“You must be Max.” Her grin wide and dazzling, Marabella hopped down and extended her hand.
Willa bit back a groan. Traitor. She watched in bemusement as Max and Marabella exchanged introductions. Under different circumstances, she would have felt incredibly rude not to have been the one to initiate them, but at the moment she was too busy trying not to hyperventilate herself into a full-scale panic attack. She could barely look Max in the eye. Oh goddess. What he must think of her.
It got eerily quiet and the fine hairs on the nape of her neck let her know Max was staring at her again. Probably Marabella too.
“Willa, you have to look at me sometime.” Max’s husky baritone managed to be both stern and sexy.
Damn him.
Reluctantly, she tore her attention from her computer monitor and became lost in the azure depths of his irises.
“Why did you run out on me, sweetheart?”
Once again Willa became aware of Marabella’s heated interest. She squirmed in her seat. “Could we please not discuss this here?”
“All right, then come to dinner with me.”
“I can’t. I promised Marabella—”
“We’ll do it another time,” Marabella interjected, her smile crafty as she glanced at Max. “She’s all yours.”
Willa garbled an irritated noise that made Marabella’s smile widen. Her angelic features suitably devilish, Marabella chirped a cheery, “Have fun!” before whispering, “Call me later” in Willa’s ear.
Something landed in Willa’s lap, and she looked down to see that Marabella had kindly handed her purse over. “I can’t leave now. Domino is expecting those transcribed notes in the morning.”
“Oh phooey. My mom can wait. Now skedaddle.”
Willa gifted her friend with a proper glare. “This bossy side of you is very unattractive.”
Laughing, Marabella tugged Willa from her seat and shoved her toward Max. His big hands settled around her upper arms, and it took every ounce of control Willa possessed not to plaster her body against him while she tested exactly how long she could kiss him without coming up for air. Smothering a silent groan, she extricated herself from his grip and headed for the exit.
Outside, he followed her to her car and waited expectantly by the passenger door. He returned her frown with a shrug. “You don’t mind, do you? We’ll go somewhere in the city, and then you can drop me off back here on your way home.”
She wasn’t too keen on that plan, since it’d mean being trapped within close proximity of Max and having to breathe in all that testosterone he exuded while trying to battle the urge to rip his clothes off and lick every inch of him. “Fine,” she gritted out between her teeth.
Ducking inside the Taurus, she watched Max fold his considerably larger frame into the passenger seat. She situated herself behind the wheel and buzzed down the window, both to allow the stale heat to escape and hopefully some of the aforementioned testosterone marauders. It was no use, Max’s addictive blend of musk and ocean flirted with her nostrils, instantly making her panties wet.
Max buckled his seat belt and draped his arm across the back of his seat. She tried not to notice the fine dusting of hairs sprinkling his forearm, or the way his shirt stretched taut along his torso, accentuating his sculpted pecs and ridged abdomen. Against her will, her scrutiny drifted to his lap and the distinct bulge beneath his fly.
Max’s free hand grazed along his thigh before settling in place very near the source of her fascination. “Where do you feel like going?”
How about where your hand is, only a little higher and a little more to the left? Giving her inner slut a stern warning to knock it off, Willa bit the inside of her cheek and considered the possible options. Her usual Savannah hangout was Champions, but there was a ninety percent chance of running into people she knew there. People who would want to know who Max was and would undoubtedly drill her with a million questions later on. “I hear there’s a new deli that opened up over by Lafayette Square.”
“Sounds good. I could go for a nice, thick juicy sandwich right about now.”
Nice and thick. Oh jeez. The bastard was killing her. Tightening her fists around the steering wheel, she drove as fast as she could toward Lafayette Square without actually breaking any speeding laws. The interior of the vehicle remained uncomfortably quiet for a long stretch. Just as she was about to reach for the knob on the radio to alleviate the strained atmosphere, Max cleared his throat.
“Don’t you think we should talk about what happened?”
“I’d rather we pretend that it didn’t.”
Max fell into a broody silence for a moment. “Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought you enjoyed it.”
She could feel her cheeks burning from the inside out. “You would have to bring that up.”
His gaze slashed in her direction. “Willa, it’s all I can damn well think about. Every time I look at you, I picture your face and the sounds you made while you were coming all over my cock. I’ve been rock hard for the past six hours.” As if to verify his statement, he shifted in the seat, his hand adjusting the position of his zipper.
She ripped her focus away from the tempting sight and stared out the windshield. Okay, so he wasn’t exactly put out that she’d pounced on top of his hot bod and had her wicked way with him. It lessened her guilt somewhat, but it didn’t solve the core crisis of her problem. There was something driving her to do things that were out of her control. It was as if another entity held the reins to her body and was having a jolly good time at her expense. She didn’t like it. Not one damn bit. And for whatever reason, the entity that’d weaseled inside her head had set its sights on Max. She couldn’t allow it. Couldn’t let it manipulate her or Max any more than it already had. “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I—I did enjoy what happened. A lot. But I don’t think it’s a good idea if we see each other again after today.”
Max moved closer, his arm transferring to the rear of her headrest. “Why?” His fingers feathered along the side of her cheek, and it took everything she was not to melt into his touch.
“Because…” There’s something wrong with me. “I’m not in a position right now for a relationship.”
“Okay. I guess in the meantime I could settle for a bunch of hot, intense sex until you’re ready to become more serious.”
His wicked grin made her consider the idea of diving for his zipper. The very fact that he could do that to her with one smoldering look doubled her resolve to end it between them before things got even more out of hand. “I’m not going to lie. I’m fiercely attracted to you.” That was putting it mildly. “But my life is…complicated right now.”
“Are you seeing somebody?” he demanded, his voice tight.
“No.”
“Good.”
“Max, you’re not listening to me. You and I can’t happen.”
“What if you’re pregnant?”
She swerved into the next lane and received an angry horn blare from the driver behind her. “What?”
“Keep your eyes on the road.”
Easy for him to say after hitting her upside the head with that doozy of a previous comment. “Why would you insinuate that I could be pregnant?”
“We had sex without a condom.”
Oh, yeah. She relaxed her grip on the wheel. “I’ve been on the pill for half of my life. They help regulate my periods.” Okay, that’d probably been more information than he’d needed to know. Sheesh.
“Ah. Good.”
She risked a peek at him. “Is that why you came after me? Because you were worried I might become pregnant?” The notion that he was a decent and gallant man made her fall for him a bit harder, even while it also made her feel like an even bigger jerk for running out on him and making him worry.