Lilli drank in a gulp of air, trying to clear her head. Shocked at herself, she tugged her gown back in place and tried to make sense of what had just happened. That night after she’d broken up with Tony, the night made doubly awful because she couldn’t recall it, she’d changed. She’d known she would never be the same. She would never be able to let a man touch her again unless she trusted him.
Why should she trust Max? There was no good reason. But something inside her did. Either that or she was crazier than she’d thought she was.
“You’re so responsive. I wonder… were you this responsive with my brother,” he ventured in a low voice.
“I wasn’t,” she said, the words popping out before she could stop them.
He turned to look at her. “Why not?”
She bit her lip. “I can’t explain it. It’s just different.”
He continued to hold her gaze. “Did you leave my brother before or after you found out you were pregnant?”
“Before.” She looked away from him. “Something happened one night. I knew I couldn’t stay.”
“What was it?”
“I don’t like talking about it,” she said, twisting her fingers together. “I knew I had to get away from him and his—” her stomach clenched with nausea “—his world.”
“And you weren’t tempted to go back with him when you found out you were pregnant?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Oh, absolutely not. If I didn’t belong in his world, there was no way a baby would.”
“Did he ask you back?”
She nodded. “Several times. But I think he was relieved when I said no. Tony wasn’t ready to be a father.”
“What about the baby? What will you do about a father figure for him?”
“I’ll deal with that later. Right now, I need to get through the pregnancy and delivery. My girlfriends have promised to help me through the scary first few months.” She felt a sense of dread in the pit of her stomach. “Then I guess I’ll have to move.”
Feeling his gaze on her, she looked up at him, wondering what he was thinking, what judgments he was making. “You probably don’t understand any of this. How I could end up with your brother and then pregnant with no husband? You would never get yourself into such a crazy situation because you don’t let emotions make your decisions.”
“You’re completely correct.”
“I’m also completely human. Are you?”
His mouth lifted in a half smile. “Unfortunately, yes. Human enough to want to finish what we started a few minutes ago.” He moved toward her, and she felt her heart jump into her throat. “Don’t worry. I won’t. I may be human, but I’m not ruled by my hormones. Good night, Lilli.”
Staring after him in surprise, she took a ragged breath. She felt totally off balance.
I’m human, but I’m not ruled by my hormones.
That was part of the reason she’d responded to him. She had a gut feeling that he had maintained control of himself. He wouldn’t lose it unless he chose to do so. She’d never been around such a man but she could sense it about him and it made her feel secure at the same time that it knocked her sideways. She closed her eyes and pushed her hair from her face. She needed to stay on guard.
Five
Lilli’s hands were shaking as she turned onto Max’s street Saturday after working at the free dental clinic. She’d been so careful at work lately, always making sure to have someone walk her to her car. Afterward, she’d stopped to visit Devon Jones, one of the hospice workers who had helped her mother during her last days. Devon was now caring for his own father during the end stages of a long illness.
After she’d left, she’d noticed a black car in her rearview mirror. Even after making a few turns, the car remained behind her. She became so nervous that she’d taken some wrong turns and had got lost.
Glancing over her shoulder as she pulled into the driveway, she shook her head. Surely they wouldn’t follow her all the way to Max’s house. Biting her lip, she grabbed her purse and rushed into the house, leaning against the door as she closed it, and took a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a moment to calm herself. When she opened them, Max was five feet away from her, pinning her with a searching gaze.
“And you look like you’ve had some excitement,” he said. “Anything you want to tell me?”
She tried to shrug, but shivered instead. Despite the way he’d left her feeling last night, she couldn’t deny feeling ten times safer in his presence. “Not right now,” she said and headed for the kitchen. “Water sounds good.”
Her heart still racing, she took another deep breath and put her hand to her chest.
“Lilli,” he said from behind her and she thought she heard a note of concern in his voice. Hallucinating, she told herself. “Are you okay?”
“I will be,” she insisted, getting a glass and filling it with filtered water from the refrigerator.
He moved in front of her and studied her. “Where have you been?”
“Work, well, not really work,” she corrected.
“Your office isn’t open on Saturday,” he said, his expression growing suspicious.
“That’s right. But we volunteer for the free clinic downtown. I filled in for one of the other hygienists.”
“Downtown? Where?” he asked, clearly not pleased.
She winced. She had expected he wouldn’t approve of her driving downtown by herself, but no one had bothered her for days.
She told him the address and his mouth tightened. “Afterward, I stopped by to check on a hospice assistant who worked with my mother.” She shook her head. “Poor Devon. His own father is dying now.”
“Devon? What did this guy want? Did he ask you for anything?”
“No, but if he did, I would try to help him. He helped my mother and I during a very difficult time.”
“This is what I warned you about. You need to be careful because people will come out of the woodwork playing on your sympathy and asking for help.”
“That hasn’t happened,” she said, folding her arms over her chest.
“Then what happened to make you so upset? Did one of Tony’s buddies show up?”
“Aside from getting lost, the only thing I can tell you is that someone in a black Mercedes followed me most of the way home.”
He swore under his breath. “That’s it. You’re quitting.”
She gaped at him. “Quitting?”
“It’s the only rational thing to do. Each day that passes I learn more about how deeply Tony was in trouble. You can stay here until the baby is born and you’re ready to move and say goodbye to your contacts here. I’ve told you before. You need to be on guard in every way. People will try to take advantage of you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t quit. I need the income for the baby. As you said, babies aren’t cheap.”
“Money won’t be a concern after you sign the agreement.”
She supposed she should have been intimidated by him and part of her was, but she refused to give in to it. “I’m not signing that stupid agreement and I’m not taking your money.”
“You would turn down a good