Max carried Grace into his bedroom, a large bed sat adjacent to a wall of windows that overlooked a loch. Setting her on her feet, he slid his hands up her back, under her T-shirt and unhooked her bra, then pushed her shirt and bra up and off her head. He cupped her breasts, running her nipples between his fingertips as he gently sucked each one into his mouth. Grace whimpered when she lost his mouth to pull his own shirt off, but since the sight of him shirtless was beautiful, she forgave him.

She ran her fingers over his lean, smooth chest, licking her lips as he removed the rest of his clothes and (after he’d divested Grace of the rest of her clothes) lifted her onto the mattress.

He grinned, leaning down to kiss her, and then moving his way down her body, his face disappearing between her legs. She moaned when his mouth connected with her clit, sucking it gently, then applying pressure with his tongue. She fisted her hands in the sheets and arched against him as he continued to feast on her pussy, his tongue lapping at her already slick folds.

“Max, I...I’m...I can’t wait.”

He didn’t respond verbally... just put more pressure on her core with his tongue. She anchored her heels to his shoulders and bit her lip, trying to keep her climax at bay. But she couldn’t hold it for long and cried out his name as she came.

Max kissed the inside of her thighs then hovered over her and slid inside. She moaned with need—

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Grace’s eyes flew open and she sat up with a gasp. She no longer heard the sound of a car alarm, but her arousal was front and center as she flashed back to her dream.

Flopping back on the pillows, she dragged her hands down her face. It was 3:00am Friday morning and she was exhausted...probably because (as per tradition) she and Charlotte talked at 11:59 the night before and said goodnight at 12:01.

She decided to take care of herself since Max wasn’t there to do it, and then forced herself back to sleep.

* * *

Later that afternoon, Grace paced the family room. Max and his brother were due to arrive any minute for an early birthday dinner with her family, and she’d been climbing the walls all day.

Grace was surprised by how quickly her flu disappeared once Max returned. She’d been well enough to spend part of the day before shopping with Kristen. But she’d been distracted. She’d felt different ever since she woke up. She’d had yet another extremely vivid dream that had seemed so real, she’d been disoriented when she woke up...and (once again) horny has hell. And now, she missed Max more than she ever had. Knowing he wasn’t far away seemed to make the fact that he wasn’t there with her all the more wrong somehow.

“Gracie, why don’t you set the table?” her mother suggested.

“Good idea,” she mumbled.

“It’s your birthday,” Spencer argued. “I’ll set the table.”

“It’s fine, Spence. I need something to do.” Grace grabbed the plates and silverware and headed for the dining room. She placed the last knife on the last napkin when she heard the doorbell.

Her heart raced and she took a deep breath before yelling, “I’ll get it,” and heading for the door.

She pulled open the front door and before she’d even laid eyes on Max, his arms were around her and lifting her off the ground. “Och, I’ve missed you, love.”

Grace giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. “You just saw me last night,” she said, although, she knew what he meant. She felt whole again, like he was the missing half of her.

He kissed her cheek and lowered her to the ground. “Hours ago. How are you feeling?”

“Still good,” she said. “Especially now.”

“My turn.” Niall pushed his brother aside and hugged Grace.

“Hi, Niall,” she said. “I’m really glad you could make it.”

“Me too. Even if I didn’t have the plane at my disposal.”

Grace rolled her eyes. “Oh, you poor baby. Having to fly first class.”

“It was torture.”

“Hi, guys,” Spencer said as he came walking down the hall with their father. “How was your flight, Niall?”

“Great, thanks,” Niall said, and shook Spencer’s hand.

“Daddy, this is Niall,” Grace said, and then smiled shyly at Max. “And this is Max.”

Max and Niall shook her father’s hand.

“Come on back to the kitchen, Niall,” her father said. “I’ll get you a beer. Grace, I’m assuming you want a few minutes with Max before joining us?”

“That would be good, yes,” she said.

The small group headed back to the kitchen and Grace led Max into the formal living room, where he pulled her close and kissed her. He broke the kiss and stroked her cheek. “What’s the matter?”

She frowned. “How do you know something’s wrong?”

“I can tell.”

“You can?”

“Aye.” He smiled gently. “Tell me.”

“Honestly, it’s just a feeling. Despite her tendency of doing too much, Maggie’s still really sick, but the doctor said it was just the flu.”

“You don’t think it is?”

“No. I think something else is going on. She couldn’t get in with my doctor, so she had to see the one on-call. He was an idiot. Told her to take Sudafed and rest. Now she won’t go back.”

“Why won’t she go back?”

Grace sighed. “She hates doctors. She always has. She broke her arm when she was around eight and the doctor didn’t have a great bedside manner. He scared her. But my doctor’s awesome. She’ll probably know what’s wrong with her immediately. She’s freaky like that.”

Max hugged her. “Will she go if the lead singer of her favorite band tells her to?”

Grace giggled. “She might.”

“I’ll talk to her then.”

“You can’t.”

Max cocked his head. “Why can’t I?”

“Because if you do, people will know you use your power for good. It’ll ruin your street cred.”

Max laughed. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

“Thanks.” Grace squeezed his hand. “Ready to face the grilling?”

“Of course.” He kissed her palm. “Are you nervous, love?”

She bit her lip. “A little. You’re the first man I’ve brought home for a formal introduction since Trey, and he and I started dating in high school, so they had a long time to get to know him...well, get used to him, anyway.”

Grace heard footsteps on the stairs and turned as Maggie peeked her head into the room. “Hi, Max.”

“Hi, lass.”

“Mags, are you well enough to be up?” Grace asked.

Maggie smiled. “I could be half-dead and still not want to miss this dinner.”

“There’ll be other dinners, Maggie,” Grace said.

“There’ll never be another one where Dad grills Max,” she argued.

“No I suppose there—”

Before Grace could finish her sentence, Max rushed to Maggie. “Your nose is bleeding, lass,” he said as he pressed a handkerchief against her nose.

“I’ll get some towels,” Grace said. She ran to the bathroom, trying not to panic as she gathered the linen from under the sink and headed back to the front room.

* * *

Max’s heart dropped. As soon as he touched Grace’s sister, he knew she had something much, much worse than the flu. He made eye contact with her. “Maggie, you will make an appointment with Grace’s doctor immediately and you will insist that she take blood tests. Do you understand?”

Maggie nodded. “I will make an appointment with Grace’s doctor.”

“You will tell Grace that I convinced you to do so.”

“I will tell Grace that you convinced me to do so.”

Max broke eye contact and pulled the handkerchief away from her nose. She was still bleeding quite profusely, so he led her to the sofa so she could sit down.

“I have towels,” Grace said as she returned, her mother behind her.

Max took a small flannel. “I want you to press this under your lip, at the very top, okay?”

Maggie nodded and did as he instructed, while Max took a clean towel and gently placed it under her nose to catch the blood.

“Magpie, you’re going back to bed,” her mother demanded.

Maggie shook her head, groaning, unable to speak due to the linen pressed against her mouth.

“No arguments. Come on.” Grace’s mother took her daughter’s arm gently. “You two go on into the kitchen.”

Max nodded and waited for Maggie and Mrs. Wilson to leave the room. Grace’s expression was one of worry, but he couldn’t tell her anything, at least not yet. They had to be alone. For the moment, he wrapped his arm around her waist and kissed her temple. “Come on, love. Maggie’ll be fine. She promised to go to your doctor as soon as possible.”

“She did?”

“Aye. She’s going to call in the morning.”

Grace let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Now, let’s get this over with. I want you all to myself for a little while.”

“Oh, are we spending time together alone, love?”

“Cheeky man. You’ve had me tied up in knots for days about this birthday surprise, so, you bet your butt we’re spending time alone.”

Max laughed and followed her into the dining room.

* * *

Max hadn’t quite expected the man who was Grace’s father. Garrett Wilson was tall and muscular, in his mid-forties, with a quick mind and keen insight. Not at all the computer ‘geek’ Max believed he would resemble.

“When did you decide music was going to be your full-time career?” Garrett asked the brothers.

Niall chuckled and raised an eyebrow at Max. “That’s a loaded question,” he said.

“I made that decision for the both of us, I have to admit,” Max said. “And as much as I would love to force Nye to do this full time with me, he has other interests.”

“As do you,” Niall countered.

“Like what?” Spencer asked.

“Spence,” Grace said with a groan. “Nosy much?”

Max smiled, squeezing her hand under the table. “I don’t mind. Ask anything you like.”

“Well, when you’re not touring, what do you do?” Spencer reworded the same question.

“He’s a skilled artist,” Niall said.

“You are?” Grace asked.

“I don’t know about skilled,” Max replied. “But I do like to draw and paint. And I work with horses in my down time, which is more and more of late.”

“Grace loves horses,” Lila said.

Max smiled at Grace. “Yes, she told me.”

Grace nodded. “We went riding together in Alaska. It was amazing.”

He ran his thumb across her knuckles, their hands still clasped under the table. “Aye, it was.”

Max smiled at Grace and it took a great deal of willpower not to drag her from the table for a few minutes alone.

“Do I need to get the fire extinguisher?” Spencer asked. “You two are on fire.”

“Spencer,” Garrett warned.

Grace blushed.

“Anyway,” Niall said, breaking the awkwardness, “in answer to the original question, music isn’t actually our full-time gig, so to speak. We both run companies outside of the band. I’m in real estate and Max breeds horses.”

“I understand you’re both on the board of quite a large charity,” Garrett continued.

“You are?” Grace asked, and then frowned at her father. “I’m pretty sure there are laws against invasion of privacy, Dad.”

Max chuckled. “As I told Lila, I have nothing to hide, so feel free to investigate, or ask anything. And yes, Niall and I are on the board of Rogue, which houses several charities supporting women and children at risk, victims’ rights, that sort of thing. Actually, quite boring in the day-to-day details, which is why we’ve hired a very capable group of people to take care of those interests.”

Max didn’t go into detail about how much he and Niall actually did within the organization. It seemed unnecessary to tout the number of grueling hours spent working with women who’d been victimized, or providing the best doctors, who offered counseling to children who would otherwise grow up believing it was either acceptable to abuse, or to be abused.

They’d started the organization several years after Moira’s death, and had provided refuge for many women, human and Cauld Ane alike, who’d been at the wrong end of an angry man.

“Well, I think it sounds like a wonderful organization,” Lila said. “I think it’s so important to give back to the community.”

Max nodded. “As do we.”

“Where do you record your albums?” Spencer asked.

Max relaxed. Back to the topic of music. A subject that cost him nothing emotionally. “I have a small studio in my home, as does Niall. We also occasionally record at Connall’s home when we’re all together, and if we’re not, we’ll file swap. With the invention of ProTools and the like, it’s easy to collaborate from different parts of the country, or world, if needed.”

“That is so cool,” Spencer said.

The rest of the dinner conversation revolved around music. Max found Grace’s family open and friendly, something he’d sadly missed after the death of his sister. His family had never been able to rally back to the close-knit clan they’d once been.

Grace left the table with her mother to serve dessert. Spencer offered to help, as did Niall, leaving Max at the table with Garrett, who’d requested he stay. Garrett sat back and smiled. “I see you’ve had quite an effect on my daughter.”

Max nodded. “As she has had on me.”

“And what are your intentions?”

“I would very much like to marry her.”

Garrett raised an eyebrow, but didn’t look at all surprised. “Is she aware of this?”

“She is.”

“And what does she say?”

“No offense, sir, but I’d rather not share our private conversations without asking her first. If Grace would like to fill you in, or says it’s all right for me to do so, then I’ll be happy to.”

Garrett chuckled, taking Max by surprise. “I wasn’t expecting that response.”

Max leaned forward. “Cards on the table?”

“Please.”

“There is nothing more important to me than your daughter, so my motivation will always be about doing what’s best for her. I would never betray her trust, even in something that might seem insignificant, like a conversation about her opinion on our relationship.” Max smiled. “You and I have the same goal...to protect and cherish Grace. Whatever she wants to share with you and Mrs. Wilson is absolutely fine with me, but until I know how she feels, I will remain discreet.”

“Everything okay in here?” Grace asked, setting cheesecake in the middle of the table. She squeezed her father’s shoulder. “Dad?”

He patted her hand and smiled up at her. “Everything’s fine, honey. I’ll just go help your mom with the coffee.”

He stood and left the room as Grace took her seat. “What was that all about?” she asked.

“One second.” Max checked to make sure no one was watching and leaned forward to kiss her. “I have wanted to do that for the past hour.”

“Ditto.” Grace smiled and stroked his cheek. “Now, stop trying to distract me with kisses. How hard was my dad being on you?”

“Not hard at all. He and I are on the same page, I think.”

Grace sighed, laying her hands in her lap. “I don’t know if that makes me feel any better.”

Max linked his fingers with hers. “Well, it does me, so you don’t count.”

“Nice.” Grace giggled. “Glad to see where I rate.”

“I like your family, sweetheart. You’re very lucky.”

She nodded. “I am, I agree. On many levels.”

He kissed her once more before the rest of the group returned with coffee. And as soon as he was able, he stole Grace away for the conversation he was both dreading and looking forward to.