Maximus chuckled. “I’m sure you’ll be able to handle Bill and Chris.”
“I hope so.” Selena’s expression darkened. “Especially since…” She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. Everyone’s got baggage and annoying crap at work. I’m sure you do, too.”
“You could say that.”
She forced a smile, and the obvious effort prickled Maximus. The woman looked better with a smile.
“What about you?” Selena asked. “I don’t know a lot about security, but I’m guessing you were in the Army or something and then decided to make more money going private? You have a very military air about you.”
Maximus considered his words carefully. Lying about his background was second nature, but when he stared into Selena’s hazel eyes, he wanted to let the entire truth flow out. He decided on the emotional rather than literal truth. That would make it easier and only half a lie.
“I didn’t know my parents.” Maximus set his fork down. “I grew up in a kind of military-oriented group home where they wanted to make sure we had good skills.” He let out a bitter chuckle. “They were assholes, but we got some useful skills out of it, and they aren’t a part of my life anymore. Now I’m just with the men I grew up with. We might not be brothers in blood, but we’re brothers in every way that counts. We’re all physical sorts of guys, so going into this kind of work seemed natural.”
“That’s kind of messed up,” Selena murmured. “My dad might have split when I was young, but at least I had my mom.”
“I try not to worry about the past,” lied Maximus. “It is what it is. The only thing you can change is the future.”
Selena’s gaze dipped, uncertainty playing across her face. Maximus hadn’t picked up on any sort of falseness from her during any of their encounters. His keen nose might not be able to pick up lies, but the idea that Selena was some sort of agent of the Phoenix Corps seemed ridiculous.
Maximus slowed his breathing. She’d not prepared much for a date. She wore the same rumpled shirt she had on since morning, and it was obvious she’d not put much effort into makeup. Only she’d changed out of her jeans and was now wearing a flowing black skirt. He couldn’t help but think about the easy access that might allow. Everything about the woman called out to him, her personality, the slight coy crinkle of her mouth when she smiled.
He bit down a growl. If she invited him back to her hotel room, he couldn’t bring himself to say no. His Vestal was still out there, waiting for him, but he would never know. It wouldn’t be wrong to bed a woman who called to him so much.
“It might just be because I’ve got some wine in me,” Selena said, shifting Maximus’s attention away from his more amorous thoughts and his tightening pants. “But the more I think about this permit thing and the forest, the stranger it is.”
Maximus sat up and swallowed. That was right. He wasn’t there to screw the redhead. He was there to glean any useful intelligence that might link back to the Corps.
“You don’t think it’s just some bureaucracy crap?” he asked.
“Nope.” Selena snorted. “I might not be some big-shot producer, but I have been a production assistant for three years now, and I’ve done a lot of this kind of permit work. I know what it’s like to get jerked around by petty people, and this doesn’t feel like that. I can’t put my finger on it. But it feels like something different.”
“Like what?”
“Like someone’s purposefully trying to hide something.” Selena narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not a hot mobster, are you?”
“Huh?” Maximus shook his head lightly confused.
“I mean you are hot.” Selena shrugged. “It’s not like you don’t know that already being a statue come to life, but you’re not a mobster who’s been sent to keep an eye on me. That’s what I’m asking.”
Maximus didn’t know whether to be impressed at her instincts or amused.
“I’m not, but if I were, would I tell you that?” he asked.
“No, but I think I’d be able to tell.” Selena gave him a coy smile, her cheeks approaching the shade of her hair. “Just like my instincts tell me there is a lot more to you than security.”
Maximus didn’t avert his eyes despite how the woman’s gaze burrowed into him, making his heart pound faster and his loins stir. This was getting bad.
“My current client is probably not the only rich asshole looking at the land,” said Maximus. “Maybe there are some bribes flowing around to keep too many people from seeing how nice it is while someone gets their permits in place to begin building their next island home.”
Selena rubbed her chin, nodding as if Maximus had just revealed the secret behind every unsolved mystery on the planet. “It always comes down to some rich asshole, doesn’t it? Bill. Chris. Whoever is messing with that land.”
She trailed off as a waiter arrived. They waved him off quickly to continue their conversation.
Selena leaned over the table and dropped her voice to a whisper. “I think I’m going to go check it out.”
“You mentioned that before.”
“Tomorrow,” Selena said. “Part of this is to gather evidence that it’s not dangerous, and another is to see if my instincts are right. There’s a beautiful waterfall at the actual site we were supposed to be filming, which is why I suggested the place when I was doing location scouting on the net.” Suspicion colored her face. “I’m not an idiot. I did background work, and I saw nothing about Army stuff remotely near the site, but there were some blank spots on the satellite photos that just said, ‘Data being updated.’ I ignored all of them because they weren’t close to the waterfall. I didn’t figure it’d be important.”
“What if they aren’t lying about the Army facility?” Maximus asked.
“The only reason I even know
