“I’m glad to hear it,” Hailey replied, that slight tension still straining her voice. “They were one of my favorite couples to match,” she said, which told Max that she’d obviously found this woman’s son the new love of his life.
Maureen openly glanced around Hailey, a curious gleam in her eyes as she gave Max an appreciative once-over. He smiled at her in return, waiting for some kind of cue or signal from Hailey . . . which never came. It was as though she was pretending that he didn’t exist.
“So, who is this nice-looking gentleman that you’re with?” Maureen prompted unabashedly.
Max stepped next to Hailey’s side again and glanced at her face, fully expecting an introduction. Hailey’s lips parted slightly, but no words came out, and unmistakable dread etched her features.
What the hell was going on? Everything about this situation was so out of character for Hailey, and her behavior didn’t make any sense at all.
Finally, words starting coming out of Hailey’s mouth. “This is ummm. . . ahhh . . . ” she stammered anxiously, her eyes wild with panic. “He’s . . .ummm.”
What. The. Fuck? He stared at Hailey incredulously, and since she seemed oddly flustered and incapable of stringing a sentence together, Max extended his hand toward Maureen and took over the introductions for her. “I’m Max Sterling, Hailey’s—”
“Oh, my God!” Maureen gasped dramatically, not giving him the chance to finish what he’d been about to say, that he was Hailey’s real estate broker. “Finally, I get to meet your elusive and very handsome fiancé!”
Fiancé? Wait . . . what?
His mind put on some major mental brakes. He wasn’t sure how Maureen had come to that mistaken conclusion, and he glanced at Hailey, fully expecting her to jump in and correct the other woman’s assumption.
Instead, those big blue eyes of hers were desperately pleading with him to please play along with the charade, and even though he was perplexed and conflicted—because what the fuck?—it was that imploring look, those distressed features, that influenced him to impersonate her fiancé.
Or did she even have a fiancé? Because if she did, wouldn’t she just admit that Max wasn’t him? Jesus, he was so damned confused.
Deciding he’d get answers once they were alone again, Max followed through on Hailey’s silent pleading look and posed as the man she was engaged to, as strange as that was. She wanted him to pretend they were in love, that he was the man who adored her? Challenge accepted.
Buckle up and get ready for a wild ride, baby.
Picking up Hailey’s left hand, he tucked it into the crook of his arm, effectively pulling her closer to his side. Her engagement ring winked up at him, and he suddenly hated that it belonged to another man.
Or did it?
Playing his part, he inclined his head at the other woman, who was staring at him as though he was some kind of prince charming, and gave her a charismatic smile. “It’s an absolute pleasure to meet you, Maureen.”
Hailey’s body visibly relaxed, her relief palpable that he’d cooperated.
Maureen sighed wistfully, her gaze softening as she took them in as a couple. “Just look at the two of you. You look so in love.” She pressed a hand to her heart. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pretty flush on Hailey’s face. You must be doing a very good job of keeping her happy.” She winked at him.
Max chuckled, liking Maureen despite the bizarre situation he’d found himself in, and he was certain that Hailey’s pink cheeks were due to panic, not adoration.
“I try my best. I know she certainly keeps me happy.” He lifted the back of Hailey’s hand to his lips and placed a lingering kiss on her knuckles. Desire thrummed through his veins when he heard her soft inhale of breath that told him how much his touch affected her. “Yes, I’m a very lucky man.”
“Yes, you are, and don’t you forget it.” Maureen waggled a finger at him, just like his mother would. “Hailey is a keeper.”
“I knew that the moment I saw her,” he said, pouring it on thick. “Now that I have a ring on her finger, she’s all mine.”
“You’re also a very smart man.” Maureen’s smile never wavered. “I’m so glad to finally meet you. You’ve turned down so many invitations to dinners and events the past three months, I was beginning to think that you didn’t really exist.”
Now that was an interesting tidbit. And more pieces fell into place. As soon as Max had introduced himself using his name, the woman had realized he was Hailey’s fiancé. Hailey had a fiancé named Max Sterling who never attended events with his girlfriend. Jesus. Had Hailey created a fake fiancé based on him?
With that crazy possibility rolling around in his head, he grinned at Maureen. “Well, now you have proof that I’m not a figment of Hailey’s imagination,” he teased with a wink at the other woman.
“He’s just a very busy man,” Hailey jumped in quickly. “Just like I told you.”
“Yes, you did,” Maureen replied with a nod before meeting Max’s gaze again. “You’re in the real estate business, right?”
Hailey had even used his occupation? He was beginning to feel like he was being punked or was in the Twilight Zone. “Yes, that’s correct,” he confirmed, because it was certainly the truth.
Maureen sighed, her expression turning to disappointment. “It’s really such a shame you can’t make it to the charity event at the end of the month with Hailey.”
Max felt his new fiancée tense against his side, and when he glanced at her, her eyes spoke volumes. Please, just go with it and express your regrets. Oh, he was definitely going to go with it, but not in the way she was hoping or expected.
Instead of agreeing with Maureen and making an excuse for his absence, he frowned at Hailey. “Sweetheart, I don’t remember you mentioning a charity event to me.”
She looked taken aback for a moment, clearly not expecting him to make an issue out of the situation. Then, she gave him a tight smile. “You had a prior commitment, remember?”
“It’s such a shame, too,” Maureen said, oblivious to the silent battle going on between him and Hailey. “The charity carnival is for Mercy Home for Boys & Girls, and it would have been great to have an extra pair of hands for the setup and heavy lifting. We can use all the extra help we can get.”
“I know. I’m very disappointed that he won’t be there, too,” Hailey said quickly. “But I understand how important Max’s work is to him.”
“Not as important as you are to me,” he replied, trying not to laugh at the frustration Hailey was conveying with her pretty blue eyes. “I didn’t realize how much this charity event meant to you. What weekend is it again?”
Hailey’s jaw clenched stubbornly, even as a sweet smile managed to play across her lips for their audience’s sake. “I can’t remember offhand.”
Max shifted his gaze back to Maureen, and the other woman immediately and helpfully shared the date of the event since Hailey was having a temporary mental lapse. He pretended to think it over, but he already knew he had nothing scheduled that on that particular weekend. He was all hers, whether she wanted him or not.
“You know what? That prior commitment really isn’t that important,” he said, being a good fiancé and making it all about Hailey and not himself. “I can switch things around so I can have the entire weekend free.”
Hailey’s fingers clutched at his arm. “Max, you don’t need to do that.” Her voice was indulgent, even though he was intensely aware of the warning in her grip.
He refused to let her off the hook. She’d dragged him into this fake engagement, and now she was about to bear the consequences of her actions. Turning toward her, he lifted his hands and framed her face in his palms, the gesture so intimate that Hailey’s eyes widened with shock at his bold move. He merely smiled and gave her an adoring look to match his next words.
“Sweetheart, I know I don’t need to do it,” he drawled in a husky tone. “I want to do it.”
“Oh, my. I guess that settles th
at,” Maureen said with a pleased laugh. “I’ll be seeing you both at the charity event.”
Max let Hailey witness the satisfaction he knew was reflecting in his gaze before he released his hold on her and glanced back at the other woman. “Yes, you absolutely will,” he promised her.
“Wonderful.” Maureen beamed at both of them. “I’ve taken up enough of your time and should let the two of you go, and I need to get back to my lunch date. Hailey, so lovely seeing you, and Max, it’s been a pleasure to finally meet you after all this time.”
Max shook the woman’s hand once more and bestowed a dazzling smile her way. “The pleasure is all mine.”
They said their good-byes, and as Max watched Maureen walk away, his mind reeled with a million different questions for Hailey, and he didn’t even know where to start. Was she really engaged? Did she even have a fiancé? And why had she used his name and occupation as part of the pretense? He was baffled, intrigued, and a part of him also felt duped. As much as he wanted to demand answers to all his questions, Spiaggia wasn’t the place to confront her.
Grabbing Hailey’s hand tight in his to make sure she didn’t try and bolt on him, he pulled her toward the restaurant’s front door. Just as he suspected, she tried to tug her hand from his grasp, but he wasn’t letting her go. Not until they settled a few things.
“Max,” she said, her desperate voice hitting him just as they stepped out onto the busy sidewalk. “Let me explain. Please.”
Oh, he intended to let her explain everything, but at the moment, there was so much for him to process, and he needed time to calm the fuck down so they could have a rational conversation when his head wasn’t spinning. So, he said nothing as he led her toward his office building, his quick strides forcing her to trot beside him in her heels to keep up with his pace.
“Max,” she tried again, her voice breathless from their brisk walk. “I know this looks really bad, and I’m sorry that—”
He stopped abruptly in front of his office building, so fast he cut off her words and she nearly collided into him. “Don’t say another word,” he said gruffly. She’d just put him through the wringer, and what happened from here forward was going to be on his terms.
Genuine contrition darkened her blue eyes. “But—”
“Not. Another. Fucking. Word.”
She bit her bottom lip and stared up at him anxiously, but clearly realizing just how on edge he was, she obeyed his order and kept quiet.
With her hand still tight in his, he continued into the building and onto the first elevator that arrived on the lobby floor. The doors slid closed with just the two of them inside. Standing so close to Hailey in a confined space, he could hear her breathing, the sensual sound heightening the awareness between them now that they were completely alone. That soft, floral scent of hers surrounded him, teasing his senses and triggering that desire he’d harbored for Hailey for too damn long.
For three long fucking months, he’d wanted Hailey, and he’d spent all that time believing his attraction to her was forbidden and she was off-limits. But even knowing that, it hadn’t stopped him from fantasizing about her or imagining the feel of her body beneath his and wondering what her soft moans of pleasure might sound like when she climaxed. Late at night, alone in his own bed with his hand clasped firmly around his shaft, he’d envisioned her soft lips wrapped around his cock and the needy look in her eyes as she looked up at him and sucked him off.
His jaw clenched tight as the elevator ascended the floors. For three long fucking months, he’d hated that he was the asshole who secretly lusted after a woman who wore another man’s ring on her finger. Publicly, he’d never made a move on her, never given her any indication that he was attracted to her or acted inappropriate in any way. As difficult as it had been for him, he’d respected what that ring had represented.
Had his gentlemanly behavior all been in vain? That was the million-dollar question nagging at him.
Before they went any further, in this elevator and between them, there was one thing he absolutely needed to know. Reaching out, he pressed the red STOP button, bringing the lift to a halt between floors. He turned around and closed the two short steps separating them, until she was backed up against the wall and he had his hands braced on either side of her shoulders—not that there was anywhere for her to escape to.
“Max?” she asked softly.
He heard the uncertainty in her voice, but she didn’t look afraid or intimidated, which wasn’t his intent anyway. He watched her tongue slick across her bottom lip nervously, and a sharp jolt of arousal punched him in the gut. Keeping a tight rein on his control until he had the answer he sought, he lifted his gaze back up to her wide-eyed one.
“Just tell me one thing right now,” he said, his voice a bit raspy and his pulse racing. “You’ve worn an engagement ring the entire time I’ve known you, leading me to believe you were taken. After what just happened back at the restaurant, you owe me an honest answer to the question I’m about to ask you.”
“Okay,” she whispered.
“Do you have a fiancé? A boyfriend? Any man in your life right now?”
She shook her head. “No. No one.”
“Thank fucking God,” he muttered and did what he’d been dying to do for three goddamn months. He pushed his hands into her hair, tipped her head back, and crushed his mouth to hers.
Chapter Three
As soon as Max’s lips pressed against Hailey’s, she gasped in shock, completely taken aback by the impulsive move she hadn’t seen coming, as well as the unapologetic demand of his mouth claiming hers. From the start, there was nothing gentle about the kiss. Nothing remotely tentative about the way his tongue boldly pushed past her parted lips, swept deep inside, and tangled sensuously with hers.
She moaned softly, breathlessly, as a surge of arousal spilled through her veins, causing her stomach to quiver and her legs to tremble. When it came to men and kissing them, nothing in Hailey’s past experiences had prepared her for this man’s hot, hungry, and immediate assault on her senses. She was used to nice, pleasant, uninspiring kisses, due to her habit of deliberately ending things with her dates before anything more passionate could develop.
In one fell swoop, Max had bypassed polite and respectful and dived straight into greedy and ravenous. The man who’d been the epitome of an honorable gentleman the past three months was no longer courteous and well-mannered, as he effortlessly stripped away her ability to resist him with a bold kiss that made her melt deep inside.
Another stroke of his tongue, and she tasted the heat of his desire. And when he pressed his lower body directly against hers, she felt the hard length of his erection straining the front of his trousers, which ignited a slow burn of need between her legs. Her breasts swelled and her nipples tightened, chafing against the lace lining in her bra.
Seemingly of their own accord, her curious hands slid beneath his suit jacket, her fingers encountering the firm muscle of his abdomen beneath his dress shirt. He groaned in the back of his throat and deepened the kiss even more. Before she lost the nerve, or Max realized just how inept she was when it came to any of this, she skimmed her palms up to his chest, then around to his back and down the muscled slope of his spine.
God, he was gorgeous and sexier than sin. Everything about him was so hard and solid and perfectly sculpted, making her suddenly acutely aware of how soft and curvy and flawed she was in comparison, when he was probably used to svelte, sophisticated women who knew how to satisfy an experienced man like him. And before she could stop them, her insecurities wormed their way into her head and tainted her thoughts, effectively ruining the most pleasurable, sensual moment of her life.
Before she could end the kiss, Max lifted his mouth from hers, his warm breath caressing her damp lips and his eyes dark and hot as they stared into hers. He was breathing as hard as she was, but he didn’t move away. The hands twisted in her hair moved down to her jaw, and the soft, tender stroke of his thumb along her cheek be
lied his tense expression as he studied her face much too intently.
“We’re not done with this conversation,” he said in a deep, rough voice that was just as assertive as his uncompromising stance in front of her. “We have business to take care of and an offer to submit once we get to the office, and then you’re going to tell me how I became your fiancé without me even knowing it. Understand?”
She swallowed hard and nodded her head, even though she knew he wasn’t really giving her an option on the matter. “Yes.” At the very least, she owed him the truth, no matter how awkward it might be.
Satisfied with her answer, he stepped away and released the stop button. The elevator continued its upward climb, and beside her, Max exhaled a deep breath and dragged his hands through his hair, as if trying to collect his composure. She couldn’t read his mood, but she could easily assume that he was less than pleased with her at the moment, not that she could blame him.
The doors to the elevator opened, and without a word, she walked out first, a little surprised, and unnerved, by the subtle press of his hand at the base of her spine. The touch felt . . . possessive, and definitely intimate, and she wasn’t sure what to make of the gesture. Especially considering what had just transpired between them, and she wasn’t referring to that angry kiss, but her deception.
She’d been to Max’s office many times over the past three months, and she knew the way to his reception area, where his pretty and young secretary, Olivia, was sitting behind a desk, typing away on her computer keyboard.
She glanced up and smiled when she saw them approaching. “Good afternoon, Hailey,” she said cheerfully, then looked at Max. “The purchase agreement for the property in Logan Square is on your desk for you to look over.”
“Thank you, Olivia,” he replied with a curt nod. “Will you please take Hailey to the conference room?”
The Book Boyfriend Series Box Set Page 20