‘Who?’ he repeated, easing her in even tighter.
‘I don’t know her,’ she lied. ‘But I think it could be serious.’ That much was certainly true.
Oh, Layla, I hope you know what you’re doing.
‘But you don’t know who she is.’
‘No.’
‘Yeah you do.’ He was staring into her eyes.
‘No. I don’t.’
‘You’re such a useless liar,’ he said, and kissed her.
Annie jerked her head away. ‘Don’t do that,’ she said.
Max’s eyes were smoky with lust. ‘Why not? I want to. And you want me to.’
‘Oh, you know that, do you?’
‘Yeah I know it. Like I know you’ve been bored out of your mind.’
Annie’s mouth twisted in a sour smile. ‘You know that too?’
‘Yep. Why don’t you give it up, shove off to the USA, go and stay in New York.’
‘Maybe I don’t want to.’
He shrugged. ‘Your club’s there.’
‘And my club manager, who doesn’t need me peering over his shoulder. Aren’t you going to point out that Alberto lives there…?’
‘It is a point.’
‘And that I could go there and “be” with him, as you so tastefully put it?’
‘Yeah. Why not?’
Annie wrenched herself free of his embrace. Now her eyes were full of fury. ‘You utter shit,’ she said. ‘I’ve just told you. He’s interested in someone else. Not me. Never me. So why don’t you shut. The. Fuck. Up.’
She pushed past him, went to the door into the adjoining master suite, opened it, stepped through it and turned the key sharply in the lock.
‘Bastard,’ she muttered, enraged, and went and flung herself on to the bed. She must have been crazy ever to get involved with him at all, let alone marry the sod twice. He was never going to let it go. He was always going to throw it in her face. He was a nightmare and she was out of it, and she should be glad, because he was-
With a crash the door that linked the master suite to the room next door suddenly flew inward, juddering. Max walked in.
‘Don’t do that,’ he said, coming over to the bed. ‘Don’t walk away.’
Annie sat up, stared at the open door, the shattered lock. ‘You’ve broken my bloody door,’ she told him.
‘Fuck the door,’ said Max, and striding back to the door, he wrenched it off its hinges and flung it on to the carpet.
Annie started to laugh.
‘Now what?’ asked Max, returning to the bed and glaring down at her.
‘You’re such a bloody head case,’ she said. She hadn’t laughed like this in… oh, about eight years.
‘Stop laughing,’ he said, pointing a finger at her.
She couldn’t.
‘This isn’t funny,’ he said.
‘Yeah, it is.’
‘Shut up.’
Annie couldn’t.
‘That’s it,’ he said. ‘I am going to shut you up.’
Annie’s eyes were streaming with mirth. She stared up at him. ‘Don’t you