Chapter 16 - Against All Odds

For the love of god, when will I get her alone again? Max thought.

This idea of a group outing was totally backfiring at the moment. It was like his family was intentionally sabotaging any alone time he could have with Emma. First, Teresa was acting all weird around him for some reason. Then, he didn’t get to ride with Emma in the cab and now Mia was all over her during dinner, making conversation with her as if they’d known each other for years. It was especially strange coming for her, as she usually was reserved with people at first. He felt like he was in the twilight zone.

“Who’s ready for some drinks?” Max suddenly said. If he had any chance at all of getting an hour in with her before the night ended, it had to be now. At the bar. Just the two of them.

“Alright Maxi wants to get his drink on!” Teresa exclaimed. “Why couldn’t you be like this the other night we went out? You were sulking the entire time.”

He stole a quick glance at Emma, who had a curious look on her face. “That’s because the waiter kept hitting on you during dinner, and then your French friends showed up.”

“Well, what’s wrong with that?” she asked completely clueless.

“Forget it,” he said rolling his eyes. “Can we just go? We already paid the bill so I see no reason to still be sitting around.”

“Fiery, too! Max, I gotta say I’m just loving you right now,” Teresa smirked. She got up and ran her fingers around the back of his shoulders as she passed him by.

Seriously, what was wrong with her tonight?

He turned to Emma and offered her his hand to stand up. Instead, she pretended like she hadn’t seen it and looked the other way.

“I’m going to the bathroom,” she announced to the table. “I’ll see you at the bar.”

Great, just great. By the time he got to the damn bar, he felt like he was about to explode.

“Bro, you need to relax,” Leo said, apparently noticing the invisible fumes coming out of him.

“How am I supposed to relax? I’ve barely spoken to her all night and now she’s probably pissed at me or something.”

“She’s fine. C’mon you need some tequila shots,” Leo said, motioning towards the bartender. “We’re going to need five shots of Riazul. No, make that four but make his a double,” he said pointing towards Max.

“Yo man, what’s up? Where’s Emma?” a voice suddenly said behind him.

He turned around to see Alex. He did show up after all. Maybe Emma would be happy about that at least. “Hey, man. Glad you came,” he said, shaking his hand. “She just went to bathroom, she should be back soon.”

“Um, excuse me? Who is this and why haven’t you introduced him?” Teresa asked, pushing Max back with her voluptuous ass and making her way in front of Alex.

Oh god. Max thought Alex would have been taken aback, but his eyes were burrowing into her instead.

“Alex,” he said, reaching for her hand and kissing it.

“Enchanté. Teresa,” she said seductively, first in a French accent and then switched to Spanish when she said her name. She twirled a lock of her hair around between her fingers and batted her eyelashes at him.

Max refrained from rolling his eyes this time. Apparently they didn’t need any introductions. He cleared his throat, interrupting them. “Alex, that’s my brother Leo and his wife Mia, and Teresa is her sister. Alex is Emma’s brother,” he explained.

“Max, why didn’t you guys tell us he was such a hottie?” Teresa asked still staring at him. As if to drive the point further, she pulled out a Japanese folding fan out of her purse and started fanning herself.

“Um, I don’t think either myself or Emma would think about something like that,” he laughed, getting more and more uncomfortable. What the fuck is happening here, he thought.

Thankfully, the bartender arrived at that moment and poured out their shots.

“We’re going to need one more,” Max said. When they were all lined up and ready to go, he looked around for Emma but she was nowhere in sight. “Maybe I should go look for Emma,” he said, starting to get concerned.

“Have your shot first,” Leo said. “I think you can use the liquid courage.”

Alex laughed. “Is she still not putting out?”

Max had to take a swipe at that comment. “I cannot believe that just came from you. Aren’t you supposed to be looking out for her as an older brother?”

“Hey, you know my methods are untraditional. Plus, that’s your job now. Seems like you need to step up your game, bro. How else are you planning on getting her to forget about the meathead?” he said winking at Teresa. Max turned to see she was busy sucking on a lime, apparently in preparation for the tequila.

“Okay. Let’s just have the shots and pretend I’m not getting advice from you about sleeping with your sister and stealing her away from her live-in boyfriend,” he exclaimed.

Everyone was grinning as they downed their shot, except him of course. Max ended up taking Mia’s shot too, right after the double, as apparently she wasn’t drinking. He could feel the alcohol pouring out of him already. “Alright, see you fools later,” he said, leaving them behind at the bar.

“Go get ‘em, tiger!” he heard Alex say as he walked away.

He shook his head and made his way towards the bathroom. He must have waited nearly ten minutes before he asked a few girls to check inside for Emma but no one had seen her. He made a few rounds in the club with no luck and started to get really worried.

Where the hell was she? He finally made his way outside as a last resort. Sure enough, she was there leaning against the building and staring at her phone, looking all damsel in distress. Two guys were surrounding her trying to get her attention, but she appeared to be blowing them off. Stepping in between them, he reached out for her.

“Hey guy, get in line,” one of them said.

“She’s taken asshole,” he bit out.

He just scoffed at him, and looked him up and down and then at Emma who was ignoring him too. “By you? It wouldn’t appear so.”

“Back off, alright?” he said, irritated that he couldn’t say yes and shut him up. Turning to Emma, he reached for her hand. “C’mon Em, let’s go.”

“I’m fine here, thank you. Don’t you have a better place to be?” she said, pulling her hand away.

“Um no? You disappeared. I’ve been looking all over the damn club for you.”

“You shouldn’t have bothered. I’m going home soon anyway, so you can go back to flirting with Mia’s sister.”

“What? Wait. Is that why you left? There’s nothing going on with her.”

“Well, you seemed very preoccupied with her and Alex didn’t bother showing up, so there’s no point in being here.”

“I can assure you I am not preoccupied with her. Also, he’s inside, Em. You didn’t see him?”

At that, her eyes lit up. “No...I...”

“Look, stop being ridiculous. Let’s go back inside and you can talk to him and we can still have a good time.”

She sighed heavily and slowly stood up to go to him. He tried not to smile from the small victory.

“Hey sexy. You sure you don’t want to stay with us? I can guarantee we’ll show you a better time,” the same asshole from earlier said.

Max was about to tell him off again but Emma beat him to it this time. “Sorry boys, I’m taken,” she simply stated as she took his hand. Coming from her, those words meant the damn world to him, even though they weren’t entirely true. Maybe just for tonight they could be.

He took her back inside the club and led her straight to the bar where they had been. Only, everyone had seemed to disperse as they were no longer around. Regardless, she clearly needed a drink and he was already way ahead of her with those damn tequila shots.

He was trying to get the bartender’s attention, when he felt Emma being pulled away from him. He cursed under his breath when he noticed some jackass was trying to get her to dance with him. Seriously? Could he not see he was right there? Enough already.

“Not happening, buddy,” he snapped at him and quickly grabbed her by the waist. He propped her down in a high chair next to the bar and positioned himself between her legs.

“Jesus, Emma. I can’t leave you alone for even two seconds. Unless you want me to end up murdering the next guy who hits on you, we’re going to do this my way,” he said looking at her intently.

“Hey, it’s not my fault the guys here are out of control. It’s usually not like this,” she said defensively.

She was so clueless sometimes. Couldn’t she see how guys drooled all over all the time? Now he knew why Roy got all hot and bothered about her. He could almost sympathize with him now. Which made him a complete ass for what he was about to do.

“I highly doubt that, sweetheart,” he said leaning in and kissing her right next to her mouth. “So here’s what’s going to happen. The PDA rule is off in here and you’re mine for the night. I was trying to do the right thing and give you space, but I can’t do that anymore. Not in this fucking place. Can you do that for me?” he said running his fingers through her hair.

As expected, her eyes went wide. “Um, okay. But what about Teresa? I thought you guys…”

“I already told you there’s nothing going on and there never will be. She’s just like that sometimes...likes the attention.”

Emma made a face at that and then bit her lip as if trying not to say anything. A sudden thought occurred to him but it was beyond ridiculous. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

She quickly averted her gaze from him and slowly shook her head. He couldn’t stop the huge grin that formed on his face. For a moment he thought hell had actually frozen over. She was actually jealous - over him.

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I don’t mind. I get crazy jealous about you all the time,” he said lifting her chin so she would look at him.

“God, Max. Stop saying these things,” she said with pink cheeks.

“Hey, don’t blame me. You started it,” he laughed. “Here, let me get you a drink,” he said, changing the subject as the bartender finally showed up. “What will it be?”

“I’ll have a Dark & Stormy please,” she told the bartender. “What about you?”

“Nice choice, Em. Nothing for me, thanks,” Max said.

“Am I in prison? You’re gonna make me drink alone?” Emma asked as the bartender prepared her drink.

“Leo made me have a few shots earlier. I’m good.”

“Really? He tried to get you all liquored up? Usually that’s a move guys pull on girls,” she said amused.

“He said I should relax,” he shrugged. “It kind of worked.”

“Wait, are you drunk?”

“No, sweetheart. Maybe if I kept drinking I would be.”

She leaned in closer to him and ran her thumb under his eyes, inspecting them closely. He held her gaze, loving the feel of her delicate fingers on his face. “Your eyes are just a tad glossy but I guess I’ll just have to take your word for it. I’ve never seen you drunk so I can’t really tell,” she said.

The bartender showed up with her drink then, placing it in front of them. “We have a tab open. Last name is Durant,” Max told him without turning to look at him. “Like I said, I just took the edge off...as should you. But if you want to do a more thorough investigation, I’ll willingly comply.”

She smiled up at him. “Maybe later...If you behave that is. You know I’m good at bodily inspections,” she said sexily taking a sip of her drink.

What? He almost choked on that sentence. Those were the last words he ever expected to come out of her delightful mouth.

She was teasing him. She had to be. It still didn’t stop the image of her leaning over his naked body tending to his injuries from hitting him full force. Or the way her fingers had felt slowly trailing over his skin, coursing through every inch of him.

He suddenly felt hot all over and had to clear his throat. “Well drink up, then. You have some catching up to do.”

He turned towards the bar, considering if he should have ordered another drink after all. He desperately needed something else to think about. But what caught his attention immediately sidetracked him from that thought. “Holy shit,” he let out.

“What?” Emma asked.

For a second, he considered not telling her. God knows how she would react to this. Maybe it would work to his advantage though. “Please don’t freak out. I spotted your brother. And let’s just say if you still had any doubts about Teresa being into me, this should pretty much blow them out of the water.”

He motioned towards the other side of the bar, but kept her eyes on her. He didn’t need to see them making out again and much rather watch her priceless reaction. Seemingly, they had been handed some party favors as Teresa was wearing reflective sunglasses and a whistle around her neck, while Alex grinded up against her as his surfer hair waved and bobbed to the music.

“Oh my god. Alex!” she almost yelled and immediately diverted her wide eyes back to him looking embarrassed. She took a huge gulp of her drink, downing almost all of it.

“I have to say, the guy works pretty fast. Apparently so does she,” Max said chuckling.

“I can’t believe it! He’s such a player!”

“I don’t know, Em. Seemed like he was pretty into her.”

“After knowing her for five minutes? God, he doesn’t even bother saying hi to me and just goes on to claim the first girl he lays his eyes on.”

She obviously needed a distraction. He ran his fingers down her arm and clutched her hand. Maybe he could learn a thing or two from Alex. “Dance with me? You can show everyone the claim you have on me since apparently I’m so solicited at the moment.”

She finished the last of her drink and took a deep breath. She smirked at him and then rolled her eyes as she stood up with him. “Don’t let it get to your head, tough guy.”

He led her to the dance floor, pulling her towards him and wrapping his arms around her waist. It felt so good to touch her so freely in public and even better without her putting up a fight. She quickly eased in to him and started swaying her hips to the music.

Of course she would be an amazing dancer. At first he just watched her, mesmerized by her movements. It was so easy to get lost in her. But then he started moving with her and pulling her even closer, easily forgetting everything else but her.

He turned her around to have her back against him, selfishly wanting to feel more of her. He set a slow rhythm even though the music was much faster, gently guiding her hips against his. His hand soon slipped beneath the bottom of her shirt, which he had been dying to do since he’d first seen that bit of opening around her waist, and grazed her stomach with his thumb. He felt her shiver and then her arm was wrapping around his neck and pulling on his hair. He couldn’t help the groan he let out as he moved her hair to the side and kissed her neck.

Nothing could be more perfect than this. If only he could...

“Hey, Emma. Nice to see you’re enjoying yourself for a change.”

They both froze and looked up to see Alex smiling at them, with Teresa in tow.

“I should say the same. Nice of you to show up,” Emma responded hastily, trying to untangle herself from Max. He didn’t let her though, keeping her firmly pressed against him.

“Yeah well. You weren’t around when I got here and then I got distracted.”

“I can see that,” she said looking at Teresa, who was hanging off his shoulder and pulling on his ear.

“So, you guys good?” Alex suddenly asked, his eyes dropping to look at Max’s arm across Emma’s stomach.

“What do you mean?” Emma asked.

Turning to Max, he said, “Can she stay with you tonight?” It sounded more like a statement than an actual question.

“Of course. I got her,” he said before Emma could protest.

“Alex! You can’t just…”

“Okay, great. See you tomorrow, sis,” Alex interrupted. He gave her a quick hug and then with a grin, shook Max’s hand. He grabbed Teresa by the waist, who quickly waved at them, and just like that, they were gone.

Emma scoffed and turned to look at Max completely in shock. “I can’t believe he just pawned me off like that. What am I, chopped liver?”

He leaned in to give her a tight hug. “You’re my chopped liver now,” he whispered in her ear. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to take her home and have her all to himself. Now he just needed to figure out a way to say something without being so obvious.

He opened his mouth to ask her what she wanted to do, when Mia and Leo showed up next to them, both smiling as much as Alex had. When would he catch a break?

“Was it my imagination, or was that just your brother taking off with my sister?” Mia asked Emma.

“It would appear so,” Emma said sullenly.

A huge smile formed on Mia’s face. “Oh my god. We could be sisters now!” she exclaimed hugging Emma.

“Sweetness. That could also happen through us,” Leo said motioning between Max and himself.

Max slapped Leo across the head and gave him a look.

“What?” Leo protested. “It’s true bro. Plus, I think there’s more of a chance of that happening through our side then their side.”

Max sneaked a glance at Emma, who did not appear very happy from all this. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he said trying to appease her, even though the position they were in clearly indicated otherwise. Surprisingly, Emma frowned even further at that.

“Well, I for one don’t care. Emma, you’ll always be welcome with us,” Mia said chirpily. Max loved how she could be so positive sometimes. He would have to thank her for that later.

“Thank you, Mia,” Emma said with a half-smile.

“So we were going to head back to the hotel. Do you want to come back with us?” Leo asked.

“Yeah sure,” Max responded a bit too quickly. “Unless...you wanted to stay longer?” he asked Emma.

“No, I’m good to go too.”

Max grabbed her by the hand and kissed her forehead. “Let’s go then. I just need to close out the tab, I’ll meet you guys outside.”

Finally.