Page 19 of Sexy Bad Valentine

CHAPTER SIX

MAX

I leave her on the rug in the foyer to go find wineglasses. The bottle she brought with her is unbroken. It just rolled off into the corner behind one of my sister’s weird statues she’s always finding on her travels. On my way back I pluck a tulip from the vase on the table and snatch the cream angora blanket from the back of the couch where Barclay has fallen asleep.

“For you.” I hold out the flower. Uncertain. Other than that one time I stole flowers from the neighbor’s yard to give to Deanna, I’ve never given a girl flowers before. I don’t usually bother with romanticized notions. I’ve certainly never felt the urge to do so, but Evie deserves more than I can manage so this will have to do for now.

Holding her clothes bundled to her chest, she eyes it warily before taking it from me. “Thank you.”

Sitting down on the rug beside her, I cover us both with the blanket. She’s managed to get back into her underwear, but that only means I’ll get to strip her out of them again. I fill the glasses with the wine she brought while I run through things to say, but nothing sounds quite right in my head.

“Kelly said she’s worried you’ll get—”

“So how about filming—”

“She’s worried I’ll get what?”

“Fired.” She exhales the word. “If we look like we’re canoodling.”

“Fired? Not a chance.” I grin, but it falls flat as I consider the source. I doubt Kelly would have told Evie that I could get fired, but she must have said something for Evie to be concerned. “What did she say to you?”

“Well, she said that I could be sued for breach of contract for behaving inappropriately with you. Which means that you can be too, right?”

“Our contracts aren’t the same.” What’s one more small white lie? Just so she doesn’t have to worry about me. “She said that? That you could be sued?” I need to call Deanna and find out how serious this is.

“Yes. And that my employer might take issue with it since he’s been working to clean up his image for a while now.”

“Who’s your employer? Tiger Woods?”

“Close.” She presses her lips together. “Garrett Frost.”

“Oh. Same thing.” Both of them are golfing legends. Both of them have been in the media because of their relationships with women.

“He’s cleaned up his image and it’s really important to his career that he’s not associated with any sort of scandal. So we can’t be friendly. You can’t flirt with me anymore.”

“That’s probably for the best,” I say, trying to work out who was at filming that would have filled in my sister. One of the film crew no doubt. Not Kelly. She might not always agree with my decisions, but she’s always had my back. But why hasn’t Deanna harassed me herself?

“Which is why this was good,” Evie says, dropping the blanket and climbing to her feet so she can finish dressing. “Now that we’ve had sex it should be all out of our system, right?”

“What?” I tune back in. Deanna can wait when Evie is talking to me.

“We’ve done the dirty deed. You’ll lose interest now. We can both go back to normal.”

Maybe that’s how it usually works, but not this time. Far from it. In fact it’s almost the complete opposite. More like she’s only just whetted my interest, and I want to spend a lifetime learning more. “Evie, I don’t think that’s how—”

“Look, that’s all I wanted.” She drops her feet into each boot and zips them up. “A good time with a very, very bad man. And a date with a nice guy to this ridiculous party I have to attend on Valentine’s Day. I don’t have time for anything else anyway.”

“Are you scared?” I am. I’ve never spent this much time on one girl before. It’s always been a matter of circumstance or necessity, but with Evie I don’t want to be anywhere else and that terrifies the shit out of me.

“Scared?” She has one foot in the air as she notches the zip tag under the knitted rim of her boot, drops it to the floor, and straightens up. “Of what?”

“The fact you actually do like me, and that you don’t want me to get bored with you.” I get to my feet and go to her. “Because it isn’t going to happen.”

She shrugs into her jacket. “Let’s not make this into anything. I had fun tonight. And tomorrow we’ll be able to work together without all this pent up sexual frustration.”

“Speak for yourself,” I tell her, dropping the blanket to grab my pants and put them on.

“I am.” She shoves her beanie back on her head, carefully tucking her tangled hair behind her ears. “Tomorrow we’ll concentrate on finding me the right date for Valentine’s, and you’ll stop trying to woo me. It’s the logical solution.”

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