Page 4 of Sparks Fly
Miles placed one of his big hands on top of Max’s proposal.For a moment, Max glared down at it before finally meeting his brother’s gaze.
“Please, it’s just one night, and you only have to stay for an hour tops,” Miles pleaded. “Plus, don’t you think it’s time to break your dry spell? When was the last time you even went on a date?”
“I have no idea,” Max said, exasperated. “Unlike you, I don’t need to constantly be in a relationship. I am busy with work, and I actually enjoy my solitude. Growing up with you made me yearn for alone time, actually.”
“Ha ha,” Miles said.
He pulled his hand away and stood so he was towering over Max. They both knew this intimidation tactic only worked because Max was seated, yet he allowed it because he truly didn’t feel like getting up.
“You cannot be alone forever,” Miles said. “I know you, Maximo. You’re a lovey-dovey heart-on-your-sleeve mama’s-boy kind of guy. And you’re not going to meet someone hiding out here in your office. So get up, put on the suit and mask I brought for you, and let’s go check out this club and meet some chicks. Or dicks. Whatever floats your boat.”
Max rolled his eyes at this weak attempt of support from his only sibling.
“Come on,” Miles whined. He gripped Max’s shoulders, giving them a little shake. “It’ll be fun, and I need my big bro to help me make good financial decisions.”
“I’m still in the middle of helping you with another financial decision,” Max said, rolling his eyes. “Speaking of which, do you really think it’s a good idea to be going out the night before we announce the AIX/Yellow Sparks partnership?”
Yellow Sparks was to Miles what AIX was to Max. In sum, Yellow Sparks was Miles’ baby. When they graduated college, they both received an extensive trust fund from their parents to use as they saw fit. It was one of the perks of being adopted by two wealthy white people who had more money than they knew what to do with. Max tended to focus on that more than on the downsides.
The point was, Max had used his money as the baseline capital to get AIX off the ground, and five years later, Miles had done the same when he launched Yellow Sparks, an online news outlet that became well known for its viral lists and quizzes and had since branched off into video and hard-hitting news content.
A couple months ago, Miles approached Max with the idea to integrate AIX’s artificial intelligence technology into the content management system, or CMS, for Yellow Sparks so writers could use it to help them create content more quickly and efficiently. The tech, which they were calling Sparky, would be able to take the content writers’ ideas for lists and quizzes and search the web, pulling the necessary information, images, videos, etc. rather than the writers having to do that research.
The idea sounded brilliant to Max, but it took some convincing on Miles’ part, because going into business with his little brother wasn’t exactly something Max had ever seen himself doing. But after meeting with his own team and investors, they’d all agreed it was a solid new venture.
Now, of course, Max was worried Miles was already screwing it up.
Miles shrugged, unconcerned. “We won’t be out that late.Besides, my accountant, who you recommended by the way, told me I should be diversifying my interests. Red as Sin will be a new interest.”
Max rolled his eyes. He’d recommended his friend Skyler Richardson to Miles when he first started Yellow Sparks ages ago and hadn’t even known the two had finally linked up. Of course, it was now being thrown in his face.
“Now,” Miles said, clapping his hands. “Can you please get dressed so we can go? We’re already running late.”
“I never said I was going,” Max reminded him.
Miles smirked. “You never said you weren’t either.”
“I literally did. Multiple times.”
And yet, Max still got up, marked where he was in the proposal, grabbed the suit and mask Miles brought, and followed his brother out the door.
Now here he was in the club—which was not a regular cub, but a sex club—and Miles was nowhere to be found. Almost as soon as they got inside, Miles disappeared to find his friend Ricky, the owner, leaving Max to fend for himself. He felt a little overdressed in the black velvet suit and crescent-shaped mask that covered the left side of his face, but he had to hand it to Miles. It was perfectly tailored for Max’s frame, and he did look immaculate.
Still, he found himself needing a drink when he realized there was a woman getting fingered in the corner of the room, as if everyone couldn’t see her. He’d barely taken a sip of his whiskey neat when he stumbled down a dimly lit hallway and a woman whose head stopped right below his chin barreled into him, spilling the majority of his drink all over his shirt and jacket.
“Fuck me,” she muttered.
“If that’s what you wanted, all you had to do was ask.”
The woman, who’d begun to use her bare hands to either pat Max dry or feel him up, he honestly wasn’t sure, paused at his words. She looked up to meet his gaze, and he inhaled sharply.
Although her mask covered the top half of her face, Max was certain, without a doubt, that she was beautiful. Staring back at him with round brown eyes, her full lips painted red and slightly parted. Perhaps Miles was right and Max really did need to get laid, because that simple movement had him imagining what it would be like to have those lips wrapped around his dick.
“Um, sorry, what?”
She was so obviously flustered, and for a second Max worried he’d overstepped. Even though they were in a sex club, perhaps she wasn’t looking for sex tonight. To be fair, he hadn’t really been looking for it either, but now, as he took her in more fully, exploring the way her dress hugged all her curves, he was certainly considering it.
He decided to try his luck by repeating himself, seeing if perhaps the second time would be the charm.
