewelry unless it’s the real thing, especially to go with your evening gown. If you’re in doubt, wait for me.”

“This is a black Centurion American Express,” she breathed. “With
my
name on it?”

“No limits,” he said, grinning. “Use it as you wish. You can purchase anything you like in addition to the items you need.”

“Wow,” she managed. “Why are you doing this?”

“Showing you what life with me will be like. Anything your heart desires.” He flashed her a heart-stopping smile before adding. “See? I’m not so bad.”