I shook my head.
He glared some more, and I crossed my arms. He lifted his eyes toward the ceiling for a moment and then pointedly glanced to his left. Away from the hallway.
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me. Nothing’s happening.”
Grateful, I walked past him into the hallway, feeling like I was sneaking, though clearly he’d let me through. I wanted to say thank you again, but that would defeat the purpose of our air-thin charade.
It took me a moment to think, but then I was fairly certain the Littles room was only the third door in and stopped near it. Laurent peeked back down the hallway at me. I lifted my hands in a shrug, and he laughed.
“Yeah, that’s it. Voyeurism your thing?” He didn’t wait for an answer, just turned back around.
Fuck, I really hoped that wasn’t what I would end up doing—listening to them come together—but then why was I back here at all? I scrubbed my hands over my face. No, Laurent was right. I shouldn’t have followed them. My heart hammered and my gut twisted with… loss. As much as I’d known this was going to be the outcome from the second I took it upon myself to find Max someone else, I hadn’t been prepared to succeed.
This fuckingsucked.
A raised voice from inside the Littles room brought me up short as I went to leave. That temper-tantrum tone was familiar. I leaned closer to the door.
“The show will start in about forty minutes, folks,” the MC said over the sound system in the main bar area, then he rambled on afterward, drowning out Max’s voice. I growled and reached for the door, giving the knob a twist, but it didn’t turn. As I stood there, the door jerked inward and Max came rushing out. He barreled into me, and I caught him but stumbled backward. He struggled and then glanced up and stopped, sort of leaning himself against me. I curled my arms around him and held him tight.
“Are you okay?”
He shrugged, and though there was no reasonable explanation for it, he felt chilled. I rubbed my hands along his back.
“Jean-Paul, what….”
I glared at Vic as he came into the hallway with us and gave me a bashful smile. His shirt was gone. Anger thudded through my veins in place of my blood, and I wanted to smash his face in. “Explain,” I demanded.
“Max wasn’t happy with kneeling in there, and I… I thought he needed some persuasion.” There was regret in the way his eyes tightened.
“You thought he was fighting you to be punished.”
Max buried his face against my shoulder. “I’m sorry. I was trying.”
I ran a hand along his back. “Of course you were. You’re a good boy.”
Vic gave me an assessing look and came over to stand beside us, and I forced myself to let Max go. Red-faced, with his chest rising and falling too fast, Max stepped away from me, and I forced myself not to shove Vic when he moved to Max’s side.
“Max, can we talk some more in my office? No one goes in there for anything but business.”
Max froze for a second and eyed me. I didn’t so much as budge a muscle because this decision had to be his. Eventually he nodded.
I wanted to butt in and tell Vic that Max and I were leaving, but I didn’t do any such thing. Max gave what appeared to be another reluctant nod. I wanted to tell him he was being a brave boy and made me proud—all the things I didn’t get to say at all, yet.
Vic shot me a grin that was too wide and bright. “Go get a drink. I got this.” And then he fuckingwinkedat me.
Max’s chest was heaving and he looked far from okay. “Max?”
“I’m fine.”
He was fucking lying to me, which was not okay, but Vic had already taken his hand and was leading him away for the second time tonight. They disappeared past Laurent at the end of the hall, Max giving me one last long look with those big brown eyes of his as they went to the left and vanished, and I leaned a shoulder against the threshold to stare into the Littles room.
There was a teddy bear in the middle of the floor. Had Max dropped it there? Was this something he was into? I didn’t think so, but on the other hand, from what I’d gathered he’d had very little comfort in his life, so maybe he’d picked it up just to have something to hold. He liked to touch. Or maybe he’d been rearranging things. I shook my head hard at myself as I went in there and picked the toy up. I tossed it into a crib big enough to hold two full-grown men as I stared around at the cute décor, then left quickly. Max had fuckingliedto me. He wasnotokay.
Fuck, if only Vane wasn’t sticking so hard to this idea that Max had to go. Thinking he would relent would be real insanity. Vane of all people had every right to want Max gone… but he truly had been trying his hardest. I was in too deep here and knew it. Defeat and anger rolled over me like a dark wave.
It is a good thing Max is with Vic.I just had to keep repeating it to myself. With a growl I pulled the door to the playroom closed behind me. What I really wanted to do was go kick in Vic’s office door and drag Max home.
