Page 15 of Contracted and Claimed By The Boss

‘Yes, but it’s the truth.’ She jutted her chin at him defiantly and Max couldn’t help but take the bait. With her face so close to him, her body so near, his hand wrapped around her wrist, he stared at her mouth and before he knew it, before he could understand what he was doing, his lips pressed to hers and it was as if the ground were splitting in two, so earth-shattering was the sense of relief and desire.

She froze against him, completely still, and then she moaned softly, leaning forward so her body was crushed to his, and he deepened the kiss without thought, angry and frustrated and so hungry for her all at once. It had to stop. He had to stop it, but when she whimpered against his mouth, all thoughts of putting an end to this flew from his mind and, instead, he imagined scooping her up and carrying her to his chest, to his bedroom, or anywhere, and making love to her until she was finally out of his mind.

‘We can’t...’ she muttered as her hands crept to his shirt and pushed it up, so her fingertips glanced across his skin and a surge of need exploded. ‘Amanda...’

God, Amanda. Hell. It was like being doused with water. He pulled away from Paige with a stricken expression, staring at her as though she were an alien from outer space.

Paige stared back, her lips parted, her fingers trembling in mid-air before she dropped them to her side and looked away.

With sanity returning, Max began to realise what a monumental mistake that was. Paige worked for him. She was his staff member. And he needed her help, desperately. He was the one who’d said they couldn’t let anything happen, so why hadn’t he been strong enough to fight that?

He dropped his head forward, trying to grab his breath, and a moment later lifted his face and found her eyes. She hadn’t left the room, which he took as both a good sign and an indication of her strength of character. She was a fighter; he was glad.

‘I have to be honest with you,’ he said after a pause, realising that for all the admission was the last thing he felt like making, it was important in light of what had just happened.

She crossed her arms over her chest in a clearly defensive gesture but at least she stayed.

‘I haven’t slept with anyone in a long time. Since my wife died, in fact. I’ve been single, and you’re here, and obviously you’re a very beautiful woman, but I refuse to let this go any further when I know it’s just because I’ve been celibate way too long.’ He paused, wondering if this was coming out okay. He thought it might all be a bit offensive, but it was important to him that Paige understood: none of this was about her. ‘It shouldn’t have happened.’ He cleared his throat. ‘It won’t happen again.’

He stared at the trees, silver in the moonlight, with an anger radiating from him that came from so deep in his gut it might as well have been welded to his bones.

He shouldn’t have done that.

He shouldn’t have kissed her, shouldn’t have provoked her, shouldn’t have argued with her when things between them were so incendiary, it was obviously going to end in only one way.

He should have fought his feelings harder. Pushed her away better. More fully.

But he hadn’t, and they’d kissed, and it was as if something had shifted inside Max so now the idea of not kissing Paige again was like acid burning away at him, the inevitability of his desire for her a tsunami overtaking his entire landscape.

He dropped his head forward, cradled it in his hands, tried to grip hold of who he was. Successful. Driven. Focused. A father. A businessman. Relationships had never been front and centre for Max, even before Lauren. He’d married for Amanda, not because he’d wanted a wife, nor a life of love. He’d tried to be a good husband—in his own way—but as their marriage had continued, he’d felt convinced that he was echoing his father every day, even when he tried so hard to be different.

‘You are just like him.’

His mother’s sneering words ran around and around in his mind, sometimes almost suffocating Max. He stood abruptly, strode to the edge of the veranda and wrapped his hands around the timber.

No matter how hard he fought it, Max kept finding himself in these cul-de-sacs that forced him to face the truth of that statement. He tried not to be like Carrick, his father, and yet wasn’t that kiss exactly how he would have behaved?

Not quite.

Carrick would have had no compunction in seducing Paige then and there, regardless of who might have seen or been hurt by his decisions. And how close had Max come to that? If Paige hadn’t reminded him of Amanda, would he have stopped what they were doing?

He clenched his teeth, the feeling that the earth was slipping beneath him making his stomach dip uncomfortably.

What he needed was to push Paige out of his mind. And even more than that, a cold shower. He did both, or at least tried, but Paige seemed lodged in the parts of his mind over which he had minimal control, so hours later, in the solitude of his bed, he finally gave up on ignoring her and allowed her total access to his thoughts and dreams, so finally he fell asleep with memories of her body invading his dreams, and finally, for the first time in days, he was truly at peace.

CHAPTER FIVE

PAIGE WAS UNSPEAKABLY glad when, the next morning, she realised Max had already left for the day. With just her and Amanda in the house, she was almost able to pretend last night hadn’t happened. Except, when she stood in the kitchen, supervising Amanda’s lunch-box preparations, she could feel Max in the air, the whisper of his breath against her skin, the sound of his voice, the sensations in her body as he kissed her, as she yearned for more. But there was also the terror that his question had evoked.

He’d recognised her, only he didn’t realise it yet. They’d never met, but he’d probably spent hours being bombarded by a younger Paige’s face in movies, and advertisements and schmaltzy television shows. In the first decade of this century, Paige had been everywhere, and despite how her face and figure had changed with age, despite the superficial alterations she’d made, it was impossible to escape her features. They were simply a part of her—from her dimples to her smile to her wide-set round eyes.

If Max didn’t trust her, it was because he’d glimpsed a figment of the girl she’d once been.

Amanda was particularly surly, but Paige was only operating on one cylinder. She did her best to focus, asking questions, ignoring the monosyllabic answers, making sure Amanda had everything she’d need for the day.

While Amanda had been very clear that she didn’t want Paige to go onto the school property, Paige had known she needed to introduce herself and form a personal connection, so she’d emailed both the principal and Amanda’s teacher. The responses had been interesting. Both said what a valued and positive member of the class Amanda was, and how well she was doing.

It was something for Paige to focus on, because it showed that Amanda was really just letting out her frustrations at home.

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