CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Max’s Magic Rule #17:
Know when to pack up your things and get off stage.
Three days later
Grace closed the trunk of her car after shoving the last few things from her office inside. Before getting behind the wheel, she texted Melina the ruling by the university’s ethics committee. She copied Lucy and Rhys on the message. She thought about adding Max, as well, but ultimately didn’t.
She did, however, scroll to the messages they’d sexted one another during her Skype interview.
She should have deleted them. She didn’t. She couldn’t.
She hadn’t seen him since that day he’d left to pick up Elizabeth from the airport. Once Michaels had told her the subject of his article and that it involved information derived from her texts with Max, she’d driven back to her hotel, packed up her things then stopped by the hospital to say goodbye to Melina and Rhys, swearing she’d fly down as soon as the babies were born.
She didn’t leave Max a note. Didn’t phone him.
And although he’d been blowing up her phone since she’d left, she’d refused to answer.
She wanted to. She had to force herself not to because she was afraid she’d cave and beg him to give her another chance. But regardless of her feelings for Max, regardless of how much she believed he hadn’t betrayed her with Elizabeth, Michaels’ visit had clarified the real reason she and Max couldn’t be together.
It wasn’t that he was a playboy and wouldn’t want to have a relationship with her. It was because he was a celebrity, one whose private life would constantly be fair game to the media. He was also a man who made all the kink she’d been born with go into hyper drive.
That’s not what she wanted.
She wanted love. She wanted family. But most of all she wanted a normal life.
Now that she’d left Vegas, she was several steps closer to getting it.
For now, the fiasco with Logan Cooper was over.
The university’s ethics committee had ruled in her favor. In the end, they’d decided Grace’s behavior at the campus mixer had been unwise but not unethical. A huge factor in the committee’s decision was that, after Grace’s lawyer forwarded him the article Michaels had run in The Scoop, Steven LaBrecht had come forward to testify on her behalf after all. She and Steven had gone to coffee after he gave his statement to the committee, and Steven said the woman he was dating was sticking by him. Grace was glad.
There was still the lawsuit against the university to contend with, but her lawyer was confident that given Steven’s statement, it would eventually be settled or dismissed outright. And although she’d had to deal with a bevy of reporters trying to follow-up on Michaels’s story once she’d returned to California, they’d soon lost interest in her once they’d realized Max wasn’t going to show and that she refused to say a word about him. It helped that both Elizabeth and Max had seemed to disappear as well. There were all kinds of speculations online that they’d flown to the Caribbean to try to undo the damage Grace did to their budding relationship. Grace knew from Melina that was far from the truth. Elizabeth was holed up somewhere even Melina didn’t know of, and Max had gone off by himself to stay at his parents’ house.
At least he’d be able to spend some quality time with Houdini, she thought. That would be good for him. And she wanted what was good for Max.
She just knew what was good for her and that was for them to stay away from one another.
Michaels’s article wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Although it referred to her and Max sexting one another, it didn’t include any of the actual texts, or the photo she’d texted. In the end, it was just another tabloid article that could have been based in truth or completely fabricated.
Now Grace was headed home. She’d quit her job at the university as planned, but she’d also dropped Operation Baby. If she’d learned one thing during her time with Max, it was that she didn’t know what she wanted. Acting rashly by bringing a baby into the world under those circumstances was not okay.
Grace was intent on getting inside her car when she sensed movement behind her.
She turned and saw Max.
She nearly whimpered in combined excitement and regret. He looked good, but he also looked tired. Haggard. Worn-out and drained. Much the same way Rhys had looked when he’d rushed to the hospital the day Melina had those contractions.
Max’s expression never changed to joy or relief the way Rhys’s had. He stood several feet away, arms crossed over his chest, scowling.
She barely resisted throwing herself at him.
It had only been three days and she missed him. Longed for him. Every minute of every day, but especially at night, when she was haunted with memories of them being in each other’s arms.
She finally asked, “Melina’s okay?” even though she knew she was. If something was wrong or if Melina had gone into labor, Rhys would have called or texted her.
He didn’t reply.
“What brings you here, Max?”
Her words seemed to snap him out of a trance. He strode toward her. Then to her utter shock he bent low, put his shoulder to her belly and straightened, carrying her away from her car. It took several seconds before she could speak. “What are you doing?”
“Bringing you some place you can’t run away from me. I’m a magician. I have an assortment of ties and handcuffs. Too bad I didn’t know when I left my place to see Elizabeth that you were going to run. I would’ve tied you to the bed.”
Having reached his car and unlocked the doors with his beeper, he threw open the passenger door and stooped down to gently deposit her inside. “Stay,” he said, pointing at her.
As if she was freakin’ Houdini.
Fortunately for him and unfortunately for her, she was in such shock over what he’d just done and said, he was able to get behind the wheel and start driving before she recovered.
“Are you crazy?”
“Crazy pissed, crazy frustrated, crazy to have ever gotten involved with you. Take your pick,” he said.
That made her mouth snap shut. She knew it was stupid, but his comment hurt.
He seemed to get that. Sighing, he said, “In case you’re wondering, I’m also still crazy about you. And I know you’re still crazy about me.”
His bright hazel eyes lasered into her, holding so much resolve that she had to turn away and glance out the window.
“You’re wrong, Max,” she said quietly.
“No, you’re wrong if you think I’m letting you walk away from me.”
Her head snapped around and she stared at his profile as he drove. “‘Lettin’ me’? We’re not in bed, Max, and last time I checked, you no longer have any control over me.”
“I can change that.”
She shivered and her core began to throb. Max had always been more than his fair share of bad boy, but she’d never seen him this dominant before. She wanted to keep fighting him on principle, but she could plainly see how hurt he was just beneath the surface of his anger.
She’d done that.
She didn’t want to hurt either one of them anymore.
Time to try logic and honesty. Max was reasonable and they hadn’t been together that long. She’d just explain why this wasn’t going to work for her, like she should’ve in the first place, and he’d be reasonable. He had so many women who wanted to be with him. He didn’t need her complicating his life.
“You’re right. I am crazy about you. But you can’t give me what I need. I want a family. I want stability. I want a nice, normal, peaceful life. As a visit from a certain reporter proved you come with drama, not peace.”
“You need some drama.”
“Not that much. Good Lord, Max, they crucified me in that article. The things they said… About the lawsuit... About those texts...”
“It was Jeremy. He took my phone during a performance one night. Read through it. He needed the money, and he knew Michaels worked for The Scoop. He called him. Thankfully, he knew better than to actually forward our texts to him.”
“Jeremy? Your landlord.”
“Ex-landlord.”
“Oh no, Max. You didn’t give up your lease for me, did you?”
“Are you serious?”
“No I—”
“Are you fucking serious?”
Stunned, she stopped talking.
He pulled the car into a strip mall parking lot and turned to face her. “Dixie, the guy stole my phone and used personal and private information to hurt you. Breaking our lease was the least of what Rhys and I did to him.”
Her eyes rounded and he shook his head. “We didn’t hurt him even though we really wanted to. Can’t take the risk of Rhys not being around for his babies. And I didn’t want to take the risk of not being around when you came to your senses.”
“I’ve retained my senses, Max. That picture I sent you…”
“I deleted it off my phone right after you sent it. Jeremy never saw it.”
“You deleted it but not the texts.”
“The photo… I didn’t want to risk someone seeing it and tracking it back to you. The texts I took a calculated risk on. Turned out to be the wrong decision and I’m sorry about that. But like I told you before: sometimes to live a full life, you’ve got to take risks and those risks are going to backfire on you. Doesn’t mean you stop taking risks.”
She wanted to believe that, but she couldn’t. “You and I won’t work. I wish that wasn’t the case, but if wishes were fishes we’d all cast our nets. You’re in the spotlight and I’m just a normal girl who craves family—”
“Bullshit. You’re not ‘normal’ no matter how much you want to be. And that’s a good thing, Grace. You want a family, but you also want love. You want excitement. You want kink. I can give you all of that if you’ll let me.”
“No.”
He stared at her. Took her hands and kissed them, just as he’d done in the past. “I know it sucked, having that reporter blindside you. I know you were humiliated. But it wasn’t me who did that to you, Grace. And right now you’re telling me I’m not worth the drama, even if said drama wasn’t my fault.”
She wanted so badly to reassure him but she couldn’t. He was right. She wasn’t normal—her propensity for kink and the risks she took proved that—but she wanted to be normal. To be normal, she needed a normal life. Not a life in Vegas dating a celebrity magician.
“The drama wasn’t your fault, Max. It’s just… it’s just who you are. It’s all you’ll evah be.”
He looked like she’d stabbed him. “Right.” He stared at their joined hands for several seconds before letting go. He started driving again, executing an abrupt U-turn and heading back in the direction of the university. “God, I never learn. First Nancy and now, eleven years later, you. I thought I’d learned my lesson.”
She didn’t know who Nancy was, but the way he said her name, she knew she didn’t want to be compared to her. “Max, I’m sorry,” she said when he pulled up next to her car. “We want different things…”
“Don’t play that card, Grace. You’re scared. You opened up to me, and then you had to deal with some ugly stuff, and you’re afraid there’s going to be more ugly stuff. But what you’re most afraid of is yourself. You’re afraid I’m going to hurt you.”
“And that’s so outside the realm of possibility? You’ve left plenty of women behind, Max.”
“I have. But when I walked away, I did it knowing I never promised them I wouldn’t. I never lied to any of those women. But you lied. You told me you respected me. That you wanted to build something special with me.”
“Honey, I didn’t lie. All that was true. It is true. But we’re too different.”
“Again, bullshit, Grace. Now get out. Go pursue your normal life. Just remember, when you’re bored out of your fucking mind and realize you could have had more, everything, just remember you’re the one who walked away. And now you’ve done it twice.”
She hesitated. Struggled with indecision. Then she got out of the car.
As soon as she shut the door, Max drove off.