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Darcy flipped the light switch and pivoted on her boot heel. “Good manners dictate you wait to be invited in.”
“Thanks for the tip. I’ll take it under advisement.”
“The new Max is even grumpier than the other one.”
He didn’t budge. “So I’ve been told. Thanks again for the etiquette lesson.”
His broad chest offered comfort, calling to her with a power more intense than an embossed invitation. Especially with an empty bed only five feet away. Maybe if she ignored him, he would leave.
Darcy plopped down in a chair and started untying her boots. She thumped one, then the other onto the floor, and still Max loomed by the door. Would the guy ever get the message?
Standing, she hooked her hands on her hips. “Leave, please, so I can get some sleep.”
“All right, then.” He absorbed her with the slow ride of his eyes one last time before he turned to grip the knob.
“Max…” She bit her lip.
He didn’t turn back. Just waited. He’d been right in the hospital. They couldn’t leave it like this.
“Is Max your real name?” She let the question fall from her mouth, the question that had tormented her insecurities.
His hand fell away from the door. Slowly he turned, and she was confused all over again. She didn’t recognize this man any more than the Max of the weeks prior. The man of the past few days. She looked closer and found…he was pieces of both.
Could that be wishful thinking? She didn’t know or have the energy to wade through it all at the moment. This guy stretched her comprehension on a good day. This had not been a good day.
Stepping forward, he closed the space between them and extended his hand. He clasped hers in warm callused heat that was oh-so familiar. “Hi, I’m Max Keagan, and yeah, that’s my real name, although I’ve answered to others on occasion when the job called for it. I have an undergraduate degree in biology from Stanford. A doctorate in marine biology from the University of San Diego. And somewhere along the way to typing ‘the end’ on my dissertation, I accepted an intriguing offer to work for the government.”
She listened—and heaven help her, even believed—all the while wondering why she couldn’t bring herself to pull her hand from his enfolding grasp.
Her toes curled in her socks. “And the part about being a military brat, was that just a cover story? A way to get closer to me so you could—” she winced on the bitter word “—‘protect’ me?”
More than anything, she needed the truth from him to wash away the sting of disillusionment. Or at least find a truth that would allow her to walk away forever.
* * *
Max looked into Darcy’s eyes and realized his answer could mark a beginning or end. His choice. He could so easily slide into any number of personas he’d donned over the years and send her running. That would sure simplify things. He’d checked on her. Found her safe. He could leave as he’d done countless times before.
He could. But he wouldn’t. Not now that he knew it wouldn’t make any difference. This woman had taken up residence in his head, and he didn’t have a clue how to evict her. And he didn’t want to.
“Of course I wanted to protect you. But the parts about my past, my father,” he forced himself to say, “Eva and the baby... Those were all true.”
A sigh shuddered through her. Seeing how much that simple admission mattered to her piled more guilt on top of the old. She deserved better than he could give her, not that he could stomach the thought of anyone else stepping into his place.
She wanted him. He wanted her. And after a week of having almost lost her twice, he couldn’t bring himself to turn away again.
Max pulled her closer until she resisted, inches shy of contact, her heat grazing him all the same. “That wasn’t the only truth. I wanted you, Darcy, so much it has dogged me every minute, all day, every night. But I couldn’t take it further, not when I couldn’t be honest with you.”
“So you never slept with someone while undercover?”
He adored her spunk. She wouldn’t make this easy for him, but who wanted easy, anyway?
“That’s not the point.”
She shook her hand free and backed up a step. “Then make your point, friend.”
He advanced, invading her space just as she invaded his senses. “Yeah, I resisted for the job, to protect you and for a selfish reason, as well.” A truth he’d only just admitted to himself. “I wanted you to be withme,not the person you thought I was.”
Look at me, Darcy. See me.
