Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND) (31 page)

Authors: Donna McDonald

Tags: #General Fiction

BOOK: Next Song I Sing (NEXT TIME AROUND)

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“Three months—not that you’re going to believe me. It’s fairly clear you think I’m awful. What’s a little blackmail going to hurt?” Max asked, wondering how he’d messed up so royally with Taylor after being celibate for months. He’d been on his best behavior the whole time he’d known the woman. “If you honestly consider me that unredeemable as a man, then why bother with Thursday? I want the same shot Reston got—
Legs
.”

He used the cowboy’s nickname for her and watched her eyes light up with fire again. Oh, how he wanted that fire to be for another reason, but he’d take anger over being ignored—or worse lumped into the group with the rest of her discarded dating experiments.

One day when Taylor was able to hear him, Max thought he might tell her the nurses had happened simply because he had been alone and scared of losing nearly everything he knew in his life. Frankly, he had needed the comfort, even though it had been temporary.

And the reporter had happened because he needed a friend, but the woman had turned out not to be one. Her willingness to use him for article fodder wasn’t his fault.

And Taylor—Max didn’t know how to tell her she was the first woman he’d fallen in love with, because he knew it would do him no good to even say the words.

Taylor was the one who needed redeeming much more than him. Her heart was walled up behind her bad experiences, refusing entrance to any man wanting to find out what it was going to take to make her happy. It left him little recourse but to use a forecheck play and see it through, but then Wicked Wade wasn’t the only persona he had would do anything to gain possession. Maximillan Wade was desperate too.

“If you want me to leave you alone and stop asking, kiss me and prove you’re not interested,” Max demanded, determined to wait for her.

Taylor walked to him. If Max wanted humiliation as well as truth, then she could dish that out too. “Okay. Here I am, Wicked Wade. But don’t say I didn’t warn you. I don’t like to be bested in any game.”

Max brought clammy palms to her cheeks and saw surprise in Taylor’s eyes at his show of nerves. “Yes. You matter to me, Taylor Baird. I can’t change the past, but I’ve been a better man for months. Can you at least try to believe that I’m in process of changing into someone who might actually be worthy of a woman like you?”

Taylor couldn’t tear her gaze away from his. God, she wanted to believe him. Why? What did it matter? Max was ten years her junior, mostly unemployed, and she so did not need to be Wicked Wade’s next sexual conquest.

“Taylor Baird—you are the first woman who has even owned my full attention. I want to kiss you so badly that I ache,” Max said sincerely, leaning forward and kissing her forehead instead of her mouth. “But I can’t do that properly with you thinking like you do about me. Hell—I’d rather you go kiss Sam than force you into anything on a dare. I meant it when I said I wanted the next time to be mutual.”

Pulling his hands off Taylor was the hardest thing Max could ever remember doing, until he turned and made himself walk away from her, which was even worse. He suddenly had a clear picture of what real failure felt like, and it was a lot worse than losing a hockey game.

“Max—wait. Don’t leave like this,” Taylor ordered, walking quickly to him, swearing under her breath as she did so.

Her stomach was full of butterflies, her heart beating hard behind her breasts. When Max lifted his arms to receive her, Taylor walked straight into them. The minute her breasts hit his chest, her whole body fell against his wanting to be held. When his arms tightened around her in welcome, Taylor sighed again and felt his face in her hair. That when she realized how much trouble she was in with Max, because she was already starting to need him.

“Damn you,” Taylor said fiercely, stretching up on her toes to reach his mouth. Max bent to her, his mouth hot, but restrained on hers. Taylor thought it was just as good as it had been the last time he’d kissed her, when they’d subdued Rayonna at the hotel.

Max put one hand behind her head to hold her while he kissed her thoroughly. She heard the moan that escaped her throat and hated her weakness, which evidently was him, no matter what he had done before her.

Max took the sound as an invitation to torture her more. Next thing Taylor knew, she was up against his hips, standing on tip-toes to kiss him like a ballerina about to dance, while Max rubbed against her in promise of what could be.

“See? I’m not that little. Make sure to tell the cowboy he was wrong next time you see him,” Max said arrogantly against Taylor’s mouth, pressing evidence against her, delighted when she laughed and blushed a bit at his statement.

Taylor wrapped her arms around Max’s shoulders to hold herself up against him. “What the hell am I going to do with you?”

“I don’t know, but I’m anxious as hell to find out. Go out with me. Or just stay for a drink Thursday night. Something. Anything. It doesn’t matter what. I just want to spend a little time with you—alone—just the two of us,” Max said. “Get to know me before you condemn me.”

Taylor took a deep breath. Was she actually planning to break her celibate streak with Wicked Wade, a confirmed womanizer in two countries, and one who made Reston look angelic? She had expressly promised herself not to be stupid about a guy again. Lewis had been a big enough mistake for a lifetime. Max had the potential of being even a bigger one. Still. . .her arms didn’t want to let go.

“I haven’t walked on the beach in ages. Maybe we can take a late walk on the beach after your last set Thursday,” Taylor said quietly.

Max lowered her to floor, letting her slide down him, making them both unsteady with lust. “Sounds great and too long from now, but I’ll take it.”

“Max—all I’m offering is a walk on the beach,” Taylor warned.

Max grinned. “Sexy woman. Moonlight. That’s more of a game than I’ve had in a while. I’m up for it. I’m sure I will be Thursday, too.”

“Take your double-entendres out of my office and let me get back to work,” Taylor said firmly, turning her back on Max so he wouldn’t see her smile.

When she turned to where he had been standing, Max was finally gone. Unnerved by her own neediness, Taylor sighed.

Yet she also found herself agreeing with Max that Thursday seemed too far away.

Coming soon – Late Fall 2012

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