The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max) novel Chapter 31

Lark looked around Max’s living area and whistled. “Wow.”

“Thanks.” He motioned down the hall. “I’ll show you the guest room. It has its own private bath. You can get showered in there. Johan usually stays there. He’s the only other person who has a key here.”

“Ollie doesn’t?”

“No. None of my family do because they don’t understand what the hell a boundary is,” Max grunted. “I gave her a key once, but she came in here unannounced while I was busy.”

“With a woman?”

He frowned. “No. I was in the middle of a research project, and I needed to focus. I was working from home because there were too many interruptions in the office. She barged in here and wouldn’t get the heck out and I ended up not getting a damn thing done. She stayed three days. I took my key from her and changed all the locks and passcodes.” He frowned at her, “I know you think I’m Man-w***e Max, but I swear I don’t screw around as much as you think I do.” “You used to.”

“Again, I was a high school boy with p***y being thrown at him on a near constant basis. Can you name one teenage boy who wasn’t in a relationship who would have refused it? Since high school, my interactions have been far less exciting.” “You have double digits, Max.”

“If you consider the fact, I’m nearly thirty and I graduated university at twenty-one, and I’ve had six steady lovers since then, I don’t think I’m too much of a whore.”

She frowned, “you’ve only had six regular lovers in nine years?”

“Yes. Six lovers. I did have four singular blow jobs and two one-night stands, but both of those situations were on a bachelor party weekend in Vegas for a colleague. I admit to being fully wrecked that weekend. Oona was the first one night I’ve done in a year.”

“Whose bachelor parties?” “My CFO.”

Something about his posture told her he was holding something back, “what aren’t you saying?” When he looked away, she threw her hands up in the air and started walking in the direction of where he earlier pointed the guest room.

“It was a year ago, Lark. When you moved in with Doug, your father was at my office, and he was telling me and your Dad how excited you were to be moving in with him and how much he and Everly hated the guy, but you were head over heels in love. I was doing then what Ollie is doing right now. Drowning sorrows in the nearest available body.”

She froze in her footsteps, her fingers reaching out to the wall unable to turn around and look at him. It shouldn’t hurt this much. He wasn’t hers back then. Hell, he wasn’t hers now.

“I slept with two different girls on two different nights and received two blowjobs from two other women, one in the club where we were partying and one in a limo from the girl who was actually driving the limo.”

“Jesus Christ, Max!” she spun on her heel. “What is wrong with you?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know but I’m working on finding out. I have another therapy session on Monday.”

“Ugh!” she slapped the wall, glowering. “Why are you telling me though? I don’t want the specifics.”

“I need you to know the specifics because you don’t trust me, and I want to be open and honest with you. I know I messed up.”

“We weren’t even friends then. It doesn’t matter.” She turned on her heel knowing her words were truthful. She had no right to be angry with him. “I need to get cleaned up.”

“Okay. I’ll drop a change of clothes for you on the bed and then I’m going to get changed. I’ll meet you back out here.”

“Sure.” She shook her head, hating how much it hurt to acknowledge she couldn’t rightfully judge him for what he did when she moved in with another man.

“Lark,” he called her name. “I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For not seeing you.”

Now she was completely frozen at his statement. “How do you mean?”

“I never noticed it. I was so caught up in my own feelings of rejection. I really believed you thought I was nothing more than a sibling and you were embarrassed by the way people always thought we were together. I missed out on seeing what was right in front of me. Not seeing you, not seeing how you really felt, drove a wedge between us. I wish I could go back in time and fix it.”

“But you can’t,” she whispered, her voice cracking at how much she needed to hear the sincerity in his apology and hearing it now was like a balm to her soul. Her conversation with her grandmother from earlier in the day played in her head. She needed to listen and to understand or she could lose something incredibly special. She took a breath, “you can’t go back Max.” She heard the way his breath huffed and continued speaking not allowing him to interrupt, “We can only move forward and I’m willing to try to fix our friendship and see where it leads but I can’t make you any promises.”

She hadn’t heard his footsteps coming behind her and when he put his palms atop her shoulders, standing behind her, she took a shuddering breath.

“Thank you, chère,” he whispered at her ear, his head leaned forward by her cheek. “I promise you won’t regret it.”