My heart twisted. Despite everything, I hated the sight of his pain.
“You guys,” I said softly. “This is Max.”
“Max?” Isabel said sharply. “The Max?”
His massive frame jerked back slightly at her acerbic tone. After seeing how upset I was over our breakup, she was coming to my defense. But Max wouldn’t understand that. He would think that my friends were repulsed by his scar.
“What the hell are you even doing here?” Davis demanded. “Allie broke up with you.”
That wasn’t an accurate assessment at all, but Max flinched as though Davis had shoved him in the chest.
“I came to her house to talk,” he gritted out, explaining away his stalking. Neither of us wanted my friends to know about that aspect of our relationship. “When she wasn’t there, I left. This bar is just around the corner. I happened to see that guy harassing her, and I made him leave her alone.”
“What guy?” Charlie asked, her tone hard and cold in a way I’d never heard before. “The only guy I see bugging her is you.”
“The man who was taking pics of me in the bar,” I said, my voice too high and thin. Something deep inside me wanted to shield Max from their righteous anger. He looked terrifying right now, but I knew how vulnerable he truly was. “Max made him leave me alone.”
My mind reeled. Had Max really come to see me at my place? Or was I naively buying into his lie, and he’d actually been stalking me again?
This wasn’t right. It wasn’t normal for me to feel all warm and tingly at the prospect of him following me without my knowledge. Something was very wrong with me. Or maybe the fiery chemistry we shared had burned up all reason, leaving me craving more of our intense, dangerous connection.
“Fine.” Davis jerked his chin in the direction of the street. “You can leave now. She doesn’t want to see you, okay? So stay away from our Allie, douchebag.”
A shadow ticked along Max’s jaw, and he snapped a short nod. He turned on his heel and started to stride away, his hulking form edging back toward the shadows that would keep him safe from my friends’ judgmental stares.
“Wait, Max,” I called after him, the plea leaving my lips before I could think better of it. All I knew was that my heart ached for him, and I wanted to make his pain go away.
He jerked to a stop, as though I’d bound him with rope. But he didn’t turn to face me. He didn’t expose himself to the angry glares of my friends again.
“Thank you,” I said softly.
He remained utterly still for a long, breathless moment. Then, he released a short, low rumble and stomped away, each step taut with strain. Did he not want to leave me? Or was that tension from the toxic mix of rage and pain that tormented him constantly?
I took a small step, instinctively moving to comfort him. Charlie’s arm firmed around me ever so slightly, grounding me.
“That guy is bad news, Allie,” she said in an undertone. “Let him go.”
“He just looks scary at first.” I defended him. “But he’s not. He’s hurt and angry.”
“Yeah, it’s the anger part that worries me,” Charlie countered. “He’s clearly unstable. It’s good that you broke things off with him.”
“Yeah,” Isabel agreed. “I won’t lie; that scar freaked me out at first when he was all snarly and pissed off. But he’s on edge, Allie. He came to your house looking for you without texting in advance. That’s not good.”
She didn’t have the slightest clue about the extent to which he’d actually stalked me, and she was already worried.
What was wrong with me? My friends could plainly see that Max was dangerous, but I still felt a tug at the center of my chest, urging me to follow him. He’d already melted into the night, and my eyes strained to find his powerful body amongst the shadows.
“I take back everything I ever said about the Beast being hot. We’ve been watching too much Beauty and the Beast,” Davis declared. “I don’t care about Max’s scar, but the imminent violence thing is not hot in real life. You’re way better off without him, Allie.”
“Come on,” Charlie urged. “Let’s get to your place and curl up on the couch. We can all relax and forget the bastard ever bothered you.”
“He really did save me from that man who was taking pictures of me,” I protested. “The guy had his arm around me and was telling me to smile for a selfie. It was really uncomfortable.”
“Aw, babe,” Isabel said, her bronzed features pinching with regret. “I’m sorry that happened. We should’ve come outside with you. But still, that Max guy is bad news. He’s clearly dangerous.”
I bit my lip. I had nothing to say to counter that. Max was dangerous. And if I was being honest with myself, it was part of why I was so drawn to him. He was a danger to anyone who threatened me, and all that raw, masculine power rippling beneath my tender touch made me hot and shivery.