She flushed. “I didn’t say they were dirty, I said they were romances.”
“Are they those paperbacks with shirtless men on the cover?”
Her face grew red. “E-books.”
Max grinned. “My auntie reads those. They’re lady porn. Nothing but cowboys who stumble upon the preacher’s daughter bathing and next thing you know they’re fucking under a waterfall.”
“It’s nothing like that!”
Max raised his eyebrows.
“Okay, it’s sometimes like that. But they can be modern and sexy. Funny too.”
“I’m not judging you, just kind of surprised.” And drunk and horny and stupid.
Julia twiddled with the hem of her top, working her fingers through the lace. “There’s a romantic subplot in our game. Tiff and I were looking for inspiration so I read a few romances and sort of got addicted. I like how there’s drama but you’re sure everything will work out. It’s like a video game; you enter a different kind of reality, one that’s fun and low stakes and has rules. It’s exactly what life should be like.”
As much as she was trying to convince him of their substance, Max just kept picturing Julia reading sex books in bed, teeth sunk into her lower lip, one hand inside her panties. Judging from her flushed cheeks and shifting gaze, he hadn’t pulled the idea out of thin air either. Sober he might have let it go, drunk he couldn’t help himself.
“So you liking romances has nothing to do with the men in them?”
Julia flushed. “What do you mean?”
“Surely the appeal of romances are the guys? You know, the rippling blond cowboys who tie girls up and ravage them?”
Julia’s face turned burgundy. “How did you develop such insight into the romance genre?”
“You’re deflecting.”
“I’m not into cowboys, Max. I’m pretty sure they don’t exist.”
“What about cold-hearted millionaires who just need someone to love?”
“If they help me get my game made I could be convinced to give them a wristy or two.”
“You’re still deflecting.”
Julia rolled her eyes. “Of course I think the men are sexy. That’s the whole point of romance, it’s a fantasy.”
She fiddled with her hair, pulling the strands across her face as though she didn’t want him to see her.
Max decided to go in for the kill. “I read a few of my auntie’s paperbacks when I was a teenager—”
Julia snorted.
“Hey, the Internet wasn’t around yet. Anyway, I mostly flipped through to the sex scenes—”
“Of course you did.”
“—but as far as I can remember the guys were always bastards. Really controlling and pushy. Is that what you like?”
He studied her, trying to gauge her reaction, but he didn’t need to watch closely. He was pretty sure you could see Julia’s burning cheeks from space.
“I don’t know,” she said, looking anywhere but at him.
Max’s heart pounded against his rib cage. “I’m not saying you’re into men who are pigs. I just remember reading those passages and thinking ‘shit, is that what girls really like’?”
Julia opened her mouth and closed it again.