All He Wants (10 page)

When she appeared from her room Billy insisted on going with her, so he changed and accompanied her on her five mile run. She loved running with him. His presence not only made her feel safe it also inspired her to push herself even harder than she normally did. The entire time she’d had to keep reminding herself not to get used to him being there.

After the run they’d returned home where he’d made breakfast while she took a shower. He was a great cook. Much better than her. Her dad
always
took Billy up on his offers to cook Sunday dinner, her offers…not so much. He’d say he was in the mood for Chinese or pizza, that he enjoyed cooking and it was his time to relax, or that she worked so hard and he wanted her to relax. All of which was code for: your cooking stinks. It was true, it really did.

When breakfast was done Billy took an uncharacteristically speedy shower while she washed the dishes. For as long as she could remember he’d had a reputation for taking long showers. It was a running joke at the gym that he needed the extra time to wash off all the skank. But today he’d been in and out in less than five minutes.

During the short reprieve of alone time she’d tried to build up some emotional protection, but before she could he was back and sexier than ever. The scene was straight out of a movie. The bathroom door opened and he stepped out surrounded by steam. As he walked towards her in slow motion (at least that’s how her brain had seen it) the seductive combination of clean and masculine scent filled the air. His hair was damp causing it to be a shade darker which highlighted his golden brown eyes. But the real show-stopping panty-melter was the five o’clock shadow he was rocking. The light sprinkle of hair peppered on his chin had Maxi’s hands itching to touch it.

One look at him and she’d known that no mere mortal woman could resist his appeal. So she’d grabbed her computer and claimed she needed to work. That was three hours ago. Since then he’d been on the couch watching TV and she’d been at the kitchen table “working.” Or, at least trying to. To her credit, it wasn’t
just
his presence, though that was more distracting than fresh baked cookies when you’re on a no sugar diet. No, there was another element breaking her concentration as well. His phone was going off every few minutes, or at least that’s what it felt like. The few times she had been able to concentrate and get a flow going the thing would vibrate with either a text or call. Billy would pick it up, check it, type quick responses and put it down.

The first ten times he’d received a call or text Maxi had asked if there was any news on the case. She figured that Detective Grover would call her if there were any breaks on the law enforcement side, but if Seth found anything out chances were he’d contact Billy. So far, every time she’d asked, he’d say no and hadn’t elaborated on who was contacting him. Not that he owed her any explanation. He didn’t. But that didn’t stop her from wanting to know.

Stretching her arms above her head, she inhaled deeply and exhaled audibly before diving back into her inbox. She scanned for anything that needed her attention. When she heard the buzzing of a phone she automatically thought it was Billy’s but when her eyes lifted she noticed the screen on
her
phone was lighting up.

Grabbing the device from the table she saw that it was Jana texting her. Her friend asked how Maxi was doing. She responded, telling her that she was fine. The next text came through before she’d even set the phone back down. She was asking if Billy had fun last night.

Maxi felt a flitter of excitement at having an excuse to ask him. “Jana wants to know if you had fun last night.”

“Yes and no,” he answered without turning around.

She typed his response, hoping her friend would ask a follow up.

So when Jana asked if he could be more specific Maxi wanted to give her friend a virtual high five.

“She asked if you could be more specific,” Maxi’s tone was intentionally dripping with casual indifference.

There was a silent pause before he turned his head and when his light brown stare met hers her pulse raced like it was in the lead on the last lap of the Indy 500.

“The poetry was worse than getting a root canal but the movie and sleepover were more fun than I’ve had in a while,” he ended with a wink.

“Pffft,” Maxi huffed in disbelief. There was no way he’d actually had fun sleeping sitting up on a couch with her using him as a pillow. She had, but her personal life was nothing to write home about. His, on the other hand, had entire blogs dedicated to it. Or at least it had when he was fighting.

Even though she knew he couldn’t possibly have meant what he’d claimed, she couldn’t help the giddiness that his statement caused to bloom low in her belly.

After typing back a response telling her friend that poetry wasn’t really his thing, she decided to give up on “working” and closed her computer.

“What did you tell her?” Billy’s arm rested over the back of the couch.

“That poetry really isn’t your thing.”

“Why didn’t you tell her what I
actually
said?”

“I didn’t want her to get the wrong idea.”

“What would the wrong idea be?”

Maxi knew that she was being baited but that didn’t stop her from biting. Hook, line and sinker. “That you and I had a
sleepover.
”

“We both slept, together, overnight.” His voice grew deeper with each word he spoke. “What would you call it?”

Sitting back in her chair she crossed her arms. “I would call it me falling asleep and you being too nice to wake me up.”

He opened his mouth to respond at the same time his phone buzzed.

“Go ahead.” Maxi motioned to his phone when he didn’t pick it up. “I know that babysitting me is getting in the way of your active social life. I don’t want one of your lady friends to send out a search party for you.”

Billy grinned. “Lady friends?”

“Your hookups, booty calls, flavors of the day, side chicks—”

“I think you have to have a main chick for there to be a side chick.” His golden eyes danced with amusement.

When she saw his reaction she immediately regretted going down this road with him. “Whatever, you know what I mean.”

She’d spent years avoiding getting into a discussion with Billy about his personal life. Mainly because hearing him talk about women was like a punch in her gut. Why she’d thought that now, when she was feeling her most
vulnerable
, her most
raw
was a good time to venture into the choppy waters of his dating pool was anyone’s guess.

“Do you want a soda?” Maxi stood and headed to the kitchen, hoping that she could steer this conversation into safer territories.

“No, I’m good.”

She grabbed herself a Dr. Pepper.

“You don’t have to worry about any search parties, I’m not seeing anyone right now.”

She was glad she hadn’t taken a drink yet because if she had chances were she would have choked or done a spit take. Or both.

With a pretty healthy dose of sarcasm she answered, “Sure you aren’t.”

“I’m not.” His tone was as serious as the look in his eyes.

Anyone who knew Billy knew that he loved women and they loved him. He was never short on female companionship. They also knew that he didn’t lie. Ever. Needless to say her mind was having a difficult time with the contradictions his statement posed.

He held out his phone towards her. “See for yourself.”

She wasn’t exactly sure what he was offering. “What?”

“Look through my phone.”

This had to be a trick, right?

His phone would be locked or have some scary picture on it. He couldn’t actually want her to go through his personal messages…could he? Her legs decided not to wait for her brain to answer those questions and they began moving of their own accord.

She snagged his phone. There was no prank pic and it was open to his text messages. A quick scan revealed several girls who appeared to be naked or nearly naked.

“These are personal.” She tried to hand the phone back to him, but he didn’t take it. His stare held a challenge in it and she had no idea why he was doing this. For some reason that irritated the crap out of her. “Who just gives someone their phone to go through?”

“Someone with nothing to hide,” he answered simply.

Touché.

Even though it felt all kinds of wrong to do it, she sat down on the couch and started going through his messages. She rationalized her behavior by telling herself that she may never get another chance to look behind the curtain that was Billy’s personal life.

What she found there was surprising, but not in the way she’d expected.

As she scrolled through message after message from
willing
,
eager
females a few things became evident. First, she really had no game when it came to texting or sexting or whatever it was called. These women were at a pro level. Second, he really
hadn’t
hooked up with anyone in months and even though Billy was basically turning everyone down, he always did it in a classy way. He responded to each and every message even if it was mostly just to reiterate that he wasn’t interested. And lastly, she didn’t have any idea how he kept all these women straight. The sheer numbers and redundancies were staggering. For example on
one
day he’d heard from three Heathers. Heather H., Heather B., and Heather M.

“How do you keep them all straight?” She heard herself asking aloud the question she’d thought internally.

“I have a good memory.”

“You would have to.”

As she continued swiping her thumb, seeing text after text, jealousy started to rear its ugly head. It didn’t make any sense that the green-eyed monster was visiting, considering all evidence pointed to him
not
dating any of the women that had contacted him, but just the fact that he had been with them and they still wanted to see him was not a fun thing to be faced with.

“So what’s the deal? Have you decided to join the priesthood or something?” She handed the phone back to him.

As he reached for the phone the roughened pads of his fingers grazed the back of her hand. “Or something,” he answered with a grin that spread on his too-handsome face, reaching all the way to his expressive, honey-colored eyes.

His smile, his stare, his touch all conspired together, acting like lighter fluid dousing the flicker of lust that was always burning just beneath the surface whenever Billy was near. What had started as a small flame now roared into an out-of-control inferno of heated desire.

This was why she dated guys like Simon. At much too young an age, she’d witnessed what happens when you gave into out-of-control.

On instinct she jerked her hand back, snatching it out of his grasp. If Billy noticed her odd behavior, he didn’t let it show on his face.

“What about you?”

“What about me?” Maxi’s voice quivered.

“What’s
your
deal?”

“My deal?” she parroted.

“With you and Simon.”

“We broke up.”

A wrinkle appeared between Billy’s brows. “When?”

“Last night. When we were saying goodbye.”

She hadn’t given it a second thought since it had happened. He’d asked if he could see her next week and she’d said she didn’t think it was working out. It was that simple. He hadn’t looked happy about it but he certainly hadn’t looked heartbroken either.

Billy’s grin grew wider as he rested his arm on the back of the couch, making himself at home. This entire scene was far too intimate for Maxi. The sight of Billy lounging in her condo after they’d shared a couch, a run and breakfast together was too much. Sure, logically she knew that he wasn’t here because he wanted to be, but emotionally it felt different. It felt
real.

But it wasn’t real. She had to remember that.

*     *     *

“How long had you two been seeing each other?”

When Billy had handed Maxi his phone his intentions had been pure. For some reason he’d
needed
her to know that he wasn’t involved with anyone. It was a move that could have backfired on him as she could have easily been disgusted by the number of women sexting him. He hadn’t weighed the risk to reward ratio and if he had he may not have done it. But he was damn happy he had because he’d just inadvertently created an opening to ask her why she had given the limp-dick douche that hadn’t even held the door open for her the time of day.

“A few months.”

“What the hell did you see in him?” Subtlety wasn’t really his strong suit.

“What
the hell
do you see in the girls you date?” she shot back.

Whoa.
If he didn’t know any better he’d say that she was jealous. Which was crazy. He’d been very upfront about the fact that he was attracted to her for
years
now. He flirted with her every chance he got. He hadn’t let the fact that she was “off-limits” because she was Charlie’s daughter, or the fact that she’d made her own personal rule against dating fighters, or the fact that he’d struck out each and every time he’d gone up to bat slow him down. Because contrary to popular belief, he didn’t play games. If he wanted something, he went after it. And he’d wanted Maxi for a
long time
. But other than a lingering stare and the flush of her cheeks whenever she accidently brushed up against him, she’d never given any indication that she was the least bit interested.