His End Game (MMG #1) (39 page)

Double crap! Max is back and I am totally unprepared
.

Before I could turn around and give him a piece of my mind, I spotted Gage and the boys heading our way.

“Shania!” Zippo shouted, and stepped up to hug me. Max’s body stiffened and, thank goodness, Zippo noticed because he carefully patted my arm instead.

I glanced back at Max and mouthed, “Be nice.”

He wound his fingers through my hair and lowered his lips to my ear. “Don’t know these guys and, even if I did, I wouldn’t want them putting their hands on you.” I hated to admit but it kind of made sense and the possessive thing was a huge turn on, so I just nodded my head. I felt his body tense again.

What now
?

Walking toward us was Gage. His eyes were on me and he was sporting his sexy-as-hell smile. Max was less than
impressed. The vindictive side of me that did not like being lied to cheered Gage on. “Hey, babe. Long time no see,” he said. I inwardly smiled when Max let out a growl of disapproval.

Seriously thinking I want to be a biker chick about… right… now…
.

I grinned. “Hey Gage. How was the rally?”

Max snorted and I tried to scowl at him, but he had me in a vice lock and I couldn’t turn around. Testing his hold, I tried to wiggle free, but it only caused him to tighten his grip. “Ellison,” he warned in his don’t-mess-with-me voice. I sighed and relaxed back into him.

Gage, who had been watching our struggle, answered. “The rally was good.”

Ignoring Max’s Neanderthal-assed antics, I asked, “When did you get back?”

“I’ve been sitting at the bar for a little over half an hour. The brown haired waitress with the big rack said that you and your friend Piper were somewhere over here.” The music had stopped, so I assumed that Dillon was taking a break.

Probably off somewhere getting an earful from Dana
.

Harry, who was standing next to Zippo cleared his throat. When everyone stopped and looked at him he said, “Hi, I’m Harry Greenfield.”

“Oh, I’m sorry!” I exclaimed, embarrassed that I hadn’t introduced everyone. “Harry and Max, meet Gage, Zippo, Rider, Ax, Sledge and Buck. Guys, this is Max and Harry.”

After they all shook hands Max’s voice rumbled behind me. “Hey man, you got a cousin named Skeeter?”

“I thought you looked familiar,” Gage grinned, “except I swear that Skeeter called you Jack?” I tensed when he said this and he squeezed my hips.

“It’s a long story. Call me Max.”

Gage nodded. “Been keeping busy since Texas?”

Texas
?

“Somethin’ like that,” Max said.

Ax chimed in. “Hey, I remember you now, you were there with that bl..”

“Nolen,” Max cut him off. “I was with my manager,
Nolen
.”

Gage and Ax cut their eyes at each other.

Did I just miss something
?

I tilted my head and asked, “Who is Skeeter?” And when were you in Texas?”

“Skeeter works for me at my garage in Texas,” Max said. “Nolen and I drove down there four or five months ago to check things out and Skeeter took us over to a…party and introduced us to Gage and some other people.”

“Hey, Shania, where’d you get the t-shirt?” Sledge interrupted.

“Her name is Ellison.” Max informed.

“Yeah, but she looks exactly like a blonde Shania Twain,” Zippo explained, “except with better eyes and…”

Max froze and growled, “Don’t even think about finishing that sentence.”

“T- shirt?” I asked, getting back to the original question.

Sledge nodded at the shirt I had on. “Yeah, do you know Dooley?” I watched him cut his eyes to Gage and Max’s hand twitched on my stomach.

“Oh,” I laughed, looking down at the shirt. “I forgot I had this on. Piper let me borrow it. Isn’t it cool? I asked her what Dooley’s was and where she got it but she didn’t remember.”

“Gage, isn’t that…?” Ryder interrupted.

“Nope,” Gage clipped, shaking his head.”

I was totally lost, but could sense that something wasn’t right.

“So…uh, where is this Piper?” Rider asked, looking around.

“Oh,” Harry butted in, “she wasn’t feeling well so Garrett took her home.”

“You two together?” Zippo asked, looking down at Max’s hands on my waist.

“Yes,” Max said.

“Max and I are…old friends,” I explained. I knew that this would make him angry but I just couldn’t resist.

“Babe,” Max said, turning me around to face him. He searched my eyes and I guess didn’t like what he saw because suddenly he was in my face. “What the fuck, Ellison?”

I leaned in to where only he could hear and said, “I know that you lied to me.”

His eyes darkened. “I’m not sure I like the attitude you’re throwing, babe.”

“Really? Well,” I challenged in the same tone, “I don’t really like being lied to,
babe
. So I guess we’re even.”

The air went tense and I fought the urge to take a step back. Leaning down, he put his mouth to my ear. “I’m thinking we need to head back to your place and clear the air.”

His quiet chilling tone made me want to run. Instead, I stepped out of his arms and glared up at him. “Nope, I’m breathing just fine right…here. In fact, I think it’s probably a good idea if you stay with Joss and Kurt tonight.” As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew that I had pushed him too far. Instead of waiting for him to reply, I whipped around and started for the dance floor.

Crap!

I was halfway there, when I felt his arm tag my waist. “It was good seeing you guys,” he casually said to Gage and the boys as he pulled me back against him. Then he asked, “You staying in town for a while?”

“Probably,” Gage answered, looking unsure.

“Come by MMG. I’m there every day. We’ll talk,” he said, and pulled me toward the bar.

“Max, what are you doing?” I hissed, trying to jerk away from his grasp. This just made him tighten his grip.

“What does it look like?” he snapped.

“Stop manhandling me!”

Stopping dead in his tracks, he twirled me around like we were dancing and hoisted me bodily up over his shoulder.

Oh. My. God

“Keys!” He shouted at Kurt as we passed by the bar. I heard the jingle of keys and the clink as they landed in Max’s hand.

“Max McLellan, you put me down now!” I growled.

“Not gonna happen.” He growled back.

I heard the key in the door and saw the bottom as it swung open. Max set me down in the middle of the floor. Then he walked back over to the door, kicked it shut and flipped the lock.

I placed my hands on my hips and stood there, determined to give him
nothing
.

He crossed his arms. Then, placing one ankle over the other, he leaned back against the door and made himself comfortable.

His nonchalance infuriated me. “You lied to me.”

His eyebrow arched and I wanted to rip it off of his face. “Just what is it that I lied to you about, Ellison?”

I threw up my hands. “Seriously? Where were you today, Max?”

“What’s the point in answering if you already know?”

“What I can’t figure out is why you would lie to me?” I dropped my eyes to my feet and fought the tears.

“I didn’t lie to you. I was going to the garage today. I got a call on the way there and had to change plans.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “And… since I’m not your mother or apparently anyone who
matters
to you, you owe me no
explanations. I get it Max, loud and clear.” I was done. I wanted out and away from him. “If that’s all, I think I’ll take off now.”

He let out an explosive sigh. “If that’s
all
?” I could see the tick of anger in his jaw but I was too far gone to stop.

I stepped forward and leaned in. “I…Am…Done,” I slowly enunciated.

He shot off the wall and before I could blink, was in my face. “Yeah? Tell me Ellison, are you done because I didn’t end up where I said I was going? Are you done because I failed to call home when you felt was the appropriate time? Or are you done because I failed to
explain
myself to you?”

“No
Max
,” I shot back, “I am done because the past five years have been one Big Fucking Lie and, when I finally get you back, the first thing you do is Lie to me, again! That’s why I am done!”

He closed his eyes and pained look appeared on his face. “It wasn’t like that, baby.”

“Yeah, well I wouldn’t know what it was
like
because you don’t feel the need to explain!” I shouted, throwing my hands up in frustration. He stepped in and defensively I stepped back. “Don’t,” I said, holding out my hand hoping he would stop. I knew that if he touched me, I would give in.

God, I am so weak for this man
.

“It wasn’t like that,” he repeated in a half whisper. Then, pushing past my hand, as if it wasn’t there, he pulled me into his body and wrapped himself around me. Placing his lips on the top of my head, he explained. “I got a call this morning while I was driving to the garage. Nolen told me that he was on his way to Tennessee to deal with the manager of the garage, Tim. Tim has been skimming money for months now and Nolen finally figured out how he was doing it. I couldn’t just ignore it, so I grabbed Benny and Kurt and headed to Tennessee.” He tightened his hold. “You called right in the middle of him explaining how he had screwed me over and I handled it poorly. I didn’t
even think about how I had spoken to you, until we were heading back to Charlotte and Kurt lit into me. I didn’t call and tell you what was going on because I had nothing to tell. I was mad at Tim and took it out on you. I am sorry but I didn’t lie. I would have told you about it tonight, I promise.”

“I over reacted,” I said into his chest because he still had me in a death grip.

He pulled back just far enough to look me in the eye. “Why did you tell Gage and his boys that we were just friends?”

“Because I was mad and, truly Max, I have no idea what we are. For all I know, you are here setting up MMG Charlotte and then you are heading back to Kentucky to live.”

His eyes narrowed. “I spent five years away from you. Five years where all I could think about was making my way back to you.” He wove his hands through my hair, stopping when he reached my scalp. “You are everything to me, Ellison.” Using just enough pressure, he forced me to look up at him. Then, oh so gently, he touched his mouth to mine. “You are my end game and, when I am with you, wherever it may be, I am finally home.” He kissed me again with more force and I couldn’t hold out any longer.

He is my kryptonite, my weakness, always has been and always will be
.

Opening my mouth, I let him in. Tongue against tongue, we ate each other up. He broke away long enough to say, “Wrap your legs around my waist.” Then, placing both hands under my arms, he lifted me up and resumed kissing me while walking us over to Kurt’s desk. Lowering me onto the desk, he stepped between my legs.

I am so thanking Joss later for picking out this skirt
.

Grabbing his face, I pulled his lips down to mine and poured myself into him. Right as we were about to ignite, his phone rang.

“Don’t answer,” I panted into his mouth, really wanting to find out what desk sex with Max would feel like.

He gave me a look of apology. “I have to. I’ve got too many balls in the air right now.” Punching the talk button he answered, “Max McLellan.” By the irritated tone of his voice and facial expression, I could tell that I would not be getting desk sex with Max tonight.

Darnit!

He hung up and stared at me. I could see that he was torn and decided to let him off the hook.

“The garage?”

“Yep.”

“The one here or somewhere else?” I wanted to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake twice.

Smiling at my transparency, he said, “here.”

“Go.” I pushed him back and started to get off of the desk but he stopped me.

“Look at me babe.” I looked up into his beautiful eyes. “Are we good here?”

“We’re good,” I told him.

“Can you drive home?”

I nodded yes.

“I don’t know how long this will take. If it’s too late, I won’t wake you. I can see from what happened today that you are unsure about us. This means that I have not done a good job of explaining myself. I will fix this tomorrow, okay?”

Relief poured over me. “Okay Max.”

“I’ll walk you out to your car.”

When we got to my car, he gave me a long tongue lashing kiss and made me promise to text when I got home.

My dad’s car was in the driveway when I pulled in and I was glad to see he was home. After making sure that both he and
Piper were asleep, I texted Max to let him know I was home safe. A little while later, I crawled into bed and turned out the light. I was out before my head even hit the pillow.

I felt Max slip into bed and curl up against me sometime in the wee hours of the morning. When I woke however, he was not there. I threw on my robe and shuffled out to the kitchen in search of him and coffee but all I found was my dad.

“Morning darlin’.”

“Morning dad. Where is everyone?”

“Piper’s hasn’t come down yet and Max had to go to the garage to check on things, but said that he planned on taking the rest of the day off.”