“You know if I had a choice, go back to Brent, who was the one who beat me, or go back to the time before and after Charlie died, finding myself so alone, so lost, so needy that I allowed myself to get tied to Niles, I would pick Brent.”

His hand left my belly to cup my jaw and his face was soft when he whispered, “Baby.”

“I’m not kidding.”

“I know, that’s ‘cause it’s fresh. Coupla weeks, you’ll feel differently.”

I sighed and closed my eyes, saying, “I don’t know.”

I opened my eyes when I felt his mouth touch mine.

“I do,” he said when he lifted his head.

“Yes?”

“You gettin’ lost, gettin’ tied to that ass**le, led you to me,” he grinned and his grin was arrogant. “So, yeah, coupla weeks, you’ll feel differently.”

My eyes narrowed on his grin before they went back to his. “You know, you’re not only annoying and domineering, you’re also arrogant.”

His mouth came back to mine and I saw his eyes were still smiling when he informed me, “Yeah, and you love it.”

“I forgot, you’re also impossible.”

His eyes started dancing a split second before he kissed me, not a touch of the lips, but deep and long and he was mostly on top of me when he was done with my mouth. My arms were also around him with one hand wrapped around the back of his neck and his kiss was so good, the weight of him felt so nice, I forgot to be peeved.

“This is nice,” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he whispered back and dipped his head, running his nose along my jaw.

I didn’t tell him but Max doing that made it even nicer.

“Max?” I called and his head came up.

“Right here, baby.”

“Why Shauna?”

The minute I said the words, I wished I could shove them back in my mouth. I didn’t even know why I said them. They just came out. We’d been “sparring”, as Max called it, we were good at that, it had become us and, after, he was being so sweet, I felt safe asking.

I knew as the darkness swept his face, I shouldn’t have asked.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked,” I muttered, fear rippling through my belly because I knew I’d done something wrong and I didn’t want him to go back to that other Max of yesterday afternoon. I decided to change the subject and tried to slide out from under him, offering, “I’ll go make coffee.”

His weight didn’t shift, in fact he gave me more of it, holding me in place and my eyes went to his.

“Why shouldn’t you ask?” he enquired.

“You obviously don’t want to talk about it,” I pointed out carefully.

“Maybe not, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask.”

“Well –”

“You’re na**d in my bed, babe, you’re cookin’ in my kitchen, you’re movin’ to town, buyin’ a lawyer desk, all of that to take a gamble on me. Don’t you think you got a right to know?”

I did think I had a right to know, about a lot of things, about everything.

I didn’t tell him this. I just held onto my courage and his gaze.

Max got up on a forearm but didn’t shift the rest of his weight as his eyes went to my temple and the fingers of his other hand went there too, sifting into my hair. He slid them down, through the tendrils and then he started twirling a lock around his finger. I felt his touch and it felt lovely but I also watched his features, emotions drifting over them openly, too fast to read but most of them were not good. Then his eyes left the lock of hair even though his finger kept twisting it and they came to me.

“Long time ago, fifth, sixth grade, we had a posse. Bitsy, Brody, Shauna, Kami, Harry and me.”

“Harry?” I asked, surprised.

“Yeah.”

“Kami?”

“Yeah, kind of, mostly she tagged along, didn’t have many of her own friends.”

I didn’t find this surprising if what Max said about Kami being a bitch since forever was true.

“Not Curtis?” I queried.

“No.”

And not Anna? I thought but didn’t speak the question aloud.

“We were tight,” he continued, “did everything together for years, into high school. Stayed tight, school to school, even though Bitsy and Shauna were a year younger, Kami, two.”

I nodded, prompting him to go on as my hand slid around to rest on his chest.

“Kami broke off, findin’ her own friends but she always stayed close to Shauna. Brody and me made varsity our freshman year, Harry didn’t. That’s when Brody and me took on Curt, who was a year older but we lost close touch with Harry. He was around, we hung out but we were no longer tight.”

“Did Shauna stay close?”

“Yeah.”

“So she was your friend?”

He grinned. “I was in high school. High school boys do stupid shit around beautiful girls and, even though she was a conceited pain in the ass most of the time, she’s always been beautiful, even back then.”

I tried not to let the knifepoint of his words sink into my flesh but I didn’t succeed.

The night before he’d told me I was pretty not beautiful and, as all women knew, there was a big bloody difference.

“Duchess,” he said softly, obviously reading my expression, “doesn’t hold a candle.”

I forced a smile and tried to take us back to our earlier subject. “Go on.”

Max stayed on the current subject. “Babe, seriously.”

“So,” I steadfastly ignored him, “you were all friends.”

As usual, Max steadfastly stayed on target. “She’s beautiful but she’s cold. Great with her mouth when it’s on your cock. When she’s usin’ it for anything else, to kiss, speak or frown, which she uses it for most, not so good.”

“Max –”

“And she doesn’t let go when you f**k her, wants control, of you, of herself, of everything. The whole thing was an exercise in manipulation, her tryin’ to wrap you around her finger, catch you in her honey trap. But what she never got was, she’s wound up so tight, so intent on her scheme, she never let herself enjoy it and if she doesn’t, you can’t.”

My eyes caught his and I told him honestly, “I’m not sure I need this information.”