“Max, he had no right to touch you like that.” Treat’s entire body pulsed with rage, but more important than the desire to hammer the hell out of that asshole was the desire—the visceral need—to help Max heal. “Baby, come here.” He held her trembling body against him while she cried. “Let it out. Let all of it out until there’s nothing left to tear you up. None of that was your fault, sweetness, and I’ll never let anything like that happen to you again.”
They remained in that position for a long time, until the footsteps on the pier above them silenced and the moon shone bright on the rippling water.
On the drive back to the bungalow, Max stared out the window, and Treat couldn’t stop thinking about the image of Max, scared and bleeding. What kind of animal would do that to her? He remembered the way Max had touched him, the way she had craved him in her apartment—and he now understood how much courage it must have taken for her to open up to him in such an intimate way and take him with her mouth—and he also understood how the look he’d given her in Nassau would translate in her mind to a precursor for a hidden aggression. That understanding made him wonder if she’d done things with him out of some sort of fear.
“Sweetness, when you were with me, when you took me beside your bed, why did you do it? You don’t have to do those things with me, Max. Ever. I can live our entire lives with nothing but kissing you and touching you. I never want you to feel like you owe me something or you have to live up to what you think other women might do or what other men might want. I’m not them, and you’re sure as hell not like any other woman.”
She turned to face him, and her eyes told her answer before he heard the words. “I wanted to. I’ve only been with two other men, Treat. The man I told you about and one other during my senior year of high school. I thought I loved him and that we’d be together forever, but you know how that goes. What do you know at eighteen? We went to separate colleges, and I got the inevitable Dear Jane letter a month later.”
“I wish I’d known you then. I’d have loved you forever,” he said, and he meant it so much that his heart ached.
“No, you wouldn’t have. I told you, I was weak. I wasn’t the same person. It’s better that we’re together now. Besides, I don’t think I could have taken all those girls vying for your attention all the time. I was never that strong.”
“There weren’t actually that many,” he said as he parked the car.
“Pfft. Everywhere we go, you are the center of attention, and that’s okay. That’s good. It makes me proud to be on your arm. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. I’m not that strong, Treat. I have insecurities, and your looks stir the pot with every one of them. It’s something I’ll have to learn to overcome.”
He came around the car and opened her door for her, offering his hand when she stepped out.
“I can promise you that I will never act on any advances by any women, and I sure as hell wouldn’t ever think of hurting you in any way—and certainly not in a sexual way. Can’t you tell how much I adore you, Max? I didn’t think I’d ever feel as strongly about anyone as I do about my own family, and my feelings for you put them all to shame.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
THEY SAT ON the couch in front of the fire, Max’s legs across Treat’s lap. He massaged her feet, pressing his thumbs deeply into the arch of her foot.
“You can’t even begin to understand how good that feels.” Max closed her eyes, enjoying his touch.
“Oh, I think I can.”
She opened one eye. “Yeah?”
“It’s touch, and touch is good,” he said in a husky voice.
Why does your voice turn my entire body on? She pulled her feet from his lap and sat up, tucking them beneath her body.
“Let me do you,” she said.
“Why, Max, what kind of man do you think I am?”
She playfully smacked his chest. “Not like that. Let me rub you and make you feel good.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “You naughty girl, you.” He went to a closet that Max hadn’t noticed earlier and withdrew a comforter, then spread it out on the floor in front of the fireplace. When he pulled his shirt over his head with one hand, all of her breath rushed from her lungs at the perfectly sculpted physique on the man she loved with every ounce of her soul.
He stepped out of his pants and lay down in his boxer briefs.
“This might be more dangerous than I had anticipated.” She was only half teasing. Did he really expect her to touch him without wanting to devour him?
He opened his hand and handed her a small bottle of oil.
“You just happen to keep this in the secret closet with the blanket? How much do you pay everyone to say that you don’t bring women up here?” Something told Max that she’d been had.
He turned over and pulled her down beside him. “I don’t lie, Max. I’ve never had anyone but Savannah here with me, and I slept on the couch, which is why the blanket is down here. The oil was something she left here.”
Kneeling beside him, she wished she could ignore the jealousy that was creeping into her body. “I’m supposed to buy the old only-my-sister routine?”
In the next second, Treat was on his feet and heading for the kitchen, where he retrieved his phone. He pushed a button and a few seconds later said, “Vanny, talk to Max.”
Max jumped up. “Oh my God. No way.” What is he doing? Mortified didn’t begin to describe the embarrassment she felt.
He held the phone out toward her with a wide grin. “Go ahead. I’ll never have anything to hide from you, and I want you to know it and believe it.” He pushed his hand with the phone in it toward her again.
She took it. “H-hello?” Her voice was thin and tethered with embarrassment.
“Max! Hey, girl! You found him! Did he call you?”
Max was surprised by Savannah’s enthusiasm. “No, I came to Wellfleet. He’d said it was his favorite place, so I took a chance, and he was here.”
“That’s fate for you!” Savannah laughed. “The last time I was there, he had to sleep on the couch. Hey, ask him if he ever found my apricot stuff.”
“Apricot stuff?”
“Yeah, he’ll know what it is. Apricot Kernel Oil.” This cannot really be happening. Max drew her eyebrows together and lowered the phone. “Savannah wants to know if you found her Apricot Kernel Oil that she left here?”
He grinned, twisting the bottle between his index finger and thumb.
Max stuck her tongue out at him, then covered her eyes.
“Yeah, he has it.”
“Oh, good. It’s great for aromatherapy. You guys should use it. It’s awesome, and it won’t leave your skin oily.”
When Max didn’t respond, Savannah filled the silence.
“That’s a little presumptuous of me, right? Max, I just figured that any girl who would track down a guy’s father to see him must be crazy for him, and I know he’s crazy for you, so…”
“Thanks, Savannah. I’m sure we’ll put it to good use.” She watched Treat lower himself to the floor with another victorious smile.
“What did you want to talk to me about?” Savannah asked.
Oh, crap! Thinking fast, she said, “Um, oh, I wanted to know what Treat’s favorite dessert was. He won’t tell me and he said you knew.”
“He’s such a doofus. Tiramisu. Hey, I gotta run. I’m with Connor.”
“Connor Dean? You’re working this late?” Max watched Treat lay back down in front of the fireplace.
“Well, sort of. Glad you’re with my brother. He’s the best man on the planet. And I mean it, Max. Good to the very core. Love you guys; gotta run!”
The phone went dead, and Max followed the line of crow back to Treat’s side. She didn’t think it was possible that she could feel any stupider than she did at that moment.
“You can ask me anything, Max, and I’ll always give you an honest answer. And I’ll never blame you for not believing me, because I know people lie, but I’ll stand behind everything I ever say.”
What could she possibly say to that? He’d been true to his word with everything he’d ever said to her. He called his sister! She dripped oil onto his back and finally said, “I’m sorry for not believing you. But you have to admit, it did sound fishy.” She loved the feel of his slippery body beneath her hands.
“How do you know I didn’t have this preplanned with Savannah?”
Max’s hands stopped moving as she considered his question. She cracked a smile and said, “Because she’d never go along with it. She likes me.”
“How about because I like you, and I’d never go along with it?”
Swoon! She bent down and kissed his cheek. “That works, too.”
Max slid her hands along the sides of his spine, and then worked the tension outward, toward the sides of his body. She moved slowly, careful to cover every inch of his skin, to touch every muscle, and his appreciative moans urged her on. The more she touched him, the more she wanted to touch him. She followed the lines of his muscles up to the curve of his arm, kneading with a slow and steady rhythm, caressing her way up to his shoulders. She slid her hands over the crest of his muscles; then she slid her fingers forward, to the gentle dip on the other side.