Page 20 of Contracted and Claimed By The Boss

He lifted a hand, cupping her cheek, holding her still. ‘Paige—’ His voice was deep, husky, but there was hesitation in the way he said her name and her heart squeezed, squelched.

‘Don’t you dare say you can’t do this,’ she warned, even as that fear began to grip her, turning her lava-like veins to ice.

‘Amanda is the most important thing in my life,’ he said through gritted teeth.

Paige didn’t want to talk about his daughter right now.

‘I’m not looking for a relationship.’

She ignored the tugging in the middle of her gut. Wasn’t that obvious? He didn’t need to spell it out. She wasn’t looking for love, either. They were safe. This made sense.

‘But this.’ He gestured from him to her.

She shook her head, needing him to understand that they were on the same page. ‘Is sex.’

‘And you’re okay with that?’

She nodded.

‘You’re okay with it only ever being this?’

Something twisted then, something she didn’t want to analyse, but she nodded, giving no clue as to the slight wobble of certainty.

‘I don’t want a relationship either,’ she promised. ‘And especially not with some Australian guy.’ She smiled to show him she was serious. ‘I’m only here for three months. My life is over the other side of the world.’

What life? a little voice in the back of her mind demanded urgently, because Paige had been on the run for years, never staying put long enough to make connections, never risking attachment or love.

‘Because for the next eight, nine, ten years, however long she needs me, Amanda is the only person I have room for. I’m not going to stuff her up the way—I’m going to do this right.’

She was impressed by his dedication, by his commitment, even when it hurt to hear it—because she’d never known that kind of parental love and sacrifice. ‘I get it.’

‘So if you think this is going to make you want something else, something more...’

‘I don’t,’ she promised, wishing she could explain to him that she wasn’t like other people. Her upbringing had made her physically unable to want or expect love. She would certainly not be looking to Max Stone to provide it. But how could she even begin to explain what she’d been through? Besides, it was a part of her past she didn’t welcome to her present. ‘Trust me. Everything’s going to be okay.’

He probed her eyes a while longer and must have seen something in their depths that convinced him because a moment later he was lifting up and kissing her again, with more urgency, with such desperate, agonising longing that Paige felt herself tipping over the edge already, her nails digging into his shoulders until she was worried she might draw blood. But the way he was making her feel...it was too much.

He broke their kiss only to rip off his shirt and throw it clear across the room, and in that same motion Paige was standing, stripping out of her shorts and underpants, watching as he reached for something from his wallet—a condom—and opened the pack.

‘Christ, I have no idea how old this is.’

She reached for it, studied it against the light and grinned. ‘Looks fine to me.’

He didn’t return her smile. The air pulsed with raging need. She brought the condom to his tip and, with fingers that were still unsteady, pressed it down, trying not to think about how huge he was.

His jeans were still on, but Paige was too impatient to wrestle them from him. Instead, she climbed back onto the seat, straddling Max and hovering just above his arousal, nervous suddenly, even though they’d just discussed this, and they both agreed this was what they wanted.

‘You are so lovely.’ The statement was said with a note of surprise, as if he hadn’t looked at her before now, but his eyes lingered on her face, so she felt his praise deep in her bones, knew it was genuine, and it somehow seemed like the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her—she didn’t think he was saying it because he wanted anything from her, he wasn’t saying it pro-forma. It had been dredged from within him with utmost sincerity.

‘Right back at you,’ she murmured, moving closer to his arousal, needing him, already fantasising about the moment she took him in, madness overcoming her.

‘Dad?’

She blinked, the voice coming from a long way away, at least the other end of the house, but Max’s instincts were faster, more finely honed, so he startled, shifting quickly, somehow displacing Paige without knocking her to the ground. He was standing, chest heaving as he went to control his breathing, face drained of colour before he quickly zipped up his jeans and turned away.

‘Dad?’

Still far away, but growing closer.

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