Somehow, in all the chaos, I still managed to laugh. “I’ve thought about hitting them with mace quite a few times actually.”
His half-smile snuck on his face again, and it made me feel a little steadier, a little less out of sorts. Somewhere in my freak-out, his hands had worked their way up from my arms to my neck, and his fingertips now cradled my jaw.
He asked, “So what do you think? Are we a go for Operation Introduce Your Parents to the Real Max?”
“More like Operation Give my Parents a Panic Attack . . . but yeah, we’re a go.”
“Excellent.”
His thumb traced the line of my jaw, and a shiver raced up my spine. I swallowed and wet my lips. “Thanks,” I said. “For everything. The walk. The talk. And you know, fake dating me.”
He paused for a few seconds and then said, “You know, I seem to remember you promising me a real date the other day.”
My heart thumped. I wanted him. I’d been attracted to him before, and now it had only grown. Tonight had been so perfect. He’d said all the right things, and made me think, and pushed me to be myself. Which is exactly why I didn’t need to date him. My dating history was toxic, and he was the last person I wanted to taint. We could be friends. I’d needed a friend like him my entire life. He called me on my bullshit and made me less afraid.
And yet, when he looked at me and his skin touched mine . . . friendship was the last thing on my mind.
My phone buzzed, and I jumped at the chance to escape. I pulled away to answer it, but the name on the screen made me pause.
Mace.
The conversation with Cade had put me in a peaceful place that I didn’t want to destroy. I hit ignore, but just seeing his name had ruined some of the luster of the evening.
It had been a long day, and all the emotions of it hit me all at once. Maybe all I needed was sleep. I asked Cade for a rain check on the drink, and he volunteered to walk me home. I was happy for the company because his presence kept my mind from dwelling on the things it shouldn’t be dwelling on . . . like how things were spiraling out of control with Mace. And the rockier our relationship became, the more disruptive he was toward the band, which meant more than whatever was going on between us.
When we reached my block, Cade held open my apartment building door for me.
“Your landlord still hasn’t fixed this lock?” He followed me up the stairs and said, “You should let him have it, Angry Girl. That’s ridiculous. It’s not safe to leave it like this where anyone can get in.”
I kept climbing the stairs and smiled at him over my shoulder. “I know . . . some complete psycho could creep into my apartment while I sleep . . . naked.”
We reached my floor and he said, “You’re right. I could do that.”
I laughed and gave him a playful push. His hands caught my arms, and he pulled me closer to him. My stomach felt like I’d just gone down the drop of a huge roller coaster. I licked my lips and he said, “Really though, please make your landlord take care of the door. If he doesn’t, I will.”
His face was stern, and it gave me goose bumps.
I tried to play off the way he affected me with humor. I rolled my eyes and said, “Yes, Master. Anything else you’d like to order me to do?”
His eyes darkened, and something contracted low in my belly. A whimper built in my throat, and I was seconds away from throwing myself at him when I heard someone call my name.
“Max?”
The clenching in my belly turned painful. Cade’s hands loosened on my forearms, and I turned to face Mace.
He’d been sitting outside my door and was climbing to his feet. He lumbered down the hall, one hand on the wall to steady himself.
He was trashed.
I took a step away from Cade and asked, “Mace, what are you doing here?”
“Clearly not having as much fun as you are. You didn’t waste any time, did you?”
His normally gorgeous features were twisted into something ugly. His nose scrunched up, and his lips pulled into a grimace.
“Mace, this is my friend, Cade. He came to see the show and walked me home.”
He twisted the piercing in his eyebrow. “Right. You think I’m stupid, don’t you?”
I sighed. “No, I think you’re high.”
He lurched toward me and said, “And I think you’re a whore.”
Cade moved in front of me. “Chill, man. We’re just friends.”
I curled an arm around his elbow and tugged him back. “Don’t bother, Cade. He’s not good for the band, and he’s not good for me. Consider yourself done with both, Mace.”
He sauntered up to me. His eyes were red, and his pupils constricted. It was funny how attraction could live and die in an instant. Looking at him now, I didn’t feel any of the heat that normally crackled between us. He stood there, high and angry, and I only felt relieved. I stared him down, and he scanned me from head to toe. He drew a thumb across his bottom lip, and said, “I was bored anyway.”
I skipped straight past angry into repulsed. What a douchewaffle.