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 naked 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 fuck 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.”
“Never,” Max said, again ignoring me. “Never did I walk into a room and see her dressed to go out and forget how to breathe like I did when I saw you before we went to The Rooster.” I felt my eyes grow wide at this admission and I, too, forgot how to breathe.
When I remembered I whispered, “Max –”
His thumb came up and slid back and forth along my temple. “Technical points at givin’ head, Shauna’s a ten. Artistic merit, zip.” His mouth came to mine and he muttered, “You, babe, you get into it and fuck,” his nose slid along mine and I watched his eyes get dark with good memories as he went on. “Watchin’ you suck my cock, could swear you like it better than me. Perfect fuckin’ scores.” He kissed me lightly and continued, “Fuckin’ her, she doesn’t even rank compared to you. Different league.”
As much as I didn’t want to admit it, this pleased me greatly.