Page 59 of After Felix
But then, he can afford this life. I’ve been liaising with his agent over the last few days, and the figures he disclosed have made me blink. Max is undoubtedly successful. I think of my narrowboat and want to laugh becausethisis the sort of thing I need to focus on. The disparity in our income and lifestyles. Max shops at Ralph Lauren and eats at The Ivy. I live on a narrowboat and eat pot noodle.
I concentrate on that thought as we climb into the car and his scent of sandalwood winds around me like a cat looking for a scratch. After we split, it never got any easier to be near him in a confined space. Only then, I’d usually had a man to force between us, and now there’s just us. Him, me, and his wonderful scent and the heat his body gives out.
I sit absolutely still, and he shifts. When he moves again, it catches my attention, and I look up only to get caught in his eyes. They’re full of heat, and to my absolute horror, I feel my cock stiffen.
“Felix,” he says in a low, hoarse voice, and instantly I bend, reaching for my iPad in my bag and brandishing it as though it’s a barricade between us.
“Emails,” I say brightly.
He sighs and sits back, shaking his head. “Emails,” he echoes.
I pull up the app and scan down the list. “Ooh, how scrumptious. You’ve got another letter from your number-one fan.”
“Oh God, no,” he groans.
“And this is sucha lovely one. He’s devoted ten pages to the mistakes you made in your last novel. You know, I think I’d like to meet this man.”
“I don’t think my health would stand it,” he says sourly. “You’d just give Annie Wilkes a hand with the sledgehammer.”
I laugh. “I’d certainly move the focus from your leg upwards to your groin. Give the twinks of London a respite.”
He shakes his head. “There are no boys in London. I keep telling you that.”
“I wonder why I don’t believe you?” I say lightly, keeping my eyes on the email.
“Maybe you don’twantto believe me.” The words are low, and my head shoots up.
“What do you mean?”
He settles his arm to a more comfortable position. Even wearing a sling, he looks distinguished. “Maybe you don’t want to believe that I’m not shagging anyone because that means you can’t use them to keep a gap between us.”
My eyes narrow. “And why would I need to do that?” I ask dangerously.
Caution wars with honesty in his eyes. The driver says something about the weather, and caution wins. He answers the driver with some random reply, and I return to checking the email, determined to avoid this subject for a while. Maybe until the end of my life.
I carry on reading the message from his number-one fan. “He says that you’ve completely got the layout of the Minster wrong, and you should pay someone to do your research, because it’s obvious that you’re not up to the job. He says he’s considering not reading you anymore.” I wink at Max. “Phew, I like a forthright man.”
“How about a man who talks absolute bollocks?” he says crossly.
“Well, I had that with you,” I say mildly. “If I can get through that, I can get through anything.”
“You weren’t going out with The Yorkshire Ripper, Felix.” He huffs. “The layout in my book was perfectly on point. I spent a whole week researching that bit. Just tell him that I think he’s an absolute cretin and pleasedon’tread my books anymore. In fact, I’ll be ecstatic to give up his ten pounds if it means that I never have to listen to his crap ever again.”
“I can’t tell himthat.It’s so rude. I’ll wish him well and put ‘Regards, Max Travers’.”
“That’s really sticking it to him. Thank you, Felix. Why are you looking so triumphant?”
“Because now he’ll know how pissed off you are at him.”
“Because I wished him well? That’s a whole other level of fuckery.”
“No, because I missed off the word ‘kind’. He’ll know,” I say darkly.
Max starts to laugh. “I never knew you were so passive-aggressive, Felix.”
“Maybe that’s because, like so many of your other men, I bypassed the passive and went straight to the aggressive bit with you,” I say sweetly.
He shuts up until we reach the bookshop where he’s going to be signing copies of his latest book. As we pull up, I swallow hard and turn to glare at Max.
