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Chapter 7
“Wow.” Billy blinked. “I had no idea you had Wonder Woman’s quick change powers.”
When they’d returned from the longest three hours of his life—aka Maxi’s date—she’d headed straight to her room and emerged sixty seconds later in a Van Halen T-shirt, grey sweats, and large, tattered slippers on her feet.
She secured a haphazard knot of hair on the top of her head as she walked past Billy, who’d stopped in the kitchen to get a bottle of water. “From the second I put on a skirt and heels in the morning, the entire day is just a countdown until I can put on my sweats and slippies.”
Slippies?Damn, could she get any more adorable?
A satisfied moan filled the silent space as she flopped onto her couch and the sound shot straight to his groin. The man downstairs didn’t check with Billy’s brain before it sent the signal that what he’d just heard was sexual in nature. Blood rushed below his belt and his jeans grew uncomfortably tight.
After this thing was over, he really had to get some action that included another person. His hand had been handling things for months now. It obviously wasn’t doing the trick anymore, since he was popping wood like a teenager at a strip club.
Billy leaned against the counter as he tried to get his body under control. He knew that the natural, normal thing to do would be to join her on the couch, but until he powered down his pole position, he figured staying in the kitchen was safer.
His mission to rein in his body’s response to Maxi was made considerably harder when she lifted her arms as she stretched out on the cushions. Billy’s eyes automatically tracked her cat-like movements as her hands raised above her head and her “slippie”-covered toes pointed. Her back arched off the couch. A small sliver of sexy skin was made visible as the hem of her shirt raised and the material pulled taut against her full chest. It was sheer agony being this close to her, especially looking so soft and sweet, and not being able to touch her. To hold her. To kiss her.
She moved with unintentional sensuality, yawning and stretching, in what was playing out in his fantasy-riddled brain as video vixen on top of a car—but, in reality, was just her attempts to get comfortable. By the time she relaxed and laid down he was about ready to pop in his pants.
Oblivious to the seductive torment she was causing him, she peeked over the back of the couch at him with wide innocent eyes and patted the cushion beside her. “Sit. We need to talk.”
Shit.
When she turned her head around, towards the blank screen of her television after summoning him, he took a moment to adjust himself. It didn’t completely camouflage his situation, but at least it didn’t look like there was a tent in his pants.
Carefully, he sank down beside her and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. She wanted to talk, and he had a million questions running through his mind. Starting with what in the hell she saw in Simon and who the hell was on the phone when she’d excused herself to take a call and then had come out of the apartment looking like Casper the ghost. But, since this was her show, he waited to see what she thought they needed to talk about. After several beats of silence, he glanced over to see her looking at him expectantly.
Did she expect him to say something?
One way to find out.
“What?” He hadn’t meant to bark his question, but it seemed like all of the pent up frustration and fear was finding its way out.
She drew back slightly.
Shit.He should be comforting her, not scaring her. He was on the edge. Emotionally and physically. He really needed to deal with his own shit so he didn’t inadvertently take it out on the one person that didn’t need or deserve it.
All night he’d been in a heightened state of awareness of not just Maxi but also their surroundings. The poetry reading that they’d suffered through had been held in a coffee shop that had three points of entry and exit. Front door. Side door. Back door. He’d spent the entire night keeping track of who was coming and going. Who stared a little too long at Maxi, who paid no attention to her at all. Sadly, one of the people in the paid-no-attention-at-all category happened to be her date for the evening. Simon had seemed much more interested in analyzing and sharing his thoughts on the poets performing than he was in Maxi, or Maxine.
It’d taken discipline that Billy hadn’t known he possessed not to call him out on his pretentious, douchebag behavior. He’d bitten his tongue so many times he wouldn’t be surprised if he had permanent teeth marks in it.
With a quivery breath, Maxi licked her lips nervously. Again the man downstairs decided to interpret the gesture as all systems go before getting the orders from his brain. His shaft pulsed heavily beneath his zipper as he watched her tongue slip between her full, pink lips.
His eyes shot to the blank television and he tried to think of anything other than how badly he wanted to pull Maxi onto his lap and take over her lip-licking activities.
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was so soft—just like it had been when she’d come out of the room for her date—that he wasn’t even sure that he’d heard her correctly.
“What?” he repeated, this time his tone not quite as harsh.
“I know you’re mad at me and I don’t blame you. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on with me. I wanted to tell you…I just…I didn’t know how. And, honestly, I kept thinking that it would stop. I didn’t want anyone to know. I didn’t want my dad to worry. He’s seemed tired lately—”
“You think I’m mad at you?” He knew that she’d said other things after that, but his brain had kind of gotten stuck on that.
“You are.” She shrugged as if it was not an assumption but a foregone conclusion.
“No. I’m not.” Billy felt a hell of a lot of things when it came to Maxi. The list was long. Lust. Fear. Need. Anxiety. Possessiveness. Confusion. Desire. But anger wasn’t on it.
“Yes, you are.” Confusion swam in her bright blue eyes as they searched his. She lifted her hand and started counting on her fingers. “You couldn’t even look at me when you walked into Jessie’s office earlier today. You haven’t been yourself, even around me, especially around me. Jana was practically throwing herself at you and you barely noticed. You haven’t said more than ten words to me or anyone else the entire night. I know you hate when people keep things from you. Lie to you. I remember…I mean…I just…I know you. I know when you’re mad.”
