One side of her lips move up as she says from the corner of her mouth, “A math nerd, I knew it. Does it have a girlfriend?”
My eyebrows raise and I smile at her. “I’m not a lesbian, but thanks for assuming that, I’m flattered.”
Her attention turns back to Max as she strokes his cheek with a long, red fingernail. “I’ll stop by after the club tonight and slip into your bed, lover.”
“Not tonight, Lauren. I have to work. I just told you that.”
Somehow she makes her bottom lip jut out more than it already does, which seems impossible. “Boo, hiss, darlin’ what shall I ever do with myself?”
Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he begins walking her to the door. “Tomorrow I’ll pick you up for lunch so we can talk, okay?”
Not watching them as the sight of him touching her makes my skin crawl, I hear her say, “That sounds like fun, lover.”
He walks her out and I find myself smiling evilly as I’m pretty sure the lunch won’t be fun at all. I wonder if she’ll shed actual tears or manufactured ones when he tells her it’s over.
The sound of him running up behind me makes me turn around, and he grabs my hand, making me run along with him out to the pool. “I’m sorry you had to deal with her,” he says over his shoulder as he pulls me along. “She’s a horrible person. Why did I ever entertain the thought she might be the right girl for me? Hell she’s not even pretty, long legs or not.”
I giggle at his rambling as he pulls up short in front of an ornate wooden door near the pool. He opens the door and gestures for me to go in before him. “Marble floors?” I ask as I admire the gorgeous floor.
“Of course,” he says then points to a door off the large room which has a pool table in the middle of it. “Go in there and shave what you need to, then find yourself a bathing suit in one of the drawers. There’s all sizes.” He looks at me. “No big ones though. I only have up to a size three I think.”
My shoulders slump. “Man! I’m a size five.”
A short burst of laughter comes out of his mouth. “You may be wearing a size five, but I assure you, you’re not that size. Those clothes you have on are swallowing you. Put on a three and see if all your stuff doesn’t fit in it just fine.”
“My stuff?”
He pats my butt and pushes me towards the door. “You know what I mean, scoot.”
I rummage through the drawers and all he has in them are bikinis. I never wear them because my body is so abnormally long and drawn out. My legs are long, my arms are long, even my torso is long. I’m built like a scarecrow. But he’s so excited, almost like a little kid, so I shave and moisturize and place my boobs in a tiny top and my butt in skimpy bottoms and check to make sure I got rid of all the hair I needed to. I’m horrified by what I observe in the mirror so I grab a towel and wrap it around me.
As I walk out I find him changed out of his suit and into a pair of board shorts and lounging in the sun already. “Hey!” I call out as I make my way to him and try not to stare at his completely gorgeous body.
He has to have chiseled abs, doesn’t he? He’s out of my league in every single way possible.
“Really?” he asks as he peers over his Ray-Bans at me.
“What?”
“You still have your hair in a bun, Alex. No one can have fun while wearing a bun. It rhymes so it’s a fact.” He grabs something off the table next to him and tosses it to me. “Put those on, they’re for you.”
I look down at what I’ve caught and see a pair of Ray-Bans in my hand. “I don’t feel comfortable wearing these, Max. I mean I might break them and I can’t afford to replace them.”
“Why would you need to replace something I’m giving you? Just put them on, take that stupid bun out and drop the towel so we can swim.”
“Bossy much?” I mumble as I pull the pins from my hair, then put the glasses on and place my towel over the chair near me.
What do I care what he thinks about my scarecrow body anyway? It’s not like he’s interested in me like that, he probably won’t even look at me.
Max
One second I’m looking at easily the most nerdy looking girl I’ve ever laid eyes on, but she’s sweet and funny so she’s growing on me, the next glance I take at her makes my mind stop.
Time stands still as she shakes out her long, wavy, shiny, blonde hair. The towel flies off her stunning body as she puts the sunglasses on and she’s drop dead gorgeous. Not a bit of make-up on and she’s taking my breath away. “I wanna take you on my yacht.” The words come out of my mouth without me thinking of them.
“You have a yacht?” she asks, but I can’t form more words so I just nod.
She walks to the edge of the pool and I can’t quit looking at her legs. They’re long, lean, tan, and I need to touch them.
I wonder if I can get her to wrap them around my waist!
One toe she dips into the water and my eyes move up her long legs to her perfectly rounded ass, and I want to touch it really badly.
I wonder if she’ll let me do that!
She turns around and waves at me and her perky, one hundred percent natural, breasts move slightly and I want to bury my face in them.
You think she’ll let me?
“Come on,” she shouts.
I grab the beer sitting next to me and chug it. I need to act cool, not like a horny teenage boy. Finally able to speak I say, “I’m coming, Lexi.”
Where’d that come from?
“Lexi?” she asks with a little laugh. “Okay.”
Okay, she said I can call her that. Good cause she ain’t no Alex. Not anymore. I take her hand as I get to her and lead her around to the boulders. “You first,” I say as I stop at the back of the rocks and gesture for her to walk up the stairs in front of me. She smiles and walks past me. Her ass is a sight to behold and now I completely understand why men started this gentlemanly practice so long ago.
She turns and looks back at me as I’ve frozen in place at the bottom stair. “Come on, Max! I wanna jump together. It’s more fun when you do it that way.”
I shake my head to clear it and make the gears move again. As I get to the top I grab her hand. “Okay, let’s do this,” I say then jump.
As I push my head up out of the water, her giggle hits my ears like magic bubbles and I must be staring at her without realizing it because she splashes me in the face. “You didn’t even count to three. Everyone knows you have to count to three before you jump.”
“Come on, baby, let’s go again and this time I’ll count to three,” I say as I pull her along with me and swim to the side of the pool.
Pulling myself up on the edge of the pool I reach down to help her out. She takes my hand and I pull her up, finding her light as a feather. “Thanks,” she says as she shivers a little. “Now this time we need to do cannon balls when we jump in.”
She’s unlike any woman I’ve ever known. Not one of my previous girlfriends would’ve ever done this. I watch her climb the stairs in front of me and she looks back, catching me checking out her bodacious bottom. She shakes her head and laughs. As I get to the top I turn to her, about to make my move since she’s caught me looking anyway.
Her arms come out to wrap around me. She pushes her palms against my chest and I’m falling backwards into the water. As I come up for air, I catch her coming into the water, holding her knees to her chest and a wave of water washes over me, knocking me back under.
I swim to the side and pull myself up on the ladder and look around to find her lounging on the Baja bench area of the pool. I swim over and smile. “What was that for?”
“I saw you, Max.” She pulls the sunglasses down and her eyes are wide. “I know I’ve got a wacky shape, and I hoped you wouldn’t make me feel stupid for wearing this tiny thing my butt’s hanging out of. Obviously you were about to come up with a clever joke so I pushed you in before I had to hear it.”
I was going to kiss her, and she thinks I was going to make fun of her. Now that’s
just really sad.
As I slide up on the bench next to her I ask, “Why do you think you have a wacky shaped body, Lexi?”
Her head tilts, and she says, “Come on, I’m not blind. I’m shaped like some kinda scarecrow with floppy boobs and a lumpy bottom.” Her hand goes to her perfectly flat stomach and runs over it. “And my big gut makes this an all the way around wacky body.”
What does she see when she looks in the mirror?
I just stare at her and blink as she’s clearly nuts. Finally, I manage to say, “You should let me take you to my stylist. She can fix what little needs fixed. We can put you in the right sized clothes then I’ll take you out and you can watch the men fight like wild animals for your attention.”
With a snort she laughs and I have to laugh too at the ridiculous sound. “Right! Why do people think it’s funny to be so mean? I know I’m unattractive. I get it, okay?”
“I’m not kidding, I’m being absolutely serious,” I say as I stand up and grab her hand, pulling her up. “That’s it, I’m taking you to her today and I’m going to show you how completely gorgeous you can be.”
I pull her with me out of the pool as she protests, “You’re crazy, Max. I don’t have the money for that and it’s stupid anyway.”
“I’m paying and you’re going to see a new you by the end of the day,” I say as I open the door to the pool house and usher her inside. I grab a sundress out of the closet. I can’t allow her to put those awful clothes back on. I kick out a pair of flip flops that look to be her size and turn to her. “Put this on and do not put your hair up in a damn bun. You need this, Lexi. You need to know what you’re missing.”
“What about the spreadsheet?” she asks as I push her into the bathroom. “We should be working on that.”
“Tomorrow, I promise we’ll do it tomorrow.”
“I’ll let you do this, Max. You’ll see, you can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s ear,” she says and her eyes droop a little at the edges. “I’m a plain Jane with a horrible shape.”
“You’re wrong, now get dressed.”
How could such a beautiful girl think so little about herself?
Alexis
My eyebrows sting. My feet are in a tub of some kind of water that’s burning them some and a certain amount of heat is building in my cheeks as my new BFF, Max, argues with his stylist about adding some highlights to my hair. He’s against it and she’s for it.
I’ve apparently become his project. He thinks he’s magic and can make me into a beautiful woman.
The stylist looks at me in the long mirror. “I’ll just let her decide.”
Max makes a sound like a buzzer and shakes his head. “She can’t. She has the most terrible taste known to man.”
“Thanks!”
The stylist whose name is Cake, I know, striper name, but she said it’s the real name her parents gave her, anyway she says, “Max, you’ve embarrassed her.”
“No, he’s right. Do whatever he says. I want him to do all the deciding so he can’t make me do this again when I’m still plain and clothes don’t fit me right.”
Cake’s long, elegant hands flow over my face as she says, “Plain? My dear your bone structure is exquisite. Your hair is naturally gorgeous.”
Max interrupts, “Ha, I told you!”
She casts a glare at him then turns sweet eyes back to me. “As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted; your skin seems to have never seen a blemish.”
“I’ve never worn make-up and I wash my face twice a day with Ivory soap.”
Cake’s eyes go wide. “No make-up ever? Surely when you went to your high school prom you wore some.”
I laugh. “I didn’t go to the prom or any dance. I never got asked.”
Cake looks over her shoulder at Max then back at me. She leans in to whisper, “You have had a boyfriend, haven’t you?” I shake my head, and she leans in closer. “Do you still hold your, ‘V’ card?”
I squint at her because I have no idea what she’s talking about. “A what card?”
She asks so quietly I barely hear her, “Are you a virgin?”
My face turns beat red and I stammer, “Uh, umm, I, well, yeah.”
A frown covers her face. “How old are you?”
“Twenty-five. That’s the second time today I’ve been asked that. There’s no age limit on virginity.”
Max sputters and coughs as he walks to my side. “What did you say?”
Averting my eyes, I say, “I’m a virgin, okay there it is the topping on the looser sundae which is me.”
Max takes me by the shoulders and looks into my eyes as if he’s looking for something. “Have you ever been kissed?” I roll my eyes and shake my head. I don’t know how much more humiliation I can take. He drops his hands and turns around and mutters something to himself that sounds a lot like, “That’s why.” He turns back to me. “Anyone ever try to kiss you?” I shake my head and he laughs.
“That’s mean,” I say and would walk out of here if I had any idea of where I was and how I could get back home. Which would do me no good as I’ve left my fanny pack back at his house and it has my house key in it.
Cake swats at Max, sending him out of her way. “Go sit and let me help this poor girl out. Lord if anyone has ever needed my services this child does.”
For what seems like an eternity Cake plucks, tweezes, cuts, curls, then spoons some stuff on my face and pulls it back off. She gets out some type of monster case full of make-up all while not allowing me to see my reflection in the mirror.
Finally, Cake, smiles at me. “Okay, I hope you’re ready to see a brand new you, Lexi.”
Max jumps up and comes to me. “I don’t want to miss her reaction to this.”
He takes my shoulder and slowly spins me around. The face I see in the mirror is not mine. “That’s not me,” I say as I reach up to touch my perfectly curled hair. “My hair doesn’t do this.” I run my hand over my cheek, which is perfectly pink. “This isn’t my face.”
“Gorgeous,” Max says as he looks at me in the mirror. His cheek is near mine. He smiles and gives me a wink. “We look good together.”
Cake takes off the plastic cape covering me and Max takes my hand. “Okay, so my head’s done, but here comes the hard part, my wacky body.”
Cake rolls her eyes. “Oh, Lord, precious girl. What do you think is wrong with your body?”
“How about I tell you what’s right about it? That list is much shorter,” I say as Max takes my hand and pulls me from the salon.
He looks back at Cake and smiles. “You add on a few thousand dollars as a bonus, girl.”
I look at him like he’s crazy and Cake laughs. “Thank you, baby. You bring her back to me in a month and I’ll make sure she’s kept up. Good luck getting laid, Lexi.”
“What?” I say as Max pulls me out the door.
Max
I can’t quit looking at her. She’s more beautiful than I ever imagined. We’re on our way to get her some clothes and she’s eerily quiet. “So what are you thinking, Lexi?”
Her eyes sparkle as she looks at me. Her pink lips open a bit but she closes them, hesitating before she opens them again. “This isn’t me, Max. You spent a ton of money already and I realize I can’t talk you out of spending more, but it’ll all be for nothing because I can’t keep this up. I can’t fix my hair like this or put on make-up at all.”
“Lexi, it’s not the exact hairstyle,” I say as I take her hand and hold it in mine. “The haircut will still be great if you just wash it and let it dry. The make-up doesn’t matter because you have a natural beauty. The make-up only enhances what’s already there. You’ll still be beautiful without it.”
Her head drops, and she looks away. “My goofy body will still be just that. I don’t want to find someone and get laid, like Cake said. Before today, no one has seen that much of my body. When I swim I wear a one piece and shorts and a T-shirt. No one wants to look at this mess.”
I do!
I rub my thumb over her knuckles and lift her hand to my lips, placing a kiss on it. “Your body is no mess, and I’m not prone to lying.”
She smiles at me and a little part of my heart melts. “You’re too nice, Max.”
I want her to see her true self-worth and how gorgeous she is and in demand she’ll be before I let her know I want her to be with me. “Tonight I’m taking you out to a club and I’ll leave you at the table alone for a bit. You’ll see men flock to you as soon as I walk away. But you’re coming home with me, understand?”
Her eyes dart to mine as she squeezes my hand. “Oh, Joseph and Mary, please don’t leave me with a bunch of strange men, Max. I’ll freak out. I mean when my mouth opens they’ll most likely run away anyway if any do come up to me, but in case one of them gets too fresh with me please interrupt us. I don’t want my first kiss to be with a stranger.”
It won’t be!
Alexis
So here I am in a dress that costs more than my car did. It fits surprisingly well and I do have more confidence about my appearance. I sit at a small table in some spectacular club Max has taken me to, and he’s left me alone to see if anyone takes a shot at me. Which I don’t think’s going to… Oh, who’s this?
“Hi, I noticed you when you walked in,” a tall, and completely gorgeous man says.
Another walks up next to him. “I saw her first, Clint.” He extends his hand which I return the gesture and he takes my hand and kisses the top of it. “I saw you when you got out of your car at the valet. My name is…”
A tall man who I recognize as a basketball player from the Rockets steps up and both men look up at him and groan. They step back as he leans down and takes my hand. “Hello,” he says with a deep voice. “I’m…”
“I know who you are,” I say, finding it unbelievable Max was right.
“Dance with me,” he not so much asks as demands.
Quartet Complete Series: Billionaire Romance Box Set (An Alpha Billionaire Romance) Page 172