“Yes, Gigi?” he replied, his voice low and gravelly and oh, so tempting.
She sucked in a breath to settle the butterflies in her stomach. Her eyes dipped to his mouth, which had parted slightly, and she wanted to just get up and press her lips against his. She wanted to know whether he tasted as good as he smelled and looked.
“I—” she started, but stopped when Max moved around the bench and stood so close to her that she could practically feel his heartbeat. “What—”
Her words were cut off when he leaned down and kissed her. For a second, she was too stunned to do anything. It didn’t take her body long to figure it out though. Her mouth moved against his, her lips finding a rhythm she wasn’t aware she knew. She felt his tongue dart out, and she opened her mouth, letting him in, letting him take her. She was getting lost in the sensations, happily drowning in them, when Max pulled away. He had a frown on his face that Gigi couldn’t decipher, but she had a feeling it wasn’t a good thing.
“Max…”
“I’m sorry,” he said, cutting her off. “That was inappropriate.”
Inappropriate? It had been electric and spontaneous and completely unexpected, but it had not been inappropriate, at least not as far as she was concerned. He moved back around to the other side of the bench and picked up the knife again, cutting the pepper carefully and precisely.
He cleared his throat. “You were saying?”
She was speechless. She wanted to tell him that kiss had been everything she had hoped and dreamed it would be, but he clearly wanted to forget that it had ever happened. Was it her fault? Had he not enjoyed it? She could count the number of boys she had kissed before on one hand, and none of them had complained.
“Two thousand is too much,” she whispered, her fingers finding their way to her lips. He watched her touch her mouth and his knuckles turned white as he clutched the knife harder.
“I’m making some pretty hard demands on you, Gianna. Two thousand a week seems more than fair for the inconvenience.” His words were clipped, and they deflated Gigi in a way she hadn’t thought possible.
“Can you even afford it?”
He pinned her with a hard glare, the muscle in his jaw twitching. “Don’t worry about that. Two thousand is what we agreed on. I plan on honoring that whether you like it or not.” He continued cutting. “Now, I don’t want to talk about this anymore. Okay?”
“Okay,” she replied weakly, her compliance plunging them into silence.
When she couldn’t stand the quiet any longer, she slid from the stool to go and get one of her textbooks. She curled up on the couch, Max still in her line of sight as she pretended to read. What they’d shared was like nothing she had ever felt before. She wanted to kiss him again. Hell, she wanted to do a lot more with him, but he clearly didn’t have the same desire as she did. He’d withdrawn from her completely, his frosty demeanour hurting her a lot more than she thought it would.
He glanced up at her a few times when he thought her eyes were on the book, and the look of disdain on his face was unmistakeable. The silence was cut when he began throwing the vegetables into the frying pan. The scent of onions and peppers filled the air, making Gigi’s stomach sit up and pay attention. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him as he attended the skillet, occasionally turning things over in the pan. His broad back was being hugged by a white t-shirt, and she suddenly wished she was that stretch of cotton. Was that weird? Argh, who knew? All she and her libido knew was that they wanted more of Max. Sighing, she forced her eyes to read and her brain to store the information she needed from her textbook.
“It’s ready,” he announced suddenly, cutting through the tension. Gigi looked up from her book. He was setting two plates on to the counter, along with some cutlery and paper napkins. Sliding the book from her knee, she stood up and walked towards Max, who was watching her every step.
“Thank you,” she said as she sat down. Leaning down, she inhaled the delicious scent. He grunted a reply and sat beside her, their thighs brushing briefly. He stiffened from the contact, and she held her breath. She could practically taste her pulse in the back of her throat. She hated how tensely he held himself, like he didn’t want to accidently touch her again. “Can we talk about what just happened?” she found herself asking.
Max went still, his knife and fork poised over his omelette. “I’d rather not,” he replied.
“Please? I just want to clear the air.”
Placing down his cutlery, he looked at her. He was running his tongue along the front of his teeth, and she couldn’t tell whether it was because of anger or something else. “What happened was a mistake—a lapse in judgement and sanity. I apologize. We need to keep our relationship professional, especially since you’ll be living here.”
They were not the words Gigi had wanted to hear, but what could she do? She had to play by Max’s rules. This was his place, his child, his job to give. Even though it hurt to agree to his terms, she nodded. “Of course.” She kept her voice carefully devoid of any emotions, not wanting him to know just how much he had wounded her. It never would have worked out anyway. He was still grieving for the loss of his wife. He was also four years older than her—not that that bothered her— but perhaps it bothered him.
They finished lunch in silence. When they were done, he stood up and took her plate, placing it in the sink, and began washing up. She watched him for a moment before sliding from the stool and returning to her room.
17
Max had watched Gigi leave the kitchen, her head hanging low and her eyes on the ground. Christ, what a fucking idiot he’d been. He wasn’t angry at himself for the kiss; that kiss was amazing. He was pissed off that he’d handled what happened after it so badly. The whole time he’d been saying the words to her, in his head, he was saying the opposite. Okay, so it may have been inappropriate considering she was now his employee, but saying it was a mistake was so far from the truth. The feel of her soft lips against his only confirmed what he’d thought kissing her would be like.
Perfection.
When she’d reached out and touched him, a jolt of electricity surged through his body like he’d been plugged into the electrical mains. It made his blood boil, it made his cock stir. He had to see whether she would react to him, and when her eyes had dipped to his mouth, he knew. Functioning on autopilot, he’d rounded the bench and got up in her personal space. The scent of her shampoo was somehow hard-wired to his cock because his erection began to strain against the fly of his jeans. It had actually hurt, but he welcomed the pain, hoping it would calm the damn thing down.
Although he knew he shouldn’t have, he simply couldn’t stop himself. He’d leaned down and claimed what he’d wanted since pretty much the first time they’d met. She hadn’t reacted at first—she was just still—but then when he’d coaxed her mouth open with his tongue, she gave everything up to him. He was getting lost in a tactile ocean of Gigi, and that was the problem. He remembered a time when he had gotten lost in Chelsea, had given everything to her, and look where that had gotten him.
He’d broken off the kiss out of fear. Even though she felt nothing like Chelsea, looked nothing like her, she was making him feel like Chelsea had made him feel in the beginning. When he looked up from doing the dishes, Gigi was gone. Checking down the hallway, he saw that her bedroom door was shut. He guessed he should have been happy with himself. He had wanted to stop anything more from happening, and he’d achieved that by driving her away…but why did he feel like shit for doing it?
He stood there staring at her room, his hands balled into fists at his side. He wanted to go in there and tell her he was being a dick because he’d been screwed over, but before he could move a foot, his phone rang. It was his mom.
“Hi, Mom,” he said, retreating back to the kitchen and his sanity.
“Hi, Max. I’ve got some good news.”
“Is it about Dad?”
“They’ve given him the all clear to recuperate at home. I�
�m trying to convince him to come back to LA with me so I can keep an eye on him.”
He felt the weight he’d been bearing since he’d heard his father was sick lift from his shoulders. “That’s great.”
“Yeah, it is. Anyway, I just wanted you to know how he was progressing.”
“Have you told the triplets yet?”
“I’ll call them now. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Bye, Mom.”
Max noticed the time on his phone. He had a few more hours before he had to be at work, and he wanted to spend it with Erin. Poking his head into her room, he found her smiling face beaming back at him; she always woke up happy from her naps.
“How are you, baby girl? Did you have a good sleep?” he asked. Erin simply reached up her little hand and grabbed his nose. Gently prying her loose, he checked her diaper then took her out into the living room. “Do you want to go for a run, baby?” he asked her, getting a coo back in response. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he laughed.
He glanced at Gigi’s room briefly. Should he ask her to go? Would she agree to even if he did? In the end, he decided to simply tell her where he was going. She probably had to study anyway. With Erin in his arms, he knocked on her door. A few seconds later it opened slowly.
“I’m taking Erin out to the park…” he said, leaving the rest of the statement open for her to either say she was coming or not.
She looked at Erin and smiled. “Have fun, you two.”
“Gigi, you didn’t want to—”
“Come with you?” she finished. He nodded. “I’d love to but I have a ton of studying to do.”
“Yeah. Of course you do. We’ll be back soon.” He knew she’d just lied to avoid the inevitable awkwardness. Max had to get over it, too, and the only way he could think to do that was to pretend it had never happened. And to run until his body nearly gave out.
18
Gigi shut the door on Max and walked over to her bed, throwing herself back down onto it. She should have been studying, but her mind kept replaying the kiss she and Max had shared. It was going to be hard pretending it had never even happened.
Her phone chirped then and she picked it up, expecting to see Jen’s face pop up onto the screen. It wasn’t. It was a text from an unknown number. Her stomach flipped. Maybe it was the AMNH texting her to tell her she’d made it, even though she knew it was too early for that—it was also highly unlikely that successful candidates would be alerted via text message.
Opening up the text, she read then re-read the message.
Hi, Gigi. It’s Alex … from class. Was just wondering whether you’d like to get together to study sometime? Hit me back on this number to pick a time and a place :)
“Oh, no,” she said to herself. She remembered giving Alex her number for a group project back in their second year. She’d been reluctant to, of course, but in order to work together, they’d needed a way to contact each other. She’d been naively hoping that he’d deleted her details as soon as the assignment had been over.
Clearly, she’d been wrong.
She deliberated about texting back for the better half of thirty minutes, eventually deciding that it would be rude if she didn’t respond.
Hi, Alex. Sure. Why not? How about tomorrow? Around midday?
Gigi bit her lip and put the phone down on the comforter. She didn’t have to wait long for his reply.
Sounds great. Meet you at the library and we can go from there.
It sounded like a date to Gigi, so she’d have to make sure Alex was on the same page as her when it came to their non-existent relationship status. They were just friends. Rolling over onto her back, she picked up a textbook and flipped it open, holding it above her. Time disappeared like it always did when she had her nose buried in a book and when she looked at her phone again, it was almost four o’clock. Venturing out of her room, she saw that the apartment was still empty.
She turned her head at the sound of a key chattering along the lock, the front door opening a moment later. Max pushed the stroller inside. He was breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. Gigi felt as if she was having a divine moment seeing him as he was. He was in his jogging shirt and shorts, sweat beading off his brow. Their eyes met and she could feel the lust that had built between them before crackle into life once more.
“Hi,” she managed to choke out.
He closed the door behind him. “Hi. How was studying?”
“Boring,” she replied. “I thought you went to the park.”
“I did. For a run,” he corrected. Unstrapping Erin, he approached Gigi. “I have to be at work in an hour. Can you feed and bathe Erin then put her to bed?”
Holding out her hands, she settled the little girl on her hip. “Sure I can.”
He gave her a brief smile before making his way down the hallway. She watched him—she couldn’t help herself—until he closed the door behind him. Looking back at Erin, she said, “Let’s get you some dinner.”
The next day at half past eleven, Gigi left the apartment and started the twenty minute walk to the university library. She would be a few minutes early, but she preferred to be early rather than late. As she approached the red stone building, she saw Alex leaning up against one of the pillars out the front, his fingers idly playing with the leaves of one of the trees in the planter boxes there. His expression was serious until he saw her—that was when his whole face lit up.
“Gigi, hi,” he said, a face-splitting grin on his face. It made him look even younger than twenty- two. Slung over his shoulder was his overloaded book bag. “So, I thought we could get some lunch before we actually start serious study.”
“Yeah, that’d be great. Lead the way.”
She fell into step with Alex as he prattled on about something vaguely related to anthropology. Gigi was completely unfocused on the conversation. Her mind was still very firmly on the conversation she’d had with Max that morning when he’d surfaced briefly for breakfast. He’d come out of his room dressed in just a pair of baggy sweats. Seeing him dressed like that made a column of heat shoot through her body before it pooled between her legs. Did he really have no idea what the sight of him partially naked did to her?
“Gigi, I just want to apologize again for yesterday.”
His words had startled her, as well as confused her. She couldn’t keep up with his vacillating moods. He was either rude or repentant. “It’s okay, Max,” she said, pouring herself a glass of juice before asking him if he wanted some by raising the carton.
He shook his head. “No, it’s really not. When I went out for my run, I thought about it. The way I reacted was…extreme.”
“I get it. You regret kissing me, and I understand why. You’re my boss. Doing something to jeopardize our professional relationship is like putting a gun to the side of my head and pulling the trigger.” He frowned at her analogy. “What I mean is, it was a mistake—and one that can’t happen again.” She took a sip of her juice, looking at his face over the lip of the glass. “Let’s just put it behind us and pretend that it never happened.”
He gave her a slow nod. “Yes, I think that’s for the best.”
She smiled. “Great. Are you working again tonight?” He nodded, looking a little miffed. “What time do you start?”
“Five.”
“All right. I’ll make sure I’m home no later than four today.”
“Going somewhere?” he asked, his scowl deepening.
“I’m meeting a friend at midday to study.”
His jaw bulged for a moment. “A guy- friend or a girl- friend?”
She blinked at him, confused by the question. “Does it matter?” she replied, placing her juice down onto the counter.
For a moment, he didn’t say a thing. He seemed to be thinking about something pretty damn hard before saying, “No. It doesn’t. Have fun. I’ll see you at four.”
“—don’t you think?” Alex said.
Gigi shook her head. “Sorry, what?”
“
I said this place looks as good as any to get a bite to eat.” He gestured to the huge window they were standing in front of. It was a busy deli, their meat cabinets filled with a dozen different kinds of cold-cuts and cheeses.
“Ah, sure. This works for me.”
He opened the door for her, stepping into the deli behind her. It was heaving with people, but Alex saw a couple vacating a table. He rushed to grab it for them, piling the dirty plates on one end. Seeing all the cured meats hanging from the bars above the refrigerated cabinets reminded Gigi of her family get-togethers. Being half-Italian, family affairs were the three Ls—long, large and loud. Her uncles all cured their own meats, and brought enough along with them to feed everyone comfortably for a week.
“What do you feel like?” Alex asked, interrupting her thoughts. Her eyes drifted to the chalkboard above the counter.
“The roast beef sounds good.”
He smiled. “Coming right up.” He stood up and joined the line, glancing back at Gigi every now and again and smiling. She had the distinct feeling that he thought this was some kind of date. The more she thought about it, though, she couldn’t see why this couldn’t be a date. He liked her—that was clear—and she did like him. He was sweet and nice and safe. He was everything any girl would want to have in a boyfriend. His crush on her had been a long-running joke between her and Jen. Wouldn’t Jen get a kick out of it if Gigi announced she and Alex were dating?
She could tell the wait was going to be a long one, so instead of wasting time doing nothing, she pulled one of her textbooks out of her messenger bag. She opened it up on the table, flipping to the last chapter she’d been reading. She glanced up every now and then to check on Alex’s progress, and after ten minutes, he was finally at the front of the line. He returned to the table, triumphantly holding a plastic number in a metal stand.
Then There Was You: A Single Parent Collection Page 138