Page 62 of Taming the CEO

"You feed me, and then you want to watch movies with me. This is shaping up to be quite a fantastic day.”

“It's certainly already one of my favorites," Maddox said, eyes trained on me.

He lowered his gaze briefly, and then his eyes went even darker. The way he looked at me, you'd think I was wearing some super-sexy clothes and not old rags.

"Really?" I challenged.

"Yeah. It's—" He waved his hand as if he couldn't find the right words and then snapped his fingers. "—a change of pace. I don't usually just take time to..."

"Enjoy life?" I asked.

"I do. But always in a productive way. Like working out."

“I find that small-town life has a way of making you slow down, whether you want it to or not."

"You've always lived here?" he asked.

"No. I went to college at NYU.”

"How did you like New York?"

"It was fun while I was a student. But once I was close to graduating and actually started looking at stuff like rent and salaries, I realized I had to leave. Then... well, Mom passed, and things changed."

"What would you have done if you didn't have to come here and help your dad?"

"Travel the world," I said without missing a beat. "I planned to teach English abroad for several years and then come back home and continue teaching. I had a whole two-year plan mapped out. It started with Asia: Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia."

"Would you still like to do that?”

I bit the inside of my cheek, considering his words. "I haven’t thought about it lately. But I really don’t regret staying and helping Dad. Besides, I love Essex."

Maddox gave me a delicious smile. "I can see why you like it."

"Really?" I asked. "What happened to 'small-town life is boring'?"

He groaned. "You won't ever let me live that down, will you?"

“Nope."

"I was a bit prejudiced," he admitted.

"A bit?" I teased.

That smile grew even wider. "I could see its potential as a location to do business, not live here."

"And that’s changing?"

"I don't know if I could live here. But I understand why others do."

"I'll take that," I said, and then we finished the rest of our breakfast.

After cleaning up, I turned on my TV. I opened the Amazon Video app and went to my purchased items. Maddox hadn’t turned the bed back into a couch, but this was even better. It would certainly be comfier to do a movie marathon like this.

His eyes bulged at the screen. "Wait, you actually purchased movies?"

"Yeah, all my favorites."

"I didn't think there was a person alive who still purchased any streaming content."

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