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“Is that safe?” Max grumbled.
“Yeah, what he said,” Angelina hooked a thumb over her shoulder. “I don’t want lotion lowered to me in a basket.”
Jake’s glare quickly cut off Max’s laugh.
“He is a perfectly respectable, slightly quirky billionaire interested in meeting you. What is the worst that could happen? You get a nice meal cooked by a classically trained chef. You can check out his house and then go home.”
“That is true,” Angelina opened the door and locked it after Max stepped out. “With that much money, he would have to live in an amazing house. If not, I could fix that for him.”
“That’s the spirit,” Jake wrapped an arm around her shoulders and the other around Max’s. “If all else fails, tell him his house is dated and losing value.”
“Nothing says romance like a rousing discussion about property values,” Max shook his head at them.
Jake stopped and raised an eyebrow at Max. “And what happened the last time we discussed redoing the house?”
Max’s mouth tipped up at the ends.
“Holy wow,” Angelina marveled. “Is that a smile from Max?”
Opening the front door, she watched their reaction. On the outside, her house looked like a two-story farmhouse, complete with window shutters and flower boxes. The wrap-around porch had a swing and rocking chairs to lounge under the ceiling fan on warm evenings. On the inside, it was a mix of modern and homey. The combination often stunned people. Wood and metal were accented with color and function. Angelina didn’t usually dabble in interior things, but she knew what she wanted when the house was signed over to her.
Max let out an almost erotic groan.
“You will have to excuse him. He just got a look at your stove,” Jake whispered.
“Okay then,” Angelina struggled not to laugh as she led them through the living room into the kitchen. The six-foot island had stools tucked under the edge of the marble counter. The cabinets were bright white with fun blue glass knobs. She had a local artist paint the design on the floor tiles. The swirls of blue across the floor were one of her favorite features.
Max lovingly ran his hand over the eight-burner stove with the double oven underneath.
“I think you just turned him straight,” Jake muttered.
“Bite me,” Max cleared his throat, snapping himself out of his kitchen envy.
“The fridge is stocked. The freezer is in the pantry right there. There is a bathroom off the side of the living room. TV remote is on the coffee table. I am going upstairs to shower.”
“Your bedroom is upstairs?” Jake asked.
“It was a four-bedroom floor plan upstairs. I turned it into two suites. The bigger one is for me, and the smaller one is for guests. I keep the biggest suite on the main floor for my dad. There isn’t anything wrong with him, but he is getting older. No sense in climbing steps when he stops at home if he doesn’t have to.”
“Look at you being the good daughter.”
“Make yourselves at home,” Angelina told Jake because Max was already elbow-deep in her fridge. “No bitching about what is in the fridge.”
“How does a woman like you survive on yogurt? Jesus. Do you know what is in this?”
“Go now,” Jake pushed her out of the kitchen toward the stairs. “Save yourself.”
Angelina took his advice and made a run for the stairs. She could hear him trying to calm Max down from her bedroom. Grabbing a pair of leggings and an off-the-shoulder top, she hurried into the bathroom. She turned it into her sanctuary. A bathtub she could easily fit four people in and a shower twice as large, not that she was planning on sharing with anyone. The purple ball on the edge of the tub called to her. It would take one flick of her wrist for it to fall in the tub accidentally. She would have to take a long soak in the tub. It was a crime to waste a good bath bomb.
“Cheez Whiz,” Max’s outraged voice filtered through the floor.
“Calm down, my love.”
“Do you see this?”
“No bath,” Angelina grumbled. “Not when the food critic is in my kitchen.”
She quickly stripped and hurried through her shower. It was quiet when she stepped out onto the bathmat. There was an incredible smell creeping up the stairs to tease her. She had no idea what Max was cooking, but he made her house smell delicious. A quick gel of her hair, and she tugged on her clothes.
