17. Allie
CHAPTER 17
Allie
I released a contented sigh and settled into Max’s arms, cuddling against him on my couch as he slowly redressed me. I couldn’t seem to look away from his hands on my body, so gentle with me despite the dried smear of Gavin’s blood that lingered on his knuckles.
Before tonight, I’d only ever seen Max in shadow, where darkness pooled beneath the sharp lines of his face. There was nothing frightening about his appearance now. Those beautiful dark curls tumbled over his brow, hiding the worst of the damage to his stunning face. The warm lighting that flooded my living room illuminated his golden skin and danced over his obsidian eyes. He looked like a fallen angel .
Suddenly, looking directly at him was almost unbearable. Flames licked my veins, and my skin flushed hot enough to make me blush from my ears all the way down to my chest.
“I think your freckles are cute,” he said abruptly, his voice a deep rumble.
My eyes snapped to his, and my brain scrambled to catch up. “What?”
“Before. When I called you Freckles.” I flinched at the nickname, and he frowned. His fingertips dusted over my cheeks, tracing the small marks on my skin. “I said it because I think they’re cute. I didn’t know it was upsetting for you.”
I pressed my lips together, holding in the response that being tied up in his basement had been upsetting. Caustic words would make him retreat behind that angry mask that obscured his pain, and I didn’t want to lose him. Despite how we’d met, I craved more time with my dark protector, the damaged man who defended me so fiercely.
The man who’d kissed me with such passion that my lips still tingled with the memory of his mouth on mine.
Max’s jaw ticked, but his fingers remained gentle on my skin. “I’m sorry I called you Freckles,” he said tightly. “I heard that fucker call you that. I’m not a bully like him, and I didn’t say it to be cruel.”
“I know.” My skin pebbled, and I wasn’t sure if it was in response to his intimate touch or because we were both remembering that awful night in his basement. I’d called Max a bully then. He seemed to have made the connection to Gavin’s history of cruelty.
He traced my collarbone, feeling the goosebumps there.
“Are you still rattled after what that asshole tried to do to you tonight?” His frown twisted into his most fearsome scowl.
I squeezed his hand, drawn to comfort him rather than fear him. “I’m okay now. Thank you for pulling him off me. I don’t know what he would’ve done if you hadn’t been there.”
Max’s scowl remained fixed in place, but it wasn’t directed at me. “If I’d realized he was a threat to you, I would’ve punched him sooner. I thought you might be together when he first showed up. Then you shouted at him to let you go.” His eyes flashed. “I never should’ve let him touch you.”
His gaze remained dark and distant, and his touch shifted so that his fingertips brushed over my wrist. I followed the direction of his glower and saw that my skin was red where Gavin had grabbed me. Max traced the tender spot, the light rasp of his callouses making my flesh tingle.
“How do you know that bastard?” he growled.
“I’ve known Gavin since high school,” I replied with a sigh, spilling out my pain without hesitation. I didn’t experience even a flicker of worry that Max would use the knowledge of my vulnerability against me. “He was a bully then, and he’s a bully now. We work at the same internship, and I have to see him almost every day. We had a networking event tonight, and I guess he got his cab to follow mine home.” The tingling sensation on my wrist intensified, making me hyperaware of Max’s touch. “He’s never done anything like that before.”
“And he’ll never do anything like that ever again.” The dangerous glint in his eyes let me know that Max would destroy Gavin if he came anywhere near me.
What if Max isn’t here next time? A worried little voice niggled at me. I didn’t know what I would’ve done if he hadn’t emerged from the shadows and pulled my bully off me. I’d probably still be talking to the police about why I’d gouged Gavin McCrae with my keys. There would be reporters. Scandal.
Max had saved me in so many ways tonight .
Coming to a decision, I held out my hand between us. “Give me your phone.”
His brow furrowed. “Why?”
“I want to give you my number.”
His jaw ticked. “That’s a bad idea, Bambi.”
Oh. We were back to nicknames now.
Well, I wouldn’t let him put that kind of distance between us. This moment was too important to allow him to retreat from me. If I let him walk away now, I might never see him again. He would bury himself in his rage. He would keep pursuing his vendetta against my father, and he’d probably end up in prison, further suffering for a family that’d deceived him.
Love his hard, but blood is everything. His haunting declaration ghosted through my mind.
Love shouldn’t be hard, and Max didn’t deserve any more pain than he’d already endured.
“Don’t call me Bambi,” I insisted.
He shot me a crooked smile, and I forgot how to breathe. “But you get all flushed and cute when I call you Bambi. You don’t really mind it, do you?” He brushed his calloused fingertips over the sensitive skin at the inside of my wrist, feeling my pulse speed up in response to his teasing.
My cheeks flamed, and his grin turned dazzling. He laughed, a strangely raspy sound, as though his vocal cords weren’t used to it.
My breath caught in my throat. Max was beautiful. I’d seen glimpses of it before, but his smile was stunning enough to knock me square in the chest.
“I want to see you again,” I said breathlessly.
“You really are crazy.” I suspected that the words were meant as a blow, but the longing that roughened his tone betrayed the depth of his desire.
My hand twitched toward his face, drawn to comfort him. But I sensed that he’d back away if I dared to make tender contact. He was feeling too vulnerable, and his default was to bury any signs of perceived weakness, hiding them even from himself.
I fixed him with a level stare instead and held out my hand between us, palm-up. “Give me your phone.”
He remained motionless for a long moment, staring down at me with a fearsome frown. I didn’t flinch or cower. I simply waited for him to surrender.
You don’t scare me.
“Max,” I prompted.
His name on my lips seemed to be a trigger for him, and he reached into his pocket to retrieve his phone even as he continued to scowl at me.
I lifted my brows and waited, expectant .
Nope. Still not scared.
He blew out a long sigh and typed in his passcode, unlocking the phone before handing it to me. I accepted it and quickly entered my contact details before he could change his mind and snatch it back. I fired off a text to myself so that I’d have his number, too.
“There,” I said, satisfied. I returned his phone. “Now you don’t have to stalk me anymore.”
“I have been stalking you. It’s not a joke.” He said it like a dark reminder, as though I’d somehow forgotten his madness and the terrible way we’d first met.
“You also saved me from getting hit by a car and protected me from Gavin,” I countered. “I’d prefer to be able to ask you to meet up than to find you lurking in the shadows.” My lips twitched, teasing.
“That’s not funny,” he half-growled, still trying to scare me off.
I lifted my chin and met him head-on. “I want to see you again,” I said firmly. “I’ll text you.”
He shook his head at me. “You shouldn’t.”
“That’s really annoying, you know,” I informed him flippantly. “Stop telling me what I should and shouldn’t do.”
His mouth quirked at the corners, as though he was suppressing a smile of his own. “I think you’re infuriating, too.”
I rolled my eyes at him. White flames danced over his dark, intent gaze. They licked my skin, and my body began to tingle with the memory of his wicked kiss. My tongue darted out to wet my lips, craving more. His eyes riveted to my mouth, and he swayed toward me for an instant before his massive frame hardened to granite once again.
“I should go, Allie.” His desire-roughened voice caressed my name, even as he insisted on leaving me.
“Why?” I wasn’t ready to let my dark protector go. Having his strong arms around me felt far too good to sever our connection.
He glanced at the time on his phone before slipping it back into his pocket. “It’s getting late. I have somewhere I need to be.”
Something shrank in the center of my chest. “You’re not going after my dad again, are you?”
His jaw tightened, and he wasn’t looking at me anymore. “No,” he bit out.
He didn’t offer further information.
I didn’t know if I wanted to hear about his plans. I wasn’t afraid of Max anymore, but that didn’t change the fact that his family was full of criminals. Worry nipped at me, but I shoved it away. Max couldn’t possibly be capable of the heinous acts I’d seen in the Ferrara casefiles. I refused to even contemplate it.
Sensing my tension, he lifted me up off his lap and steadied me on my feet before stomping toward my front door without another word. I waited two heartbeats before rushing after him. I didn’t want to leave things like this between us. Not after the intensely intimate experience we’d just shared.
When night air kissed our skin, I snagged his wrist in my hand. He stopped as though shackled in place. Moving too quickly for him to stop me, I bounced up onto my toes and brushed a kiss over his cheek. “Goodnight, Max.”
A small shudder rolled through him as his bulky muscles flexed, but he restrained himself from crushing me to him for another scorching kiss.
I hesitated for a moment, tempted to test his resolve. I wanted this strong man to come undone beneath my tender hands. The idea made desire pulse deep inside me, and it took effort to force myself to back away.
I offered him one final smile. “I’ll see you soon.”
It was a firm promise. I wouldn’t allow him to retreat from me. I wouldn’t allow him to sever the intense, wild connection we shared. And judging by the feral hunger that gleamed in his dark eyes as I shut the door, he wouldn’t be able to resist my demands to see him again.
Max burned for me just as hotly as I burned for him.