Four
Amber
The fact that my annoying boss had just interrupted my evening festered. For some misguided reason, Max had interpreted my glare as an open invitation to take a seat and steal my food. Although they were leftovers, go figure.
When he’d appeared by our table, I’d almost sprayed a mouthful of wine over my companion. Max’s comment about fucking was also so uncalled for. How dared he? Poor Rory, he’d run off like he’d crapped his pants. The relief I’d seen in his ashen gaze as he took his phone call was severely pathetic. He was intimidated by Max’s appearance and I suppose why wouldn’t he be? He had a brain and a sense of self-preservation, didn’t we all?
There was no illusion that our boss was more than rattled by our presence. Although he tried to hide it, Max wasn’t happy to see us together. His warning about Rory being the type to air his dirty laundry also niggled. Especially considering my tastes in the bedroom were anything but vanilla. Although I was surprised Max had the nerve to bad mouth another man when his own moral compass was questionable; where women were concerned anyway.
Damn the man!
What did they say, think of the devil and he will appear . That’s exactly what had happened, even during the distraction that was Rory, Max’s face was always on my mind. He had materialised like a living, breathing threat; aggressive waves bouncing off those massive shoulders. He was wearing his work clothes and whilst he should have looked like a tramp, he was still smoking hot. The man pulled off rough and dirty like no other.
I batted the unwanted thought away. To be honest, Max’s appearance had given me a reprieve from Rory’s loud chewing. During our main course, I’d had to mentally block the noise out. He’d also spoken with his mouth full, the steak bouncing around in there like a tiny massacre. Bad manners were usually a huge turn-off for me, but I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. I could see he was nervous. Even more so when Max had appeared.
As he walked away, I watched the tenseness in Max’s shoulders. Was he upset because two co-workers had ignored his stupid policy about workplace relationships? Or was it something else? I struck the thought from my mind. Max Hunter was a puzzle you would never solve.
After freshening up in the ladies’ room, I fanned out my hair and checked my teeth, there was nothing worse than stuck food. Luckily my pearly whites shined right back at me. When I’d stood and excused myself, Rory had apologised and said he needed to make another quick call and that he would meet me back at the table for dessert. I’d mentioned that to our waitress on my way past, not wanting them to think we’d cut and run without paying the bill. I could only imagine my father’s face if I made it into the tabloids again.
My evening with Rory had been uneventful before Max had turned up, but I had enjoyed his company. There had been very little effort on my part and I’d found it easy to be myself and not hide behind the icy facade I had created. I’d even let him touch my hand.
As I left the bathroom, my gaze clashed with Max’s. He was leaning on the wall opposite the toilets with his arms crossed over his chest. Almost like he was posing for a photo shoot. His presence there caught me off guard. Was he waiting for me?
I stopped, straightening my dress. “Do you need help finding the gents?” I questioned with sarcasm.
A muscle in his jaw ticked as he shoved off the wall and stalked towards me. “I want a word,” he husked.
“Another? You had plenty at the table,” I snorted, jarring my neck to look up at him as he came up close .
Heat fizzed along my skin as his hand closed around my upper arm. “What do you think you’re doing?” I rasped, attempting to tug myself loose, but his fingers tightened.
He flashed me a crooked grin at my attempt to free myself. “It will only take a second.”
“Let go of me, Max.”
“In a minute, calm down. You’re as highly strung as one of your father’s racehorses.”
Great, that’s it. Bring Daddy into it.
I had no option but to follow along as he marched me down the corridor, past the gent’s toilets and kitchens and then out of a fire door at the back of the restaurant.
It took me a minute to register what had happened. The chill of the evening air hit my cheeks as he steered me out into a yard. It was cluttered with boxes, large cans of cooking oil and bits of old catering equipment. Thankfully it wasn’t raining. I didn’t do rain.
Max then spun me around to face him.
I stepped back, the now-closed door into the restaurant pressing against my skin. It was glaringly obvious that round two was on the way as he stood there like a ticking time bomb.
He was larger than life, assessing my puzzled face, almost like he was looking for something. I was wearing heels but he still towered over me. Max’s shoulders were massive in the checked shirt he wore. The very same type I had taken the piss out of when in fact he looked as manly as hell in them. The sleeves were rolled up and I could see the veins of his tattooed forearms, a sign of his strength.
“I need to get back, Rory will wonder where I am,” I pointed out, straightening my hair .
“No, he won’t. He’s on his phone again. Shows how interested he is in your company,” Max stated with a curl to his lips.
“It could have been important. His mum has been unwell.”
“What a pile of bollocks. A bloke who plays the mum card is laying it on thick, everyone knows that. He’s probably talking to another bird.”
“Bird? Are you for real?” I must admit, the man had received a ton of text messages during our main course. He hadn’t answered them, he just stated that his brother was sending him updates about his mum’s health. The mum card; was I really that gullible after everything I had been through in my past?
Yes.
“He’s a piece of shit, Amber,” he stated, a pulse beating in his jaw. It rankled me that he thought me stupid. I knew there was no one in the world funny or nicer (or as full of shit) as a guy trying to get his end away.
“Why employ him then?”
“Because he’s a damn good scaffolder but he isn’t boyfriend material. I told you he fucked around with one of the girls last year. When are you going to listen to me?”
“When are you going to say something worth listening to?” I volleyed back. There was a beat of silence before I rolled my eyes. “Look, can’t this wait until the morning?” I motioned between us, whilst shooting him an unimpressed glower.
“No, this is important,” he replied sternly. I could tell by the slight hint of liquor on his breath that he’d been drinking spirits. His usual business-like manner had also slipped, just like it had that previous day in my office. I recognised that the line between us was gradually becoming more blurred and I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.
I had no way out. This was happening whether I wanted it to or not. Tugging my bag further up my shoulder, I waited for him to say his piece but he just stared down at me with a strange expression. A thought suddenly occurred to me. He was way too pissed off. He was acting like a jealous boyfriend and I knew exactly what that looked like. I struck off that idea; he was annoyed because I’d made him look small in front of his men.
“I think there is more to this than me being here with Rory,” I put out there.
Max’s taunt body shadowed mine, but I didn’t feel alarmed. Thrilled with a hint of annoyance was more like it. I inhaled deeply, that masculine scent I was coming to know so well enveloping us. He was disgustingly sexy and I hated that my body reacted to him so viscerally.
“How so?”
“I think your problem lies with me. You appear to have taken your bat and ball home after the incident with the flooding plans.”
“This has nothing to do with that. I promised your father I’d look out for you. Seeing you with that dick has made me realise that I failed to do that,” Max stated.
He was such a liar. “I think you’re lying. You’ve known my father all of two minutes, nobody is that loyal so quickly.”
“Once I make a promise, I keep it.”
Shooting him my best dagger eyes, I rested the back of my head on the door behind me. Maintaining eye contact was giving me a neck ache. From his stance, I wasn’t going anywhere yet. “I find that hard to believe.”
“It’s the truth. Promise me your driver will take you home at the end of dinner.”
“Or what? You’ll tell my father?”
“I mean it, Amber,” he snarled, his nostrils flaring. He had no right to look so mad.
“Fine. I don’t get why you’re so moody about it. It’s just dinner.”
“I’m always moody.” Finally, there was something I could agree with. Here lies a moody bastard, would be carved into his tombstone. “So, you’ll go back to the table and thank Hopton for a good evening and then go home? Yes? ”
“Yes.” He was such a bossy fucker.
Max’s relieved expression felt too over the top and part of me wondered if he was jealous. We both recognised there was chemistry between us. I pushed the damaging thought away.
“You’ve made the right decision. That dickhead isn’t the type of guy you’re used to, Amber. Under the surface I mean.”
Patronising swine! I sharpened my anger.
I quirked an eyebrow. “Not the type I am used to? And how the hell would you know that? You don’t know me at all, not really.”
He gave me a head nod, his face still expressionless. “I know more than you think. The guy is beneath you.”
I dug my fingers into the section of hair pulled tight by my updo and massaged my head. “I must say, I didn’t see you as a snob,” I replied with a sigh of exasperation.
I saw a flare of annoyance. “I didn’t mean it like that. He started seeing the office junior at work last year whilst screwing around behind her back. He kept the boys at work entertained by bragging about it. Gave them all the details once he finally got Lily into bed. He was twenty and she was only sixteen. That’s one of the reasons I put the policy in place about dating colleagues.”
Oh.
To anyone else, that age difference wasn’t huge, she was legal but to me, it made me feel sick to my stomach. Repulsion fired through me and memories of my past gripped me by the throat. I turned my face to the side whilst I recovered.
I shouldn’t feel repulsed, it wasn’t the same situation at all. But playing around behind the girl's back was not on. If the girl resigned over it, he must have broken her heart, after he had slept with her. The bastard.
Max put a hand on my shoulder and gently shook my attention back, his eyes drilling into mine. “As well as that shit, you can’t hide from the fact that you are titled. What do you think your father would do if he knew you were out with a tradesman from work?”
I gave him a tart reply and a shrug, “I have no idea. He’d probably shit a brick. Or maybe he’d be relieved that I was out with a normal, middle-of-the-road type of guy.”
“You don’t come across as a girl who would settle for middle of the road,” Max scoffed.
His jab that he thought me a picky cow pissed me off. “Really. How so?”
Max raised his eyebrows and took a step back, pinning me with a look of surprise. “You really want me to go there?” No, I wanted to thump him in his godly face. First for him spoiling my evening and second for making me think about my past.
I ran my tongue over my teeth. At that point, I needed to know his opinion of me. “Yes. Go on, I can take it.”
Max’s smirk made my belly flip and he removed his hands from his pockets, allowing him to gesticulate his insults.
“OK. You’re used to having the best of everything and second best, just doesn’t cut it. You’re bossy and stubborn, you’ve never had a job and treat work like your own personal playground. You’re uptight and when backed into a corner, you lash out unnecessarily. You also think asking for help is beneath you. So, in a nutshell, you’re high maintenance. Therefore, he’s not the man for someone like you. Although saying that, you’d probably terrify him so much that he’d never dare cheat on you.”
“I see. Sounds like you have my measure,” I snarked with a headshake. When said aloud, I sounded awful , especially when most of that was correct. But of course, that wasn’t the real me. That was the image I portrayed on purpose. The character I had created.
“As well as being a mouthy twat, Rory Hopton is also as dull as shit. You’d have very bland children. ”
“Bland children? I think we’re jumping ahead a tad. We were having dinner and that was it. Irrespective of him being a player that preys on young girls. I told him before I agreed to go out with him that that’s all it was.”
Max narrowed his eyes. “It doesn’t matter what you said. After he’s plied you with wine all night. In his eyes, he would have been hoping for dinner and a side of fucking. Now you know Hopton is a player.”
“So you say,” I replied with a smirk. “Any other character tip bits you think I should know?”
“About you or Hopton?”
“Either.” I knew it was ballsy to give him another opportunity to vent but I couldn’t help myself. Men didn’t usually stand up to me and no one told me what they really thought (not to my face anyway), apart from Mia. Who of course, saw me for who I was. And no, I wasn’t perfect. I had flaws, just not as many as Max had listed.
He didn’t need asking twice and his nostrils flared as he stated, “You’re opinionated and stuck up. You have a major issue with authority. You think the world owes you one—oh, and you have that rich bitch air around you.”
“Wow, that’s quite a list.”
I maintained eye contact until Max moved his focus up to my hair and his eyes narrowed. “You also scrape your hair back so tightly it prevents any emotion from showing on your face.”
The hair comment was a low blow but I ignored it. The day I accepted Max’s opinion on my appearance would be err, never .
Fighting off an eye-roll, I placed my hand flat against my chest and feigned offence. “Ouch. Do you mind if I return the favour?” I exclaimed, now glowering at him with every ounce of annoyance I could muster. My reaction was rich considering I had asked for it.
He flashed me a detached smile before folding his arms across his chest, his legs slightly apart as he braced himself for what was coming. “Be my guest and please, don’t pull any punches. I’m as thick-skinned as they make them sweetheart.” Thick-headed too!
I set my mind to bitch mode and pushed off the metal door, getting in his face, although not really considering the size difference. Raising my arms, I ticked each point off with my fingers. “You’re arrogant; believing the world revolves around you. You’re obnoxious and loud. You have no respect for personal space. You don’t listen. You dress like a thug and have way too many tattoos and if tonight is anything to go by, you drink too much. You also have a poor memory.” I added the latter for him forgetting that first time we’d met.
Max stared down his nose, his body towering over mine and he appeared barely restrained. Some of my barbs had clearly hit their target. “And you’re basing my poor memory on what exactly? And don’t say forgetting to draft the bloody flood plan, which we both know I did.”
“Before my father introduced us, we’d already met.” I was breaking all my rules by bringing that up as it would suggest that his forgetting the encounter had ruffled me.
A smirk appeared across his too handsome for his own good face. “We had? Well, you clearly weren’t that memorable darling.” Told you, the predictable sod.
I prodded him in the chest, and he moved back a step, his eyes dipping to where I touched him. “You were a pig that night and probably wasted which will be why you can’t remember it. I slapped your face.” I added the latter hoping to jig his alcohol-fogged memory.
Realisation dawned across his features and he was silent for a few beats before it hit him. “Ah, Shannon Hendrix’s party. That was you ?” he said, uncrossing his arms.
Nodding, I said, “Yes. Unless getting your face slapped is a regular occurrence which wouldn’t surprise me. ”
“Of course, now I remember. I tried it on a few times but you wouldn’t have it. You had a right stick up your arse that night. Well, you missed your chance, I remember I hooked up with a cute little blonde.”
Snorting, I replied, “Yes, I imagined you soon found another female to sew the hole in your wounded virility. So, to add to the list, you are also a player who is probably riddled, and—you smoke too much.”
Max glanced up at the sky, before rolling his shoulders and fixing me with a scorned look. “Anything else?”
“Amber?” Rory’s voice suddenly cut in from the other side of the door.
Shit. My eyes met Max’s. From his expression, he couldn’t give a shit that Rory was about to appear. Twisting, I pulled the door ajar and peered inside. My non-date was standing there with a puzzled look on his face.
“I thought you’d left but the waitress said you were in the loo. Are you OK?”
Forcing a smile I replied, “Yes. I’ll be there in a minute. I’m just talking to Max about some work stuff.”
His frown deepened as he tried to see further past the small crack in the door. “Outside?”
Pursing my lips, I thought on my feet. “Yes, he needed a cigarette. Be with you in five. Please order me two scoops of vanilla ice cream.”
He nodded and scuttled away. Pushing the door closed, I spun back towards my tormentor for round two.
“ Vanilla ? How disappointing. OK so I don’t know everything,” Max taunted with sexual innuendo.
“Meaning?” I snapped, knowing exactly what he meant. The only place I liked anything vanilla was in a dish, but I wasn’t about to share my sexual pulls with him. “Well?”
He sniffed, “I had you down as a tiramisu girl,” he replied, deciding against elaborating.
He released a huff, “You were saying,” Max said with a maddening smirk .
The mean girl in me surfaced. I pointed a finger into his chest, “Yes. You have a shit personality, you’re a dickhead and you’re old.” The name-calling was juvenile but why the hell not?
This brought Max’s head back down, his pupils appearing wild in their sockets. His expression had morphed into something hard. There was a beat of silence and it felt like the air had been sucked from between us. I had crossed the line. I knew he was touchy about approaching thirty.
“So, I’m old, am I?” he growled, pushing his chest forward and into my finger. I dropped my hand and moved back, the door again blocking my retreat. My eyes darted around him. Should I make a run for it or stay and fight?
A quiver of something undisguisable bloomed in my chest. Crossing swords with Max Hunter had stirred something inside me. Nothing of any actual substance, we weren’t talking ‘feelings’ by any stretch of the imagination but there was a definite harmony.
“Yes, Grandad ,” I replied childishly with a smirk of my own.
He washed a hand down his face. “Do I have anything going for me?” Max questioned with a head flick towards his body.
I allowed my gaze to roam over him with a critical expression. “You’re good-looking and have a decent enough body, a solid seven out of ten, but you do nothing for me.” The lie and blatant challenge fell from my lips almost echoing around the small space between us.
Max’s gaze became predatory, “Is that so?”
“Yep.” I stood my ground.
He suddenly obliterated any space between our bodies and I twitched as he lifted his hand and ran his thumb across a section of my throat. “I do nothing for you? So, there is a sense of humour in there somewhere. Why don’t I don’t believe you?” His whisky-scented breath breezed across my face, making my nipples tighten .
“Because you’re a conceited ape?” I stated flatly, my body starting to betray my lie at his nearness.
“Why is your pulse fluttering so much then?” The skin there heated and I felt a burst of pleasure. He was right, something had changed between us whether I liked it or not.
“Panic maybe. You do have me pinned against a door,” I pointed out, tilting my chin higher as I inspected him. My voice left my body much breathier than I intended. The heat between us was suddenly insane.
Max then traced his fingers across my collarbone, dropping his head to whisper into my ear. “You’re lying.”
The energy between us switched from hostile to something else and as he pulled back, an intense feeling of lust fluctuated through me. “How do you know?” I whispered.
Our gazes remained tangled until Max’s eyes fell to my mouth. “Your lips are moving.”
The realisation that I should have cut my losses and dodged past him when I had the chance slapped me in the face as he trapped me. Max’s strong arms came up on either side of my head, caging me against the door.
“What do you think you’re doing? Move,” I said even though being so close to his body gave me a sharp, sick thrill.
Max smirked, “What’s the magic word?”
Shooting him an are you kidding me look, I replied, “Wait, I know this one. Does it rhyme with back the hell up?” I raised my arms and pushed against his rock-hard chest but he didn’t move an inch.
“You also should have showered instead of coming straight from work,” I said with insulting ease. It was a complete lie as his scent was amazing.
Max chuckled, “What are you? The hygiene police?”
“Let me go, Max. I mean it. ”
“Why, I know you’re attracted to me, Amber. I’ve seen the way you eye-fuck me at work. Those coy glances,” he husked as he crowded me. Max was blatantly baiting, provoking a response.
The fact that I was being held against my will caused that fizz of excitement to pulse. That’s why his vanilla comment was so very wrong. I loved being restrained during sex and this was close enough, but I never surrendered easily. I enjoyed submitting, but only on my terms, and when I was ready.
Max was watching me like he knew all my secrets.
“You’re confusing coy glances with blatant disdain.” I croaked out, lowering my hands and eyes, his hungry expression was a complete turn-on. The dampness between my legs was proof of that. I was wet.
Max shifted one hand and gripped my chin, forcing my gaze back up. “Let’s test the theory, shall we?” Max smirked in a voice loaded with promise. His spicy masculine scent teased my nostrils.
The same hand then encircled my throat, his grip firm under my jaw as he lowered his head and fused his mouth to mine.
FUCK!
Out of pure shock , my lips opened and he took the opportunity to part them further with his tongue. My head and back were plastered against the hard door behind me.
Fight him, don’t let him take you back to that place , my self-preservation chanted. I had always sensed the caveman in him, sitting just below the surface. It was everything I secretly craved and more.
Raising my hands again, I flatted them against his solid pectoral muscles intending to push him away. Max’s kiss became borderline aggressive, demanding, and rough, as he plundered the softness of my skin but it felt so right. My attempt to remove him was laughable really, he was much larger and stronger than me .
I felt him smile briefly against my mouth as my attempts to resist him faded, my fingers now curling into his shirt. He didn’t back off and his hands moved to capture my wrists, dragging my arms up over my head, pinning them against the door with one hand. I was helpless as lust pumped through me. Max’s body felt strong and hard and I couldn’t stop the way I started to melt against his chest.
I then felt his other hand at my throat again, but this time it slid around past my nape and up into my hair to hold my head as he continued to feed hungrily from my lips.
And I was lost as unrestrained adrenaline pumped through me; desire reverberated in my stomach. His tongue plunged in and out of my mouth, stroking, tasting, taking.
Another wave of feminine awareness washed through me. The throbbing sensation in my sex increased and I pushed closer toward him, accepting him fully.
A thrill at how carnal his caress was, raced through me. I felt it down my spine and into my toes. Sparks of lust exploded in my pelvis. He tasted of whisky and spice, sweet and complex.
As he felt my complete surrender, the kiss changed slightly, still heated but less forceful and he released my wrists.
My arms fell onto his biceps as I pushed up and into his kiss, greedy for more. I couldn’t get enough as I realised how I had missed this unfettered passion.
My breasts were flattened against his chest, the friction against my nipples causing more heat to wash over me. The ridges of his six-pack pushed into my stomach through his shirt. The feeling of his body against mine sent my pulse into overdrive.
I whimpered into his mouth as he deepened the kiss, his hands now cradling my head, angling my mouth exactly where he wanted it.
My hands were now clawing at the material of his shirt in wanton abandonment, my tongue chasing his, fencing in a battle for superiority .
I felt his teeth nibble my bottom lip before sucking it into his mouth and running his tongue over it. Max then drew back momentarily, whispering against my mouth, “Do you want me to make you cum?” A vision of being fucked by this man swam into my passion-fuelled thoughts almost sending me over the edge. “Come home with me.”
Without waiting for an answer, his lips took mine again, almost turning my legs to jelly; a melting sensation pooling between my thighs.
I could feel Max’s cock was as hard as steel through his jeans and it pushed into the bottom of my tummy, causing it to flip flop. I wanted to feel him in my palm, squeeze his strength.
The sheer force and size of that muscle and that intense feeling of need brought me to my senses. What was I doing? My mind hated what this man represented. My body on the other hand craved it, I wanted to be forced to lose control again. Taken back to that place only one other man had shown me.
As I felt Max’s fingers dip to the hem of my dress and start to lift the skirt section I panicked.
No!
Releasing his shirt, I flattened my palms against his chest and pushed, wrenching my mouth away. I felt mortified that I had responded so thoroughly to his advances and how easily he had lacerated my self-respect.
“Stop,” I panted against his mouth, we were nose to nose and he raised his head, desire swimming in his hooded gaze. We were both out of breath like we had been running and I shoved him again and he stepped back with his arms raised in a gesture of surrender.
My whole body was shaking, as I attempted to straighten my clothing, realising I’d dropped my bag. A blush scorched my face.
On unsteady legs, I squatted to the floor and grabbed my clutch before standing. My eyes remained locked on Max’s. He was clearly trying to claw control back. When I jumped back to my feet, he was watching me with a shimmer of disbelief.
My mouth opened but no words formed and I frantically turned toward the door, yanking it open.
I heard Max call my name, but I needed to get away as mortification swamped my senses. I’d been seconds away from allowing him to screw me against a fucking door.
As I set off down the corridor towards the front of the restaurant, I almost walked into the wall that was Gabriel Knight. He was making his way down the corridor with a confused expression. He was clearly looking for his friend but concern flashed across his features as I pushed past him.
“Amber?” he questioned and I turned my face away, aware of the tears in my eyes.
“You should teach your friend some manners,” I panted as I moved away, shock propelling me towards the exit.
I left the restaurant as the curtain of night was closing, leaving Rory without an explanation. Luckily, my driver was idling beside the pavement and he climbed out of the car, opening the back door as I approached. He said nothing about the state I was in, he was trained not to ask questions.
Once the cool leather of the seat hit me and my chauffeur, Dexter pulled out into traffic, I turned and looked out of the back window of the privacy glass to faintly see Max standing on the pavement. His cheek muscles were rigid as he watched my car pull away. His friend Gabriel was with him and behind them, I could just make out an ashen-faced Rory. Damn, I would need to message him an apology to explain somehow. I doubted that my date ran out on me would be juicy enough fodder for his work buddies if what Max said was true. I didn’t feel sorry for him, pity was something I didn’t dish out these days. I was too busy feeling sorry for myself. Plus, from the sounds of it, Rory was a cheating prick .
I ran my tongue against the backs of my teeth as I attempted to control that sensation Max had generated in my body. Heat still seared my cheeks.
There was no denying it now, I’d behaved like I was gagging for it. The lid on the bottle of my emotions had been shaken free. Yes, Max wound me up but at least he made me feel something. And in his arms, I’d felt reckless, wild, and untamed and it had felt good; more than good. I hadn’t felt as alive as that since I was fifteen/sixteen and the reality of that fact threw my mind into a war zone.
The journey home progressed like a night terror as I realised the cold hard truth. I felt a fierce connection to Max Hunter. He had unleashed past emotions that had once belonged to another. My first love, or so I had thought at the time. Zander.
Alexander Harker, the man who had kidnapped me, manipulated me to fall in love with him and then left me to suffer alone; like an animal in pain.
The man I thought I once loved; who I soon came to hate.
Tension knotted the top of my neck and it suddenly felt like my ribs were in a vice as I struggled to breathe.
Over the last few years, I shed so many versions of myself but I had been content to live in my virtual world. That fake place I had constructed to keep my past demons at bay. And now, after only a few weeks, one man had unknowingly contaminated everything I had put in place. Max had managed to reveal that unprotected part of me.
Should I throw caution to the wind and go for it? Chase the storm? My life was already plagued with so many what-ifs; why fight the temptation?
It felt like forever to get back home but the more I thought about it, the more determined I became to fight it. Yes, I had a strong sexual connection with Max, but I’d be damned if I was the one to get burned this time.