Max instinctively tightened his hold on her hand. The pressure was gentle but unmistakably pleading. He leaned forward just a little but barely enough for anyone else to notice, and gave her a nervous smile meant only for her… soft, uncertain, almost boyish in its worry.
His eyes searched her face as if one wrong breath from her would shatter him.
He didn’t realize what that simple gesture looked like to everyone watching.
To the guests, to the workers who had seen Evelyn argue her way through every rule of the estate, to Luka and his men who had been at her side through thick and thin...it looked it was reasonable for him to be scared.
Not the fear of a gang leader who faced blades and bullets for a living.
But the fear of a man who was terrified… truly, deeply terrified… that the wo
