17. Max

I stumbledout of bed and tripped over something on the ground. Falling flat on the floor, I smacked my face on the hardwood, groaning as I rolled over. “Fuck!”

“Why did you kick me?”

Flinching, I pressed a hand to my pounding head. I did not just hear her voice in my room. Fuck, this was bad.

I could be falling for you.

I couldn’t deal with those words so early in the morning. And I definitely couldn’t deal with her. Why was she even in my house?

“Christa, what are you doing on the floor?”

“I could ask you the same question,” she groaned.

“I’m on the floor because I tripped over you.”

“I’m on the floor because you left me here,” she moaned.

Left her there? What was she talking about? I was pretty sure I drank more than usual last night. But was I really expected to stay sober after she dropped that bombshell on me? Was she fucking crazy? Who would fall for someone like me? I was the worst possible man in the world to even think about having a relationship with. I didn’t care about anyone else. I liked to get drunk and sleep all fucking day. And most of all, I hated any kind of responsibility, which was why I had ended up in the Caribbean. I needed to get her out of here and fast.

I struggled to my knees and crawled over to her. “Christa, time to go.”

She shoved her hand in my face, pushing me away. “I’m sleeping.”

She curled up in a ball and fell back asleep.

“Hey, time to wake up,” I said, shaking her harder than necessary.

“Want me to bite you again?” she muttered.

I flinched back and decided to leave her on the ground while I figured out what the fuck to do. I fled the room in search of reinforcements, but every room I walked into was completely empty. Where the fuck was everyone? With my cock slapping my thigh as I raced through the house, I tried desperately to come up with a single person who could help me out of this mess.

Running my fingers through my hair, I felt like I was in a never-ending state of panic as reality set in. I was going to have to get her out of here on my own. This would be easy. I’d done this before, so now would be no different. I’d kick her to the curb and be the ass I always was.

I strutted back to the room and slammed the door behind me, hoping to jerk her awake. Instead, a loud snore filled the silence of the room. So, I strolled past her and purposely tripped over her body. But instead of her waking up and yelling at me, she grabbed my foot and twisted hard, taking me down to the floor. I landed on my face with a yelp, and nearly did extensive damage to some very important parts of my body.

“This is bullshit!” I snapped. “I’m in charge here. This is my house and I say it’s…it’s time to go home!” I pointed to the ground for added effect, which might have worked if she bothered to open her eyes.

“Five more minutes,” she muttered, wiping the drool from her face.

This was completely unacceptable. I rolled over, wincing at the pull on my dick, remembering the pain that sassy mouth could inflict. I was a man, and this was going to end my way.

“Get up!” I shouted. “Get up, get up, get up!”

She rolled over and shoved her hair out of her face, blinking up at me with that sweet, just-woke-up look on her face. I almost smiled at her, but then I caught myself, remembering the words she uttered last night.

“You need to leave.”

“‘Kay.” She lazily pulled herself up and glanced around for something. I didn’t know what she was searching for, but I’d help her if it meant getting her out of here sooner. “We didn’t sleep together, did we?”

“No,” I snapped.

“Good,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Now, that really chapped my ass. “Good? Why is that good?”

“Well, you’re kind of a butthole,” she grumbled.

A butthole? Who talked like that? No—I was not going to think about that. I was going to get her off my floor and out the door. I stalked over and grabbed her arm, hauling her to her feet.

She swayed for a moment, then pressed a hand to her head. “Holy cannoli, I don’t think I’ve drunk this much in such a short period of time in…ever.” She grimaced as she stuck out her tongue. “What died in my mouth?”

“Your dignity. Now, will you please leave?”

She nodded, grabbing her shoes. “No probs. Peace out, beansprout.”

With a yawn, she headed for the door and walked out of my life. I closed my eyes as I flopped down on my bed. Peace at last. Things were finally moving right in my life. But it was strange that she didn’t care that I was mean to her. Shouldn’t she have cared? I mean, she said she was falling for me. Shouldn’t that mean she should be at least a little upset that I was a dick to her? I kicked her out and didn’t even walk her to the door.

A truck started up outside, and it was only after a good five seconds that I realized it was my truck that was running. My eyes flew open and I leapt up from the bed, grabbing my pants and shirt on the way out. I raced down the hall, hopping on one foot as I tried to shove the other in my pants. Luckily, by the time I got downstairs, she was only starting to pull out of the driveway. I didn’t know what had taken her so long. I was just grateful she hadn’t taken off with my truck.

Racing up to the passenger side, I yanked the door open. “Whoa! What the fuck are you doing?”

“Going home,” she answered, frowning at me.

“This is my truck!”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Then why are you in it?”

She cocked her head to the side, and I tried to ignore that way her brows crinkled in confusion. She was so fucking adorable. “You asked me to leave.”

“I know.”

“And in order for me to leave, I need some way of getting out of here. By my logic, that means going in a vehicle. And since your vehicle is here, I decided to take it.”

My nostrils flared in anger as I listened to her very calmly talk about relieving me of my truck. “You decided to just take it.”

“You’re awfully grumpy this morning. I wasn’t about to go back and ask you to give me a ride. Besides, you’ll get it back. Eventually.”

She shifted into drive again and started to roll forward. I hopped inside and slammed the door.

“Do you even know how to drive this?”

“It can’t be too hard,” she said, concentrating on how fast the truck was moving. Well…slow. We were barely going anywhere.

“Just get out. I’ll drive you home.”

“No, I want to do this.”

“You’ll never get home at this point. You have to actually let your foot off the brake.”

She snapped her gaze in my direction with a glare. “I’m aware of how to drive a vehicle. I’ve just never been in something so big before. I mean, listen to it rumble! What if I run someone over?”

“Then they’ll be dead, which is why I should drive,” I said, attempting to shift into park. She slapped my hand away as fire lit her eyes.

“I can do this. Keep your paws off.”

“It’s my truck!”

“Then you should have offered to give me a lift home.”

I wasn’t sure which would be faster: arguing my case for driving or letting her drive us to her house. Either one would be slow and tedious.

“If you’d just let me drive?—”

I was cut off as we jolted forward. She let out a scream that had my shoulders hunching in fear as we sped forward. Suddenly, we jerked to a stop.

I slowly looked over at her, watching as she panted. When she turned to me with a grin, I got really worried.

“This is so…awesome! I feel so powerful sitting behind the wheel.”

“It’s not a toy,” I said carefully.

“No,” she shook her head slowly. “It’s so much better. This is amazing!”

Then she hit the gas and we lurched forward, flying down the road past the OPS building. I gripped the oh-shit handles as we swerved down the driveway. She blew past someone in a minivan, but I didn’t get a good look. I was too terrified to take my eyes off the road.

“Stop sign!” I shouted as she peeled out onto the road.

“It’s a driveway. There’s no stop sign,” she laughed. She hit the gas and we took off down the road. Thankfully, there were no other drivers out at the moment. I was worried she might run them over.

“You know, you can slow down a little.”

“Slow down? Why would I do that?”

“Because I haven’t had enough to drink to be the passenger in this truck!” I shouted.

She tossed her head back and laughed. Her eyes slipped closed and I jumped across the console, grabbing the steering wheel in case she didn’t open her eyes anytime soon.

“Get your hands off. This is so much fun!”

I didn’t know what to do or say. I didn’t have any strong ties to the vehicle. After all, it was just a truck, but that didn’t mean I wanted to die in it.

“Really, you can slow down. You’re going too fast!”

“I’m barely going the speed limit,” she laughed.

“Yeah, if we were at the Indy 500,” I retorted. Thankfully, she skipped town and turned down another road that led out of town. In a matter of minutes, we were cruising at Mach 1 while I tried my best to hold my shit inside my ass.

“Look at this person in front of us,” she said, completely ignoring my warnings. “This isn’t a school zone, lady!”

My eyes widened in horror at the crazy person this woman morphed into. I hadn’t slept with a good girl. No, she was the devil incarnate. She revved the engine, then laid on the horn as she swerved into the other lane and hit the gas. I cried out as we came head to head with a tractor. At the last second, she jerked the wheel and took us back into the right lane, narrowly avoiding an accident.

“God, doesn’t it feel great to be alive?”

Slowly, I looked down at my crotch and sighed in relief when I found no wet spot. It was way too fucking early in the morning for this.