Beyond the Breaking Point (35 page)

Unfortunately, after her conversation with Max Cassidy’s day didn’t get any better. Crisis after crisis struck. She heard more than one person wonder if there was a full moon, despite the brilliant sun shining outside.

As soon as her shift ended, Cassidy escaped with the speed and desperation of a lost soul fleeing hell. Going home to pack an overnight bag would have taken too long. Not wanting any delays, she swung through a nearby Wal-Mart and purchased what she needed and made it to Max’s home in record time.

The door opened before she could ring the bell. Cassidy entered, tossed down her belongings, and then kissed Max as though he’d just returned from war. When they came up for air, Max had her pinned bodily to the closed front door. Her right leg rested high on his thigh, her hips curled forward, and his erection pressed insistently, riding the notch of her core.

“I’ve needed that all day,” she panted as Max kissed his way down the side of her face to her neck.

“In that case, here, have another serving.” Max swooped in for another toe-curling kiss.

“I’ve had a hell of a day,” she murmured when their mouths separated, their foreheads resting against each other’s. She ran a hand idly through his silky hair.

“So have I. I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he said, wrapping her tightly in his arms. They stood in the foyer, locked together like survivors of a catastrophic storm. After some time passed, Max mumbled against her neck, “You hungry?”

Cassidy tried to burrow in closer, which at the moment was physically impossible. “I don’t want to move. You feel too good.” She could stand here all day, secure in this man’s embrace.

He chuckled. “I know something that will feel even better.”

So did she, but it called for bare skin and a flat, preferably comfortable, surface. Before she could comment, Max bent at the waist and scooped her up into his arms. “Max! Put me down. I’m too heavy.” She had a chokehold on his neck, afraid he’d drop her.

“Relax, I won’t let you fall.” He crossed the foyer and into the den, placing her on the large leather couch. He settled beside her, undoing her shoes and pulling off her socks. What followed was the most glorious foot rub of her entire life.

“Whatever I have, whatever you want, it’s yours. Just don’t stop what you’re doing,” Cassidy said and then moaned in pleasure as his thumb pressed into her arch and rotated.

“Can I get that in writing?” he teased, grinning. Inner mirth caused his blue eyes to sparkle.

“Sure. Draw up the paperwork, after. I promise I’ll sign.” She was almost purring, it felt so good.

“Tell me about your day,” he ordered as he switched to her other foot.

Here with Max, today’s horrors didn’t seem so terrible. It was still sad, but she was removed from them. She told him about one of her worst cases, ending with, “I felt so sorry for her, Max. She’s just a child and now she’ll have to deal with the consequences of her action for the rest of her life.”

“Life rarely gives second chances,” he mused.

“I know. My heart grieved for her because I understood her panic, her desperation. It wasn’t too long ago I felt the same way myself.” Her head felt too heavy to hold upright and she slumped to a reclining pose on the cushions.

“But you’re not a high-school teenager,” he pointed out.

She smiled ruefully. “No, and I had you and Erika to help me through my temporary insanity.”

Max dropped her left foot, much to her dismay, crawled up her body and planted a kiss on her still flat belly. “I’ll always be here for you.”

Cassidy captured his face between her hands. Utterly serious, she said, “Max, don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

His calm blue gaze stared into her anxious brown one. “As long as you want me, I’ll be here.”

She closed her eyes and groaned. “How am I supposed to resist you when you make statements like that?”

“You’re not,” he said simply.

Cassidy urged him closer, letting her body say all the things her heart was feeling but her mind didn’t want to admit. It seemed Max had a doctorate in body language. His had a few things to say as well. Things better understood when clothes weren’t in the way, their limbs were skin-to-skin, and they were mouth-to-mouth and heart-to-heart.

It was an hour or so before, limp and satiated, they actually got around to grilling those steaks.

They worked companionably together, preparing the night’s meal. Cassidy reveled in it, in Max, in the freedom to be herself. She laughed. She teased. She flirted and made lighthearted, sexy innuendos, delighting in the way Max’s eyes lit up, the quick easy grin, and the laughs she surprised out of him.

Despite their playfulness, a banked fire simmered. A nice hum of sexual tension hidden beneath the banter. Moments where their gazes met, clung, and held a little too long. Casual, unnecessary touches that lingered. And when they retired for the evening, the flames leaped and crackled until it reached crisis point. Then with a flash that incinerated everything in its path, their desire for one another consumed them with wave after wave of soul-destroying ecstasy.

Chapter Nineteen

“Where the hell have you been and why haven’t you returned any of my calls?” Erika yelled. “I’ve been leaving messages all over the place.”

Cassidy winced and pulled the phone from her ear. Testing the waters, she eased it closer and said, “I’m sorry. I’ve been busy.”

“For a whole week?” Erika demanded.

She squirmed guiltily. “I meant to call…I did!” she protested when Erika made scoffing noises. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Max and, well honestly, simply forgot.”

“You forgot,” Erika deadpanned. “I’ve been worried, going out of my mind wondering if I was going to have to bail my bestest out of jail while you’ve been what, so busy sexing it up with Max you couldn’t be bothered to call?”

“Well…” When Erika put it like that, it sounded horrible.

“OMG! I was joking. You’re not, are you?” Erika said, sounding incredulous.

“Um, not really,” Cassidy confessed, feeling like she was being called to task. She walked over to the window and gazed down at the empty street. There was a long silence on the other end. Cassidy played with the blinds, determined not to be the one to break it.

Then Erika asked in a quiet voice, “How much is a lot, Cassidy?”

Sighing, she admitted, “Every night.” In fact, she was waiting on Max now. Something she decided Erika didn’t need to know. And when had she begun withholding information from her best friend, she wondered. Since Max.

“Are you sure that’s wise?”

Cassidy scowled at the phone. “Aren’t you the same woman who said and I quote, ‘Why not give Max a chance’?”

“Look, I’m not saying I wasn’t all Rah! Rah! Rah! Go Max. Hell, I’m still Team Max, but Cassidy? Aren’t you the woman who not a month ago said you’re still in love with your husband? I don’t want to see you get hurt.”

Cassidy walked to the couch and plopped down, and then stretched out with her forearm over her eyes. “Yeah, that was me. Erika, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Neither does Max. All I know is Max makes me feel good which, these days, takes a lot of doing. How do I walk away from that? Why should I even have to?”

“What’s going on?” Erika asked, instantly concerned. “What has Phillip done now?”

“Oh, damn. I didn’t tell you.” She quickly brought Erika up to speed.

“That bastard threatened you?” Erika asked, her tone dangerous.

Cassidy smiled grimly. “He says it wasn’t a threat. Simply a ‘what if,’ but you and I both know that’s exactly what he was doing.”

“Well, shit! No wonder you’re clinging to Max.”

“No!” she said forcefully, shoving up on her elbow. “I’m not…no, that’s not what I’m doing. My relationship with Max has nothing to do with Phillip.” She wasn’t clinging to anyone, Cassidy assured herself. That made her sound weak and needy. She was a lot of things, but weak wasn’t one of them.

“Bad word choice,” Erika corrected, knowing her well. “What I meant was no wonder you turned to Max. He’s got to be looking pretty wonderful right about now.”

Resting her forehead on her hand, Cassidy admitted, “Max is everything Phillip used to be, and that scares me, Erika. Did Phillip really change that much, or did I totally misjudge his character? How do I know?”

“You can’t. If he fooled you then he fooled all of us. For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s an act. I think he really loves you. He just has a really screwed-up way of showing it. I guess the better question is why do men cheat? We all know that unlike women, they can separate sex from love. For them it’s just a pleasurable act unless of course, their woman is the one engaging in said act with another man. Then it’s World War III.”

“Phillip knows, or at least suspects, I’m having an affair with Max,” Cassidy said quietly.

Erika gasped. “Are you sure? What did he say? How did you react?”

Cassidy told her what happened and how it had led to Max coming over to spend the night.

“Does Max know Phillip suspects?”

“Yes. He says he doesn’t care. He’s not hiding our relationship.” Cassidy smiled at the memory.

“And you’re not worried about what Phillip will do?” Erika asked, disbelievingly.

“Honestly, a little, but I refuse to put my life on hold while waiting for the divorce to go through. Max assured me and Chris concurred that any relationship I develop while separated from Phillip can’t be used against me in court. I haven’t lived with Phillip since leaving the condo that night, so technically, Max is a non-issue as far as grounds for divorce are concerned,” Cassidy said, sounding more confident than she felt.

 “You know I’ve got your back. Just be careful, will you?” Erika stressed.

“I will.”

“You told your mother about the baby yet?”

With a groan, Cassidy pushed to her feet to pace. “Phillip did. She left this message on my phone.
‘Cassidy, I really wish I could have heard the news from you’
,” she mimicked, changing the pitch and tone of her voice to emulate her mother’s.

“Oooo, that was low. That alone is worth divorcing him over.”

Erika’s response startled a chuckle out of her. “Yeah, well, after that I had to call her. She thinks I’m being stubborn and irresponsible. I should think of my child, not my own wounded feelings. She kept going on and on about it. I got mad and said it’s my life and I really wish she would butt the hell out of it.”

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah. Her end went deadly quiet. Then she said in this small quiet voice,
‘Cassidy Ann Palmer Brannon, if that’s the way you feel, then there’s nothing else to be said. Good-bye,’
and hung up.”

Erika whistled. “You are in so much trouble.”

“I know, but she was making me crazy,” Cassidy said, pushing a lock of hair out of her face.

“What’s your dad got to say about all this?”

“My father’s the strong silent type. He won’t offer an opinion either way, especially not if it goes against Mom. She’s angry, but as long as it keeps her off my back, I really don’t care. I simply can’t deal with her on top of everything else. Is it too much to expect my own mother to support me?” Cassidy wondered aloud.

“Just threaten not to let her see the baby. She’ll fall in line.”

Imagining her mother’s reaction should she do so, Cassidy laughed. When she settled, she said, “I wish my mom were more like Phillip’s. He has a great mom. Too bad the divorce won’t allow us to switch parents.”

“You’re just mad. You know if push came to shove, you wouldn’t trade your mother for anyone in the world,” Erika chided.

“I know,” Cassidy admitted with a sigh. “It’s really annoying.”

She looked over from her position by the window again when the locks on her door clicked open. A flush of anticipation started at her core and spread outward. He entered, looking too sexy for his own good in a blue T-shirt that matched his eyes and the bottom half of a navy- blue jogging suit. His eyes lit up when he saw her standing there.

“Got to go, Erika,” she said, her voice already going breathy. “Dinner just arrived,” she added, noting the bags of food Max held up.

“Oh, I didn’t hear the buzzer. Before you go, when is your next doctor’s appointment?”

“This week. Why?” she asked as she made her way to Max who’d already dropped his overnight bag and was headed for the kitchen.

“Are both men going to be there?”

Mind only half on the conversation, she said, “Probably.”

“If Max needs bail money, tell him I’ve got it covered. Phillip I’ll let rot in the slammer. Go eat. I’ll talk with you later and next time I call, you’d better answer.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Cassidy agreed, grinning as she disconnected the call and set the phone on the kitchen counter.

“Hi,” she said inanely. “The food smells good.” Then noting the logo on the bag, she grinned broadly. “Maggio’s.”

“I had a taste for Italian and I know you like the place, so I swung by,” he said, pulling down plates.

“Mmm, now I’m hungry.”

Concerned blue eyes met hers. “Did you eat today?”

“Yes,” she said self-righteously. When he continued to stare, saying nothing she confessed, “Okay, not really. I had a protein shake and a couple of nutrition bars. It was really busy today.”

“When isn’t it?” he asked mildly. “Have a seat. I’ll bring the food to the table.”

After grabbing a couple of bottles of water from the fridge, Cassidy went eagerly and sat. Max was right behind her, setting down containers of Caesar salad and what looked to be a family-sized portion of Chicken Parmesan.

She waited while Max blessed the food and made the sign of the cross before digging in, unable to believe how hungry she was. Cassidy had downed half her salad before she slowed enough to converse. “That was Erika. She blasted me for not returning her calls.”

“Everything okay with her?”

“She’s fine,” Cassidy said, waving her empty fork for emphasis. “It’s me she was worried about. I told her about you. About us,” she corrected.

Max arched an inquisitive eyebrow. “What did she say?”

“Just warned me to be careful. She likes you, but she’s afraid I’m rushing things.”