Free Mr. Personality by Carol Rose

I’m safe.”
    “Good,” Claire said. “Still no passes from the Ogre, huh?”
    “Nope,” Nicole said, stifling a yawn. “Just working me to death, nothing else. But this book is beautiful. He has the most beautiful mind.”
    “Be grateful its author isn’t pestering you,” Claire advised. “I guess you were right when you said he was harmless.”
    Nicole frowned, picturing Max’s tall, well-shaped body and his sardonic smile. “I never said he was ‘harmless.’ I just said he’s not interested in me, in particular. I also didn’t say he wasn’t pestering me. The man’s silence can be louder than anyone I’ve ever known. He’s anything but harmless.”
    “Okay,” her friend said peaceably.
    “Max also happens to be pretty dang buff,” Nicole told her, kicking off her slippers to climb into bed, “He’s got an entire gym in his apartment. If he wanted to, I’ll bet he could cause a woman quite a bid of ‘harm’.”
    “Well, thank heavens, he hasn’t had the urge to work his wiles on you,” Claire said, sounding tired herself.
    “Yes,” Nicole muttered as she slipped under the quilt. “Thank heavens.”
    * * *
     
    Nicole bit into the piece of apple and smiled across the table the room service people had set up in her room. Max’s agent, Ruth, sat on the other side, sharing breakfast. Nicole had met the woman once or twice in the last week, when Ruth stopped buy to talk to Max. She liked the woman and was glad when Ruth had called out-of-the-blue asking to share her breakfast.
    “So Max actually had you cancel my wake-up call? I’m surprised the hotel let you.”
    The other woman nodded. “Yes. I told them your boss had canceled your usual early-morning meeting. Max said you left his place really late and should probably get some more sleep.”
    “Weird.” Nicole chewed the apple. Max having a considerate impulse was hard to imagine.
    Ruth looked at Nicole with speculation in her dark eyes as she buttered a muffin. “Don’t tell him I said so, but Max has his decent moments. Sometimes. You just never know what’ll bring them out. Other than the press—he’s never decent to reporters. And he can’t tolerate the paparazzi. But…I think he likes you.”
    Pausing in the act of taking another bite, Nicole stared at her. “You’re kidding.”
    “No,” the other woman said with a smile.
    “Really? And this is what he’s like when he likes someone?”
    Ruth laughed and then grew more serious. “Max is struggling right now. I’m not sure what the deal is, but he’s…grouchier than usual.”
    “Thank heavens he’s not always this chilly,” Nicole commented.
    Ruth had apparently worked with him for a number of years and seemed to be in a position of confidence as far as he was concerned. From what Nicole had seen of him, Max never gave unqualified confidence to anyone, so she had to assume Ruth did a darned good job at being his agent. Still, she seemed a nice, friendly woman.
    “So you represent both Max and his brother,” Nicole said casually.
    Ruth flung a startled glance at her paused with a forkful of eggs halfway to her mouth. “Max told you about Pete?”
    “In a way,” Nicole said, noting the woman’s shock. “Why? Shouldn’t he have? Is it a secret that he’s got a brother? Or that you work with them both?”
    “No.” Ruth shook her head. “But Max doesn’t usually talk about Pete.”
    “Why not?” Nicole sliced her muffin in two and buttered one half.
    Ruth was silent for several minutes, clearly weighing her words. “Max and Pete are pretty…estranged. They’ve never really been close.”
    “What about the rest of Max’s family? Does he talk to them?”
    “There is no other family, as far as I’m aware,” Ruth told her.
    “So it’s just the two of them, Max and his brother?”
    “Yes,” the agent nodded. “Their parents died six or seven years ago.”
    “You’d think they’d be close,” Nicole observed. “Since they only have each