Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77220 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I rocked back and forth as raw panic rose up within me. This was exactly what I had been afraid of all along. Some instinct deep down had told me the second Max and I ever crossed this bridge, all pretenses at animosity would be gone. My desire for Max still ran deep. And if his response last night had been anything to go by, he wanted me as much as I did him.
I turned to look at my phone. I should call Dayton back and explain. He had just called to update me about something I had asked him to do yesterday and I had gone and confused him by calling him Robert and babbling on about wearing the red dress. Poor guy thought I had been kidnapped and was trying to give him a secret message.
It was the only thing I could think of to push Max away. I had to admit that lashing out at him had been a defense mechanism. But how else could I have responded? If I had not chased him away just now, we would be rolling in my bed right now.
I pressed my palms against my heated cheeks and cringed at how wanton I had been with him last night. I had enjoyed every second of it.
I fled from the sight and smell of my unmade bed into the living room. Sitting cross-legged on the couch, I stared into space, my thoughts racing.
I had had no intention of telling Max about the baby, but in the heat of the emotions last night, all that suppressed pain had come tumbling out. I could not shake the feeling that he was not gone for good. It would only be a bit of a reprieve. So all this time he had held my absence from the trial against me. I wondered, though, had I not been in the hospital if I would have attended, given I was still reeling from his betrayal.
As for that, he had continued to deny any knowledge of any other woman. But photos do not lie. And I still had one of those as proof. I realized I should have confronted him with the photo, but I had been too emotional to think clearly.
Memories of how it had felt to have him inside me once more filled my mind. We had always been dynamic in bed, and last night proved on that point, at least, we were still in sync. Why did it have to feel so good to feel him inside me? I could still feel the ghost of his tongue eating me out last night and my nipples tightened painfully.
“No. No. No. You can’t be having these thoughts,” I scolded myself, as I felt the wetness grow between my legs.
I jumped up from the couch and walked to the bathroom. Getting into the shower, I turned it on as cold as I could stand and stepped underneath the icy spray. I allowed it to beat me until all traces of desire left me. I was not really into torture so I ran it hot again, before I soaped my body and stepped out.
Somehow, I managed to resist the urge to bring the sheets to my face to see if I could catch the last lingering scent of him as I hastily stuffed them into the washer. I thought, instead, about the insulting offer he put on the table. Money in exchange for sex. How dare he? As if I was some cheap prostitute he picked up off the street, and his parting words were like rubbing salt into an open wound.
True there was no way I could deny I’d not been turned on last night. My body had betrayed me and he knew I wanted him, but there was no way I was going to let him think that. I hated being in the position of feeling as though I was on a rollercoaster. I hated having my emotions toyed with and that was exactly what Max was doing. But I would show him!
There was a way around my problem.
Robert.
Outside of his company, Robert was a wealthy man. His family was one of the wealthiest in the city and he had a hefty trust fund. I frowned when I remembered Max’s insinuation that Robert thought I was a gold digger. If I were truly a gold digger as Max imagined, I would have chosen Robert over him. And in the years I’d known Robert, I’d never once asked him for anything. Apart from birthday gifts, I’d never taken anything from him either. Maybe Max was trying to lay the blame for his perceptions of me on someone else.
Robert had always been kind to me and always told me to come to him if ever I needed help. I would give him the chance to help, not just me, but the school, that he had always said he felt great gratitude for, to come up with any small shortfall in the budget.