Robyn should still be furious with Maxwell, but she wasn’t. Her heart ached for him and for herself. The conflict of emotions had her debating what she should have said during their heart-to-heart. “Should I have told him that last night wasn’t just about the sex? That I wanted to see what could happen between us?” She sighed. “No, that would make everything about me. After going through all of this madness, Maxwell just wants to move on. I should too.”
Completely lost in thought, Robyn jumped when she heard knocking. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she slid off of the bed and went over to the door. Slowly, she cracked it open. Her soft eyes looked up into hazel ones. She noticed, at this moment, they were browner than green.
Maxwell stood staring as if he’d forgotten what he came to say. He’d done his best to stay away, but the pull of being in the same place got to him. After a few moments, he realized he wasn’t saying anything. Maxwell coughed to break up the uncomfortable silence between them. “I called again to see if I could do something to get the service up here faster.” He raked his fingers through his hair. “I offered to pay double and give the guys a nice bonus if they could bump me up to the top of the list.”
Her throaty laugh was still able to make his heart pump much too fast. Robyn tilted her head. “I see you’re willing to pay top dollar to get rid of me.” She’d said it as a joke, but the truth was, after everything that happened in the last twenty-four hours, it stung.
“No, no . . . that’s not it at all. I just know you’re anxious to get home.”
The butterflies were back. Who was she kidding? Except for the few moments of pure unadulterated rage, it had never really left. Robyn shifted from one foot to another as she held his gaze. “It’s fine. I really do understand.”
Although thoughts of Robyn had led him to some pretty bad decisions, actually being alone with her would probably result in him doing something else even more catastrophically stupid and impulsive. Maxwell rubbed the back of his neck. “I was just getting ready to watch a movie in the theater room. I figured you might be bored. Maybe you want to join me?” He knew this was a bad fuckin’ idea but couldn’t help himself from asking.
She blinked a couple of times, and her face was blank. “A movie?”
He felt like an idiot for feeling nervous. Why the hell should I be nervous? He ran a billion-dollar corporation and made important decisions all day every day, yet this woman always had a way to knock him off balance.
“That sounds . . .”
Great. She was going to decline. He was disappointed, but that was the smart decision. “If you’re not up to it . . .”
A brilliant smile appeared on her face. It stretched from ear to ear. “Actually, I’d love it.”
*****
Robyn felt more peaceful than she had in a while as she followed him into the theater room. “What do you want to watch?”
“I don’t think there’s much here. You would know better than me. We can always see what’s on one of the pay channels . . . action, adventure . . . that one apocalypse movie I meant to see is out. We could try that.” He took a seat in one of the movie-style recliners.
She sat down next to him pulling her legs beside her as she reached for the remote.
Maxwell looked around the room. “You really did do an incredible job with this place.”
Robyn smiled proudly. “Thank you.” Then turned on the television. “Okay, let’s see what we can find.”
“We need some popcorn or something.”
She flipped a button on the remote, and a door slid back on a cabinet next to the projection television. There was a small carnival style popcorn maker and a refrigerator.
He laughed. “You always were greedy.”
Robyn laughed too. “I would say I’ve always had a love affair with food.”
His eyes landed on her sweet smile. “Looking at you, no one would ever know it.”
Her smile faded, and she wondered if he could feel her heart beating through her clothes.
Maxwell broke eye contact and went over to see if he could figure out how to work the machine. After a couple of minutes, the room began to smell like buttered popcorn from a real theater.
Robyn focused on finding a movie. “Okay. There’s not a lot of action here. What was the name of that apocalypse movie?”
He turned around and glanced at the options on the screen just as Robyn put her hand to her heart. “Aww.”
Curious, Maxwell asked. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“No, what?”
“My favorite movie is on here.”
He responded. “Love Jones?”
“Yaaaasss . . . I loved Darius.”
“He was allllllright. I guess, if you like lines like ‘I’m the blues in your left thigh . . . trying to become the funk in your right.’” Maxwell chuckled as he came over with a couple of sodas and the popcorn.
Robyn remembered he’d used a few of those lines on her and each time they were always successful in getting her out of her clothes. “Hmm . . . Action. We should probably stick with that.”
From the look in his eyes, Maxwell remembered too. He handed her a soda, and their fingers brushed against each other. Lightening. Robyn swallowed hard, and so did he. Suddenly, all the
