His End Game (MMG #1) (12 page)

She was a distraction
.
I need for you to trust me when I say that I will take care of you. …you are a game changer
.

It was all a lie, every last word of it and I was…such a fool.

“Ellie,” Joss whispered, her voice full of pain, “come on, we’re leaving.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off of Max.

Why would he do this to me
?

“Joss!” I heard Kurt shout from across the deck.

Was this all one big joke and I’m the punch line
?

“I’ll catch up with you later!” she shouted back.

Max’s head shot up. His beautifully traitorous eyes connected with mine and flared in surprise.

Surprise asshole, you are busted
.

Sick to my stomach and desperate to get away, I bolted off the deck.

“Fuck!” I heard someone shout and then, “Ellie, wait!” But I was already halfway across the front lawn and not stopping for anyone.

I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it
, I chanted in my head as I sprinted down the street.
How could he do this to me? Why would he do this to me? I gave him all of me. Everything…I… had
.

My heavy panting and internal dialogue were taking up so much space in my head that I wasn’t aware that Max was right on my heels until I felt his hand yanking me backwards.

“Ellison, stop,” he said.

I heard a gut wrenching sound, somewhere between a wail and a keen, and realized that it was coming from my mouth.

He wrapped his arms around me and for the first time the smell of leather and spice did not comfort me. “Ells, baby, it’s not what you think. Let me explain.”

I reared back and yelled, “No!” I couldn’t stop the tears. I was heartbroken and having a hard time catching my breath. “I saw yyyou.”

“You need to let me explain,” he stressed, also breathing heavily.

“I saw her hands and mouth on you.” I was having trouble voicing the jumbled up thoughts in my head.

“It’s not what you think,” he whispered, pulling me in closer.

I couldn’t get the visual of them together out of my head. “Liar!” I shrieked, pushing him away. “She was sitting in your
lap! I…Saw…Her…Lips…On…You. It is seared into my brain now,” I said, slapping the front of my head, “and you were just…Sitting there, letting her touch you! Why?” I cried. “Why?”

By this time Joss, Kurt, Bobby, Tyler, Piper and Tom had all caught up with us.

“I think you’ve done enough damage here, Max,” said Piper, who had managed to grow her spine back for the moment.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I heard Joss mumble. If it had been any other situation but the one I was in, I would have laughed.

“Fuck you Piper! You weren’t even there,” Max said.

“Now, now, no need for vulgar language here,” Tom calmly said with his hands in the air as if he were talking down a fugitive.

“Who… the fuck… are you?” Max growled.

Before Tom could answer, Joss cut in. “Well, I was
there
Max and from where I was standing it looked pretty bad.”

“Joss,” Kurt warned.

“Do not even
tell me
that you are going to take up for him?” she hissed.

“I want to go home,” I said, trying to get myself together.

“Baby, let me take you home and we can talk,” Max said. His eyes flicked down and narrowed when he noticed what I was wearing.

“Don’t call me that,” I said, ignoring his scowl. “You don’t get to call me that or anything else ever again.”

I turned to Joss, the one person I knew I could count on. “I need to be alone. I need to get out of here. Please get me out of here,” I implored.

“I’m asking you….please,” Max begged, “don’t do this.”

Don’t look at him….Don’t give in
…..

Hearing the pain in his voice made me want to give in. Instead, I leaned in and whispered, “You told me to trust you.
So, like a stupid, naïve little girl, I trusted you
with everything
. You know what I’m talking about. You could have stayed with her doing….whatever you were doing. Why couldn’t you just let me be?”

“I’ve heard enough,” Joss said. “Let’s go.” She put her arms around me and led me back to the car.

Joss wanted to take me back to her house but I just wanted to be alone. I needed to figure myself out and the only way I could do this was alone. Piper was stuck so far up Tom’s ass that she didn’t even offer to ride back with us. I would never abandon her in a time of need and thought that she felt the same way. It hurt to know I was wrong.

“I can stay here with you, if you want?” Joss offered as we reached my driveway.

“No thanks. I need to be alone right now.”

“Okay, but I’m calling you first thing in the morning. We need to say goodbye to Pips and Chucky before they leave tomorrow afternoon and I need to get your stuff back to you.”

Squeezing her hand, I told her how much I appreciated her friendship. Then, closing my eyes, I told her what had been running through my head the whole way home. “He played me and got my virginity out of it, Joss. I am such an idiot.”

Grabbing my face, she said, “Look at me, Ellie.” Once she had my eyes, she continued. “I know what it looked like tonight. I know that you are hurting and, God knows, if Kurt did this to me, I would be too. But….I heard Max’s voice and saw his face when he was trying to explain it to you and, I gotta give it to him, either he is the best actor on the face of the planet or we are missing something. Either way, take your space and get some sleep. I can’t help but think that things will look better in the morning.”

Nodding, I got out of the car. I was heartsick and bone tired. All I wanted was a hot shower and a good long cry.

“Love you, girl,” she said out her window as she drove off.

I could hear the phone ringing from my driveway and my aunt’s voice as she answered it.

“Hang on just a minute Max,” I heard her say as she put down the phone.

I opened the screen door, shook my head and mouthed “No” to her.

Narrowing her eyes at me, she picked it back up. “Uh…she’s not back from Joss’ house yet. In fact, I don’t expect her back until sometime tomorrow. I’ll be sure and tell her you phoned though,” she told him. As soon as the phone hit the cradle, she asked, “What has that boy done to you now? Your eyes look like you’ve been stung by a swarm of bees and you sound like you’ve just smoked a carton of cigarettes. I don’t like it, Ellison, not one bit.”

“I can’t talk about it right now. Can we talk tomorrow? Please? I just really need to be alone right now, okay?”

“Okay sweetie, I’m here for you if you want to talk,” I heard her say as I hit the stairs.

I opened my bedroom door, walked directly to my window and locked it. No surprise visits tonight. My heart couldn’t take it. Grabbing my pillow and favorite blanket, I turned off my light, shut my door and walked across the hall to the guest room. After a scorching hot shower, I crawled onto the bed and cried myself to sleep.

The next morning I woke to someone crawling into bed with me.

What in the world
?

“Ellie, it’s me, Joss,” she crooned, rubbing my back.

“You just scared the hell out of me,” I croaked. After screaming at Max and crying most of the night, I had very little voice left.

“Thought it was Chucky, didn’t ya?” she giggled. My lack of humor made her sigh. “Honey, I am so sorry I got you to go to that party.”

“Just think, if I hadn’t caught him with her, he would have kept pretending that he wanted to be with me. I am so….dumb, Joss.”

“Oh, El, has it occurred to you that maybe things didn’t happen the way we think? Maybe what we thought we saw wasn’t what was really happening?”

“No. You were there. You know what I saw.”

“I talked to Kurt after I left you here last night.”

I wanted to hear more but wasn’t going to ask.

“He stayed with Max after we left. He said that Max was completely destroyed.”

“Let me guess, Max was destroyed because he got caught and lost his booty call for the night.”

“
No
. He said that Max was destroyed by the thought of causing
you
pain. He also said that Max tore into Jennifer the second he got back to the party.”

This
got my attention and I couldn’t help but ask, “Why?” I turned my head so I could see her face.

“Maybe because things weren’t as they seemed?”

I rolled my eyes at this. “What exactly did he say to her?”

“Something to the effect of how his life is good, for once, and that if he loses you because of the shit she just pulled, he will make it his personal mission to make her life a living hell.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, I thought you would want to know that.”

“Still, it doesn’t excuse that he allowed her to sit in his lap and put her lips on him. If it were me, she would have been kissing the deck the second her nasty ass sat on my lap. I would never do that to him, Joss, ever. So why did he do it to me?” Just thinking about it made my eyes well.

“I know and agree. But what we
didn’
t see was him reciprocating. We were so caught up in what Jennifer was doing that we failed to pay attention to what Max was doing. Kurt said that Jennifer started chasing Max around the party the second they showed up. He told me that in no way did Max invite that from her. In fact, he said that Max had managed to completely avoid her until five minutes before we saw them on the deck. Don’t you find it odd that she chose that moment to pounce? What do you want to bet that she saw us walk through that door? She‘s been wanting to get you back, Ellie. What a perfect way to do it.”

“I just don’t know anymore, Joss. Nothing makes sense right now. This guy has made me lose all of my bearings.”

“Like how?”

“My life wasn’t great before but I was dealing with it. Now I just feel broken inside. I’ve never felt like this about anyone so I have nothing to compare it to.” I was frantically trying to wipe away the tears but they just kept coming.

“Sugar, it’s called love. I see it in both of you. You are totally in love with each other.”

“It hurts. Make it stop.” I wiped my tears on my pillow. Finally, I gave up and let them run down my face.

“You have to talk to him, Ellie. You need to hear what he has to say and decide whether you believe him or not.”

“Okay,” I whispered.

“Great!” She clapped her hands, jumped off the bed and opened the door. “The floor is all yours. Don’t make me regret this.”

My heart skipped a couple hundred beats when a tired looking Max entered into the room. He walked to the foot of the bed, picked up a chair and carried it over next to me. Then, he plopped himself down and stared at me.

Joss just totally played me
.

“You were right,” were the first words out of his mouth.

“About?” I rasped.

“Baby,” he winced, hearing my ruined voice.

So, I was getting sweet Max this morning. I was okay with bossy Max, really did not care for harsh Max but I absolutely adored sweet Max. Stiffening my spine, I repeated, “What was I right about, Max?”

“The second Jennifer planted her nasty ass on my lap I should have made her kiss the deck.”

Oh God, he heard our conversation
.

“But I didn’t and because of that I hurt you and am now sitting here asking you to let me explain. Instead, I should be lying next to you in that bed.”

I didn’t know how to respond to this.

He looked out the window as if gathering his thoughts. Looking back, he said, “I have had the best two months of my life with you and need you to know that I would never in a million years throw that away for something as cheap and meaningless as Jennifer.” Lowering his hand to mine, he twined our fingers together. “Hell, I wouldn’t throw this away for anything.”

“I know what I saw, Max.”

“You saw her making her move and me calmly explaining to her that hell would freeze over before she ever got me again.”

“Her lips were on you.”

“They weren’t until she saw you walk across the deck.”

Joss was right
.

“I convinced myself that I needed to take things slow and give you time before blasting you with shit about my messed up family or my feelings. I’m thinking that was a mistake and that if I had told you what I was feeling, last night wouldn’t have happened. At least it wouldn’t have had such a shitty ending. I know it looked bad and I know that I would have done the same if the tables were turned. Hell, who am I kidding? I would have done much worse.” He tightened his hold on my hand, as if afraid that I would run away if he let go. I wondered if I should say something when he stood up. He leaned a knee on the side of the bed, picked me up and scooted me over so he could climb in.

Lying beside me with his head on my pillow, he reached up and wiped away my tears. “I love you,” he whispered. “I have never felt this way about anyone in my whole life. Before you, those words weren’t even in my vocabulary.”

“You do?” I had to ask because maybe I hadn’t heard him correctly.

“Beautiful girl, I love you so much that I spent the night in a fucking Magnolia tree waiting for the opportunity to crawl through your window.”