Love Bug (The Prescotts Book 3) by Tara Wyatt (electric book reader .TXT) 📗

okay. Because of the nature of my cancer and the treatments I had, I likely won’t be able to conceive naturally. But I have frozen eggs I can try with when the time comes. When I find the right guy and all of that.

BetaTestAccount23: So you definitely want kids, then.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: I do someday, yeah. I mean, maybe I’m old fashioned but I’d like to find a guy first, but so far no luck on that front. As you know.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: What about you? Do you see yourself having kids someday?

BetaTestAccount23: I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I’m not much of a relationship guy, so it’s not something that’s come up for me.

BetaTestAccount23: Maybe. I don’t know.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: Why aren’t you a relationship guy, Mr. 23?

BetaTestAccount23: That’s a topic for another time. Night, Princess.

BetaTestAccount23: And I’m really glad you’re okay.

FreshPrincessOfChelsea: Night.

11

Willa opened her office door and stuck her head out, her gaze roving up and down the hallway. The office was buzzing, as usual, but as she surveyed the path from her office to the elevator, she relaxed slightly. There was no sign of Max anywhere, which was perfect, because she had a meeting to get to and didn’t want to chance running into him.

She adjusted the strap of her laptop bag on her shoulder and then glanced up and down the hallway one last time before darting out of her office and scurrying to the elevator, where she jabbed impatiently at the button. It had been nearly a week since he’d yelled at her to get out of his office and she had nothing to say to him. No desire to see him. Partly because she was scared she was going to get fired for calling her boss an asshole, but mostly because he was an asshole. She’d been studiously avoiding him since that night when she’d tried one last time to reach out to him. Like a fool. A pathetic, lovesick fool. How many times did he have to push her away before she learned?

She jabbed at the elevator button, feeling antsy and exposed waiting here in the middle of the office. He could walk out of his office at any moment and find her here, defenseless and weak.

God, what the hell had happened to him? Did it have something to do with that necklace he’d been holding? Had someone broken his heart? Was that why he pushed everyone away, because he was scared of getting hurt again? He had to know that she’d never hurt him. He’d been in pain, and he’d lashed out at her—what had caused that pain? Did it have something to do with the traumatic event Lauren had told her about in shadowy terms?

The elevator doors opened, startling her out of her meandering thoughts about Max and she stepped inside, relief making the tension ease out of her shoulders. She hit the button for several floors down, watching as the doors slid closed.

They’d almost touched, separated only by a few inches when a large, masculine hand slipped through, fingers curling around the metal to urge the doors back open. All of the relief Willa had been feeling vanished when the doors parted to reveal Max standing on the threshold. He froze at the sight of her, then gave her a curt nod and stepped inside, hitting the button for the building’s lobby.

She stared at him, completely at a loss as to what to do or say. She couldn’t figure out what to do with her hands or even how to stand. She was totally flustered and he’d barely looked at her. His eyes were locked on the metal doors, his jaw tight, his shoulders stiff. Tension permeated the air, so thick she could feel it pressing against every inch of her skin. But if he wasn’t going to talk to her, she wasn’t going to talk to him. There was nothing left to say, especially after the way he’d snarled at her last week. He’d made his feelings clear.

He cleared his throat, glancing at her and she tore her gaze away from him, staring ahead at the glowing number pad on the wall of the elevator car. Three more floors and she’d be free of him. Two more floors. One more floor.

A horrible metallic screech echoed through the air and the elevator jerked, making her stumble forward. She latched on to the metal railing, holding herself steady as the elevator jerked again and then stopped completely. Another metallic sound, this one more of a groan, echoed from somewhere above and she gripped the railing a bit tighter, her knuckles white.

“Great,” huffed Max, his brow furrowed, his mouth a thin line of irritation. “Fucking great.” He glanced at her, his eyes skimming over her and leaving a trail of heat in their wake. “You okay?”

She nodded, peeling her fingers off the railing one by one. “Yeah. That just startled me.”

Something in his features softened, but he looked away before she had the chance to really analyze it. With sure, authoritative movements, he opened a small metal panel and pulled out the elevator’s emergency phone.

“Hello, this is Max Prescott. My colleague and I appear to be stuck in elevator number four.” There was a pause. “Right, between floors ten and eleven.” He glanced over at her again. “Yes, we’re fine.” He listened for a moment, his head tilted, his free hand on his hip. He was wearing a dark gray suit with a white shirt and a black tie, all of it tailored to perfection. She couldn’t seem to stop herself from appreciating the way the fabric clung to his round, muscular ass, or how the cut of it emphasized his broad shoulders. It was humid today, the first really humid day of May, and she noticed that it had made his hair start to curl, confirming her suspicions that he tamed it.

“Fine, yes,” Max said. “Thank you.” He replaced the phone and turned to face her. “Security says there’s a mechanical failure. We