Page 10 of Craved

And all I can do now is hope that he really is in New York. And that he calls me back.

Chapter Six

Maxim Wilder stood by the window in his eighth-floor office in the Squire as the message played over the phone’s speaker, that familiar voice seeming to move through the room like an aural caress. He tried to focus on her words, but his mind wasn’t making the leap. Instead, his body was taking the reins.

Tightening.

Longing.

Even after all this time, he was still like a well-trained dog. She whistled. He came.

He wanted to spit out a curse as a wave of disgust crashed over him. Not for her—though she deserved it—but for himself and his traitorous body.

He ran his thumb across his fingertips, remembering the feel of her skin against his. The weight of her on him. The way his cock felt inside her.

Damned if he wasn’t hard already.

But he didn’t want to be hard for that conniving bitch, and those sweet memories he’d held onto for far too long dissolved the moment he let himself remember her duplicity.

Even now, with the clarity of all the years behind him, he couldn’t believe he’d been so wrong about her. But actions spoke louder than words. He knew what she’d done. How she’d betrayed not only him but everything she purported to believe in. And that had been one hell of a brutal pill to swallow.

When he’d learned about her true loyalty, he’d been disgusted. More than that, he’d wanted revenge so badly he thought he would surely die if she was allowed to live even one more day.

Back then, there’d been practical reasons to allow her to continue to walk the Earth. Reasons that no longer existed. Or, at least, not to the same extent. And at any rate, no one else need know.

What was it they said? Revenge was a dish best served cold? Well, his dish of revenge had been left sitting out for years. The time had come to make her eat it.

Because here she was, back in his life all over again. And once again, Killion Lambert was between them.

He’d truly loved her once upon a time, but that didn’t matter. That old and dusty affection wouldn’t buy her time. All it did, in fact, was ensure that the punishment was that much easier to mete out.

Bitch.

She’d ripped his heart in two. Made him question his own judgment. Made him mourn a girl who hadn’t deserved his tears and regrets.

But he was over her now. And he saw the world a hell of a lot more clearly.

This time he wouldn’t lose track of his purpose.

This time, he was coming out on top.

* * * *

Twenty-eight years ago

“Maxim, you little devil. Get out from under that porch this instant!”

Maxim peered out through the broken whitewashed board, just one of many that hid the muddy, cobweb-filled underside of Auntie Jean’s porch from view. But Maxim had found a loose one near the rose bush. Every day, he pushed it aside, crawled under the porch, then put the loose board back in place.

Once he was under the long, wide porch, he’d crawl to the front and look through the gap left from where the rotted end of one board had fallen off. His father kept telling Aunt Jean that he’d get around to fixing that board, but so far he hadn’t.

Now, it looked like he never would.

On most days, Maxim liked to sit under the porch and peek out at the world through that broken place. Except that wasn’t why he was under the porch today.

Today, he was hiding.

Bang, bang, bang.