XOXX I Love You More
by Julie Capulet
Chapter One
~ Lexi ~
To set the record straight, I’m not usually the kind of person who wakes up in a total stranger’s apartment, wearing a rain-soaked shred of a very-tight dress, drunk, lost, broke and as helpless as a girl can pretty much be. I’ve spent my entire life training myself to be an independent twenty-first century woman who’s fully prepared to take the world by storm—and avoiding situations exactly like the one I’m in right now.
Things don’t always turn out the way you wish they would.
I’m regaining consciousness after a record-breaking meltdown that I’m only now beginning to fully recall. And I’m starting to regret…a lot of things. One, letting myself get carried away by a hurricane of lust and a fairy tale of a love affair that promised from the very first second I saw him that it was way too good to be true. Two, possibly overreacting by chugging at least twice as much champagne as a reasonable person ever would. Three, not bringing my phone so I could at least call my best friend Tess to come and pick me up.
As it is, I’m struggling even to open my eyes. My awareness feels overwhelmed by a thick, invisible fog.
Someone is undressing me, with warm, strong hands. Peeling my wet dress away from my cold skin.
Who?
“Lexi, you need to get these wet clothes off. You’re soaked to the skin and you’re cold. Hold still.” I can’t do anything but hold still. My body feels like it’s made of lead. His voice sounds familiar, but I can’t place it. “I’m going to put this robe on you and wrap you in my duvet. You need to get warm.”
It takes a gargantuan amount of effort, but I finally do it. I manage to open my eyes enough to see who’s here with me.
As soon as I see his face, it all comes rushing back.
It’s Max.
Max Black.
Rafe’s brother.
Rafe, my intense, beautiful lover—and boss, possibly, although I can’t remember how we left it. I’d gone to the job interview at his company, Downtown, and I’d literally been swept away by a rush of lust and attraction neither of us had been able to control. It had been crazy. Wild. And totally unlike me. I’d fallen for him from that very first second. You read about things like that happening to people, love at first sight and all that, but you never expect it to happen to you. I’d spent the past two weeks with him, at his beach estate in Kauai, surfing, falling deeply in love with him, telling him things I’ve never told anyone, and having sex with him practically every hour of the day and night, in his bed, on his private beach, on his super-yacht, on his jet…
But then, as soon as we arrived back in L.A., he’d proceeded to lock me in his bedroom before leaving me to go to his office.
It was one of those things—actually, the one thing—I just really can’t handle. A hangover from a mess of a childhood I prefer not to think about.
I’d escaped. And I’d run from him. I remember everything now.
I left him.
I’ve left Rafe.
Max’s hands are on my body as he peels off my skimpy outfit.
Slowly. Carefully.
Am I wearing anything underneath my dress? A lacy bra and a tiny pair of La Perla panties. Rafe bought them for me, of course, as he’d bought me practically everything else I own, that day he took me shopping on Rodeo Drive.
I can’t even speak. His hands are so insistent…and so warm.
I’m shivering. I sigh as his hands touch me, I’m not sure why. It feels good to have the cold layer taken off. I can hear his breathing, like it’s heavier than normal. He’s pulling the dress away from my shoulders, adjusting me so he can pull the wet fabric away from my skin ...
