Page 16 of Forbidden Bond

His eyes move above my head and I turn to find Maximus Terra standing behind me. For the love of God, can’t he take a hint? Jameson was supposed to keep him away from me tonight, but of course I can’t trust him to do anything right. Weirdly enough, Max isn’t looking at me. His eyes are on Topher behind me.

“What are you doing with her?”

“This your girl?” Topher questions, his voice low and cold.

“Yeah, why?” Max replies, his expression wary. His eye drift to me for a second.

“You can have her.”

Topher leaves immediately after and I’m left wondering what the hell he meant by that. Max walks forward, dropping his arms around my shoulders.

“What did he mean by that?” he drawls.

I push his arm off. “I am not your girl,” I say, glaring at him.

Max sighs. “When are you going to stop this game, Katie? It’s getting tiring. I want you, you want me. Let’s just get together.”

“Ew,” I say, unable to disguise my disgust. “I don’t want you, Max. It’s been years, get over yourself.”

His jaw clenches and his blue eyes flare. I completely forgot I’m spectacularly good at pissing people off. And now I’m alone outside with a guy who was notorious in high school for being unable to understand that when a girl says no, she means no.

I take a step back.

“Damn, you’re a bitch. I was overlooking it because you’re smoking hot, but I think it’s time you got knocked down a few pegs.”

He advances on me and I’m about to scream my lungs out when someone grabs Max from behind. My eyes widen as Topher appears, pushing him to the ground. He tries to get back up, but Topher keeps him down by pressing his shoe against his chest.

“What the fuck!” Max yells.

“I’ve always been great at choosing questionable company, but I didn’t think you were such a shithead that you’d try to hurt a girl.”

Max tries to fight his way back up but Topher keeps him down.

“I wasn’t going to hurt her,” he snaps.

“Liar,” Topher says. The fact that he sounds so calm and blasé about the situation is making it even more terrifying. “What were you going to do? Hit her? Maybe force her to kiss you? Would it have made you feel like a man?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Topher finally releases him from under his feet. Max scrambles up only to be knocked down again by a punch to his face. I gasp, my hand going over my mouth.

“You only get one punch because you didn’t touch her. If you had, you’d probably be going home with a broken nose and a few cracked ribs,” Topher says calmly.

Max groans, rubbing his jaw.

“Stay the hell away from her, Maximus. I mean it.” He turns to me. His eyes soften as soon as they meet mine, and it’s almost like nothing happened at all. “I’m taking you home.”

What’s crazy is that I don’t even argue.

By the time we arrive in front of my apartment, I finally find my voice. I unhook my seatbelt, looking at him.

“I appreciate the help tonight,” I start. I really do, no one’s ever really shown up for me like that when I needed it. No one except my sister. “But I’d appreciate it if you stayed away from me.”

He’s Christopher D’Angelo. The name spells nothing but trouble, and after what I just witnessed tonight, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit scared of him.

Topher doesn’t even look at me. He nods once before saying, “You’ve got it.”

I take that as a dismissal and step out of the car. I’ve barely shut the door before he’s zooming off.

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