Hanging out with Max’s friends, like a real couple, hadn’t been part of their deal. She was about to tell him that she really needed to start packing up her place to move in a month, but he spoke again before the excuse could leave her mouth.
“How about I pick you up around four in the afternoon?” he said, as if it was a foregone conclusion that she was accompanying him. “We can consider it a practice run before my dad’s birthday when we really have to convince people we’re engaged.” He grinned at her.
Brielle laughed, the sound rife with amusement, and Hailey was fairly certain that her friend was enjoying this man’s confidence and determination when it came to persuading her.
“Oh, I think you’re going to be really good for her, Max,” Brielle said in a delighted tone.
“Yeah?” he asked, looking intrigued by Brielle’s comment. “Why’s that?”
Brielle’s smile was almost giddy. “Because she needs someone to push her outside of the comfort zone she’s boxed herself into for much too long, and I think you’re the perfect man for the job.”
Hailey felt her cheeks warm from embarrassment, and even though she shot silent daggers at Brielle from across the table to zip it, her friend blatantly ignored her glare.
Max flashed one of his flirtatious grins. “Well, in that case, I’ll see what I can do.”
God, the two were actually conspiring against her! She looked at Brielle with big, meaningful eyes. “Don’t you need to leave?”
“Yep,” she said happily as she gathered up her purse. “My work here is done. You two behave yourselves.”
“Now what’s the fun in that?” Max’s voice was smooth and deep and full of naughty insinuation.
“So true,” Brielle agreed cheerfully. “In that case, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do, which gives you two a lot of leeway when it comes to all sorts of fun debauchery.”
The warmth on Hailey’s cheeks started to feel like an inferno. “Go!” she said on a laugh as she pointed to the door.
Brielle slid out of the booth and gave Hailey a finger wave. “See you at the office tomorrow morning.”
“Not if I fire you first,” she quipped back.
“Pfft.” Brielle rolled her eyes loftily. “You love me way too much.”
At the moment, that was debatable.
Chapter Five
Max watched Brielle walk away for a moment before he glanced back at Hailey sitting beside him in the booth. Now that her friend—and the buffer between them—was gone and Hailey was alone with him, she was spinning the engagement ring on her finger anxiously. It was something he was starting to notice that she did when she was nervous, which was the last thing he wanted her to be when it was just the two of them.
“Are you okay?” he asked, wanting to make certain that she was fine.
She nodded and gave him a smile he couldn’t quite decipher. “I probably should go, and I’m sure you’d like to join Connor over at the bar.”
How wrong she was. “Do you need to go?”
She blinked in surprise at his question. “Well . . . no.”
“Then given the choice, I’d rather be right here with you,” he said, and meant it. And since she was still fidgeting with her ring, he gently grabbed her hand, flattened her palm on his thigh, and placed his on top—then immediately tried not to think about how close her fingers were to his dick, because the mental image of her gripping and stroking him would surely lead to his recalcitrant cock getting hard.
Shit, it was probably going to happen anyway, because now that Hailey didn’t have her ring to play with, her fingers were starting to flex against his thigh. And fuck, did it feel good, like a sensual massage . . . but it wasn’t, he reminded himself.
“You need to stop being so nervous with me,” he said, rubbing his thumb across her knuckles. “You already know that I don’t bite. Much, anyway.”
She laughed, and he felt her body relax next to his in subtle degrees. “I’m just not used to . . .”
“A man’s sole focus centered around you?” he guessed.
She shrugged and tipped her head forward, causing those silky blonde waves to cover the side of her face. “It’s just been awhile.”
So he’d gathered from his brief conversation with Brielle. Such a paradox, this woman who ran a successful matchmaking business but didn’t seem overly experienced when it came to men and dating.
With his free hand, he pushed her hair back over her shoulder so he could see all of her features again, then touched her chin so that she was looking directly into his eyes. “Just relax and have fun with it, sweetheart. Don’t overthink things, okay?”
She nodded and smiled, drawing his gaze to the soft, pink, delectable mouth he couldn’t wait to taste again. It had only been a few hours since he’d kissed her at his office, but it already felt like weeks. Their surroundings faded as he dipped his head and leaned in closer, so fucking gratified when her lashes fluttered closed and her lips parted for him . . .
“Can I get either of you anything else to drink or eat?” a waitress asked beside their table, effectively interrupting the kiss.
Startled, Hailey jerked back and tried to tug her hand from his thigh, but he easily held it in place as he casually glanced at the waitress. “I’d like to order the Kobe sliders. I’ll also take a Sam Adams on draft.” He glanced at Hailey. “Would you like something?”
She looked around him to smile at the waitress. “I’ll have a Sprite with lemon, please. That’s it for me.”
“Nothing to eat?” he asked once the server was gone.
Hailey shook her head. “I’m fine. I shared some stuffed mushrooms with Brielle.”
He hoped that wasn’t all she planned to have for dinner. He’d noticed at lunch she hadn’t finished her meal then, either, but he didn’t know her habits well enough—yet—to say anything about them.
She exhaled a breath. “I suppose we should talk about our . . . engagement, and what we’re going to tell people when they ask how we met, just so we have our stories straight?”
Entwining her fingers with his, he leaned against the cushion behind him in the booth. “I say we stick as close to the truth as possible so the details are easy to remember. When someone asks how we met, we tell them you were my client looking for a new building to purchase for your business, and it was love at first sight.” He grinned at her.
“Love at first sight?” she repeated, her tone filled with disbelief, but she was smiling. “You just said to stick as close to the truth as possible, and that’s pretty farfetched.”
“You don’t believe in love at first sight? Or are you a more practical girl who relies on compatibility quizzes and all those matchmaking tricks?” Which would make sense, considering her business.
“Compatibility tests do help in terms of finding someone who shares your values, and yes, I do believe love at first sight can happen for some people,” she said thoughtfully. “But I’ve never experienced it for myself.”
“Until now,” he insisted playfully.
“Okay, okay, until now,” she said with a laugh, clearly telling him what he wanted to hear. “With you, of course.”
“Good to know we’re on the same page with that.” He winked at her, enjoying this flirty banter between them.
The waitress came by and delivered their drinks, and once she moved on to another table, he took a long swallow of his beer, then continued with their conversation. “So tell me about your family. You mentioned they lived in Springfield, right?” Which was about two hundred miles away from Chicago.
“Yes.”
“Any brothers or sisters?” he asked, running his fingers along the condensation gathering on his glass.
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’m an only child. My parents died in a head-on car accident when I was four, so no siblings.”
The faintest hint of sadness tinged her voice, but it was enough that Max felt as though he’d just been punched in the gut. He couldn’t imagine how
difficult that had been for her as a young child, both emotionally and mentally. “I’m so sorry.”
“Thank you.” With her straw, she pushed the lemon deeper into her glass of Sprite to mix the flavors before taking a quick drink. “Obviously, it was a long time ago, and I was so young. I remember it was difficult for me to understand where my mom and dad were, but as I got older, it all started to seem surreal. Like I never really knew my parents at all.”
Their server came back to their table to drop off the appetizer plate Max had ordered, and after making sure they didn’t need anything else, she moved on again. Max picked up one of the small hamburgers and continued where they’d left off.
“Who raised you?” he asked curiously, genuinely wanting to know more about her, because everything about her fascinated him.
“My mom’s sister and her husband,” she told him. “My aunt Sharon and uncle Tony were unable to have children, so I was pretty much it for them.” The smile that touched her lips was sentimental. “I also spent a lot of time with both sets of grandparents. My aunt and uncle gave me a great childhood, and there was no doubt in my mind that I was loved, but sometimes, as I got older, it felt as though my aunt, especially, tried to overcompensate for the loss of my parents and losing her own sister.”
He swallowed a bite of his sandwich, and suspecting there was something more to her story, he prompted her for more details. “How so?”
Hailey hesitated a few long seconds, debating on whether to share more with Max. It was huge that she’d told him about her parents’ death and how she’d grown up, which she normally kept to herself with the men she dated because it was so personal. Then again, none of them had ever asked about her past or coaxed her to open up and talk about herself.
One glance into Max’s gorgeous eyes and she knew if she wanted to end the direction their discussion was quickly veering off toward, he’d back off and respect her decision. Yeah, that would be the safe bet, but a small part of her wanted to do something completely crazy . . . like trust him.
She’d known this man for three months now, and he’d never given her any indication that he’d judge or criticize her, and she couldn’t say that about a lot of the other men she’d dated. Hell, she’d put him through the wringer today, and while most guys would have been pissed that she’d dragged them into her farce without their knowledge, what did Max do? He’d not only played along like a pro in front of Maureen but he’d agreed to step in and pose as her loving fiancé.
Yes, he was getting something out of the charade, as well, but his actions today just affirmed the chivalrous kind of guy that he was. And if she really wanted to enjoy her time with Max without constantly feeling self-conscious, then he needed to know the truth about her past so he could better understand her hesitation when it came to negotiating any other physical intimacy with him beyond kissing.
She exhaled a slow, deep breath, but when she remained fidgety and nervous, she automatically tried to pull her fingers out of his grasp so she could calm herself by turning her ring.
He held on tight, refusing to let go. “Hailey . . . whatever it is, I’ve got you,” he said softly.
Ahhh, such a simple comment that meant so much. He was asking her to trust him, and he was holding her hand as if he were her anchor, her pillar of support. But most importantly, she believed him.
She wasn’t a theatrical person, but his caring display was enough to make a girl swoon. And it gave her the fortitude to share one of her deepest vulnerabilities with him. He wanted to know how her aunt tried to make up for the loss of Hailey’s parents, and she told him.
“As I said, I always felt loved, but as I was growing up, my aunt Sharon would always buy me elaborate things I didn’t need, and the older I got, the more I realized how excessive it all was. Also, from the time I started living with them, whenever I was feeling down or sad about my parents, my aunt would bake things that she would encourage me to eat. It was as if that was her way of making sure that I felt loved, and in the moment, the cookies, cakes, and brownies did feel comforting.”
Admitting something that was so hard for her to dredge up made her chest tighten almost painfully. Yet it was the understanding in his eyes and the hand holding hers so securely that gave her the fortitude she needed to keep going.
“Instead of my aunt talking to me about my feelings or discussing how my parents’ deaths might have affected me, she’d bring out the desserts to cheer me up and make me feel better,” she said, her voice a bit rough around the edges. “And because that’s all I knew, eating sweets became my coping mechanism when it came to dealing with my emotions. Except in the long run, it hurt me more than helped me. By the time I graduated from high school, I was considered obese and I’d never been on a date with a guy.”
He looked surprised—not repulsed as she’d feared. “You certainly aren’t obese now.”
Neither was she slender and lithe, and beneath her clothes, the evidence of that extra weight remained in places. “When my parents died, they both had a substantial life insurance policy, and my aunt and uncle put it all into a trust, which they gave to me when I graduated. As much as I loved my aunt and uncle, I knew I needed to find myself, and I registered for college at University of Chicago. It was close enough that I could go home if I needed to but far enough away that I could live my own life.”
“And did you find yourself?” he asked with a smile.
She laughed easily, appreciating him keeping things light. “Actually, yes I did. It was quite liberating being out on my own. My freshman year, I went to a nutritionist, who put me on a meal and diet plan, and after a year, I’d lost seventy pounds.”
“That’s impressive and a huge accomplishment,” he said as he went back to eating the last small hamburger on his plate, then frowned as he was swallowing the bite. “You’re not starving yourself, are you? You didn’t eat all your lunch today, and you had mushrooms for dinner.”
“I’m fine,” she insisted, a little shocked that he’d even noticed and that he was concerned that she wasn’t depriving herself. “There’s something else I still need to tell you.”
“Okay,” he said, his attention back on her.
Her nerves made her throat feel dry, and she took a drink of her Sprite while telling herself that she’d already come this far, and she needed to finish the story. “So, by my junior year and having lost so much weight, Brielle convinced me to start dating, and when a guy in my biology class asked me out, I said yes.”
She automatically glanced away from Max’s intense gaze and pressed her free hand to her churning stomach. Just thinking about that memory still had the ability to make her cheeks heat with mortification.
“Hailey, look at me.”
Max’s voice was soft yet commanding, and she did as he asked and turned her head back toward him, her eyes reluctantly meeting his.
The gentle and kind look in his gaze helped to alleviate the turmoil in her belly. “Whatever happened, whatever you’re going to tell me, I’m not going to think any less of you.”
It was so easy to lower her guard with him, to feel safe sharing her secrets, because she believed what he said. He wouldn’t still be sitting beside her if he was the type of guy who was all about a woman’s physical appearance. “After a few dates, we ended up sleeping together. He was the first guy I’d ever had sex with, and the next day, he sent me a text message ending the relationship because he wasn’t into fat chicks.”
Max’s jaw clenched and his eyes flashed with anger. “Fucking asshole.”
He was so vehement on her behalf she couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, tact obviously wasn’t his forte,” she agreed, then turned serious again. “The thing is . . . I haven’t been with a man since, and that was almost five years ago.”
He frowned slightly, and she could see him processing that statement. “Wait. You’re a professional matchmaker, and you can’t find a man you’re compatible with enough to date?” His tone was incredulous.
She k
new how crazy it sounded, given her profession, and tried to explain what she’d meant. “It has nothing to do with being compatible with a guy, and yes, I’ve dated since that incident in college.” The next part was more difficult to reveal, and with a go big or go home attitude, she forced it out. “I just haven’t slept with anyone since because, well, I’m . . . nervous. And afraid of being humiliated again,” she admitted on a rush, laying her insecurities out on the table. “It’s my hang-up, obviously, and most men don’t have the patience to deal with my insecurities, not that I can blame them, so my relationships are fairly short-lived.”
Max studied her for a long, thoughtful moment. “Do you want to have sex again?”
She laughed and shook her head, unable to believe that they were having such a frank discussion about her sex life. “Yes, I’d like to have sex again.” She wasn’t a prude, just . . . apprehensive about putting herself out there again on a physical level. “It would help if I could just get out of my head and not panic when things start to go in that direction.”
“Then we’ll take it slow,” he said, his voice low and sexy as he reached out with his free hand and trailed his fingers along her jaw. “I like you, Hailey, and now that I know there’s not another guy in the picture, fuck yeah I want to sleep with you, because I’m attracted to you.” He skimmed his thumb across her bottom lip, his gaze darkening with heat and desire. “But I’ll never pressure you for something you don’t want or you’re not ready to give me. When it happens, it’s going to be because you fucking beg for it. Understand?”
Hailey’s breath seemed to vanish from her lungs as her body responded to his explicit words. The fact that he sounded so confident of his ability to make her fucking beg for it made her toes curl in her pumps and her nipples tighten into hard, aching points. Her panties felt damp, and the flesh between her legs pulsed with need.
“Yes, I understand,” she said, barely recognizing her own husky voice.
“Perfect.” A seductive smile curved his lips as his gaze dropped to her mouth. “I can’t wait to hear you beg,” he said oh-so-confidently.
The Book Boyfriend Series Box Set Page 23
