My brow furrows with stubbornness. “Well good because I’m not going to quit.”
“But this tension is…impossible.” He exhales heavily, and his shoulders drop. “We can’t lose control like this again, especially when Everly is around.”
“I agree.” I swallow the thickness in my throat and try not to show my disappointment. “We can’t let it happen again.”
“Or…” Max starts, rubbing the back of his neck, clearly deep in thought. His eyes glance at me nervously. “What if we do let it happen again? What if we let it happen as much as we need it to? What if we just…bang it out?”
“Bang it out?” I repeat, my libido popping back up out of nowhere like a wanton hussy.
Max shrugs. “Yeah, so we just keep doing this but maybe with some specific rules that we both agree to so there’s some structure and order to it.”
I pause to consider this. “Like, do you want me to sign a contract?”
“Jesus, no! What the fuck?” He looks angry again.
“Sorry…I was just thinking a Christian Grey moment and my imagination got carried away.”
“Clearly.”
I chew my lip nervously.
“Is that a kink we need to discuss?” he asks, his eyes watching me carefully.
“BDSM? Oh, my God, no!” All the blood rushes to my cheeks as my choking fantasy silently breaks into the party to say heeeeeyyyy girl.
“Okay then.” He looks relieved.
Silence descends again before I offer, “Okay, so we’re going to bang it out with rules…what kind of rules are we talking about?”
He nods, his brow furrowed deep in thought. “No hookups while Everly is awake.”
“Obviously,” I reply with a laugh and then wince because it’s literally what we just did.
“No…hooking up in the house,” Max says. “I think the main house needs to be a boundary so we should do it at yours every time.”
“That’s a good one.” I nod seriously, realizing that my tiny house has just been re-labeled as a sex house, and I’m not mad about that. I add to that rule, “And no sleepovers.”
“Really?” Max frowns at me.
“Well, it’s not like we can just leave Everly sleeping alone in the Fletchpad all night.”
“Oh, right, of course.” Max shakes his head as if he can’t believe that thought never occurred to him. “And I’ll be sure to turn the alert on for the security camera in her room when I come over, so I’ll be notified right away if she gets up.”
“There’s a camera in her room?”
Max stares at me like I’m a moron. “There are cameras all over the house, Cassandra.”
“Where?”
Max points at a round thing in the corner.
“I thought those were fire alarms!”
He shakes his head.
“Oh, my God, so you’ve like…seen everything me and Everly do all day long?”
He shrugs, and I see a small smile tease the corner of his mouth.
“What the hell!” I exclaim as a powerful mixture of rage and humiliation swirl in my belly. “That would have been something nice to know a month ago. God…so you’ve seen—”
“The dance parties? Yes, I’ve seen them.” He pins me with his eyes as a smug grin tugs on his lips.
“And the—”
“The time you slipped on the floor in your swimsuit when you ran inside to grab drinks for you and Everly? Yeah, I saw it.” His smile spreads fuller now, revealing his perfect white teeth as he takes a step toward me.
I slice a hand through my hair, absolutely shocked that he has been keeping tabs on me for a month. Have I picked my nose? Removed a wedgy? The horror! “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!”
“I don’t watch everything…just the clips that record movement for more than sixty seconds. And once I started trusting you, I quit watching mostly.” His smile is replaced with chagrin as he fails to quell the anxiety roaring through my body.
“Oh, thanks for that.” I groan in mortification at the things he might have seen. “This is some messed-up nanny-cam stalker bullshit. Like honestly, I don’t know if you are mentally well, Max.” Let’s face it, we’re both fucked up because as much as it horrifies me to think about what he could have seen…I’m also oddly aroused by the stalker vibes. But only a little…
He scoffs and shakes his head. “Cassandra, I’m wealthy and have a large house. Did you really think I wouldn’t have security cameras?”