“Be careful or I might get suspicious…”
Max desperately tried to recall his browser history. He’d definitely looked up divorce lawyers at work. He had e-mails that showed his best mate lived with him and not his wife. With a jolt of fear, he remembered Dean downloading a hook-up app on his phone and changing his username to HungCop69 when Max wouldn’t order pizza at four in the morning. His skin went tight.
Julia laughed. “Don’t look so worried. I promise I don’t stalk my colleagues.”
Max examined her smooth gold cheeks. “Well you’re not blushing so I’m inclined to believe you.”
She immediately went red and he wondered if he’d ever get tired of seeing her do that. “You haven’t been trawling through my search history?”
“The only dirt I have is on cops who download viruses with file names like ‘six blondes/anal’.”
“Jesus, who did that?”
“I’ll tell you if you have a drink with me.”
Max hesitated, more tempted than he wanted to let on. He pictured Julia drunk, her eyes bright, her mouth swollen with liquor, sitting in his lap, kissing him with soft whiskey-flavored lips.
No, no, no. You are not allowed to get drunk with the IT girl. You’re a sad, soon to be divorced asshole who’s going to be laughed out of his job. The last thing you need is alcohol complicating your fucked-up feelings…
“Screw it.” Max extended a hand. “Let’s do this.”
“Hell yeah.” Julia gave him the decidedly sticky bottle and he didn’t dedicate the drink to anything, just tilted up and swallowed. An involuntary shudder rippled through him. “That’s bad. Really fucking bad.”
Julia nodded sympathetically. “It does get better.”
Or at least foggier.Max took another drink and she applauded softly. “All right, let’s get this party started.”
She flicked off the fluorescent lights, leaving a couple of bare bulbs on to cast a warm glow over the concrete walls and overstuffed metal shelves.
Nope, not warm. Weird. Dusty.
He watched as she bent down and changed the song blasting through the speakers to something pulsing and upbeat, giving the cluttered room the atmosphere of a club.
Julia twisted her hips to the song. “We’ve got music and we’ve got drinks, what do we do now?”
Max prayed she couldn’t see his face clearly or she’d know exactly what his recommendation was. “Uh, sword fight?”
“I think the use of weapons combined with alcohol might lead to that cannibalism scenario we talked about earlier.”
Max could feel the alcohol burning in his stomach, seeping into his blood. “You don’t think you can take me, Jules?”
The nickname slipped off his tongue before he could stop it.
“Ooh, it is gettingfamiliarin here,” she teased.
“That’s right.” Max swallowed another mouthful of whiskey because why not? “By the time this siege is over, I’m gonna be your best friend.”
She twirled around, hands raised high. “Well, in that case, my friend, I think we should play a game.”
His mind flooded with a Technicolor montage of games they could play, starting with a kiss, and finishing with her writhing in his lap. He took another long swig from the bottle.
“Max?”
“Sure, a game sounds good.”
“Well, do you have any ideas of what you want to play?”
That word again,play. It made all the hairs on Max’s arms stand on end. What he really wanted to play was a game in which he spread Julia’s clothes across the floor, lay her on top of them, and licked every inch of her, starting with her heart-stopping legs and finishing right between them.