Sadie gasped softly, her body suddenly overpowered with the dark, sensual energy of Max’s body. He was kissing her now, softly and sensually, his tongue moving in long, sensual laps against hers. It awoke a fierce longing within her; one that was nearly impossible to control. There was no denying what it was she really wanted now. Max knew. He could sense it. Worse than that, he could make her longing even more fierce. He knew exactly what to do.

He pulled away, grinning at her, his voice a lilting tease.

“Are you ever going to be satisfied?”

Sadie was embarrassed now, ashamed of the depth of desire she had hidden within her. If only she knew how deeply attractive Max found this side of her. Maybe she wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss it.

“I…”

Sadie trailed off, turning away from Max and hiding her face. Yes, she was fully embarrassed now. Maybe she could have taken this kind of teasing when they were together the first time, but right now, it probably felt something like an attack.

Thoughts of their original relationship pulled Max out of his lusty mood, and he turned away from her, sighing deeply.

“Maybe we should talk about what happened back then now,” he said tentatively, feeling out the energy in the room to try and sense Sadie’s feelings about this.

She turned to look at him sharply, her face drawn in a combination of annoyance and pain.

“Or maybe we don’t have to do that right now. Isn’t this enough for you?”

“Well, it wasn’t enough for you, was it?” Max asked, chuckling softly.

Sadie didn’t seem to think this was funny, and turned away from him again, a deep pout jetting on her lip.

“Aww, don’t be like that, now,” Max said, sitting beside her and putting his arm around her gently. She seemed to relax for a moment, but when she looked at him again, her gaze was steel. It reminded him immediately of the way she had looked at him during their last fight, when she had told him she wanted nothing to do with him and that she never wanted to see him again. And yet, somehow, here they were.

“I don’t know how else to be. This is all really confusing. And I don’t think you’re making it much better by teasing me like that. Why can’t we just have a normal conversation and live in the present instead of the past?”

Max studied Sadie, confusion and mild anger beginning to broil in his breast. Why was it that she didn’t want to talk about what had happened? They had to get over the elephant in the room if they were ever going to have a meaningful relationship again. It wasn’t as if he blamed her for any of it.

“Well, yeah, it’s confusing. That’s why we have to try and talk it out, you know? A lot of things are different now. We aren’t kids anymore. And when we were kids, we just fucked things up. I don’t want that to happen again, do you?”

Sadie studied him, her eyes cloudy and difficult to read. Sometimes, she was just as good at hiding her feelings as the shifter was. He could sense some kind of shifter qualities and her ancestry, so that probably had something to do with it. It was one of the most irritating things about her, if he was going to be honest with himself. He wanted to be able to understand her entirely, but if she was going to hide everything within her power to hide from him, then how were they ever going to make any progress in their relationship? It’s not like they were masters in communication.

“I don’t know why you’re being so aggressive with me, right now,” Sadie said, gritting her teeth. “I told you I don’t want to talk about this. At least, not right now. Not when I’m feeling so vulnerable. There’s a lot of things I just don’t know how to say.”

“Well, you certainly knew how to say it back then!” Max said, getting to his feet angrily, as all of the harsh words that Sadie had spoken began to sound out in his mind again. He had stuffed down his anger about this for so long that he nearly forgot it was there. But now, there it was again, boiling over. She hadn’t answered any of his letters. She hadn’t even treated their relationship like it was anything worthwhile.

He had worked hard to try and get back into communication with her. He had done everything short of actually coming back to town so he could talk to her in person about what it was she actually wanted. But she had already told him. She didn’t want him in town. She didn’t want him anywhere near her. She had told him never to come back.

And he had taken the words to heart, especially when things had started getting dangerous for him. What other choice did he have? He wasn’t going to stick around for a woman who hated him just so he could get himself into all kinds of trouble with a group of shifters that seemed to want him dead. There was no point in that.

“I’m not the only one to blame here,” Sadie said, standing up as well and grabbing a blanket from behind the couch to wrap herself up in. “I didn’t tell you to leave and just completely forget everything we should feel. Sometimes, people say things out of anger and don’t entirely mean it. You could’ve tried a little bit harder. I thought maybe salvaging whatever was left of our relationship would’ve been important enough to you to give it another try. But you didn’t. You just disappeared like that, and you left me alone here. I don’t know why I should even be talking to you right now. It was the worst thing anybody has ever done to me.”

“You told me to!” Max exclaimed.

What was it with human women and thinking that being straightforward was far too simple a way to conduct their relationships. They always acted like they wanted honesty, but when he gave them honesty, they shut him down. And he expected them to be honest about how they were feeling, and when he took them at their word, that was also the wrong thing to do.

What the hell was going on? Why had he even bothered to come back here? Things were never going to change. Sadie would always be the same person she was, and everything that had happened between them probably had happened for a reason. Otherwise, why would they have ended up in the situation they were in, even right now, with both of them feeling completely miserable and pissed off at each other.

“It’s not my fault you don’t understand women,” Sadie exclaimed. “Maybe we’re just too incompatible for each other. You don’t seem to understand anything I want, and maybe you are just too selfish and full of yourself to consider what anybody else needs. It’s ridiculous. I don’t know how I ever lived with you for so long. Everything has just been a struggle, and I will never be able to forgive myself for wasting so much of my life with you.”

“You know what?” Max said, his anger finally giving way full force and causing him to pull his clothes on aggressively, allowing the harsh words that had been brewing in his chest to finally spill out of his mouth. “I’m glad I left. I’m glad I haven’t seen you in fifteen years. And I could live just as well without seeing you for another fifteen years. You know how much better my life has been? I made something of myself. I made a ton of money. I made a successful business, all from scratch. I didn’t have anybody to help me do that. And without you holding me back, it was a hell of a lot easier. I don’t need you, and I don’t need anybody. So you stay the hell away from me. And never even look at my storefront. You have done nothing to deserve it.”

Max collected his things and stormed out of the house, vaguely aware of Sadie following after him. It was clear she didn’t want him to stay, but for some reason, he also got the impression she didn’t want him to go either. Why couldn’t women just make up their minds? Why did everything have to be such a fucking struggle for them?

No, he wasn’t going to stick around for any of this. Everything with her had always been overly complicated, and he wasn’t going to let himself fall into the same trap again. He was too busy for that shit. He had a new store to run and a group full of shifters who wanted to see him fail. He wasn’t going to let Sadie or his enemies get what they wanted. And as far as he was concerned now, Sadie and his enemies were one and the same.