I’d never had a phone before. My parents had decided I was old enough on our trip to Belize, and they had said they would get me one as soon as we got home. But then the explosion happened. When I moved in with Aunt June and Uncle Tony, they hadn’t offered, and I wasn’t allowed out of my room except to go to school, so it wasn’t like I could ask.
Not that I would have. I hadn’t wanted to draw any kind of attention to myself from either of them. Even back then, I’d sensed something off with those two.
“Yes, treasure,” Max told me, his jaw clenching. “And don’t argue with me about it. I need to be able to contact you when I’m not with you. Not being able to check in on you this evening was pure hell. I’ve set the ring to the highest vibration, so you should be able to feel it when you get an alert. I’m not much of a texter, but if it means I have a way of communicating with you when we’re apart, then I’ll be the king of texting.”
The seriousness on his face made me smile. “You shouldn’t have done this,” I told him. He started to tell me not to argue again, but I quickly went on. “I love it. Thank you. I don’t know how to use it, but I will learn. For you.”
“You don’t know how…?” He spoke the words with a dark frown on his beautiful face before signing, “You’ve never had a phone before?”
Feeling my cheeks turning pink with embarrassment, I shook my head.
“Let me give you a quick lesson.” He showed me how to turn it off and on. Then how to send a text. He brought up his contact information and sent himself a message so that I could see how it worked.
Once I assured him I could do it myself now, he stood and brushed his lips over my brow. “I don’t know what time I will be back. If you need anything, text me.” I nodded and gave him a small smile as he grabbed his leather MC vest. His metallic-blue gaze lingered on me, before he clenched his jaw. “I will try to make this as quick as possible.”
“Go,” I urged. “I will be fine.”
Another gentle kiss to my forehead and he was gone. I sat there for a long time, just watching the door, wondering what he was going to do. He hadn’t been happy about leaving, and even though I had no idea what the phone call had been about, I’d noticed how tense he’d been during it. It was obvious he didn’t want to do whatever it was he needed to.
I wasn’t sure how long I just sat there, holding my phone and watching the doorway to the bedroom, hoping he would come back. The little device vibrated in my hand, hard, and I looked down to see a text from him.
MyMax was what he’d programmed his contact name as, and seeing it on the screen lifted my heart.
MyMax: This is going to take a few hours to clean up. Get comfortable, treasure. Sorry I won’t get to tuck you in tonight.
Clean up? I felt something ease deep inside me. When he’d turned away during his conversation, maybe it had been because he was frustrated he had to clean up some kind of huge mess. I could understand that. He’d worked all day and then gone shopping for me. He was probably exhausted.
Heart feeling lighter suddenly, I texted him back.
Me: I’ll wait up for you.
MyMax: No, baby. I want you to sleep. Play with your phone for a while. There is an Apple Books app that Nova said has tons of free books. I’ll set you up an account tomorrow so you can buy whatever you want. And there are games in the app store you might like. Have fun, but don’t stay up too late.
I started to type out an argument, telling him I would wait up for him again, when another text came in from him.
MyMax: I miss you already. Knowing you’re at home safe in our bed is all that is keeping me from saying to hell with this shit. Get some sleep. For me, treasure.
Well, dang, I mused as I gazed down at the phone in my hand. How could I possibly argue with that?
Me: I miss you too. Don’t work too hard. Xo
That got me a red heart emoji in response, which put a goofy smile on my face. Dropping back onto the bed, I held the phone to my chest. Max Reid was turning out to be the hero prince in all of those fairy tales I used to love to read when I was a kid. I didn’t think guys like that really existed, yet I’d found one and he was treating me like I truly was his treasure.
Happily, I rolled onto my side and came face-to-face with all kinds of girlie bathroom items.
Gasping, I sat up and inspected everything. Realizing I now had the tools to groom everything that needed attention, I gathered them and my phone and rushed into the bathroom.
Maybe it was a good thing Max had been called out. Now, I had time to take care of my legs and other areas so that the next time we kissed I wouldn’t be embarrassed to take things further.
And I ached to take them so much further.
6
Max
My fist connected with the bastard’s gut so hard, the contents of his stomach spewed from his mouth. If I’d been standing in front of him and not to the side, I would have been covered in his puke. Which would have had me ending this sooner than I knew my dad wanted—without getting the information he was interested in—because I would have put a bullet in the motherfucker’s head.
I couldn’t go home with puke all over me. Blood might be something I could come up with a cover story to tell Delaney that wouldn’t make her scared of me. Hell, it might even get me sympathy from her since this was taking so much longer than I had first anticipated.