The Master Player

‘You’re a very special woman, Chloe,’ he said seriously. ‘I didn’t want to fail you in any way.’

It turned her serious. ‘You don’t. All the time you give me what I need, what I want. You never fail. And it’s wonderful in one sense…’ She paused, frowning slightly.

‘But…?’ he prompted.

She grimaced. ‘It’s like I’m being passive in all this and I don’t want to be passive anymore.’

His mouth twitched with amusement. ‘Believe me. You weren’t passive. I wouldn’t have completely lost my head if your response had not been so actively exciting.’

She eyed him curiously. ‘You don’t usually lose your head?’

‘No.’

‘Does that mean it was especially good for you?’

‘Yes.’

She looked enormously pleased, her sky-blue eyes sparkling with joy, her smile so wide the dimples in her cheeks deepened in tantalising provocation and he reached out and placed a teasing finger in one of them. She laughed at his bemusement in her. ‘Well, I’m glad I wasn’t a failure to you. I would have shrivelled up and died. As it is, I don’t feel at all bad about this, even though I should.’

‘Why should you?’ Surely she couldn’t feel guilty about being unfaithful to a marriage that was dead and gone.

She winced. ‘In a way, I’ve just acted like Laura Farrell, though at least you’re not married to Shannah Lian.’ Her eyes searched his worriedly. ‘Did you forget about her, Max?’

It obviously troubled her that he might be in the same unfaithful class as her husband. She didn’t owe loyalty to anyone, but he…there was empathy for Shannah’s situation on her face. ‘It’s over between Shannah and me,’ he quickly assured her. ‘We parted friends. You haven’t taken anything from her, Chloe. Nor have I cheated on her.’

He watched her process this information. The initial relief gave way to a narrow-eyed re-assessment of her own situation with him. He knew she was thinking of how her mother and husband had interpreted his actions on her behalf, that he was motivated by carnal desire, not keeping his television show on track. There was no more fondling. She drew her hand away from his groin and separated her body from his, sliding to one side, an elbow propping her up as she studied his face, her mind obviously whirling with questions.

They were still on an intimate footing, Max told himself. She hadn’t flounced off the bed to grab her robe and cover herself. She didn’t want to separate herself from him that far. Nevertheless, he knew the next words spoken could have a critical impact on where they went fr

om here. He didn’t try to pull her back to him, respecting the space she’d put between them. He didn’t move at all but there was a shift inside himself, adrenaline pumping through him, relaxation obliterated by the growing tension of battle readiness.

He wasn’t about to lose now.

Chloe decided she wanted the truth, whatever it was. There’d been no gossip about Max breaking up with Shannah Lian, so the break had to be very recent. The big question was when? The gorgeous redhead had not been with him at the launch party. Was that an indication the relationship had ended before then…before the revelation of Tony’s and Laura’s betrayal, which had made her so vulnerable to Max’s escape route?

Chloe fiercely hoped so. She didn’t want her mother and Tony to be right about Max. He’d been so good to her…good for her. On the other hand, she couldn’t bear to live with lies. Her whole life felt as though it had been false. Above all, she needed to get it straight now, not be fooled by anything anymore.

There was no guilt in Max’s eyes. Not the slightest flicker of evasion, either. He was watching her intently, his dark brilliant gaze very steady and direct, waiting for her to tell him what was on her mind, why she had moved aside, breaking the intimate togetherness. There was waiting in his stillness, too, and the uneasy thought flashed across her mind that it was the stillness of a predator waiting for the right opening to attack.

He’d certainly seized the right opening at the launch party, moving in at the precise moment of absolute vulnerability, taking her into his keeping when she was too shell-shocked to be aware of it. But she wasn’t shell-shocked now and she wasn’t going to be weak, letting him steam-roll her into an affair that could distract her from what she should be doing.

Another question popped into her mind. She couldn’t imagine any woman dumping Max, though it seemed relevant to the main issue so she asked, ‘Did you end it or did Shannah?’

‘I did.’

No surprise in that admission. Chloe couldn’t see Max not being in charge of everything to do with his life. She had to ask the big question now. ‘When, Max?’

‘The day you came here. I had a dinner date with Shannah that night. I couldn’t relate to her. I kept thinking of you.’

Relief swept through her. It sounded reasonable. Yet it didn’t really answer the accusations made by her mother and Tony. ‘Do you mean wanting me instead of her?’

‘Yes.’

She took a deep breath and blurted out, ‘Has everything you’ve done for me been about…about wanting me?’

His mouth quirked into an ironic little smile. ‘Chloe, I doubt there’s a man alive who wouldn’t find you desirable, but if you’re asking if it was lust driving me to take you into my protection that first night, no, it wasn’t.’

A flush of embarrassment burned her cheeks. Of course, it was a ridiculous assumption. He’d whipped her away from a nasty scene because he hadn’t wanted the whole focus of the launch party to be diverted into a gossip-fest that had nothing to do with the show.