He lifted a brow. I changed the subject.
“So,” I drew out slowly, trying to think of a new topic.
Max leaned on the counter. “No, no, don’t try to change the subject. What happened between you and my secretary?”
He was persistent. Why was I so surprised?
“I might have introduced myself in a not so professional way,” I said.
He turned his body toward me. It was a simple shift but it made all the difference in the world. One step forward and I would be able to smell him. One step forward and I could actually make my vision a reality. One step forward—
“Which way did you introduce yourself?”
My body jerked back.
This time I didn’t dodge his question. “I may or may not have told your secretary my name was Starlight and that I was from a local strip club, here to drop off your running tab at the club.”
I expected him to be pissed off. But his eyes merely widened and he laughed. A deep laugh that came from his belly. For a reason I’d never figure out, I smiled at him. I smiled and stayed in place when I should have been waving at him over my shoulder as I walked to the elevators.
Max slid closer. My smile faded. Here he was. Nothing stood in between us. I could yank him by the tie. I could kiss him. I could make my dreams a reality and have his body pressed against mine within seconds.
I did none of that.
Sunlight gleamed across the counter. It warmed my skin. Max’s gaze remained steadfast. He made my skin burn like fire.
I backed away slowly. “I gotta go.” I took another step before I pulled my eyes away from him. “It was nice seeing you.” I was only a few steps away when I called out over my shoulder, “Tell your secretary I’m sorry about the whole Starlight thing.”
“When you come back tomorrow and have lunch with me you can tell her.”
I stopped. My blood roared in my ears.
He wasn’t done.
“Better yet, let me take you to dinner Saturday.”
My hand was inches away from the doorknob. I stared down at the metal before I squeezed my eyes shut.
I didn’t want to like what he said. I wanted to feel nothing. But I felt everything. That terrified me. And rightly so. Anyone that has the power to open up your heart without you even knowing, should terrify you.
“Naomi.”
I turned. He leaned against the counter looking so self-possessed that I was ready to claw my way out of the room if I needed to.
With agile ease, he pushed himself away from the counter, only to approach me slowly. “What’s stopping you from saying yes?”
The electric spark between us. The one that becomes more powerful each time I see you. It makes me go from wanting to have your complete attention, to wanting to be the center of your universe.
I said nothing.
Max tilted his head, staring at me, trying to figure out my answer.
“Just have dinner with me,” he said.
“We’ll see,” I said.
“A simple yes or a no will do.”
“We’ll see,” I repeated slowly.
Before he could say another word, I forcefully pushed the door open. And with my legs feeling like jelly, I walked toward the elevator.
Waiting for the elevator doors to part felt like years. I could see Max in the reflection of the stainless steel doors. He was looking right at me. When the doors finally opened, I anxiously walked in and pressed L. Before the doors slid shut, I looked up, hoping he had walked away. But he was still in the same place, with the exact same focus he had on me minutes earlier.
The elevator started to move. My stomach dropped. I closed my eyes and sighed heavily.
The only thing I expected Max to stir in me was lust. It was a natural feeling. A chemical reaction. But he was making me go beyond that. Now I wanted to know his mind. The true Max. I wanted to know everything.
This was bad.
5—THE MARK
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.
Sunlight reflecting off my Raybans. Laughing with Lana. My hand outstretched, touching the wind, as I drove.
The days blurred together at warp speed as I played the part of a relaxed college student, enjoying her summer. And I was doing a damn good job. No one knew that those three days were simply a grace period before I had to give Max an answer.
He never called. And it drove me crazy. I stared at my phone, waiting to see his number show up on my screen. I was fifteen again, pining away like a pathetic little puppy.
Saturday arrived.
I spent the morning avoiding my phone. After a shower, after I paced my bedroom for an hour, I called him.
He answered briskly.
“You wanted a yes or no answer from me…” I paused and stared out the window. “Do you still want that?”
“I do,” he said slowly.
Hearing his voice instantly made my blood pump furiously throughout my body.
I exhaled, my breath shaky. “Then yes.”
I could feel his wicked grin through the phone. “I’ll pick you up at 8.”
Everything I told myself I wouldn’t do with Max, I did. I said I wouldn’t have dinner with him and I was sitting across from him in one of the nicest restaurants in McLean. I said I wouldn’t put any effort into getting ready, but I dressed in a deep blue maxi dress that had a V-cut in the front and left almost my entire back exposed. It was one of the sexiest dresses I owned. I said I wouldn’t let him get a reaction out of me, but as we walked into the restaurant, goose bumps instantly prickled my skin when his hand settled on the bare skin of my lower back, making me regret this dress.
And now I was barely surviving, because of the looks that Max shot in my direction. When he looked at me, his eyes narrowed slightly, like he was trying to get a better focus on me. I leaned back in my chair. Feeling like I had been shot in the chest.
Bang.
I opened up to him in a way that seemed impossible. I told him about college, my dislike of exams and papers and the professors. And Max listened the whole time, his eyes never straying, his attention purely focused on me. It was thrilling.
Max took a drink of his water. He was leaning back with one arm draped over his chair. His gray dress shirt stretched across his chest and arms. I took a sip of my drink. I had already gone through three glasses of wine. Every time I looked over at him, my mouth suddenly became dry. I needed to find a better coping mechanism or my liver was going to shut down.
“So did you get your college experience?” he asked.
“I guess so.”
“You guess so?”
I shrugged. “It was nothing like I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
I thought over his question, chewed on my bottom lip. “More… freedom.” His brows lifted and I quickly spoke up. “I don’t know… I guess I just thought I would find myself. Sounds cliché, right?”
Max grinned and my heart started to pound at an alarming rate. “Not at all. Everyone expects that, but hardly anyone really gets that.”
“Did you change?”
“No. You see I was good at studying but even better at having fun.”
When I pictured him having fun I pictured his arm slung around a new girl each week and jealousy took root in my stomach, twisting its way up my body until I had to force away the image of College Max.
“If we had crossed paths in college…” I started out slowly, contemplating my words. “Would you have noticed me?”
“I would’ve noticed you then, just like I notice you now,” he said in an intimately. His words slammed into me.
Max paused and braced his elbows on the table, like whatever he was about to say was going to take everything out of him. Right then was my cue to speak up. It was the perfect moment to tell him that I didn’t need to hear anything. My lips parted, but nothing came out.