Eight months later...

Cobalt Bay, California

"Kady! Just the girl I wanted to see!"

"Oh, darn. He's not in his birthday suit," Sidney murmured with a giggle as he waved someone over to our table. He was on his third manhattan, me on my sixth margarita, and we've only been here half an hour.

I grinned as a beaming Max sauntered over, arms outstretched, a bottle of beer in one hand.

Yes, he was regrettably dressed because while Max Croft didn't press my buttons, he was a fine specimen of a man. But he was clearly having a good time.

I mean, what's not to enjoy? A huge, luxury super yacht full of booze, food, entertainment, and high society's biggest party animals. No, not the classy, shiny types who look smart and fundraise to end world hunger. This is Max's rougher, less polished circle. Hence, why Sidney and I were feeling right at home.

"Happy birthday, Maxie!" I greeted loudly, opening my arms to give him a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek.

He laughed when I rubbed off the small smudge of lip gloss I'd left on his face, clapped me on the back like we were dudes, and then reached out to give Sidney's hand a forceful, manly shake.

"Thanks guys, for joining my little party," he said as he settled himself between mine and Sidney's bar stools, an arm on our shoulders. "It's always so much more fun when I actually know the people attending it."

"Maybe shrink the guest list next time," I said, tipping back my drink. "Just a couple dozen people, you know? Maybe a boat that's not quite the size of a city block."

"But I can't, Kady, because that's how I make new friends," Max answered dramatically.

"Speaking of friends, are any of your old ones showing up?" Sidney asked and I had to kick him lightly on the shin under the table. Since I ran off that night from the bar to meet up with Stellan, he'd known something was up. Since I couldn't exactly articulate mine and Stellan's relationship in my own head, I haven't given him much detail. But he's pretty sure we're hooking up and sometimes, he feels like torturing me with it.

"Sebastian's in Madrid, I think," Max said, looking around. "And Oliver should be around here somewhere. Stellan might or might not make it. Depends on whether his flight got delayed."

Stellan was supposed to fly back from Montreal late this afternoon but winterland Canada was experiencing some heavy snow early in the season and his flight was delayed. I told him to rest up and I was going to see him tomorrow but he insisted he was going to try to make Max's party.

"Why are you solo?" I asked. "Don't tell me you're starting a new resolution as you turn a year older."

Max laughed and shook his head. "I'm not, though that would make you happy, wouldn't it? I sometimes think I do it just for the sheer joy of hearing you cut me down for being a manwhore."

I scoffed. "You do it simply for the perks of being one. I think your birthday stunt next year should be to sleep with the number of women equalling your age in years all in one night. And if you can't, you scale back on the women you sleep with that year by the same number."

"And if I actually pull it off in one night?" Max asked, puffing out his chest like it wasn't already the size of headboard.

"Then your dick is made of steel and should probably be put away in a nice glass box at a museum somewhere for women to admire and for men to envy," I said, causing Max to wince and Sidney to choke a little on his drink. I shrugged. "What? At least it won't do any more damage."

"What won't do any more damage?"

I swung around my seat and saw Stellan approaching right behind Max who'd been looming over us.

He looked tired and a little disheveled. He had a fresh linen shirt and jeans on but his jaw sported a day-old stubble that made my fingers tingle as I imagined how they would brush against my bare skin. It had been a week and a half exactly since I last touched him. I was starved.

"Max's steel dick."

Stellan blinked behind his glasses, his jaw slackening a bit. "Pardon me?"

"Kady has it right, you know?" Max said after laughing at the look on his best friend's face. "My dick is God's gift to women and sometimes, it's too much for this mortal world. I have to be more responsible with it."

My cheeks warmed at how stupid that all sounded and looked, and the blunt shock on Stellan's face. "He should be or I'd feel obligated to take responsibility and box it up for him. Like in a baby coffin, six feet deep in the dirt."

"Jesus, Kady," Sidney muttered next to me in second-hand embarrassment. "Just keep going, why don't you?"

I was probably scandalizing Stellan by talking about his best friend's dick, even in a philosophical sense, but he should understand this about me now so I didn't feel inclined to stop.

I flashed them all a big grin. "Or how about I just find you a good woman who will keep you on the straight and narrow? Someone with sole power over your, you know, God-given gift."

"You want to turn Max into a one-woman-man?" Stellan asked with a chuckle, settling into the theme of the conversation. "Now there's a statistical impossibility."

Max groaned and visibly shuddered. "No, please. I like my dissolute, womanizing existence just fine. The idea of monogamy makes my skin itch."

I gave Stellan a conspiratorial smile. "I'm not sure it's monogamy doing that. It could be, you know, one or two things, given how much love he spreads around."

Max took on an offended look. "Kady, please. I'm crazy, not careless. Give me some credit."

I did a delicate little shrug. "Fine. It's your birthday. I'll take your word for it."

Max scratched his head and glanced at Stellan. "I adore this woman right here but I can't imagine any guy in his right mind wanting to subject himself to this kind of torture. Can you?"

I narrowed my eyes briefly just as Stellan darted a glance at me. "Yeah, Stellan. Can you?"

Something flashed in his gaze before he turned back to his friend. "Has it occurred to you that maybe she only tortures guys like you?"

Max actually paused to think about that. "That's fair. Still, I say this one's too hot to handle."

I kicked Max on the shin. "I'll prove you right if you don't stop talking about me in third person."

"Alright, alright!" The man stepped back and held his hands up. "I shouldn't provoke you. Especially since I need a favor. I have a new friend who desperately wants to an introduction with you."

I raised a brow. "Yeah? Who?"

Max glanced around at our small group and answered in a lowered voice. "It's Prince Khalid. Bahrain royalty even though he's nowhere near in line for the throne. Big sports car collector. Maserati just recently custom-built him a new version of the MC12—"

"No."

All eyes turned to stare at Stellan.

His jaw shifted subtly—about the only tell he really had when his rare temper was igniting—and he boldly stared back.

"He can be nasty."

"He's good-looking though. And dazzlingly rich," Sidney put in while averting his gaze back to his drink and casually stoking the fires. "I hear he likes beautiful things."

"Kady isn't a thing," Stellan bit out.

"And Kady's right here, well and able to make her own decision," I said, playing it down even as my heart started pounding. "And it's just an introduction. I'm not about to marry him and have his babies."

I mentally kicked myself in the head when I saw Stellan's eyes narrow. Probably wasn't the right context for a joke.

"Oh, I wouldn't put it past him—the babies part, I mean," Sid added. "Rumor has it that he has a few with a couple supermodels."

"I've seen him with women while he's wasted," Stellan said in a disgusted tone. "He has a violent streak."

"Kady might take care of it herself but I'm going to be there and I'll slug him out cold if he even so much as points a finger in her face," Max said. "You know me, man."

"I do which is why I think this is a terrible idea," Stellan shot back, glaring at his friend. "Your games aren't always harmless, Max."

"Maybe not but that's Kady's decision to make."

Stellan didn't argue against that truth. But he just turned to me with a look of hard intensity on his face.

It was unnerving and magnetic at the same time.

"Great," I muttered under my breath, turning to Max who was studying me intently, without any trace of his casual humor.

I might kick Max's balls every now and then because he truly is a manwhore, but there's a side to him that the public doesn't see. He has connections to anybody and everybody and occasionally, he asks me to join in when someone useful to him has a certain interest in me. I was there to keep someone in place and available for information, or get the information myself. It started with one of his parties three years ago when he introduced me to this pro-surfer guy who got too handsy. I broke the dude's nose and was on my way out the door when Max caught up with me, apologized, and explained that he'd needed me there to soften up the guy until he spilled who his fixer was. Which apparently the guy did, when he'd been talking me into hooking up in his room with the promise of more drugs. Max said the information was necessary to track down a highly elusive supplier to a handful of national sports teams. He wouldn't say more than that except to trust him. I told him he was shit out of luck and left. Two days later, he found me wolfing down pizza at this hole in a wall by the pier and tried to recruit me into some kind of program where he'd half-retired from. It sounded too much of a commitment for me. But I told him I'd help occasionally. Since then, he would give me a heads up first about someone and some context as to what was necessary and why. Maybe it was my reckless side but I was usually game for every job. It was always men and for no mysterious reasons, I enjoyed toying with them and getting them to do exactly what I wanted.

But that life has never intersected with Stellan before.

And I wasn't about to start explaining to Max why his friend wasn't excited about this idea.

"Fine," I said, sliding off my stool and tossing back the last of my drink. "I need to freshen up. Can you give me ten minutes?"

"Take fifteen, if you want. He's still getting hammered. He said he's too nervous to meet you," Max said, tossing me a key out of his pocket. "Use my cabin. I'll meet you at the upstairs deck, okay?"

"And I'm going to get another drink and find Carter. He just texted me." Sidney came off his seat, glancing around for a sign of his newest fling. Then he turned to me, gave me stern look and wrapped me in a quick hug, whispering, "I'll catch you later. Be careful, Kady."

I wasn't sure if he was warning me against this Khalid dude or provoking Stellan. Either way, I was going to push buttons and set something off.

I didn't glance at Stellan as I turned to head for Max's cabin. I'd crashed in it before with Max's insistence after I showed up at one of his parties but was too jet-lagged to participate. I partied a lot with Max before, especially back when Stellan had been too busy being domestic with Rachel.

The room was huge and luxurious with a giant bed in the middle of it. The party was in full blast but you could barely hear it inside. I stood by the mirror on the wall not too far from the door and inspected myself while I waited.

My hair was loose and all wild, springy curls tonight, the lighter streaks glinting in the low light. I had a lot of skin on display in my gauzy white micro-dress, my skin so sun-kissed it almost looked like molten bronze. Eyes were smoky, lips a pale but juicy raspberry shade that made them look even more bitten. Every lush curve was pronounced. Legs for miles.

I sighed.

There was nothing to be done for it. Everything was too much that a black trash bag would still make me look like a walking temptation. This is why I just wear whatever I feel like anyway. No one's going to cut me any slack regardless.

I watched through the mirror as the door opened and Stellan slipped inside.

He caught my gaze for a second before his eyes slowly drank in my reflection.

Then he exhaled sharply and rubbed a hand on his rough jaw.

"You can't do this, Kady," he said, a rasp on his voice as he walked into the room and started pacing. "It might seem like a harmless introduction but Max sometimes hangs out with dangerous people."

"I know," I said, turning and following him with my eyes as he moved back and forth, clearly agitated. "It's just a job I'm helping him with."

Stellan stopped in his tracks and looked at me. "So you know. About his... about these little jobs he sometimes does."

I hitched one shoulder up. "He got me caught in it once. And then he explained, somewhat. Even tried to recruit me. But this is about all the involvement I want to have with it. I just play his pretty prey every now and then. And you know me, I never let them get too far. I just loosen them up enough to babble or do something for Max."

"He can be reckless with his neck all he likes but he has no business dragging you into this," Stellan snapped.

"If we're going to argue about this in principle, you have just about as much business dragging me out of this as he does dragging me in," I pointed out.

"I'd like to think that I have a little bit more sway since I'm trying to protect you, not use you," he shot back, his voice starting to rise now. "And maybe—just maybe—because of where I stand in your life, that you'd listen to me more than you'd listen to Max."

I had a feeling about where this downward spiral was leading but I couldn't help myself from taking us there. "Max was my friend long before you were."

Stellan stared at me for a long moment, his throat working as if he was tamping down on so much that he wanted to say.

"And was that all Max was to you, Kady?" he finally asked in a quiet voice. "Just a friend?"

"What if he wasn't? Would it change things?"

That was gasoline I was pouring all over us but if I had any real self-discipline, I would be less of a fucked-up human being today.

"I'm not going to lie and say that I'd be happy about it," Stellan answered calmly even though his dark eyes were flickering with emotions. "I would probably take the next opportunity to smash his face in."

Then he slowly walked over to me, stopping an inch or two away, close enough for me to take in the familiar, clean smell of him and feel the warmth of his body.

I looked up, studying the half of his face that wasn't in the shadows, feeling like I was being pulled into a trance.

"But no. It won't change things, Kady," he continued, the edge on his tone slightly fading.

He tipped my chin up gently, his thumb brushing the corner of my mouth. "I can't change the way I feel about you any more than I can control my physical heart by sheer will alone."

My chest splintered inside, a warm, heavy mass settling in and pushing all the air out. I found myself gripping his sleeve and scowling at him.

"Sometimes, I hate what you do to me," I murmured before standing on tiptoes and pulling his head down for a kiss.

He took my mouth wildly, his arms wrapping tightly around me that he could've squeezed me out of my dress. Walking us backwards until I hit the wall, he kept kissing me until I was panting for breath, lips raw, shoulders shaking.

"Is this what you hate?" he asked, dropping his head and trailing wispy kisses along my collarbone.

"No," I answered in a hoarse voice that caught me off guard. I swallowed and leaned my head back against the wall. "This part I love, I crave. It's the other stuff."

Stellan looked up, a small amused smile on his lips. "Like what?"

God, he really wants me to spell this out.

"It's like you find little cracks in me and never give me a chance to patch it up," I said, cringing inwardly after realizing that construction lingo was probably not that romantic. Oh well. "You chip away where you can."

Stellan pressed a kiss on my temple just as a faint laugh rumbled out of him. "Someone's got to do it. And I think—and hope—I'm the only one close enough to manage."

I closed my eyes and pressed my face against his chest to muffle a loud groan.

Because I knew what I had to do, even though I felt torn about it.

Compromise, Kady. You've been practicing that, right? Compromise. It's a thing people do with each other.

Taking a deep breath, I lifted my head and looked into his eyes. "I'm going to do the introduction so I can at least put Max in this guy's good graces. But I'm not doing more than that. Will that work?"

Stellan still looked pained. "The quicker you slip through his fingers, the more he's going to want you. And he's going to track you down and harass you until he gets what he wants."

I raised a brow. "You do know me, right? You're aware of the long line of men I've had to shake like dog shit off my boots? I can handle this."

He didn't seem convinced. Maybe Stellan really did need a paper list of names of men who'd dumbly panted after me along with the detailed tactic I used to get rid of each one of them. No, they're not dead—as far as I know.

"I'm going with you," Stellan suggested. "I'm one of Max's oldest friends. My presence won't be anything out of the ordinary."

"No, you can't," I said. "I can't get all flirty with another guy if you're right there watching me."

This time, it was Stellan who raised a brow. "Then I'm definitely going."

Jealousy had been a rare issue for us. Probably because while we never defined what we were or put it out in public, we'd been solidly exclusive. I never gave Stellan rules because I had no right to. I couldn't tell him he wasn't free when I could only say that without an audience. I'm a selfish bitch but only half as much around him.

"I'm going to slip up and then we'll all be in trouble," I insisted even as I was feeling pretty half-hearted about the whole thing now.

"Why don't we both not go and and just say to hell with Max and his schemes?" Stellan countered before lowering his voice and pressing in just a little bit more against me. "We can hit up your place and not get out of bed until Monday."

"Nice try but we both know you like to babysit that guy," I said with a laugh. "He's jumping into the water in a straitjacket for his birthday stunt this year. Did you know that? Forget Khalid. Max is going to get himself killed without any help."

"That fucker," Stellan muttered under his breath, the curse another rare occurrence. He raked a hand through his hair, messing it up and making my mouth water just a little bit. "Fine. You chat up Khalid for the entire five minutes it's going to take me to tell Max just how much of an asshat he is. We will both be standing right there, in full view of you in case Khalid gets too friendly. After that, meet me back here. We're staying the night until we can both leave tomorrow when everyone's too wasted to notice."

"What if Max needs this room?" I asked, a smile playing on my lips as I soaked up the view of Stellan getting all worked up and snappy. It takes a lot to get him this way and I've tried hard in the past.

"What he might need it for, he can find in the five other cabins available," Stellan said, finally pulling back and heading for the door. "We'll leave at first light."

"Fine. You go out first. I'll be five minutes," I told him as I straightened out my dress.

He nodded and turned before swiftly marching back to me and pulling me in for another hard kiss.

I felt branded.

And maybe that was the point.

Then he abruptly released me and headed back for the door.

"Stellan."

He paused and looked over his shoulder.

"Max has never been more than just a friend," I said. "I don't want that to ever haunt you."

He smiled faintly. "I'm glad. I never considered the possibility until tonight."

"Why not? You don't think I'm Max's type?" I asked just to be a pain.

Stellan grinned. "I don't think Max is attracted to his female version. Setting aside the casual sex he does plenty of—and your enthusiastic man-hating—you're practically the same personality."

"No, we're not," I said vehemently.

Stellan shrugged and kept grinning. "He'd say the same thing."

Then he left me in all my indignation with no outlet for it.

I blew out a blustery breath, grinned, and shook my head. "That fucker."

Yes. 

He got that from me. Where else?

*****

Ninya's Notes:

Hi everyone! 

So.. this week's chapter is a bit lighter, just to give us a break from all the destined-to-be-doomed undercurrent of the last few ones. Also, I hope it was a treat for all of those who love Max. I've seen a few comments early on about how Kady seemed like Max's version and I chuckled to myself at that because I'd already written this chapter. 

The goal of these fleeting glimpses into their relationship over the course of a couple years is to give you an idea of just how well (or not) it's been going for them. Because eventually, I think we all know, that the question of how long they can keep this going, will come up.

I just finished writing a pretty emotionally heavy chapter this week and my heart still hurts. I think that where they might go is not going to be that big of a surprise to some but what they do when they get there will be the interesting part. You'll have to wait and see!

Also, it's not a Taylor Swift song this time around but I do find this one kind of fitting their situation... Or at least of those sort of coasting through a semi-relationship that's not really holding up all that well anymore.  And it's also a little more upbeat to go with Max's birthday party. Anyone remember his birthday parties from Fleeting & Forever? Ha!

Hope you have a good rest of the week! 

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: All We Know by The Chainsmokers feat. Phoebe Ryan ♪♪♪

https://youtu.be/RAOVAl9Djzc

Fighting flames with fire
Hang on to burning wires
We don't care anymore
Are we fading lovers?
We keep wasting colours
Maybe we should let this go

We're falling apart, still we hold together
We've passed the end, so we chase forever
'Cause this is all we know
This feeling's all we know

I'll ride my bike up to the road
Down the streets right through the city
I'll go everywhere you go
From Chicago to the coast
You tell me, "Hit this and let's go.
Blow the smoke right through the window."
'Cause this is all we know

'Cause this is all we know
'Cause this is all we know