Her heels clicked on the hardwood as she approached the fat, leather cylinder. A vision of Max, sweaty and intense as he worked the bag with fists and feet, honing his fighting skills along with the hardened plains of his athlete’s body, flashed in her mind. Her belly muscles did a happy dance at the idea of a private demonstration. With a hum of anticipation, she balled her hand into a fist and threw her best punch. The bag didn’t budge.
“I told you to stay put.”
Startled, she jumped and whirled around as Max stalked by her into the kitchen. The towel was gone, which was too bad. The man certainly knew how to wear white terry cloth. She shook off her disappointment. For the coming conversation, the casual jeans and T-shirt covering his muscled frame were probably better than mostly naked and sexy as hell.
“Yes, well.” She cleared her throat and trailed after him. “An aversion to orders is why I’m here.”
“Meaning?” He wrenched open the refrigerator door, and his head disappeared inside.
She slid onto one of the island’s four high stools. An alliance with Max, whether real or farce, was her best hope of breaking the chains her family had wrapped around her so tightly she couldn’t breathe.
And she was sick of Max looking through her as if she wasn’t there.
She’d been in love with the big jerk since the first time she met him, and since she was determined to shake up her world, she meant to do something about his habit of giving her the cold shoulder.
She folded her hands in her lap. “Meaning, I have a proposition for you.”
His head popped up, and a wary frown pulled down the corners of his lips. “I don’t like the sound of that.” Straightening, he closed the refrigerator door and propped his hips against the counter to unscrew the cap on a water bottle. “Listen, I don’t know what your cousin promised you to help him with his game, but I’ll make it worth your while to forget it.”
A hot wash of excitement coursed through her veins in a beeline straight for the juncture of her thighs. Oh, she liked the sound of that, but she wasn’t about to forget it. She propped her elbows onto the counter and leaned toward him. “Worth my while, huh?” Pursing her lips, she dropped her voice to a flirtatious tease. “How would you do that?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed on a swallow, and she could have sworn his gaze dropped to her mouth—before he scowled. “Does your father know you’re here?”
“Nope.” She fluttered her lashes. “There are some things a woman’s father doesn’t need to know about.”
He jerked straight, and the wariness in his eyes slid back into suspicion. “Cut that out.”
“What?” She blinked and played dumb. If nothing else, she was going to make Max Grayson finally see her for the woman she was.
He bumped out his chin. “Don’t try using those baby blues on me. It won’t work. I’ve watched you work your wiles to get your way too many times. What’s going on?”
She sat up straight. He’d watched her? That was news. From her perspective, he did his best to ignore her most of the time, but he was wrong about her getting her way. If she did, she wouldn’t be here. Okay, that wasn’t quite true. If not today, she would have worked up the nerve to approach him eventually. Whether he knew it or not, Max held her heart in his hand, and he was either going to hold it properly, as he did in her dreams, or give it back once and for all.
Bold truth was called for, or at least as much truth as she could afford without tipping him off to the personal side of her agenda. If he agreed to help her, there would be time enough later to ease him into the concept of exploring a real relationship between them.
“I’m here because I need your help.”
“With what?”
“With getting my family off my back.”
“How am I supposed to do that?” He shook his head and pulled a long sip of water from the bottle.
She fidgeted with the hem of her blouse and had to take a deep breath before she could force the words out. “By pretending to be my boyfriend.”
Table of Contents
Cover Copy
Books by Mackenzie Crowne
To Win Her Trust
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Epilogue
Meet the Author
To Win Her Heart
Chapter 1
To Win Her Trust Page 27