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When I wake up, the room is in total darkness, without even a line of light from the curtains or from under the door. It disorients me, and I sit up, trying to remember where I am.
Who I’m with. Someone is breathing beside me, but not touching me. Is it Noam? Is he—?
“Cady.” Max’s sleepy voice drifts from beside me.
Max. Max is with me. I draw a shaky breath.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” Another shaky breath and another until my heart slows its breakneck pace. “Bad dream.”
“You probably didn’t know where you were either. Want to talk about it?”
“Not really.”
“Want to try to go back to sleep?”
Instead of answering, I lie down on my side, flip to my back, and back to my side. Very conscious of Max an arm’s length away.
Not that I’m uncomfortable with him being there, but…
I don’t like uncertainty.
“Was it about Tate?” There’s something in his voice and I roll over to face him. “The bad dream?”
“I, I think so.” The absolute quiet of the room, the heavy body over mine… “Who’s Caroline?”
“Who told you about her?” he asks with surprise.
“I was out on the balcony and overheard the three of you talking. I came back inside after that,” I admit. “But I heard her name. It sounded like…”
“I was in love with her.” Max shifts, moving closer. “Once upon a time.”
“Did she hurt you?” I hear the nod, rather than see his dark head moving on the pillow. “I don’t like her.”
“I don’t like her much either,” he says. “She ended up with my father.” I suck in my breath with surprise, but Max keeps speaking. “We weren’t together long, but my mother introduced us and I thought she was perfect for me. Smart and classy, beautiful. From a good family.”
Everything I’m not.
“My mother liked the idea of us together. So did my father, at first, and that’s why I moved so fast. We dated for a bit and everything was going great and I thought, why not?”
“You asked her to marry you.”
“And she said yes, so I thought she loved me too. I thought she wanted me. But it turned out she was already in bed with my father. Literally.”
“What about your mother?”
“She left him as soon as she found out, but because of the prenup she signed, she got nothing. She gave up her career for my father, and he threw her away like she meant nothing. I hate him for that.”
“Why do you keep working with him?”
“For him,” Max corrects, a note of despair in his voice. “He never lets anyone see me as his equal. I’m always the son, doing his bidding.”
“Why do you stay?”
With a heavy sigh, Max rolls onto his back. “My third year at school, I got into some trouble with the betting sites.” Another deep breath. “Dex and Nick too. Marcus tried to bail us out, but we were in too deep. These guys kept coming around.”
“I knew guys like that.”
