Page 30 of Wrong Idea

“Carver? What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, and I knew the moment his eyes moved to Max, who was standing behind me. “Please don’t fucking tell me you, of all people, are doing this?!” Harrison exclaimed, and I tried to move closer toMax, but she stepped away, staring at my brother and then me. “Do you know who she is?” he asked pointing in Max’s direction. “Is this why you’ve been in and out of the office like a crazy person?”

“Carver?” I heard Max whisper, and when I turned around, she was looking at me like she didn’t know who I was. Like she had been betrayed, and I was the only one to blame. “Car?” she said my name.

“Baby—“

“One of the first rules you pounded into Grant and me was that you don’t mess around with our employees!” Harrison kept running his mouth, unknowingly digging me deeper into a hole.

“Max, why don’t we go in and get some coffee. What do you think, kid?” Stan offered. I turned my attention and could see the way he had cottoned on to what had happened.

That I had been lying to Max.

But Max wasn’t paying attention to the old man. She gently brushed his arm away and stepped forward. “You’re…Oh my god,” she whispered. “You lied to me.”

“Max,” I said her name but lost her beautiful brown gaze, “I can explain.”

“Explain?” Harrison asked, but I ignored him. The only thing that mattered, the only person who had my attention, was the woman in front of me.

“You lied to me.” The pain was so visceral, so plain to see, I felt it radiating off her.

“Princess, just let?—“

“Don’t,” she clipped, and her eyes opened. When she looked at me, I knew my girl had erected titanium walls around her heart to protect herself. The light in her eyes was dim where it had been all but sparkling just minutes before.

“Baby—“ But I didn’t get to say another word. Not when her hand rose and slapped me across the face. I heard the sharpsound of the slap, but not even the sting of her hand could cut through the fear I felt. I was losing her. Fuck.

“I don’t even know you,” she rasped raggedly. Her lips wobbled. Before I could take her into my arms or snap into action, the old man was there, wrapping his arm round her shoulder, pulling Max to his side.

“Come on, girl, let’s take you home.” This time, my girl’s shoulders sagged. By the way the old man staggered slightly, she had given him some of her weight. He didn’t stop, though. The old man put one foot in front of the other as they walked away from us.

He led her away, heading towards her apartment, taking my heart with her.

eight

max

“Kid, talk to me,”Stan quietly encouraged, lightly bumping my shoulder with his. I glanced over at him and blinked. I wasn’t sure how long we had been sitting side by side, but it had been a moment.

“Don’t hold this shit in,” he urged. My lips felt dry.

“I was stupid,” I whispered, hating how the numbness I’d felt had started to fade away, leaving nothing but jagged-edged pain in its wake. I wanted to go back to feeling numb. Anything was better than realizing what an idiot I had been for the last two weeks. Longer than that.

Carver Storm.

My boss.

The man I had fallen so deeply in love with, the man I had been ready to give everything to was my boss. The one who everyone said was an asshole jerk. I still hadn’t heard anyone say a nice word about him. And this whole time, he had been lying about who he was and what he did. It didn’t make sense. I was just me and he was… so much more. Successful and well off.Why would he do all that?Go through all the trouble he had gone through for what? So he could get in my pants? Make me call him daddy and do all sorts of dirty things with him?

“You’re not stupid. You’re one of the brightest, smartest?—“

“If that’s the case, you need to meet some new people, Stan,” I spouted off sarcastically. I didn’t usually talk badly about myself, but in that moment, I wanted to wallow. I wanted to stomp my feet and yell about how unfair everything felt.

“We both know that you are. You’re bright and smart and?—“

“And an idiot.” He made a sound that meant he didn’t agree with me but he knew better than to argue with me when I got this way.

“What happened?” he asked. I could tell he was trying not to eye the massage table that was still set up in my apartment. I could feel the questions, but I grabbed a throw pillow and sat down on my old lumpy couch. Thankfully, Stan followed and sat next to me.

I looked around, and knowing hotelier Craver Storm had been spending time there made me want to cringe. Oh god, what he must have thought about my place. Man, he had really been slumming it. Everything in my place was old. Old and used and probably so beneath someone like Carver Storm.

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