A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry this is slightly late. Towards the end, I had to come to a decision of how far forward I had to push these two. I actually ended up cutting some scenes after deciding on their value to the story. I think it might be well past time for these two to head in the same direction—the same one where they first started. 

Hope you enjoy!

***

“I have not seen this many broad-shouldered men all in the same room in my entire twenty-four years of life.”

I suppressed a smile at Jillian’s awed muttering as we stood by a corner in the kitchen, chowing on some appetizers, sipping our drinks and surveying the pack of hockey players clustered by the living room, howling and cheering to the baseball game that was on Alex’s wall-sized TV.

Alex had mostly picked polished but simple furnishings for his sizeable apartment but he’d gone all out on the entertainment system. 

“Give me a big TV, a cold bottle of beer and a nice girl to put my arm on and I’m happy,” he’d said. 

Looking at him now, perched on the edge of his seat, his fist around a Budweiser, his face tense with nervous excitement and looking as pumped as if he were on the field himself, I didn’t doubt him.

Jillian turned to Zoe who was on my left—I was standing between the two of them. “How do you deal with beautiful, well-built virile men on a daily basis?”

The two women had only met two hours ago, after I convinced Jillian to tag along the last minute. She wasn't a sports fan at all and didn't know a single player in the team but I adored her. Plus, she offered the additional balance to the testosterone overdose. And maybe I shouldn’t admit this so I didn’t sound like a jackass but having here there mitigated the shared strong suspicion that Alex and I were together. It’s just a bonus and I think she knew that and was happy to help. I knew Jillian wasn't everyone's cup of tea and I had worried she’d feel out of place in this group of people who were practically strangers even to me. Alex, being good old Alex, disarmed her quite easily. She and Zoe took one assessing look of each of each other and instantly hit it off. I was glad for that because I was feeling that Zoe and I were a little outnumbered this evening. Many of the guys brought their dates/girlfriends/wives and most of them were soaking in the hot tub out on Alex's vast balcony. Jillian and I felt a little overdressed in cut-off jeans and colorful tank tops but luckily, Zoe, who would normally be the most fashionable female in the entire team, was surprisingly laid back today in a yellow cotton summer dress. She was still jaw-droppingly gorgeous but less intimidating and looking more like her natural self.

Zoe smirked and tipped back her drink. “I deal with it by forgetting the beautiful, well-built virile part. Too much muscle appreciation can get in the way of my professional neutrality.”

A soft pinging sound came from Jillian and she checked her phone.

“Ryan says he’s having a meat-fest,” she said before tilting her phone toward us. On the screen was the giant juicy beef roast that Ryan had taken a picture of from the dinner Elise had organized. He’d come as Luke’s date because he apparently wouldn’t take a female guest.

Then Jillian held up her phone to take a picture of the living room with all the hockey players in it.

“You got beef, we got beef cakes,” she said out loud the same time she was typing it into her phone. “We win this meat-fest. Sent.”

I rolled my eyes and popped a bacon-wrapped steak bite into my mouth. I was interested in the real meat. “It’s all very accurate description but it sounds a little something like male objectification to me.”

“It is male objectification,” Zoe said. “It’s less fussed about but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.”

Jillian let out a little dreamy sigh. “Where there’s exceedingly good-looking men, there’s an equally proportionate appreciation for it. I’m sure it’s one of nature’s mathematical equations so it must be right.”

“Don’t say that too loudly or you might get scratched. There are claws underneath all those gel nails,” I said with a giggle, just in time as one of the other women waltzed in, damp all over and clad in an electric pink bikini with a sheer wrap around her waist. The guys glanced up, appreciated the view and went back to the game. Her man stuck an arm out, grabbed her and pulled him to his side after a very thorough kiss that blocked a good chunk of the TV screen from our view.

Ah. From one action to another. Great entertainment.

It was in the moment they pulled away from each other and I caught that soft, tender look they shared, that my humor died and a low-burning ache resurrected. 

"That bad, eh?" Zoe piped up.

I glanced at her and found her watching me. "What?"

She tipped her head toward the group in the living room. "You got it that bad for him. There was a sad, tragic look of longing on your face. It's odd though because I'm sure Alex adores you so I can't say there's unrequited love there."

"It's not Alex," Jillian blurted out. “He’s a nice guy though."

"What?" Zoe asked, turning to me with wide eyes. "You're shitting me."

“She wishes she were,” Jillian added and I turned to glare at her.

“Thanks for doing all the talking for me, Jill,” I grumbled.

Jillian had the decency to look remorseful for a good five seconds before putting her hands up and slowly backing away. “I’m going to do a civil service and check if anyone would like a refill, okay? Gives me a chance to go around the house and try out all these fancy buttons and panels Alex got without anyone noticing.”

I just rolled my eyes as she left before turning to Zoe. “And I never said I didn’t like Alex.”

 “Whoever that look was for isn’t someone you just like, Max,” Zoe said with a raised brow. “But that explains a lot.”

Yes, Zoe always thought the tiniest things explained a lot and she didn’t need your confirmation. Exhausting woman—probably as much as Jillian was—and it was too bad that I liked her.

“Pray, tell, what does it explain this time?” I asked.

Zoe shrugged and looked toward the living room where Alex and the guys were. “It explains why I don’t catch you looking at him with that sparkle in your eye. Or why you don’t absently reach out to touch him just because subconsciously, you can’t stand to be too far from him. Those little things that tell you all you need to know about how someone feels.”

“Sometimes, those little things come with time, with feeling that way about the person,” I said, sighing in resignation because Zoe was right. “Sometimes, it’s not instantaneously magical.”

“Sometimes, it’s only possible when you’re not already in love with someone else,” Zoe supplied without any pretense. She turned to me with a small, understanding smile. “I just thought that when it came down to it, for a smart, sensible girl like you, it would be a no-brainer between Alex Rizzo and Luke Hedenby.”

I opened my mouth to feign innocence about Luke but then remembered what she knew. 

Right. 

“Luke’s the kind of guy a girl wants to date at some point in her life, just for the fun of it, ” Zoe continued. “Alex is the kind of guy you take home to meet your parents and marry at the town church.”

“And what makes you think that there’s a choice I need to be making here?” I asked, slumping against the counter with my arms crossed and staring at the same smiling man that Zoe was.  

 She didn’t glance my way but I couldn’t miss the steel in her statement. “I definitely hope there is because no one wants to be the second best thing. The consolation prize. The one you settled with because you couldn’t have the other. You get the point.”

“It’s not fair, I know,” I agreed softly, watching Alex and wondering if the time would ever come when I would look inside my heart and find him there instead of the one who broke it.

The thought took root in my mind and didn’t leave for the rest of the evening, long after the party cleared out and he and I were left cleaning up. Jillian and I were leaving together but she was in Alex’s office, setting up his entire home network to control all the wired-in enhancements from the balcony lights to the built-in speaker system to the wine cooler to the heated floors. He hadn't even known the place came with it when he got it and when Jillian pleaded if she could please, please, do it, he just shrugged and told her to knock herself out.

I was drying my hands by the kitchen sink when I felt strong arms wrap around me from behind.

"Have I said thank you yet?" Alex asked and he gave me a light squeeze of a hug before loosening his hold so I could turn around and face him.

"What for? The party?" I asked. "I helped you shop for stuff and set it up but the credit should really go to Zoe. She had this party planned out to the most minute detail halfway through her small, non-fat latte.”

"And I will thank her for it," he said, not quite letting go. "But I owe you for having stuck with me these past few weeks. For being a good friend. For being here tonight.”

I smiled despite the guilty reminder that I’d wavered on my promise, even just mentally, to spare myself the torture of having a dream that would never come true dangled right before my eyes. “I’m where the cool people are at.”

Alex grinned. “I owe you, too, for making me smile all the time. For trusting me to make you smile as well. For letting me in, even just a little bit."

His gaze on me was soft and smiling, his arms warm and secure around me. 

This is what it should be like. And it could be like this. If I could only want it.

I knew even before Alex took in a deep breath that he was going to kiss me.

And I closed my eyes because I wanted to know if there was the slightest chance that I wasn't being unfair to him. That I wasn't settling with the safe choice. That I wasn't leading him down a road that went nowhere. That somewhere inside of me, I wanted this. That I wanted him.

His lips brushed so fleetingly against mine at first I thought it was just his breath, warm and teasing as he closed every excruciating inch between us to make that first shy contact.

But when I felt the slightest increased pressure, it hit me that Alex was, in fact, kissing me. 

It was at first a collection of small, gentle kisses dotted all over the shape of my mouth—an invitation to trust, to let go a little and to let him in more. My heart squeezed at that because it was so like Alex to never take more than what I could give. 

And I want to give more. 

I wanted to give him all that Luke wouldn’t take because the longer I held it in, the sooner it would burst from under my skin. 

My own lips started to move—kissing him back, letting him in, giving him more. 

His arms tightened around me, pulling me close, and my own glided up over his chest until they linked behind his neck. Warmth bloomed inside of me, filling all the places that had been left cold and empty when Luke had backed away for good. I clung to it as an addict might to their first faint vestiges of clarity and lightness that hadn’t come from a pill or powder. 

I waited for the instant transformation, when I no longer felt cold and burdened, as if this kiss just might be a magical cure, but as Alex deepened it, the only thing that transformed was the face in my head. 

I kept seeing those bright winter blue eyes—sparkling with amusement, darkening with desire, catching light like shards from a broken soul—and the warmth receded. In fact, I felt colder than I ever did before, knowing deep in my bones that while my body could stir at intimacy in general, my heart and mind knew too well what it wanted and didn’t have—and a substitute made the loss sharper. 

 Luke didn’t need to ask me not to be with Alex. 

I’m doing that on my own right now.

The kiss wasn’t me being with Alex despite evidence to the contrary.

In fact, the kiss just might be me not being with Alex because I couldn’t possibly kiss a man and ache for another. 

It was, in my very own words earlier, not fair. 

No one wanted to be the face you could easily shut out behind closed lids because someone else was branded into your memory. I couldn’t speak for the general public but I’d like to think that everyone would like to be someone’s first, if not only choice. No one wanted the dark and cramped crevice of your heart because the rest of the space was occupied by someone else. 

Either the shadows suffocated them first or the ghosts chased them out. 

And maybe Alex felt it in my kiss or saw it on my face but when he lifted his head away and looked at me, his brows were drawn in, his eyes scrutinizing as if I’d been somehow altered right in front of him.

I couldn’t help but wince. “I’m sorry, Alex. I’m really just… I don’t know if…”

Instead of being angry, Alex rewarded me with a smile which hit me in the heart like a sledgehammer. “You don’t have to apologize for how you feel, Max. Sometimes, it’s as honest as we can be with others.”

I would’ve preferred his anger because I might have been able to justify myself better. A man who could tell you’d been kissing someone else while his lips had been locking with yours and understand it enough to smile and give you some reassurance was the last man whose feelings you’d want to trample.

It made you feel like a certified jerk.

“—should totally switch to the model that has pattern-learning capabilities so you don’t have to—”

Jillian’s abrupt arrival and the dead silence that followed as soon as she cut herself off brought reality crashing down my head and I jumped away. I didn’t move an inch though because mine and Alex’s arms were still around each other.

I retracted my arms and folded them back toward my shoulders and awkwardly swivelled my head to my friend who’d frozen on the spot in the hallway. 

“Uh, go back to staring at each other and pretend I haven’t walked in,” Jillian said as she slowly backed away. “I’m going to be in the office, and I’ll be so busy with other stuff that I’m sure I won’t be coming back out until one of you comes to get me.”

Jillian knew we did more than just stare each other and I appreciated her effort at indulging me. She would either be secretly cheering me on or cursing Luke to hell for pushing me farther than I would’ve ever gone only to end up in a different guys’ arms, no matter how nice and muscular they may be.

Alex released me and casually took a couple of steps back. “I was just thanking Max for all her help for tonight’s party.”

“And I was just telling him that the credit should really go to Zoe,” I added, knowing that my attempt at casualness was probably more obvious than a giant hickey on my forehead. 

Jillian pushed her glasses up her nose. “I’m assuming your gestures of gratitude were, well, gratifying enough then?”

Alex and I exchanged a look before turning back to Jillian’s deadpan expression and bursting into an embarrassed chuckle. 

“Definitely,” Alex said, extending a hand toward me and gesturing at the navy blue apron I had on. “And because I already owe Max a substantial number of favours, I’m going to insist she stops cleaning up right this second and call it a night.”

I motioned to the stack of small, dirty plates still sitting on the counter. “There’s not much left to do. I can help you with the rest of it.”

Alex shook his head. “I don’t want you lifting another finger, Max. I’ve had a few drinks so I’ll call the concierge to dispatch one of the resident town cars for you, okay?”

It was almost one in the morning and I was exhausted so I sighed and took off the apron. “Alright. Thank you, Alex.”

When he left to use the intercom panel by the front hall, Jillian walked over to me.

“Spit it out,” I said even though she hadn’t said a single word. It didn’t mean she wasn’t bursting with things to say.

She hitched up one shoulder. “I wish I could say you’re stepping in the right direction because Alex is a great guy. I just don’t know if being the right guy means the same thing as the being the person who can make you happy.”

I sighed and rubbed the spot between my brows, exhausted with the emotions more than I was of a long night of partying. “It doesn’t but being the right guy might mean the same thing as being the person who won’t hurt you at the very least.”

From out of nowhere, Jillian threw me a quick hug. “I think I’ll always prefer that you’re happy but whichever way you go, Max, just know that I’m here for you. Just give the word and I’ll spam any jerk’s email with twenty million ads of anti-hair loss cream and sketchy online dating invites.”

I laughed and Jillian grinned before joining in. 

When Alex asked us what was so hilarious when he got back, I just shook my head, gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and dragged Jillian out.

That night, as I laid awake in my bed, I searched my memory for the burn marks of Alex’s kiss in case they were more prominent than those that Luke had left behind. 

I found none.

It hadn’t burned as hotly.

***

The week that followed should’ve been no different than the last. 

Since our kiss, Alex hadn’t attempted for more and I was relieved about that. It was too fast and too much for my still sluggish heart that hadn’t quite extricated itself yet from Luke. 

If Alex had resented my lackluster response, I wouldn’t know because he hadn’t seemed different the couple times I saw him this week. We carried on much like we did as if the kiss had never happened and that part of our relationship, I very much wanted. Hockey season was starting in less than a week which meant I’d see less of Alex since he would be on the road for out-of-town games half the time so whatever time we had left, I wanted to make it count. No guy deserved my undivided attention more than he did.

In fact, I had been looking forward to going out to lunch with him when Bryce told us that our first completed draft had come back from the legal team with a slew of revisions. We had to start working on it so it could go back to legal for final stamping, which could take about a week. If we were lucky, it would come back approved without any further revisions. The detailed proposal had to be ready for presentation to Charles Hedenby during his visit less than two weeks from now. Luke had reiterated many times how strict and thorough his father was and that the proposal would only be acceptable if it was perfect. I doubted that his father was the immoveable god he’d depicted him to be but I could tell how badly Luke wanted to please him. I’d watched him get stressed out over the most minute details, pulling at his hair or rubbing his jaw raw, and I had to curl my hands into fists to keep myself from taking his hand in mine so it couldn’t inflict any more damage on him. When he’d caught me watching him a few times, his eyes latching on mine and staying there as if it had somehow kept him afloat, I smiled at him without the weight of the ocean between us, and he’d smiled back.

Today, he’d walked in with Bryce looking grim and asked that we make the revisions as quickly as possible so we could send it back to legal by the end of the day to buy us enough time. 

And because I couldn’t stand the agitation on Luke’s face, and because it was also my first big project, I sighed and texted Alex that I had to skip out on him today since most of the team had decided to stay in over lunchtime to try to beat the clock on this proposal.

Alex just said okay without any arguments. 

I’d almost forgotten about it when there was a loud, perky knock on the boardroom door. We’d all looked up just as the door swung open and Sal stood there, the smile on his face too bright for someone who’d just given up his lunch hour. 

“There’s food, guys, but that’s not the best part!” he said, rubbing his hands excitedly. “It’s delivered by none other than the Pirates’ newest star goalie!”

Alex poked his head in then, a bit flushed from Sal’s pumped up intro and the eruption of cheers from inside the boardroom when they realized who it was. He smiled at everyone before his gaze zoomed in on me. “Hey, Max.”

“Mr. Rizzo—what an unexpected surprise,” Luke said across the table from me. He did not sound as psyched as everyone else was about our guest.

“Mr. Hedenby, good to see you,” Alex said, his smile not faltering the slightest at that cool greeting as he followed Sal in along with a tray cart piled high with pizza boxes and packs of soda. He was dressed casually in jeans, a shirt and a baseball cap which only enhanced his rugged appeal. I might be a little distracted but I could hear some swooning in the background as Alex acknowledged the rest of the room with that disarming shyness. “Hello, everyone. I just thought since all of you are working hard today over lunch, including my supposed lunch date here who had to bail on me, I thought I’d drop by with a little something to get you all through the day.”

I could feel curious eyes on me at the mention of the word date but I didn’t look at anyone else—just Alex and whatever stunt he was pulling right in front of me.

Luke stood up, pulling himself to his full height. He was just as tall as Alex, less broad, but sleekly muscled nevertheless. Even in his sharply tailored suit, I could sense the tension rippling through him as he settled into the deceivingly relaxed stance of a panther waiting to spring into deadly action.

Maybe I was the only one who noticed but the air seemed to have left the room. I mean, I wasn’t breathing any.

 “It’s a kind, noble gesture, Mr. Rizzo, but we have catering already on its way here. You can be assured that we look after our people and while we appreciate your generosity, it certainly wasn’t necessary.” Luke’s words were crisp and edged with frost.

Alex met his eye this time and I swallowed hard at the less than friendly expression on his face even as he affected a casual shrug. “I just wanted to see Max. I’m not ashamed to admit I’d use any excuse.”

Oh, God.

This time, when it was Luke’s eyes boring a hole in my head, I couldn’t ignore it.

I glanced at him and felt like I’d slammed into a wall at the hard, steely look in his eyes that felt strangely like accusation. 

My shoulders squared up at that because seriously, while I hadn’t planned a big surprise appearance from Alex, it was just freaking lunch. He and I didn’t go out and make a dozen babies and even if we did, Luke had made his choice, hadn’t he?

“Excuse me,” I said as I rose. “I’ll need five minutes.”

I didn’t wait for a response before navigating my way around everyone who’d gotten up to help Sal distribute the food. The resumed chatter brought some semblance of normalcy into the room that had gotten too quiet as Alex and Luke performed the modern-day version of a pissing contest.

I grabbed Alex on my way out. 

The boardroom took up the entire section of this wing and was fully walled with glass on one side so whichever direction we went along the hall, we couldn’t completely step out of everyone’s view. 

“Come on, smile,” Alex said as he and I stopped at a corner discreet enough from prying eyes. “Pretend you’re at least happy to see me. I did bring food.”

“Which I’m grateful for but Luke was right—it was unnecessary,” I said, releasing his arm. “Thank you for going through all that trouble but I want to know what else is on your agenda.”

Alex feigned innocence. “Maybe I was just really feeling thoughtful. Can’t that be reason enough?”

I raised a brow. “Yeah, sure. You didn’t metaphorically whip it out back there and pee all over Luke’s territory?”

Alex raised his brow back. “Are we talking about this office or you?”

I grimaced. “I am no one’s territory. Regardless, I want to know what this is really all about.”

To my surprise, he smiled and pressed a kiss on my forehead. “I did want to see you and I really did feel like surprising everyone with pizza. But I also thought—and I’ve been thinking over the last couple of days—that I could do something for you.”

“And what’s that?”

“Help that idiot in there see exactly what he’s giving up before he completely loses it,” Alex explained. “It’s one thing to know you don’t feel that way about me. It’s another to know that you feel that way about someone else and have it go to waste because he’s a moron.”

And because I couldn’t help myself, I glanced over my shoulder and caught the moron in question gloomily watching us from inside the boardroom, oblivious to the world around him.

“If you’re trying to make him jealous, I’m afraid it’s not as simple as that,” I told Alex with a weary sigh. I looked back at him, my heart tender because he definitely deserved someone far better than me. “I won’t force his hand.”

Alex rolled his eyes. “You’re not. You’re just showing him everything there is at stake because some people can’t see past the stupid things they’ve drilled into their heads until someone makes them. Don’t worry, I won’t overdo it. Just a little push here and there.”

I smiled and groaned softly. “Oh, man. You’re really going to do it, aren’t you?”

“I want you to be happy, Max. Who it’s with isn’t as important to me as long as you are,” he said, giving me a sly grin before pulling me into a hug that was a second or two too long to be appropriate in the direct view of my boss and coworkers. “Now, enjoy lunch. I don’t know what Hedenby’s ordered for catering but he’s going to be in a stew for the rest of the afternoon.”

I burst out laughing at that, and the entire boardroom probably heard even with the door closed, and I gave our audience a quick, guilty glance before tugging at Alex’s hand. “Come and say a proper hi before you go. I’m sure everyone in there, with the exception of a particularly antagonized individual, is dying to meet you.”

Carefully ignoring Luke, I opened the door and cheerfully introduced everyone to Alex. He happily shook hands with every single person and wished us all a good rest of our day, before letting me walk him out of the building.

When I got back, I got teased mercilessly about Alex. He was probably the only romantic link they could openly tease me about. The only other one would be Luke and he was sitting right there, probably in hell, and we had the whole boss-employee issue getting in the way of nosy coworkers who’d probably been biting their tongues this whole time, even after some whispers about us made it into some of the local tabloids. 

For some reason though, their ribbing didn’t get to me at all. I continued to smile, dodge the comments politely, even teasingly, and went about my work.

My mood stayed light for the rest of the afternoon even after Luke continued to brood before leaving for a two p.m. appointment. 

Maybe Alex was really going to execute his plan, I didn’t know. All I knew was that some of my guilt had lifted because I didn’t have to push myself to be there in the capacity Alex wanted from me. He knew where we stood and accepted it with a graciousness I didn’t deserve but was thankful for anyway.

Then it all went downhill when I decided to go up to Luke’s office to drop off his leather binder that he’d left behind in the boardroom. It had been moved to a side table when we were clearing some space on the conference table for lunch once the caterers came and he’d forgotten about it.

Even before I pushed the door open, I could hear the ruckus inside.

“—in an important meeting… make sure to call you when he can—”

“—don’t care if it’s important… to stop hiding from me—”

“—or security will have to escort you out—”

“—think you’re as important as all that for a former maid—”

Peggy was standing behind her desk, doing her damned best to stay in control as a tall woman in an unbuttoned trench coat swore down a storm, her long, reddish blond hair whipping about in tandem with her flailing arms. 

Two security guards stood nearby, shifting their feet uneasily and trying to intervene but having no luck. One of them saw me and held a hand up as if to warn me not to come any closer but I was rooted on the spot anyway.

“—tell him that he has to see me, okay?” she was yelling at Peggy. “Try to be more than just a fucking leech to him and actually do your job. I’ll even stand here and wait.”

I tensed as the voice—and definitely the crass speech—prodded at my memory. 

“Miss, you’re making a scene,” the other guard said as he took a step closer to the woman. “You really need to—”

“Touch a fucking hair on my head and I’ll have my lawyers sue you down to your last penny,” she told him with the dramatic flair of a real-life villain. “Back off. I’m not going anywhere until Peggy here stops being a waste of oxygen and gets Luke for me.”

“Hey,” I blurted out of nowhere. 

Peggy whirled around, her eyes widening anxiously as she shook her head to ward me off. “Max, don’t—”

Oh, but I’ve been waiting to do this since the day Lola frothed all kinds of filthy things on the phone with me a few weeks ago.

I kept going, even crossing the distance to walk up to her. “If anyone’s a waste of oxygen here, it’s you because you’re polluting the air with your thoughtless, worthless and graceless rant. I’m assuming that you’re being told you’re not welcome here. Take the hint, won’t you?”

What was probably once a beautiful face—now thinner, patchy with sloppy makeup and wearing all the signs of someone deeply troubled—tilted down at me with narrowed eyes that gleamed dangerously in the light. 

Her smile gave me chills. “So. Max, isn’t it? Lovely to finally meet you.”

Then out of nowhere, her hand landed on my left cheek with a sharp, stinging crack, her nails scraping lines of skin in their trail.

All hell broke loose and I was caught, dazed and spinning, smack in the middle of it.

I heard Peggy screaming, saw the guards lunging, and watched Lola trying to writhe free from their hold.

Peggy put an arm around me to steer me away into a corner. She then grabbed her phone, her voice thrumming with panic. “You have to get out here right now. She’s lost it. She hit Max and the poor girl is now bleeding.”

In a matter of seconds, the door to Luke’s office flung open and out he marched like a punisher.

I was fingering my swollen cheek, still foggy from the shock, when he saw me. With the black look on his face, I flinched headed straight for me. His hand was gentle though when it tipped my chin up to inspect the damage on my face.

Then he swore and turned to Lola who was screaming at the guards, threatening them all kinds of lawsuits.

“Get her out of here. Call the police if you have to and make sure she’s forever banned from the premises,” Luke instructed in cold menace before walking up to Lola, who’d temporarily stilled in her struggle, until he was inches away from her face. “From now on, any conversation between us will be strictly through my lawyers. This is the last straw and you’re lucky if you ever get anything from me ever again because I will never forgive you for this.”

The woman cackled at that. “Come on, Luke. You can’t be serious about this ugly, mouthy bitch—”

“Get her out!” Luke barked at the guards before turning away. 

With frightening purpose, he marched back to me, cradled my face gently between his hands, his eyes closing briefly as he brushed a ghost of a kiss on my lips.

“Luke, I—”

My sentence abruptly ended when he suddenly scooped me up in his arms. 

“Shut my office down,” he told Peggy before striding toward his office, kicking the door open since he had his arms full of me. Four men, who had most likely been in the meeting with Luke, quit their pacing when they saw us come through the door. 

“Get out. Peggy will reschedule this meeting,” Luke said without pausing in his stride as he walked past them. 

“But—”

“I said out!”

The four men couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Luke slowly set me down in a big armchair from across his desk, going down on his knees as he dug out a handkerchief from his pocket.

“Here, baby. Let me,” he said as he lightly pressed the silky fabric against my cheek. I winced at the sting and wrapped a hand around his to hold the pressure in place. His hand shook, probably from the violence I could still feel coursing through him, but he made no move to drain it out of his system.

I closed my eyes, taking deep long breaths until I could feel my feet touch the ground again and know that I was back in reality. 

And the reality was, my face fucking hurt. My pride was in worse shape at the realization that I’d been too dumbfounded to have done anything useful after that assault—like tear Lola’s hair off until she resembled a newborn baby. Probably for the best since I was still at work.

“I’m so sorry, Max,” Luke murmured and I opened my eyes. His forehead was pressed down on my thigh, his free hand curled in a fist above my knee. “You should’ve never been caught in the middle of this. I’m so sorry she hurt you.”

“Luke,” I croaked, my voice hoarse with tears I didn’t realize I was fighting back until that moment. “She’s not well. She needs help.”

Luke lifted his head, his anger sharp and clear even in his anguished eyes. “She’s all kinds of fucked up right now. And I was doing my best to help her but this—hurting you—is where I draw the line. All she’ll get from me now is a go to hell note along with a temporary restraining order.”

“Luke—” 

“I’ll get you a lawyer. We’ll visit the station and press charges—”

“Luke—”

“I’ll have two guards keep an eye on you. I’ll make sure—”

“Luke!”

God, he was fuming mad like I’ve never seen before.

“What?” he demanded, his wild eyes glazed with what might be tears. “I have to protect you from her, Max. You’re in this mess because of me—because no matter how I try to distance you from the mess of my life, I can’t stay far away enough to keep you safe.”

He tugged his hand away from my injured cheek and pulled himself up to his feet, pacing in a small circle in front of me, his fingers raking through his hair. “This is all my fault. If anything happens to you because of my stupid decisions, I will never forgive myself.”

I watched Luke, feeling his torment wretch away section after section of my walls, wondering if there was a way to reach him and shake him awake from this delirium that he would cause me nothing but pain and grief.

“I may not look like it right now but I’m not fragile, Luke,” I said softly. “I’m not invincible but I’m not going to fall apart at the slightest blow. You have to give me some credit. And give yourself some, too.”

He paused mid-step and looked at me with a storm in his eyes. “I tried and every time I did, I keep remembering the kind of suffering I could put a woman through. Every time I keep thinking it would be different with you, I keep picturing your face when that time comes and I screw up so badly I end up breaking not just your heart but your soul, Max. I’m not even with you right now and I’m already taking you down with me.”

“Then what’s the difference?” I asked, taking the handkerchief off my cheek and staring down at the spots of red on the pristine white surface. “Maybe if you let me in, we could deal with it together. Then maybe we can still be happy, even with all the crappy parts that we’ll have work through anyway. Right now, you’ve trapped us with just the crappy parts—even when we can have so much more and so much better.”

Luke just gazed at me—all the longing, the pain and the desperate hope plain on his face. He clenched and unclenched his hands, his shoulders rising and falling with every breath he drew in and chased out of his lungs as all he wanted and all that he feared raced each other to the finish line.

Slowly, he returned to my side, crumpling to his knees again, his hands taking mine.

“Do you remember that first day we went into Cleo’s?” he asked. “You mentioned your parents and I promised you that I wouldn’t be that kind of guy to you—the kind who’d break your heart.”

I nodded. 

“I didn’t think it was going to be a problem keeping that promise until I realized that I wanted to be with you. But to give in to that means breaking my promise because I’m still not the kind of guy you deserve to be happy with,” he said, lifting my hand up and pressing his lips against the back of my fingers. “But I want to be.”

“Maybe you already are,” I told him, catching his chin and tilting his face up so I could look at him. 

“Max, you’re wearing proof of the fact that I’m not right on your face,” he said morosely. “I wanted to fix things, to fix myself, before even daring to take a chance with you. And every attempt just keeps backfiring and now you’re caught in the crossfire.”

Before I could say anything, he put his arms around my waist and drew me closer. “Do you think that if I can free my life from all the women who haunt it and become a better man for you who might still screw up once in a while—do you think you can be with me, Max?”

The earnest question, still anxious in every way possible, touched one final piece in my heart until the last of my walls gave away.

“Yes, Luke,” I said, trailing my fingertips down the side of his face. “I’d want nothing more.”

He paused and blinked, as if he hadn’t expected that answer, before nodding solemnly and turning his face to kiss my palm. “Then that’s what I’ll do. I can’t fight it anymore, Max. The only thing left to do is fight for you.”

He smiled for the first time that entire afternoon before leaning forward to brush a gentle kiss on my lips. 

I smiled back against the curved shape of his mouth, feeling the warmth all the way down to my belly—a first as well for me in a long time.

Then the door swung open and in came Peggy, apologizing profusely for taking so long because she had to call the police and deal with the security team. She carried a first-aid kit with her and an ice pack.

Luke dropped one last kiss on my lips before stepping aside to let Peggy clean me up. Hee got on the phone with his lawyer, wandering out to his balcony just as their conversation got more and more intense.

“Thank you for stepping in earlier, Max, although I wish you hadn’t,” Peggy said as she gently dabbed some antiseptic on my cheek. I bit my lip and made no sound despite the deep sting. “There are a couple of scratches. They’re not too deep so I don’t think they’ll leave obvious scars but still, it’s not going to feel nice in the next few days for you.”

“I’m sure I’ll survive,” I said, keeping still as she carefully applied a small and thin strip of gauze over the scratches. 

“Luke might not,” Peggy joked as she secured the edges with some medical tape. “I thought he was going to choke Lola to death earlier after what she’d done to you. That woman drove the last nail down her coffin with that stunt today. It’ll all be ugly from here on.”

“You’re most likely right,” I said, sighing with relief when Peggy finally pressed the ice pack on the slightly swollen side of my cheek. “But I’m not going anywhere. It’s time Luke knows that.”

After his phone call, Luke returned to check on me and help hold the ice pack when my arm got tired and that side of my head started to throb. The rest of the afternoon became a flurry of cops coming in to interview us, a few people from work who’d come to check in on me—Jillian, Ryan, Terrence, even Bryce—and by the time my day was over, I just wanted to crawl under my covers and lie still until my head stopped spinning from today’s events.

Luke drove me home and walked me up to my unit.

He heated up some soup while I showered and sat me down on on the love seat to patch me up new again. We ate together afterwards, holding our bowls on our laps. 

“Are you going home?” I asked after we’d cleaned up the dishes and I was about to go brush my teeth. 

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders to draw me in so he could kiss my forehead. “I am home.”

And despite the terrible day we had, we fell asleep in each other’s arms, knowing, somewhere in our hearts, with more certainty than we’ve had in a long time, that he might just be right.

We were home.

***

So, what do you think?

Are they out of the woods yet? I'm a bit addicted to that particular T-Swift song right now but I chose the softer acoustic version for the chapter because the melody fits it better.

Things are finally coming along but of course, we know it doesn't all end there because that would be way too easy. I have a lot of respect for Alex in this chapter because I think he might have realized just how he and Max might be wearing very similar shoes. I'm thinking I might him a story of his own too. You never know.

I hope you don't hate on Max for not being able to react to Lola in a certain, more assertive fashion, shall we say. Max is not Charlotte and also, in real life, when you're confronted with that kind of violence, we either react in the same volatile manner or find ourselves frozen and unable to react. She might have seemed a damsel in distress here a bit but her real strengths will be better realized in the later parts of the story. 

Hope you enjoyed it! Vote and comment if you did!

XOXO!

-Ninya

P.S. The included lyrics are toward the end of the song which is my favorite and I think speaks strongly to Luke and Max's situation.

♪♪♪ Chapter Soundtrack: Out of the Woods by Taylor Swift (Cover by Tyler Ward) ♪♪♪

Looking at it now
Last December (last December)
We were built to fall apart
Then fall back together (back together)
Your necklace hanging from my neck
The night we couldn't quite forget
When we decided (we decided)
To move the furniture so we could dance,
Baby, like we stood a chance
Two paper airplanes flying, flying, flying
And I remember thinkin'

Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods yet?
Are we out of the woods?
Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet?
Are we in the clear yet?
In the clear yet?
Good

(Are we out of the woods?!)

Remember when you hit the brakes too soon?
Twenty stitches in the hospital room
When you started cryin', baby, I did, too
But when the sun came up, I was lookin' at you
Remember when we couldn't take the heat
I walked out and said, "I'm settin' you free,"
But the monsters turned out to be just trees
And when the sun came up, you were lookin' at me
You were lookin' at me
You were lookin' at me,
I remember, oh, I remember