Although, given Evie’s reaction to him in the hospital corridor when they’d first bumped into each other a couple of weeks ago, it was patent that there were still some residual feelings of their former attraction to one other. But was it purely sexual chemistry, or was there something more?
And as much as he wanted Evie, could happily take her to bed right now, he knew he couldn’t. It would never be the fun, no-strings fling of last year. They had a daughter together and they still needed to work out the best solution for her future, without complicating things unnecessarily.
And yet, sex was all he could guarantee. He was still the same man he’d been beforehand, still committed to his career, unable to risk splitting his focus. He couldn’t give either Evie or Imogen the family life they would get closer to their own family.
So he wanted her, he could admit that. He wanted her in the most primal way. But the difference was that he was evolved, and this was one base need he was going to have to overrule.
‘Anyway...’ he pushed aside all his concerns, as he had been doing for the last ten days ‘...a good, peaceful night’s sleep—for both of you—and you’ll be ready for more time together tomorrow.’
‘I am pretty beat,’ Evie conceded reluctantly.
‘So get some sleep.’
‘I can’t.’ She shook her head. ‘I mean, I know I won’t be able to drop off. My mind is still racing and I’ll just lie there staring at the clock if I go now.’
Yeah, he could relate to that.
‘I thought I might watch a film or something. You want to join me?’ she offered.
‘A film?’ he echoed sharply.
So much for his idea of distracting himself. They’d watched a few films together during their brief fling. After all, they’d needed some rest and refuelling—as incredible as the sex had been, even they hadn’t managed it twenty-four hours a day. That said, their film watching had inevitably ended only one way.
‘Why not?’ She shrugged nonchalantly, her brain apparently not in the same gutter as his. ‘I could just do with a bit of relaxing with some mindless entertainment.’
He resisted the urge to make a wry quip.
‘Okay, let’s watch a film together.’
‘You choose one. I just want to change...’
‘Into something more comfortable?’ he teased, the cliché slipping out before he could swallow it down. ‘That is, more comfortable over the incision site?’
He cringed internally. He’d had no intention of revealing to Evie just how fragile his control over himself was right now. Thankfully, she seemed too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice.
‘Right,’ she muttered. ‘My wound.’
‘Okay. Meet you in there when you’re ready.’ He retreated into the kitchen for something to eat.
He wasn’t even that hungry but he felt the need to occupy his hands if nothing else. His mind trying to put the brakes on the X-rated thoughts going on in the background, Max yanked the cupboards open with unnecessary vigour.
A bag of microwavable popcorn. That would do.
By the time he returned to the lounge Evie was gliding in, dressed in a light grey jersey pyjama-style tracksuit. He tried not to look her up and down, but it was impossible. The clothes emphasised long, slender legs, which had once wrapped so tightly around his hips, a slim waist he had held with his palms and, as the light material clung to the contours of breasts he could picture whenever he closed his eyes, his fingers itched to pull down the zip to reveal more than just that delicious glimpse of cleavage on offer right now.
So much for his desire for self-control.
He tried not to remember the sweet hollow spot at the base of her neck, which was on clear view now as Evie’s long hair was pulled up into a sleek ponytail. She unselfconsciously reached for a handful of popcorn, oblivious to the less than pure thoughts running through his head right now.
He seriously needed to pull himself together.
‘All set.’ He gave a long-forgotten just friends smile and gestured to the home control pad in his hands as if that clarified things. Selecting the movie, he commanded the home system to dim the lights just as Evie held out the bowl.
‘Popcorn?’
As she moved a familiar gentle perfume, essentially Evie scent, reached his nostrils. In an instant, his jeans grew taut over his groin. Odd, how the olfactory sense was so powerful it could evoke the most vivid of images. Not least right now when he had a flashback to Evie, wild and abandoned in his bed as he grazed his teeth over the sensitive skin just below her ear. And the added low lighting certainly wasn’t helping matters.
Grateful for the proffered snack food, he grasped the bowl and rammed it almost painfully down into his lap.