Page 135 of Dark Love

“Still seems odd.”

“Not odd. Adonis is just a thoughtful and caring boss.”

Max raises an eyebrow and pops what’s left of the cookie in his mouth.

“Really, he is. He brings soup to everyone. According to Mindy, it’s the best soup ever.” Why does it feel like I’m always putting my foot in my mouth? “Though I can’t confirm that because Ve—my friend slammed the door in my boss’ face. Wasn’t that odd?”

“Not since your ‘friend’ is a guy.”

“Huh? What does being a guy have to do with it?”

Max leans forward. “You don’t date much, do you?”

Ever is more like it. I shrug. “Not really.”

“A guy doesn’t watch Pride and Prejudice with a woman unless he wants to be more than a friend.”

“Really?” I knew that… sort of… I think. “But why would he slam the door on my boss? If Adonis wasn’t a reasonable guy, I might have lost my job.”

“That was probably his goal. No guy likes another man bringing his woman soup.”

But he didn’t bring me soup because I’m a woman. “But that doesn’t make sense.”

“You need to learn this now. We don’t always make sense. And when we get jealous, we’re barely even rational. We blow up the world first. Then ask questions later… Maybe.”

“But Ve—my friend is a very reasonable and calm man.”

“Doesn’t matter one bit. When I thought someone was hitting my wife, all I could think about was murder. Violent and bloody murder. I was going to rip him limb from limb and that’s an edited version of what was going on in my mind. Reason didn’t exist.”

Who can be reasonable when someone they love is in danger? “Did you find the man?”

His smile turns down. “No. We found out the bruises were from cancer. I would have given anything for it to be a man hurting her. That I could have fixed.”

I reach out and touch his arm again. “Being big and strong doesn’t mean you can fix every problem for the people you love.”

“It should.” He shakes his head like he’s clearing his mind. “But my point is, jealous men aren’t rational. Don’t try to make sense of his actions.”

Jealous? Could Vex like me enough to be jealous? “That would make what I did even worse.”

“What could you have possibly done?”

“Made plans for him to go to dinner with Adonis.”

Max’s jaw drops open.

“There was a good reason.”

“It better be a spectacular reason. Your friend is going to lose his mind.”

I wouldn’t call it spectacular. This is so not good. “Well. Kinda. Like I said, my boss is a really nice guy. Yesterday, he called me to his office to talk about my friend.”

There’s that eyebrow raise again.

“Adonis was concerned about me.”

“I bet,” Max whispers.

“Really. He was. We see a lot of women in abusive relationships…and Adonis was concerned that my friend might get abusive towards me. Which I assured him wasn’t possible. My friend is a very gentle man.”

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