Page 120 of Joey

“I-I’m filthy. I need to…” I look down at my dirty clothes and my scraped knees.

“Of course. I’ll run you a bath.” Dropping a soft kiss on the top of my head, he turns and disappears into the bathroom.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I listen to the water gurgle out of the pipes and think about Mo. How could she betray me for a man she meant nothing to?

My thoughts shift to him—alone in our basement—and all the ways I’m going to make him pay for taking me. For killing Henry and hurting Ash. For making my family worry. For making Max look at me like I’m broken.

“Tub’s ready.” Max’s deep voice cuts across the room, snapping me from my thoughts.

With an absent-minded nod, I stand and peel off my clothes. I leave them in a pile on my bedroom floor. Max steps back from the bathtub and doesn’t even try to touch my naked body. I fight back tears as I step inside the tub. The water is hot and bubbly and soothing, but all I want to do is curl into a ball and bawl. Why do I feel this messed up?

It’s only when I lie back that I notice Max getting undressed. I watch him strip off his clothes, revealing his toned muscles and beautiful ink, and I relish the sight of his glorious naked form.

Noticing that I’m watching him, he frowns. “I can take a shower if you’d prefer?”

“Would you prefer?”

With narrowed eyes, he wastes no time climbing into the steamy water that sloshes over the sides as he positions himself behind me. Wrapping his huge arms around my waist, he pulls me close. “I let the hating me comment go, Joey, but don’t push it,” he growls, and the sound rumbles through my back.

I lean against him and rest my head on his solid chest. “I punched Dante in the mouth.”

“He deserved it.”

That makes me laugh, but I still owe my brother an apology.

Max runs a washcloth over my legs, gently cleaning my scraped knees. “Did he hurt you, baby?”

“No.”

“Did he touch you?”

Would it matter if he had? Would that make you see me differently, Max?I don’t voice those thoughts though. “He kissed me.”

His entire body tenses. “Where?”

“On the mouth.”

Max grips my jaw, tilts my head back, and seals his lips over mine, sliding his tongue into my mouth and kissing me so deeply that wetness pools between my thighs. He pulls back, his dark eyes blazing. “Where else did he touch you, baby?”

“Nowhere else, Max. You don’t have to worry.”

I swear the thunderous sound he makes is like nothing I’ve ever heard before in my life. He lifts me, spinning me around until I straddle his hips. “You think I’m worried about me?” I avoid his gaze, but he grabs my jaw again and forces me to look at him. “Do you?”

“I just meant…you’re still the only one.”

“It would break my fucking heart if he hurt you, baby girl. But not because of that. Not for a second because of that.”

Reading the tender look in his dark eyes, I believe him.

“Did he touch you anywhere else?” he asks again.

“No. He tried when I was escaping, but before that… He said I wasn’t intact. He was going to make me have an operation to have my hymen replaced before he—”

“Sick fucking fuck,” he mutters.

Wanting to forget about Viktor, I wrap my arms around Max’s neck. “I don’t hate you, Max.”

“You don’t, huh?”