I couldn’t believe he remembered all that. Heck, until then, I hadn’t remembered all that. Some of it but not all of it and some of it I was trying to forget because it hadn’t been all that fun.

“Max –”

“The people in this town are friendly enough with outsiders, Duchess, but only as much as they gotta be. They’re friendly with you because they like you and they like you because, like me, they see all that, that’s a fuckuva lot to like and they know that’s just scratchin’ the surface.”

I couldn’t take anymore, I wanted to, but I couldn’t.

“Stop talking now,” I whispered because if he didn’t I’d start crying.

“You asked.”

“Okay, I did, but you need to stop talking now.”

“Baby –”

I looked down at the cookie sheet. “And don’t be nice anymore, I prefer you annoying.”

His body started shaking with laughter and he called, “Nina, darlin’, look at me.”

I kept my face averted. “No, I need to put the pasta in the water.”

“Honey –”

I pushed against his shoulders. “Let me go, Max.”

I felt his face in my neck. “You’re demonstrating another reason I like you right now when you act crazy and cute.”

Only Holden Maxwell would think my neurotic crazy was cute.

I kept pushing his shoulders and demanded, “Stop it, Max.”

His hand slid up my spine, his fingers sifted in my hair and his lips went to my ear. “All that, and there’s a lot of it, Duchess, I can hold in my arms. You wanna know why I’m so sure, that’s why.”

I choked back my tears and this made a girlie noise so I shoved my face in his chest.

He held my face there with his hand in my hair and he held me close with his arm around my waist. I held back the tears and I did this by deep breathing loudly.

Once I succeeded, Max kissed the top of my head again and offered, “I’ll put the macaroni on.”

Then he let me go and I turned back to the biscuits and hot dogs instead of downing the entire glass of wine which was what I wanted to do or, better, move back into Max’s arms.

***

We’d sat at the stools to eat the macaroni and cheese and pigs in a blanket.

We took our slices of cake up to the loft and ate them in bed while watching the horror movie.

The dirty plates were on the nightstand, I had my wineglass in my hand. The pillows were piled up and I was in the curve of Max’s body as well as his arm.

I was thinking that horror movies were a bit less scary watching them curled into Max, though not that less scary.

We were coming onto the climax and I was thinking we were in the homestretch. The heroine had to survive, of course, or how could there be a sequel? She was the only one left of the original crew, someone had to survive.

Though it wasn’t looking good for her.

She ran into the deserted, broken down cabin which was a mistake, seeing as the psychopath used to live there before he hacked his whole family up with an axe and that was his favorite haunt.

She turned a corner into a room and there he was, him and his axe and he was ready to strike.

So he did.

At the same time, Max’s phone rang.

I jumped half a foot up from the bed and emitted a little terrified scream, nearly sloshing my wine on the bed.

Max started laughing.

Then he hit the pause on the remote and leaned into me, grabbing the phone from his nightstand and beeping it on.

Up on my elbow, I took a calming sip of wine and twisted my head to look at him as he said into the phone, “Yeah?” My eyes caught his and he said, “Yeah, sure, she’s here.” Then he offered the phone to me.

I felt my eyebrows go up.

“Me?” I asked.

“Arlene,” he answered.

“What?” I asked.

He shook the phone at me. I sat up and took it.

“Hello?” I said into it when I put it to my ear.

“Where are you?” Arlene queried.

“Um… watching a movie with Max.”

“Watching a movie with Max?” Arlene asked as if I said I was strapping in to take a joyride with Evel Knievel.

“Yes,” I answered.

“You’re supposed to be at The Dog with me getting wasted.”

Oh dear. I forgot about that.

“Oh, Arlene, I’m so sorry, I… the day kinda got away from me.”

“Yeah, I heard, two blond English guys are at the hotel bein’ snooty and actin’ like their shit don’t stink. Two blond English guys, word on the street says you, your Ma and Max faced off with this mornin’. That makes Damon, Kami, Shauna and two snooty, blond English guys. Girl, what is it with you?”

“Um…” I answered for there was no answer to give, I didn’t know what it was with me.

“You fight with two English guys then throw a fit on the sidewalk outside The Mark in the mornin’, come night, you get blotto at The Dog.”

Wow, the people in Gnaw Bone didn’t mess around with gossip.

“Is that a rule?” I asked.

“Yeah, it’s a rule,” Arlene answered.

“I thought it would be better to give myself a facial and relax in front of a movie,” I told her.

“You thought wrong,” she replied then demanded, “Give the phone to Max.”

“Sorry?”

“Phone… to… Max,” she repeated.

“Okay,” I agreed, happy to give the unhappy Arlene to Max, I held the phone to him and said, “She wants to talk to you.”

His mouth was twitching and he took the phone from me then he put it to his ear.

“Arlene,” he said then he paused to listen then he said, “Right.” Then he bleeped the phone off and put it back in its charger.

I stared at the phone. Then I stared at him.

Then I noted, “That was quick.”

“Yep,” he replied.

“What did she say?”

“You and your Mom are meetin’ her for drinks tomorrow night.”

“We are?”

“She says she’s arrangin’ a Girl’s Night Out.”

“Um…”

“Jenna’s there now too, Arlene says she’ll be there again tomorrow night. She says Jenna says she wants to get to know you.”

“Um…”

“I’ll go with,” Max offered and I stared at him.

Then I said, “Command performance Girl’s Night Out with Arlene I’m guessing doesn’t include you being there.”

“I’ll take Brody and Steve, we’ll let you do what you gotta do and we’ll have Guy’s Night Out.”

“I don’t think Girl’s Night Out works when it happens at the same place and the same time as Guy’s Night Out.” I supplied helpfully.

“Babe,” he replied, grinning then said no more.

Still being helpful, I explained, “I know you think that word speaks volumes but, I have to tell you, it actually doesn’t.”

His grin got bigger then it changed then my wineglass was no longer in my hand, it was on the nightstand. I had one second to look at it sitting there then I was in Max’s arms and on top of Max.

“Max…” I started, his hand slid in my hair and he rolled, taking me with him so he was on top. “Max! The movie!”

His mouth was at my neck as he informed me, “The police guy saves her at the last minute then he gets hacked in the first five minutes of the sequel.”

“You ruined it!” I cried as his hand pulled my robe over my shoulder and his lips trailed its progress.

“Trust me, you didn’t miss much,” he said against my shoulder.

“I would have liked to see it play out.”

His mouth moved back up my shoulder and down my chest as he changed the subject when he muttered, “Like lyin’ with you on my bed, watchin’ a movie.”

I liked that too, a lot.

Still, I said, “Yes, well, then we should have finished the movie.”

I was paying so much attention to his mouth, I didn’t notice his hand had slid up my side, my ribs until his fingers curled around the edge of my camisole at my breast.

“Prefer what we’re gonna do now,” he murmured against my cleavage and before I could retort his fingers pulled down my camisole exposing my breast then they curled around it, lifting it up and Max’s mouth closed around my nipple and sucked deep.

My back arched as heady sensations shot straight from my nipple to between my legs.

My fingers slid into his thick, fantastic hair, I forgot all about the movie and I whispered, “Yes.”

His mouth pulled my nipple deeper then his tongue swirled. I closed my eyes and just let my body experience the beauty of it.

He released my nipple, moved up and his lips hit mine.

“Bet you’re already wet,” he whispered there then his fingers tugged at the drawstring of my pajama bottoms, his hand slid in, I gasped at his touch and his eyes darkened with desire when they found he was right. “Fuckin’ love that,” he growled and kissed me, his tongue in my mouth, his finger slid inside me and I moaned, not just already wet, but also already ready for him.

His finger slid out but then hit my sweet spot and rolled and my back arched to get closer to him but also to show him how very, very much I liked what he was doing.

“Crazy,” Max muttered against my mouth.

“What?” I whispered, my hands had pulled his thermal free and were gliding along the skin of his back.

“That asshole had you, had this,” his finger slid in then out and started rolling against my sweet spot again, “didn’t take care of you,” Max went on. “Didn’t touch you for months. Let you walk out of that restaurant without puttin’ up a fight. Fuckin’ crazy.”

“Max,” I breathed and he kissed me again, his finger still moving.

When he stopped kissing me, he told me, “Want you ridin’ my cock tonight, Nina. Wanna see all of you, wanna watch you fuck me, watch you make yourself come.”

“Okay,” I whispered, though I didn’t know how I managed to speak since my entire body spasmed at his words.