Valérie: Ines... I thought you were on my side.
Ines: Okay, in your bed is also a good solution.
Valérie: I’m not talking to you anymore.
Ines: Get ready for dinner with the band. And don’t forget, show Max what he’s missed.
That’s why I love Ines. She always succeeds in making me feel so much better with a few well-chosen words. She has been my biggest supporter the past few years, and I don’t know how I would have survived without her. But I don’t have much time to think about it. Ines is right, if Max thinks he can control me, he’s wrong. Time to throw my favorite dress into battle.
While I’m looking for the dress in my suitcases, I laugh at the idea of how Max will react when he sees me. When I have all the clothes laid out, I go to the bathroom. If I thought the room was already beautiful, I was not prepared for the bathroom. This is just the dream of every woman. The walls are tiled with black-and-white mosaic tiles. There is a giant shower and in the middle of the bathroom is a whirlpool bath. Not just any whirlpool bath; I think seven people can get in and then there would still be room left for more.
Tomorrow I will make time to take a bath, but unfortunately, I don’t have time for that at the moment. Max may have meant it as a joke, but I do have limited time to make sure I look perfect. Max has no idea what I’m going to do to him. I can’t wait to see his face.
I HAVE ONE FINAL LOOK in the mirror. I grin from ear to ear. Max will turn green when he sees me. I’ve put on a short, black bustier dress which hugs me in all the right places. It has always been my favorite dress because it makes me feel sexy. But besides that reason, I chose the dress to tempt Max. He thinks he can do whatever he thinks is justified to get me here and that I will forget everything that happened in the past, but he is mistaken. I intend to show him exactly what he missed all the years he didn’t see me. He may have grown into a man, but I am no longer that teenage girl he knew.
With my phone, I take a selfie and send it to Ines.
Valérie: What do you think, will Max know what he missed if he sees me like this?
Ines: Wow, I wish I could see his face when he sees you. Good luck, girl.
I’m laughing at Ines’ message when there’s a knock on the door. With my hands, I quickly smooth out the last wrinkles out of my dress and then turn around to open the door. I have to remind myself to breathe when I see Max standing outside my room. He is wearing a black tailor-made suit. My gaze goes to his shoes, which are black and shiny, and then slides up over his black trousers. He is wearing a white shirt and a dark blue tie. I see his Adam’s apple bob up and down as he swallows, but when I reach his face, I see his gaze. Why in the world is he looking at me like that? I can see him close his hands into fists and his nostrils flare. I mean, I haven’t even said anything yet and he looks like he’s about to lose his mind any second.
Despite that angry look, he looks delectable. I may not exactly like him anymore, but I can’t deny how my body reacts to him. Before I can say something, he pushes the door open a little farther and comes in. He closes the door behind him and turns his angry eyes on me again.
“What are you wearing? You can’t go to the restaurant wearing that,” he says gruffly.
Who made him king of the world? I lift my eyebrows before answering his look with a glare. “A good evening to you, too.” I stroke over my dress with my hands. “This is what they call a dress. A large part of the female population wears this every day.”
He crosses his arms in front of him, and I can’t help but see how his jacket tightens around his muscles. How is it possible that on the one hand he works on my nerves and on the other hand he sets my whole body on fire by only looking at me?
“You really can’t go out looking like that.”
I look at him with my eyebrows raised and cannot stop the smile that forms on my lips. I stand right in front of him and imitate his pose by also crossing my arms in front of me.
“Says who? You? Well, then I have some unfortunate news for you, Max. You are not the boss of me, so I can wear whatever I want. You have nothing to say about that.” I turn around and walk into the walk-in closet where I put my shoes. “I only have to put on my shoes, and then I’ll be ready to go.”
I hear him mumbling a few curses when he sees the back of my dress. He clearly disagrees with my choice of clothing, which makes my inner self cheer and wave pompoms to celebrate winning the first battle. If Max thinks he can boss me around, then he’s got another thing coming.
With my hand I caress the dozen or so pairs of shoes I have brought along. Choosing is always difficult because I have a weakness for all of them. I also brought the one silver-colored shoe. You never know if it’s mate will reappear again. After all, it was one of my favorite pairs of shoes.
I finally decide on a pair of red pumps that stand out from the black bustier dress I chose. When I return to the room, Max is sitting on the bed. His gaze wanders over my face, to my cleavage, farther down my legs to the pumps. I laugh when I see a muscle in his jaw tic.
“Are you sure you can walk in those shoes?”
“What do you have against my shoes? I’m used to walking on them, so that small distance to the restaurant is not going to cause any problems.”
He stands from the bed. “If you say so. After you, my lady.”
“You did not just call me your lady,” I hiss at him. “Let me get this through that thick skull of yours, I am not yours, Max. I am here for my job and nothing else. So, whatever you think will happen between you and me, put it out of your mind immediately, because it won’t happen. Get it into your fat head, because I’m going to repeat it one last time. I’m not yours, not now nor will I ever be.”
He squints his eyes and looks at me angrily. He takes one step closer to me, and I take one back. We repeat this until I hit the wall with my back and can’t go any farther. He’s so close that I feel his warm breath caressing my face. When he comes even closer and strokes his nose over my jaw, I close my eyes. Of its own accord, my tongue slips out, and I wet my lips with just the tip. I can still taste him there, from our kiss earlier today.
And then he takes a step backward. I open my eyes, to see he’s grinning at me. The nerve of him. “You can say what you want, Valérie. But your body disagrees. You can say that you don’t belong to me, but you will, you just don’t know it yet. But I will do everything I can to remind your body how much it liked me just as long as it takes until your mind remembers that as well. So, when you’re done fighting the attraction between us, I think it’s time to leave, before we lose the reservation at the restaurant.”
He is such a jerk, but I remind myself that I’m here for work, and I don’t want the rest of the band to gossip about the fact Max and I were late for dinner. So, I continue to glare at him, stomp my foot when I walk past him to grab my bag and then turn back around. Time to get out of this room, before I do something I might regret, like jump him right here, right now and forget about the promise I made myself to keep this strictly professional.
MAX LEADS ME INSIDE a small, picturesque restaurant. The hostess spots Max and welcomes him warmly. It’s clear he’s been here before because she immediately takes us to the back of the restaurant. She accompanies us to our table. Because I walk after Max, it only strikes me now that it is a table for two people.
“Are you sure this is our table? Where will the rest of the band sit?” I ask the hostess.
“Um, I was told that there were two of you.”
I immediately look at Max, who looks at the hostess in reassurance. “Don’t worry, Olivia. It’s perfect like this.”
The hostess disappears with a smile. Max pulls a chair out and motions for me to take a seat. Does he think I’m letting him get away with this? He made it look like we were going to eat something together with the whole band, and now I’m alone with him. I squint my eyes into slits and glare at him angrily.
“What the hell is going on, Max?”
He looks around
and then back to me.
“I see a cozy table for two people, and if I’m not mistaken, this is a restaurant. So, I’d say this is a dinner for two.”
He played me. All the time he kept telling me this would be a dinner with the whole band, but now it turns out we are just here with the two of us. If he thinks I’m okay with this, he’s wrong.
“You seriously don’t believe I’m willing to stay here, do you? I’m going back to the hotel and eat something there.”
I start to turn around when he grabs my arm. “Have you forgotten why you are here? You can be sure that somewhere here there is someone who will take a picture of you with his cell phone while you leave the restaurant and leave me behind. Is that what you want? That this will be on the front page of all the gossip magazines tomorrow?”
I pull my arm out of his grip but then turn around. With the fakest smile ever I take a seat in the chair and put my handbag next to me on the table. No matter how much it pains me to admit it, he’s right. I must not forget that I came here to work. The last thing I need is that tomorrow’s headlines read that I made a scene in a restaurant with Max Davis the leader singer for Full Moon.
Max takes a seat in front of me. I put my napkin on my lap before addressing him. “Why didn’t you tell me we would be alone here?”
Max pierces me with a sexy smirk. Is it just me, or does it suddenly feel much warmer in here than it did just a minute ago? Whenever I am close to him, it is very difficult to remind myself why I shouldn’t fall in love with him again.
“Would you have come with me if I had told you that it would only be us two?”
“No,” I answer without hesitation.
“Then you’ve found the reason.” He gives me a wink and takes the menu from the waiter who has come to our table in the meantime. I quickly take a look and order the first thing that catches my eye. Pan seared salmon with spinach and baby potatoes. Max orders a tagliatelle with seafood and a bottle of white wine. The waiter disappears for a while and then returns with the wine. He gives us both a glass and only when he’s gone does Max look at me again.
He grabs his glass of wine and lifts it. “To a new beginning.”
I lift my glass and clink with his. “To cooperation,” I counter.
6
Max
After a difficult start to the evening, I finally managed to get Valérie to loosen up a bit. We reminisced a little about the past, but I deliberately said nothing about that last evening. I told her a lot about the band and me, but she didn’t talk much about her and what she’s been doing. I would ask her but I’m afraid now that we’re having a nice discussion and getting along that I would bring out angry Valérie again.
We’ve just finished dessert when her cell phone rings. She fishes it out of her handbag and scrunches her nose when she looks at the screen. Whoever is calling her, she’s not looking forward to accepting the call, that’s clear.
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes. “I need to take this one.” I give her a small nod, letting her know that I don’t mind.
“Hello, this is Valérie.”
I hear a man growling on the other side, and immediately I’m on high alert. Valérie didn’t tell me she had a boyfriend; I just assumed she was still single. I hope it’s someone else and that Valérie has no boyfriend at all. She nods the whole time and says yes once in a while, but she never says no. Whoever is on the phone, he doesn’t even have the decency to let her finish her sentence.
The longer the conversation lasts, the more I have to suppress the urge to take the cell phone out of her hands and make it clear to the other person that this is not the way you talk to a woman. She ends the conversation and puts her cell phone away again. I already regret letting her answer the call, because I can feel her tense up.
“Problems?” Her head shoots up, and she looks at me. I can see it in her eyes. She looks worried and even a little angry. Whoever called her is not her favorite person. She tries to shrug her shoulders indifferently, but I see that this means a lot to her.
“That was my boss; he’s still not convinced that I can complete this assignment successfully. He wanted to make it clear what is expected of me.”
On the one hand, I am angry that her boss thinks it is necessary to belittle her so much. I am sure that Valérie is very good at her job. If she puts her mind on something, then she doesn’t let up until she gets it. That will not be any different with this assignment.
But on the other hand, I am glad it wasn’t her boyfriend. I grab my glass of wine and take a sip.
“Does he always talk to you like that?”
She sniffs disdainfully. “He doesn’t exactly have a high opinion of me. From the very first day, he made it clear what he thinks about me. And that hasn’t changed, no matter how much I try to prove myself.”
“What did he have to say?”
“Fanny, the CEO of Hard Beats, liked the idea of giving our readers the opportunity to ask you questions. They posted a topic on our website and were swamped with questions from fans. They are going to email me an overview of the most frequently asked questions, and they want me to ask you them.”
“I think that’s a great idea; after all, we do this for the fans, too.”
“Yes.” Valérie sighs. “Julian thought it was a good idea, so I didn’t have to think up questions myself.” She laughs sarcastically and then imitates his voice. “Then there’s no reason to worry about the questions you’d come up with.” What an asshole! Who talks to a colleague like that? The first time I meet that guy, I’m going to tell him what I think of him. No wonder Valérie hates him. He not only undermines her self-confidence, but he’s also just an arrogant asshole.
“Valérie?” I put my glass of wine back on the table and look at her. She has turned her gaze away and doesn’t dare to look at me. I wait patiently until she looks up again and looks straight at me. The emotions I see in her chocolate-brown eyes hurt me. The laughing, cheerful woman of just a few minutes ago has disappeared... and all of this by a few stupid remarks from a cocky bastard.
“I believe in you, Valérie. I’m sure Fanny wouldn’t have sent you here if she didn’t believe in you. Let this Julian say what he wants, but don’t let him take you down. Prove to him that you are much better than he ever will be.” Her eyes sparkle as she listens to me.
“Thank you, Max. I really needed that.”
“I believe in you, Valérie, so I meant every word.”
The waiter comes to clear our table, and I ask for the bill. I pay, and we leave the restaurant together. When we get outside, Valérie rubs her arms. The cold wind makes her shiver. I don’t hesitate for a second to take off my coat and put it over her shoulders.
“Thank you,” she says softly.
It is hard for me not to pull her toward me and press my lips on hers, but I don’t want to overwhelm her this time. The very last thing I want is that she walks away when I have made a little progress.
Together we walk back to the hotel. I try to persuade her to tell me something about herself about the time I missed. “Do you still live with your mother?”
For a moment she keeps a straight face, but I see how she struggles with the answer to my question. I can see her thinking about answering me or not but then decides to answer me. “My mother hasn’t changed a bit.” She sighs. “I don’t live with her anymore but try to visit her every now and then. Usually, it ends in a heated fight.”
“Too bad she hasn’t changed yet.”
She shrugs her shoulders indifferently. “It is what it is; I’m at peace with it. I can’t change her on my own; she must want to herself. Sometimes I think...” She looks up at me as if she only now realizes that it’s me and that she hadn’t planned to tell me all this.
“Sometimes you think what?” I encourage her to continue.
She sighs deeply, gathers all her courage and then continues. “Sometimes I think it’s all my fault.”
“Why would you think that?”
“M
y father always wanted a son. When I was born, he was so bitter that he took it out on my mother. So...”
“Valérie, don’t finish that sentence. What your father did had nothing to do with you. He was probably just looking for an excuse to leave your mother. They are both adults and should have dealt with it differently. You were a child; there was nothing you could have done to change that situation.”
A tear rolls down her cheek and I immediately brush it away. “I don’t want you to shed a tear for your mother, or your father. You are a beautiful woman, Valérie, and no matter what they think, I am very happy that you were born.”
She sweeps the next tears away from her cheeks and looks at me intensely. “Thank you.”
We walk a little farther in silence. When Valérie gets herself together again, she tells me about her studies and her current life. Ever since she got that phone call, I wanted to ask, but hesitated knowing I shouldn’t push her but now I do it anyway.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
Her mouth curls up in a small smile. “Why do you want to know?”
I don’t like her dodging the question, but I’m glad she’s got her playful mood back. I look at her piercingly. A radiant smile appears on her face. “No, Max, I don’t have a boyfriend.”
“Good,” I say self-satisfied. “That’s one less obstacle in my path anyway.”
She laughs, and for the first time this evening I feel like she’s completely relaxed. “You don’t know how to stop do you?” She laughs.
I decide to leave it there for the time being. We walk to the hotel and Valérie tells me about the past few years. About how she got to know Ines and how they ended up in their apartment together. I am glad that despite the difficult relationship with her parents, she has found someone to be there for her, and I make a mental note for myself that if I ever have the chance to do something for Ines, I will certainly do so.
Halfway through our trip to the hotel she stops me, bends down and takes off her shoes. She has the towering red pumps in her hands and is now walking barefoot next to me.
Say You Crave Me (Full Moon, #4) Page 6
