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The blank look on her face had his concern doubling—tripling. It was because of that his voice was a bit sharper than he intended. “I’ve been trying to reach you, Anna. Why haven’t you answered your phone?”
She took a sip of her drink. “You called?” Her voice was distant and cold. His worry increased, and his stomach turned.
“Yes. You were supposed to meet me at my house for dinner. Where the hell have you been?”
She finally looked at him, one eyebrow raised. He couldn’t help the anger in his tone and by God, he didn’t regret it. Desperate panic was racing through him, and it was his only weapon other than begging her. He’d be damned if he’d do that.
“I’ve been here.”
“Cut the bullshit, Anna. What the hell is going on?”
“Nothing. Especially not between us. Not anymore.”
She said the words he’d been expecting for days, worried over, plotted to overcome. Even knowing what she’d planned, Max still couldn’t fight the shock of the words when she finally said them.
“So that’s it? You’re just going to dump me like the others?” Something flickered in her eyes, something he just couldn’t define.
Regret? Pain?
No, Anna had always said there was no regret when she dumped a guy. No pain. It was just over. Nothing left but pleasant memories of a good time.
“I’m sorry, Max, but you know I don’t like having a relationship grow stale.” She shrugged as if to say what else could she do?
Anger and pain swirled in his chest. “‘Grow stale’? Really, is that what you call it, when last night you were moaning my name when you came?”
She opened her mouth to argue, but he held up his hand.
“Never mind. Don’t worry about it. Just another of your ‘boys’, am I? Fine. If that’s the way you want it. Just know that in the morning, you have to look at yourself in the mirror. How do you do it, Anna?”
She cocked her head to one side, studying him as if he were an experiment of some sort. “How do I look at myself in the mirror?”
“No. How do you stand being the cold bitch everyone thinks you are?”
She didn’t say a word. Her refusal to fight pushed him over the edge. Max leaned down and pulled her up by her arms. Ignoring her gasp, he crushed his mouth against hers in a bruising, almost painful kiss. When she didn’t return the kiss, anger had him shoving her away. Her eyes rounded in shock, her face drained of color, but she still didn’t say a word.
“I hope that keeps you warm tonight, but I have a feeling a woman like you would be cold no matter what.”
Without another word, he turned and strode from the room.
Within minutes, he was speeding through the residential section of his neighborhood, trying to ignore the bone-wrenching pain coursing through him. His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he thought about her aloof reaction to his anger. Dammit, how could she do something like this to him? He was different than all the other men before. He loved her. Didn’t she understand the difference?
He parked his car in his garage, then walked through the mudroom and into the kitchen. Max stopped cold when he realized all the lights were on even though he’d turned them off earlier. It was then that the smooth sound of soft pop reached him, and he continued to his living room. There on his couch sat Cynthia. A fat, satisfied smile stretched across her face when she saw him.
“It’s about time you got home, Max. Where have you been?”
Irritation and anger swirled inside him. He didn’t want to deal with this woman when another one was still in his heart, twisting the knife deeper.
“Just what the hell do you think you’re doing, Cynthia?”
seventeen
If he hadn’t beenin so much pain, Max would have laughed at the expression on Cynthia’s face. After years of training, of lectures from her mother on how to be the perfect wife for an executive, she apparently lost her ability to mask her feelings. Cynthia looked like she’d sucked a lemon.
“Really, Max, what is wrong with you?”
“Nothing is wrong with me.”Except the woman I love just tore my heart to shreds. Then threw it on the floor and stomped on it.“What I want to know is what you think you’re doing here?”
“Silly.” Cynthia sounded as if she was talking to a three-year-old. “I just got back from my trip, and I thought we could have a nice dinner together.”
