Heir's Affair

SEVENTEEN

SEVENTEEN

Persuading the guys to stay until the party was over and everyone was in bed, wasn’t that difficult. Tally gave them the key and after that, they seemed to relax, so much so that she had to keep reminding them to keep their volume down. They traded stories about Max and while she got sucked in and laughed along, she was repeatedly stung by memories of how she’d messed up.

To say she was melancholy was an understatement, but she did her best not to let the guys know. She snuck them out while it was still dark out and then went back to bed to grab a couple of hours sleep. Though that was near impossible when all she could think about was Max.

When she couldn’t take it anymore, Tally got out of bed and went down to the pool. No one was ever down here at this time in the morning. It was as close as she could get to freedom; she had no place else to go.

Swimming a length and then another, she thought about her own future. Maybe it wasn’t here with the Strettons. Since Max had come to join the family, she’d felt stifled. It wasn’t his fault. It was just that being with him had made her see how many possibilities existed out there in the world. She’d become so used to Teddy Stretton’s rules that she didn’t even stop to figure out if they made sense or were even rational.

At the shallow end, she stopped and stood, but gasped when she noticed a figure in shorts standing on the edge of the pool. “Jesus, Max,” she exhaled. “You scared me.”

He dropped to sit and dangled his feet into the water. “I’ve come down here a bunch of mornings hoping to see you.”

“You really should get more sleep,” she said because he shouldn’t be up at this hour of the day while the rest of the house slept.

This was the time for the rich to get beautiful and dream big, maybe he hadn’t gotten that memo yet.

The nature of the conversation changed when he braced on one arm and slid down into the water. “You dropped your socks.”

So that was his excuse? He’d come down here to give her back the socks that she’d dropped at some point during their session in his suite.

Tally began to back away. “You could’ve just brought the socks, you didn’t have to get in the water.”

“To give you back the socks,” he said, advancing on her. “No, I didn’t.” Lunging forward, he caught her arm and stopped her from going any deeper, the water was already over her breasts. When he strode forward, her legs lifted, and he grabbed them to wrap them around his hips. He was hard already and didn’t hesitate to push her against the side wall of the pool. “I had to get into the water to do this.”

“No,” she said, putting her wet fingers to his lips when he moved in for a kiss. “Max, we screwed up. We can’t do this here.”

“In the pool?” he asked and nuzzled her neck. “I need you, Tal.”

Max had always had a voracious s****l appetite, taking on two women wouldn’t be beyond him. “Did you leave Anika sleeping upstairs?”

He kissed the corner of her mouth. “Baby, only you, remember? I haven’t been with anyone else, I swear.”

Okay, that surprised her, but after she got over that and her brows relaxed, she slid her hands up over his shoulders and into his hair. “You didn’t sleep with Anika?” she asked. He shook his head. “Probably best, I mean, family politics and such. I’d only sleep with a woman like her if you plan to make a commitment… I can get you a casual girl, I mean, if you want me to send someone to your room I—” What nonsense was she babbling? Tally scowled at herself, was she offering to hire him a hooker? “I… forget I said that, that’s just weird, right, I—”

“There’s been no one but you, Boss.”

“No one?”

“No one,” he said.

This time, she let him kiss her. Her hips began to move; she smiled and whispered, “I’ve never done it in water.”

His next smile told her that he knew he had her. He bumped his forehead on hers and brushed his lips over hers. “That’s why I’m here, to fulfil your every fantasy.”

And running her hands over his defined torso, she could tell he’d been working even harder at it. “You are my fantasy,” she whispered and pulled his kiss to hers.

This time was slower, more like making love with the motion of the water enhancing her pleasure as it lapped her breasts and buoyed her body. He moved slowly. The slide of his d**k inside her satisfied the desperate need she’d neglected for six weeks.

As soon as he was done, her legs loosened from his hips. Grateful to have the water holding her up, Tally had been left weak and couldn’t think of maintaining her balance.

Sliding downward, she reached over her head to grab the pool edge, and she exhaled as her lips touched the surface of the water. “That was amazing.”

He bent his knees and came in close to kiss her with their mouths half in the water, half out. “You’re amazing.”

Losing herself in the hypnosis of his kiss, she almost didn’t see the overhead lights go on. But when their glare hit the water, Tally opened her eyes and Max backed off to look at the door. Spinning in the water, she peeked over the edge to see Teddy striding in wearing his satin pajamas.

Max’s arm curled around her waist to pull her to him. “Oh no,” she murmured.

Teddy’s disapproval was written all over his face. “I can’t blame you for not understanding how women manipulate rich men, son,” Teddy said. “Miss Taylor, please explain yourself.”

“I—”

“Hold up,” Max said. Putting himself in front of her, he held her with an arm twisted around to her back, pressing her chest into his spine. “I came down here, I seduced her. If you want someone to blame? Point at me.”

This was exactly what she didn’t want. How could someone have known they were together in the pool? Max’s new assistant hated her, Mandy had probably been told to keep an eye on her and report any suspicious behavior.

Tally had been asked more than once about her relationship with Max. People were curious after the stories of their behavior at the Walker Benefit got around.

It had been obvious that while she was avoiding Max, there were efforts to keep her away from him too. Teddy didn’t want them to have a relationship and she was the one he was closest to, at least she had been when he got here.

Max’s assistant, Mandy, had been given a bedroom on the same floor as her. The woman was never called at night; Tally wasn’t sure if Max ever called her at all. That lack of trust, the lack of a connection, had upset Mandy, who wanted influence. At least, that’s what Sean had told her. Mandy did her best not to talk to Tally at all.

“This is an important lesson for both of you,” Teddy said. “Miss Taylor, you have until the end of the day to move your things out of the house.”

She gasped and closed her mouth over the tattoo on the back of Max’s shoulder to keep herself from sobbing. “No f*****g way,” Max said. “If she goes, I go.”

Teddy’s pitying humor only brought more shame. “I don’t think so,” Teddy said.

“Well, I f*****g do,” Max said.

Teddy took a breath and wore a haughty look that made her nervous. “I think you’ll change your mind when you find out she spent last night with another man,” he said. Tally couldn’t have been more shocked. Max’s silence was conspicuous. “That’s right, I’m sure he’s still in her bed. Voices were heard in her room through the night; sounds, you understand, grunts and moans. Go check for yourself. I’m sure he’s still there, unless she snuck him out before coming here.”

Max said nothing and Tally couldn’t even argue. She had spent the night with a man, three of them actually. There had been talking, and the noises were probably the guys telling stories or roughhousing.

Even if she were to break her friends’ confidence and her promise to them, it wouldn’t matter, she’d broken the rules by having them here whether she had s*x with them or not.

Mandy had to be the one who’d betrayed the visit. She was in a prime position to be listening through walls.

Teddy carried on, “We tried to check her room, but the spare key is missing. She is f*******n from bringing strangers to this house. Even if you defend her now, you can’t defend that behavior,” he said and tipped up his chin before turning away.

“It was me,” Max said. Tally’s arms sank in the water, though his arm remained behind her, keeping her close. “You can’t fire her because she spent the night with me, in her room. I’m no stranger and she didn’t sneak me in. It was me.”

Teddy turned back, all stuttering shock. “You… you what?”

“Yeah, this wasn’t an accident,” Max said. She recognized that determination in his voice, he was daring the other man to contradict him. “You think this is the first time I’ve been intimate with Miss Taylor? I’ve been pursuing her. Get it? I’m the one chasing her f*****g tail.”

“You’re… you’ve taken her as your mistress?”

She knew Max didn’t know what that meant in this family. “That’s right. That’s what rich f***s do, right? They pick a girl and hound her until she gives it up. Just making you proud.”

But Teddy didn’t look proud, he looked confused and angry. “Very well, I will see to it,” he said and turned to storm out of the room.

She stood in the water behind Max, wondering what was in his mind. “Lover—”

“Whoever he is, get rid of him,” Max said, his voice deeper and colder than she’d ever heard it. “Don’t ever do that to me again.”

His arm fell, and he strode away. Cutting through the water, he swam to the edge and lifted himself out. Marching out of the room without looking back, Max was beyond angry. Anger she would know how to deal with, but she’d hurt him; there was no way to fix that because she couldn’t offer the truth.

Teddy fired her. Max saved her. But she couldn’t slip back into her usual role, she had to go to her bedroom and pack it up. Then it would be a waiting game to see if she had somewhere to sleep tonight or not.