Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79963 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 267(@300wpm)
“Are you crazy? Of course not. You know me. I don’t care about winning like you do.”
“Alright. Start from the beginning. I want to hear everything. How did it start?”
I told her most of it, leaving out a few details which Maggie picked on right away, and begged me to tell her. She sounded so fascinated by the whole thing that I stopped feeling like a complete slut for sleeping with my boss.
“In one week, you’ve had more excitement than I’ve had all of my life,” Maggie said. “I don’t understand the tears. Sounds like the experience surpassed your expectations.”
I bit my lower lip, embarrassingly close to tears again. I was such a fool. Why had I allowed myself to think that when we got back, Max and I would continue with our affair? I should have known and prepared for the end when we were on the plane. He had already started being distant, but I’d chosen to ignore what my eyes were seeing.
Max had already moved on.
“I fell for him, Maggie” I admitted, shamefaced.
“What!” she exclaimed. “You can’t fall for someone in one weekend?”
I’d never been with a man who made me feel special just with a look or a touch. I couldn’t believe that I was entertaining such tender thoughts about a man whom I’d believed to be a complete asshole. But I’d gotten a peak into the real man behind the gruff grumpy façade, and he was nothing like the jerk everyone thought he was.
I remembered the way he looked at me, as if I was precious and listened to everything I said, as if every word mattered. Then I made myself recall the cold way he’d said goodbye, and I no longer knew which one was the real Max.
“I can’t believe I fell for him, but I did,” I repeated in a daze.
Maggie gripped my hand. “No, you did not. Your problem is you haven’t been with a man in such a long time you now think you have feelings for Frost just because he made you feel good in bed. Believe me, it’s all physical. It’s easy to confuse great sex with feelings. Those don’t come easily. You’ll be fine as long as you remember it was just great sex.”
Her words penetrated the thick fog in my brain.
“You’re right. I don’t have feelings for Max. I guess I was so taken by his skills between the sheets, I thought it was more.”
“There you go,” Maggie said, shaking her head in awe. “I still can’t believe that swine invited you on a dirty weekend and you said yes.”
A sense of sadness crept back into my chest. “It was the greatest weekend I’ve ever had.”
She looked solemn. “Would you go again if he asked you to?”
Every cell in my body screamed yes, but I shook my head firmly.
“No. It was exhilarating and so pleasurable it was addictive, but you’re right it was only sex. Max is my boss and he’s not interested in a relationship.”
“As long as you remember that, you’ll be fine. He’s never been linked for any length of time to a woman in all the years that I’ve known him. That should tell you something.”
But something did happen between us.
I pushed the thought away. It was the kind of dangerous thinking that could get my heart broken. I’d gotten a glimpse of the kind of pain that Maximus Frost could inflict on me… if I let him.
I smiled at her. “Let’s talk about something else. Like your soon-to-be fiancé.”
“Oh, him…”
Maggie and I polished off the bottle of Merlot.
Hours later, as I walked her to the door, my steps were a little wobbly. I was probably going to regret drinking so much in the morning, but I was really glad that Maggie had come.
She had snapped me out of my melancholy mood and made me see the weekend for what it had been. I cleaned up, drank a glass of water and headed to bed.
Chapter 29
Max
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAThXFOy2c&t=78s
Iparked the car and walked to the front of the building.
It was 3.00 a.m. The only sign of life was a couple on the other side of the street, clearly intoxicated, their slurred voices and laughter breaking the silence of the night. I pressed the buzzer next to the Hudson name tag and waited.
It was late.
Maybe she wouldn’t answer. Maybe that was the best-case scenario. This was a stupid idea, anyway. Disgusted with myself, I turned away from the door.
“Max?” she called sleepily through the intercom.
I snapped to attention. “Are you alone?”
“Yeah, I’m alone. Come on up.”
The buzzer sounded and I pushed the door open. I was too hyped up to wait for the elevator. I ran up the stairs three at a time. Within a few minutes I was on Lillian’s floor.
I walked down the corridor towards her open door.