Page 79 of Boss from Hell

Max had told me he was going to lunch with his mother. Instead, he had gone for lunch with Paige… and not mentioned it. How had that happened? Images of Paige and Max having a good time over lunch filled my mind. Stop that, I told myself, shaking the images away. There had to be a perfectly good reason why he had lunch with Paige.

Max Frost didn’t play games.

He said so himself.

And I believed him.

If he’d had enough of us, he would have told me, not gone behind my back. But a voice in my head planted small seeds of doubt inside me.Do you really know Max?You have no friends in common apart from Maggie who was only an acquaintance.

And she didn’t have good things to say about him.

“Paige came by,” I said casually when Max returned from his meeting.

He scowled. “Oh! Why didn’t she call before coming?”

I stared at him. “I don’t know. She said you hadn’t mentioned you wouldn’t be in when you had lunch together yesterday.”

Max put his phone away slowly and met my gaze. I hadn’t planned on asking him, but I really needed to know why he hadn’t mentioned it. We may not have been dating seriously, but Max had assured me that while we were together that meant no other women.

He moved closer to my desk, a vicious look in his eyes. “I’m sorry I didn’t mention it to you, but a quick question. Are you still going to meet Dan?”

My eyes widened with surprise. “Yes, but that is completely different.”

“Why?” he thundered.

“Because Dan doesn’t want me back and Paige obviously does.”

“Dan doesn’t want you back! Do me a favor, look in the fucking mirror. Of course, he wants you back. But he’s such a little lily-livered pansy he doesn’t know how to go about it.”

“Dan and I are just friends,” I defended.

“Paige and I are just friends too.”

I stood. “All right. I won’t go to meet Dan.”

It was as if Max was a balloon and I had pricked him with a needle. He deflated in front of me. All the fight went out of him. He exhaled audibly.

“Meet Dan if you must. It doesn’t matter anyway. I didn’t agree to meet Paige for lunch. I was meant to be having lunch with my mother. Instead, I found Paige waiting because my mother had taken to bed with a migraine episode. It was a lie and it was irritating, but I stayed out of respect for my mother. It was not an enjoyable lunch.”

“Why do you always have to come across as if you don’t need anybody,” I whispered.

His eyes glittered. “You want me to need you?”

I said nothing.

“Well, I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone.”

I could tell by his tone that he meant every word. I swallowed hard. What a catastrophe to fall for a man who didn’t share my dreams. It was better to know early, I told myself, even though it felt like a knife had been plunged into my chest.

He turned and retreated to his office.

Chapter 46

Lillian

The hard truth was Max had not mentioned a future with me. Not even once. He’d never once made any promises other than the intoxicatingly sweet words he whispered in my ear when we were having sex.

I pulled myself up short.