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“Thanks again, Max, I know you weren’t expecting—” She looked up and screeched to a stop. “Brody?”
“Sloane. What the hell is Max doing here?”
“You know each other?” She looked like she was about to hyperventilate. All the color drained from her face. Max wanted to wipe that look off of her face.
“We met the other night, hanging out with Foster.” Max spoke calmly. No telling what this looked like to Brody. Max still had wet spots on his shirt and Sloane obviously had just gotten out of the shower. Add the two cups of coffee and the early hour, and it probably looked like Max had spent the night. Would serve him right. Brody was cheating on her and it sounded like it was nothing new.
What was worse though, was that from Sloane’s phone conversation last night, she knew all about it and still stayed with him. Couldn’t she see this relationship was toxic? She needed a man who knew how to take care of his woman.
“I came by this morning to give Sloane a ride. She was a little too tipsy to drive home last night.”
Brody gave her an accusing look. Hypocrite. “I thought you were at Foster’s last night for dinner? Where the hell were you?”
“I was!”
Max narrowed his eyes. “I was there too. Foster invited me, and good thing too. She’d needed someone to look after her to get home safe.”
“Oh, well I can drive you, sweetheart. Thanks for making sure my girl got home, Max.”
Brody smiled, but the look reminded Max of a snake. His entire demeanor changed. He slithered over to where Sloane stood and wrapped his arms around her, nuzzling her neck. Max felt jealousy well up inside him. He wanted to drill that asshole in the face before plunging his tongue in Sloane’s mouth. He wanted to take her in his arms and show her why she should be with him instead of that dick head. He needed to claim her as his.Whoa. Where did that come from? Max counted backward from five before he felt controlled enough to speak.
“Sure thing. I’ll just be going then since you’ve got a ride. See ya around, Sloane. Later, man.”
Max acknowledged Brody with a nod before he turned, letting himself out of Sloane’s apartment.
Chapter Four
Sloane
Sloane sat in the passenger seat of Brody’s car with her hands in her lap. Her gaze stayed fixed out the side window, watching the streets speed by. It was strange and yet exciting to see a man so concerned about her well-being. Max had rushed in to help and it warmed her inside more than she wanted to admit. She was shocked when she found Brody in her kitchen only minutes after being naked with Max…okay, so she hadn’t been naked in the way she wanted to be, but naked all the same.
Sloane wanted Max, but knew she couldn’t have him. She was committed to Brody. Plus, she was certain Max had no shortage of women falling all over him, so she wouldn’t stand a chance. She didn’t want another relationship that she had to compete to stay in.
“Look, I’m sorry I missed dinner last night. Let me make it up to you tonight. Dinner, maybe a little dancing, it’ll be nice. Then we can go back to my place.”
“Back to my place” always meant sex. Over the course of their relationship the sex had usually been good, but he cared more about his own pleasure than he did about his partner. He was a selfish lover. Still, Sloane cared about him. She sighed.
She’d met him on a blind double date with Foster and Bella. He’d been incredibly charming and easy on the eyes, with his short, dark blond hair and pale green eyes. He wasn’t very tall for a man, but his charisma more than made up for it. He’d swept her off her feet, and in return, she’d tried to be everything he wanted.
But he always wanted her to go down on him. She’d been ashamed to admit to him that she’d never done that before. Sure, she’d had other lovers, but none she felt comfortable enough to experience that with. She was more conservative when it came to sex, but he’d seemed okay with that at the start of their relationship.
Brody had looked like a kid in a candy store when she’d told him he would be her first. His excitement had fueled her own at first. But Sloane had barely had her lips around him when he fisted her hair painfully and thrust himself down her throat. The forcefulness and depth caused her throat to burn and her gag reflex to go into overdrive. Vomiting all over him wasn’t the way she had planned to end the evening. He’d left pissed off and she’d spent the rest of the night alone, crying herself to sleep. Never again.
It wasn’t long after that when she’d caught him in bed with another woman. He’d said it was just sex. He needed someone to do the things she wouldn’t. That he loved her and wouldn’t do it again. Knowing it was all bullshit, Sloane still couldn’t bring herself to end it. It was her fault after all. She wasn’t a good enough lover for him.
“It’s Sunday. I have to finish up a spreadsheet for Mr. Marek and be in early tomorrow.”
“I try to make it right and you shut me out,” he spat, shaking his head. “Typical.”
“I’m sorry, Brody. Mondays are crazy. It helps if I get in earlier than Mr. Marek so I can have things ready for his arrival.”
“Why can’t you see to my needs like you see to his every fuckin’ whim?”
“Because he’s my boss and that’s what he pays me for,” Sloane yelled right back.
It seemed like every conversation had ended in an argument the past few months. She was sick and tired of it. Why couldn’t she have a relationship like her cousin, Mirabella? Bella had a great man in Foster. Loyal, thoughtful, and dependable. He never forced her to do anything. They were getting married in a few weeks and they seemed more in love each day. She could admit she was jealous. She wanted that for herself. The happiness that came with a man who was truly in love with you. She pictured Max. The way his eyes danced when he’d laughed at dinner last night. The thought added to the warmth low in her belly. He came across as the type of man who made it his mission to ruin a woman for all other men. Sloane involuntarily shivered just thinking about him.
“Don’t tell me you’re cold? It’s hot as hell in here.”
