Loving the Bastard by Marteeka Karland Read Free Book Online Page A

confused. In only a couple of short days, Zeta had completely turned his life upside down. For the first time, he was beginning to think this might not have been such a good idea. It wasn’t that he didn’t think his plan would work. Far from it. It was that he hadn’t planned on becoming emotionally involved. Which he wasn’t with her, per se, but the emotional entanglement around her kids at the Y was eating at him. She’d said she made sure they all had a meal but he was beginning to suspect she did more for them. It was in the way she gave each child her undivided attention when working with them. Like, to her, each of them was special and deserved everything she had to give.
    He needed to get back to the business at hand, namely winning her body. The key to a woman was always pleasure. He would woo her with things then with multiple orgasms, and she’d be his. No sweat. All he needed to do was forget about this afternoon and concentrate on her.
    With a sigh, he opened the door to her suite, letting her enter ahead of him. “It’s been an exhausting day,” he began, intending to take his leave of her. He needed to think, and he needed to do it away from her. “I have some work to do before bed so—”
    “No,” she said simply.
    Max had to stifle a groan. She wasn’t letting up. “Excuse me?”
    “I said no. You agreed to have supper with me nightly.” She leaned against the counter, cocking her hip and placing one hand on the enticing curve. “Unless you want to just call the whole thing off.”
    The little wench had him, and she knew it. With a little mocking bow he said, “Far be it for me to call an end to an arrangement I want so badly.”
    “Need,” she said.
    “I beg your pardon?”
    “Need. This isn’t an arrangement you want . You need it. You know. To get control of your bank and everything.”
    “And you are proving more a thorn in my side than I ever thought possible,” he muttered more to himself than to her. “But of course I’ll stay. What concoction are you going to whip up tonight?”
    What, indeed. The woman had made pizza. Not from a box but completely homemade, right down to the sauce and the crust. And, God almighty, it was delicious. They didn’t talk much, but Maximilian thought that, from now on, he wouldn’t miss a meal with her for anything in the world. Forgot, in fact, why he’d wanted to in the first place.
    “I take it you approve of supper?”
    Max tried to feign indifference but wasn’t sure he managed it. “It’s…passable.”
    She snorted none too delicately. “Is that why you ate half a pie?”
    All he could do was shrug. “Okay, so it was really good.”
    “Admit it,” she said, a smug look on her face. “You like this ritual.”
    “I never admit to anything.”
    “Even how much you want to help Trevor and his sister?”
    She’d slipped in the comment so easily. Maximilian would have been proud if he hadn’t been so irritated. The woman could definitely hold her own with him. “That’s not your concern,” he said smoothly, knowing she wouldn’t let it go. “I’ll deal with that in my own way.”
    “Figured you might,” she said as she stood to gather the dishes. “Help me finish the clean up then we can sit and talk about it.”
    “Did I not just say…never mind.” Maximilian waved a hand in the air in surrender. “Do you never stop?”
    With a mind-scrambling smile, Zeta answered, “Nope.”
    Cleaning the kitchen didn’t take much time, as Zeta did most of her cleanup as she went. Still, Maximilian found he actually enjoyed doing the mundane task with her. She seemed to drop the subject of the kids and the Y in favor of forgettable chitchat. As it was, Max found himself watching her more than listening to her. Every time she bent over or stretched to reach something her jeans seemed to stretch lovingly over her ass, making him long to mold those same curves with his hands. Unfortunately that didn’t seem to be forthcoming any