Page 14 of Deal Breaker
He might be asleep anyway.
The last thought rang true. He may not even know I was there. Emboldened, I knocked lightly on the door.
“Max? Are you okay?” I paused. “Can I come in?”
I pressed my ear to the door, trying to establish if I could hear any sounds coming from the room. Just as I was going to give up and go back to my room, Max answered.
“Sure, Soph, come on in.”
Nervously, I opened the door, not knowing what I would find. The curtains were open a crack, moonlight casting a sliver of light across Max’s bed. There was a faint tang of stale alcohol in the air, and I wrinkled my nose.
Max had propped himself up on his elbows and blinked at me as if trying to adjust to the light. The bedcovers pooled around his waist, giving me ample opportunity to study his muscular chest. Construction work definitely suited him. My gaze slid down to his almost perfect abs, and I swooned like my fourteen-year-old self would have. Shaking myself back to the present, I reminded myself what I was doing there.
“I brought you a drink and some painkillers.” I hopped from foot to foot, trying to keep warm.
A smile stretched across his face. “You’re an angel, thank you.”
Crossing the room in a couple of steps, I handed him the soda. He cracked it open and greedily drank.
“Hey, slow down, you don’t want to make yourself sick,” I observed. “Again,” I added for effect.
Max reached for the pills, popped a couple out and swallowed them with another slug of the soda. “Ouch. I deserved that.”
While I hadn’t expected an apology, that was probably the closest I would get.
“How come you’re still awake?” he asked.
“Can you hear that?” I gestured to the wall which adjoined our room. Even through the thin divide, Jodie’s heavy breathing came through loud and clear.
He patted the bed next to him, and I noticed he’d shuffled to one side to make room for me. “Come sit down. Aren’t you cold?” His gaze raked over my body, clad in a tank top—where I’m sure my nipples were making themselves obvious—and shorts.
I wrestled with my conscience. The sensible part of me advised me to go back to my own bed, pull a pillow over my head, and deal with Jodie’s snoring. However, the part of me which had been in love with Max Coady since the age of fourteen shouted much louder. It told me to stay. Only to make sure he was okay, of course. When else would I get the opportunity to share his bed?
He repeated the gesture, and I relented, tucking my frozen feet under the comforter and pulling my knees to my chest.
“I’m sorry about earlier.” He placed a warm hand on my arm. My skin went into overdrive, a combination of the cool air in the room and the glow emanating from his touch. “I think I had a little too much to drink.”
“Really? You don’t say?” I screwed up my nose again.
“You know what it’s like. Joshua’s excited about tomorrow, plus Evan and Trent have always been a bad influence. We started reminiscing about college, then one thing led to another…”
“You could have said no.” I felt like a hypocrite for saying the words. After all, I hadn’t exactly been a teetotaler when it came to that evening. How many shots had I downed for the sake of a dare?
Max hung his head. “Believe me, I tried.”
“Would it have been so hard to come back here and hang out with us?”
The silence which met my question told me all I needed to know. There was little point in staying. Max had said sorry, and I didn’t need anything else. I started to scramble out from under the covers, but he gripped my arm tighter.
“Don’t go.”
“Give me one good reason why.”
“Because I want you to stay.”
Damn. Thatwas a good reason. I couldn’t leave now. I pushed my feet back into the toasty warmth. “Okay, just for a little bit longer. Jodie will be wondering where I am.”
Max tilted his head. “I doubt that very much, judging by the hippo noises.”
