Beyond the Breaking Point (13 page)

Pausing, he glanced at her. “What’s there to discuss? You betrayed me and in the process, destroyed a friendship and a marriage.”

She laid a beseeching hand on his arm. “Look, what I did might have been wrong, but I had a reason. You think I don’t know your friends don’t like me? That they look down their combined noses at me? Oh, they’re polite enough when you’re around, but both of them act like I’m a piece of white trash who came after you for your money.”

He arched a brow and rocked on his heels, deciding to see where she was going with this. “So you decided to make a play for Phillip and prove what?”

Confident she had his attention, she moved her hand off his arm and raised both arms to push her hair out of her face in an action that thrust her braless breasts out. “He may act like he thinks I’m some two-bit street whore, but I know when a man wants me. He puts on like he’s so in love with his wife yet he’s always watching me. I got tired of his game and decided to prove a point.”

Max folded his arms over his chest. “And that point would be?”

She dropped her arms and clenched her fists at her sides, her face twisted into an angry scowl. “He can pretend like he thinks I’m no good but given the opportunity, he’d have fucked me. He didn’t give a damn about his wife or your friendship. Truth is, he was jealous.”

Max could only stare at her. He’d thought he’d known Amber, knew how her mind worked, and what made her tick, but he’d been wrong. He was seeing a side of her now that he’d never known existed. Finally he shook his head, disgusted with her and her reasoning. “Get your stuff and get out.”

“What! But—”

“You really think I’d want to be with you, marry you after you just told me your pride and ego were more important than our relationship? I loved you. Trusted you. Wanted to marry you, despite what anyone said or thought because I make up my own mind about people. And for your information, Cassidy never said a bad word against you. In fact, she helped me pick out your engagement ring. As for Phillip, yeah, he said you weren’t marriage material. Guess he called that one right. He’s right about something else. Guess I do owe him for showing me your true nature. Tell me something. My brother Nikko has never liked you. He thinks you only latched onto me for the family money. You gonna fuck him too?”

The slap whipped his head around. “Bastard,” she cried, angry tears running down her face.

Max stared at Amber through narrowed eyes. “You get that one for free. Get your stuff and get the hell out of my house, and pray I never see you again.”

Amber swallowed hard, pivoted on one heel and left the foyer.

Max stood where he was, making sure she took her things and nothing more. He didn’t offer to help nor did she ask for assistance. As he watched her load her vehicle, the love he had for her shriveled up in his heart and died. The woman he’d loved didn’t exist. Maybe never had. It was a damned kick in the balls to realize what a fool he’d been, but no more.

This chapter of his life was over.

He’d wanted what his parents and sisters have. What Phillip had. A loving spouse, a family, someone to come home to. Someone to whom he belonged and who belonged to him. He was thirty-three. According to his parents it was past time for him to settle down and raise a family, and Max totally agreed.

Is that why he’d fixated on Amber, he brooded. She was smart, ambitious, attractive, sexy, and easy to get along with. The sex was good too. They had lots in common and she seemed to want the same things out of life as he. In short, they made a good match. True, his parents and family hadn’t particularly cared for her but as he’d told Amber, he was his own man. Made his own decisions. He didn’t let the opinions of others sway him, not when it was something he wanted.

As Amber toted the last box out the house, she paused. “If you change your mind…”

“I won’t,” he said firmly.

She cast him one last lingering glance, then left. Max shut the door gently behind her.

He returned to the living room to find his cell phone vibrating its way across the table. Two texts. Both from Cassidy. The invite to dinner sounded a hell of a lot better than sitting home brooding. He typed out a quick reply and then went to shower and change.

The knocker sounded a loud
Rat-a-tat-tat
.

“I’ll get it,” Macey yelled.

“Oh no you don’t, you little munchkin,” Dave ordered as he swept the little girl off her feet, to her delighted squeals.

Cassidy heard the door open and Dave saying, “You must be Max. I’m Dave and this little squealer is Macey. Erika and Cassidy are in the kitchen.”

Max said something in his deep voice, a little too low for her to make out. Seconds later, he stood in the kitchen doorway, holding out a bakery box. “I wasn’t sure what was on the menu, but here’s my contribution.”

“Max, you didn’t have to do that,” Cassidy protested as she wiped her hands on a towel. She stepped forward, hands outstretched for the box when Erika body-checked her out the way and snagged the dessert from Max.

“Yes, he did,” she contradicted.

Erika gazed down at the contents, a worshipful expression crossing her face. “You are a god. I will worship you and have your babies,” she told a bemused Max.

Cassidy shook her head. “Must be chocolate. Dave,” she called out, “come get your wife before she embarrasses you.”

Max chuckled. “Not the usual reaction to cake but I’ll take it.”

Dave appeared in the doorway, took in the situation with one glance before dragging his drooling wife out of the kitchen. Cassidy nimbly rescued the cake from Erika’s clutches. “Dark chocolate truffle? Dave better watch out. Erika’s a fiend for chocolate.”

She placed the cake box on the fridge, out of the way.

“So what’s for dinner? Max asked. “It smells good.”

Cassidy gave the ground beef a final stir before turning off the burner. “We decided on Mexican, specifically nachos and tacos, with virgin margaritas to drink.”

Max winced. “Not exactly the right food for chocolate cake.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “Are you kidding? Chocolate goes with
everything
.”

Max laughed. “I take it Erika isn’t the only chocolate fiend?”

Cassidy smiled. “There’s a reason she and I are friends.”

“Bonded over chocolate, did you?” he asked, grinning.

Like you and I bonded over sex?
The thought flashed across her mind. Cassidy quickly turned and stood on tiptoe, reaching for one of her serving bowls in the cabinet above her head. She felt his heat an instant before Max’s lean body molded against hers.

“Let me get that for you,” he said. His longer arms reached up, lifted the bowls and set them down on the countertop in front of her. Cassidy was very conscious of being surrounded by Max. She held very still, hardly daring to breathe until he moved again, giving her space.

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

Cassidy glanced around blindly before her vision focused on the bowled toppings, waiting to be transported. “Take those bowls and place them on the table while I serve up the ground beef. We were only waiting on the meat to finish.”

“Got it.” Max competently scooped up several dishes, showing he had more than a passing familiarity with waiting tables. She remembered Phillip telling her about the restaurants Max’s family owned and wondered if Max had spent any time working in them.

The sight of the food appearing on the table had Erika, Dave, and even Macey reporting to the kitchen to help the serving process move faster. Within minutes, they were all gathered around her small four-seater dining room table. Max grabbed the office chair from in front of the computer desk and rolled it over to sit by her side, much to Erika’s delight.

They waited patiently while Dave guided Macey through the blessing of the food, and then quickly dug in. Dinner was fun. Dave, for all his quiet demeanor, was quite the clown and could be counted on to keep an audience in stitches as he relayed amusing incidents from his years of teaching. Not to be outdone, Erika shared some of the trials and tribulations of being a doctor of pediatrics. Max told them about some of the more amusing lawsuits he’d handled. Even Cassidy, who’d been more than content to listen and laugh, had been goaded into acting out some of the hilarious birthing room scenes she’d witnessed. Something she’d only previously done with Erika and a few members of her staff.

When they’d devoured every scrap, the men went into the living room to hook up all the components so they could watch the video, and the girls cleared the table. Cassidy took a few extra minutes to load the dishwasher and wipe down all the countertops and dining room table. By the time she entered the darkened front room, Erika and her family had claimed the small sofa, leaving the oversized love seat to her and Max.

Disconcerted, Cassidy paused on the boundary.

“Hurry, Cassidy. The movie’s starting,” Macey urged.

Cassidy glanced at the wall-mounted flat screen where the previews were showing. “So it is,” she acknowledged.

She crossed over to take her seat, mentally kicking herself for choosing to purchase the oversized two-seater and ottoman rather than the chair that went with the set.
Friends
, she reminded herself.
Max and I are friends. Friends don’t freak out at the thought of sitting next to each other in close proximity in the dark.

Mindful of Erika’s intent gaze, Cassidy forced herself to act natural. She sank onto the cushion with a sigh of relief and propped her feet up on the ottoman alongside Max’s. If she hugged the arm of the loveseat, maximizing the amount of space between her and Max, well, that was her business.

The Avengers
started and she forgot about her acute discomfort as she became engrossed in the movie. By the time the movie ended, she was comfortably settled along Max’s side and his arm was behind her, thrown causally across the top of the seat.

She blinked owlishly when Dave cut on the tableside lamp.

“Cake time,” Erika announced, clapping her hands with glee. She bounced over to Cassidy and tugged her up. “Let’s go. You get the plates. I’ll cut the cake while the guys put in the next movie.”

Laughing, Cassidy allowed herself to be dragged into the kitchen, a sleepy Macey following in their wake. She reached into the pantry and pulled out five more of the paper plates she’d purchased for tonight, her four-piece dining set not enough to cover the amount of guests. For a moment she thought longingly of the twelve-piece casual dining china set that had been her wedding gift from her grandparents. She’d left it at the house with Phillip, eschewing the memories—good and bad—associated with the dishes. Now she wondered if she’d made a mistake.