“How’s the scrambler?”
“Beautiful as fuck. Gonna get her serviced this week if you’re free?”
Brett blinked a few more times, then grinned. “Heard you just stuck it in little Bennett. Good work.”
Max’s good mood evaporated. “Shut up, Davis.”
“You did it, though? You fucked her?”
Max took a step closer. “I said shut your mouth.”
Brett raised both hands in the universal sign for “I’m too drunk to fight. It’s none of my business.”
Max drained his water glass and slammed it down on the counter. “No, it fucking isn’t. See you around.”
He strode away, reminding himself to get his bike serviced somewhere else.
“You know she’s eighteen, right?”
Ice blossomed in the pit of Max’s stomach. “What?”
He turned around to see Brett looking at him with a big shit-eating grin on his face. “Julia, she’s eighteen. What are you, Connor, twenty-seven? Twenty-eight?”
“I’m twenty-six,” he choked out. “Julia’s eighteen?”
Brett laughed. “Hell yeah, she’s eighteen. You telling me you didn’t know you just tapped teenage pussy?”
Panic. Sheer unadulterated panic ripped through Max like a hurricane. Julia was fucking eighteen years old. His gut cramped as he tried to do the math, she was seven, no eight years younger than him. Just out of high school. Jesus, what if she wasinhigh school? What if all that stuff about university had been bullshit? He’d been so fucking blinded by her beauty, by the weird chemical attraction between them that he hadn’t even asked her age. He’d fingered her against a tree, made her suck his dick, and she waseighteen. She waseighteen years old. From the chaos that reigned inside Max’s skull, one option emerged triumphant. He zipped up his jacket, grabbed his keys, and stormed toward the carpark. He climbed on his Triumph, willing the roar of the engine to burn away everything else he felt as he rode off Brett’s property as fast as he fucking could.
*
Julia sat on the wooden gate and waited for Max, smiling to herself. After fifteen minutes she walked out among the SUVs and sedans, looking for a motorbike. There wasn’t one. She waited another ten minutes for no reason whatsoever and then she went back to the party and told Mikayla that the amazing, gorgeous guy she’d met had left without her. Mickey declared they were leaving, much to the horror of the guys trying to get into her pants. As they drove home, Julia watched the trees go flashing past and thought about Max’s black hair and his strong, rough hands. She’d gotten exactly what she wanted and yet she wished she’d never met him at all. What good was a taste of passion if it left you feeling this low?
Her stomach was as shriveled as a dried up apple core and she knew, just knew she’d remember this forever.
Chapter 15
“ANSWERthe question. What do you remember about that night?”
Julia half expected Max to whip out a notepad and demand she state her full name and address. “Why does it matter?”
His jaw tightened. “Because it does. If you want, I’ll say something first. It was six years ago. It was a twenty-first birthday party at Brett Davis’ house. I went because he was one of the guys who worked on my bike. Now you, continue.”
Julia blinked at him. Had it really been six years since they’d met? She studied Max’s face, looking for proof. He was still the Prince of Darkness, the same strikingly handsome guy but at Brett’s party, he had looked playful and as much as Julia was sure he’d hate to hear it, boyish. Sweet.
This cop was like Max’s angry big brother. His body had thickened, thick bands of muscle wound around his shoulders and arms, there were faint lines on his brow and in the corners of his eyes and a few silver hairs shot through the black.
The only thing that was exactly the same were his irises, so dark they seemed to suck in the light around them. She wondered how she looked in his eyes. More cynical? Less attractive? Or was she totally distinct from the blathering, gawky teenager who’d spotted him over the bonfire six years ago?
Max sat back in his chair, arms folded over his chest. “Julia, what do you remember?”
“Nothing.”
His eyes seemed to bore into hers. “Nothing?”
“You know, if this cop thing doesn’t work out, you should definitely pursue a career in hypnosis.”
“You’re not going anywhere until we’ve discussed this.”