It was possible he’d ruined her for any other man.
The thought made her stomach dip. One day—probably soon if her track record was anything to go by—this fling with Max would be over and she would be forced to stop basking in the here and now and think about the future. About a life without dancing, and a life without Max.
“J’aime te faire l’amour, Maddy,” Max murmured as he flexed his hips.
She felt the slow, delicious slide as he stroked into her. She closed her eyes and concentrated fiercely on how good it was, how good they were. As always, everything else slipped away. The future could wait another day.
“Tu te sentez si serrée at chaude.”
She grasped the edge of the table as one of Max’s hands slid around her rib cage to find her breasts.
“Quand je suis a l’interieur de toi—”
They both tensed as a knock sounded at the door.
Max swore. “Perfect timing,” he said with heavy irony.
“It’s Charlotte,” she said, suddenly remembering. “She mentioned she was going to drop by this morning.”
“Of course it’s Charlotte. It’s been a whole day since we saw her last,” he said.
She laughed, then gave a little gasp of loss as he withdrew from her.
“Blame my sister. I plan to,” he said.
His obvious frustration was flattering and funny.
Charlotte knocked again, longer and louder this time.
“For Pete’s sake, stop jumping each other and answer the door,” she called.
Maddy reached out to tag Max’s arm. “You’re it,” she said, taking off at speed for the bathroom.
“Hey!”
“Tell her I won’t be a moment,” she called over her shoulder as she shut the bathroom door.
She could hear Max laughing ruefully behind her. She had a smile on her face, too, as she hastily pulled on underwear, a black turtleneck and jeans. She secured her hair in a low bun on the back of her neck and decided she was presentable.
“Let me guess. You were busy ‘working,’” Charlotte was saying as Maddy joined them.
“Something like that.”
Max was making coffee and Charlotte stabbed a sisterly finger into his chest.
“I don’t know what’s worse—worrying about you being single or worrying about you and Maddy wearing each other out.”
Max laughed. “You’ll be the first person I call from the hospital.”
“How delightful for me,” Charlotte said.
She caught sight of Maddy and her face lit up.
“Maddy!” She drew Maddy into a hug, kissing both her cheeks warmly.
After a rocky start, she and Charlotte had decided they liked each other. Maddy had had several more dancing sessions with Eloise, and Charlotte was warmly grateful for the pleasure her daughter found in the experience. Underneath all the stress and tiredness of managing two children on her own, Max’s sister was as charming as Max himself, and Maddy had quickly discovered she liked having a female friend who discussed more than the freshest gossip from the ballet world or the effectiveness of the latest diuretic tablet or corn pads.
As Charlotte began to regale them with an update on Richard’s search for a new job, Maddy felt the weight of Max’s stare. She glanced over, and sure enough he was watching her, one hip propped against the kitchen counter, arms crossed over his chest. He looked very serious—brooding, almost. As soon as she made eye contact with him he smiled and the moment of intensity was gone, leaving her wondering if she’d imagined it.
“I can’t believe I’m going to voluntarily subject myself to this, but tell me what you two are up to this afternoon,” Charlotte said, crossing her legs and raising an eyebrow in inquiry.
Over the past weeks, Maddy and Max had developed a routine of sorts. Most mornings she sat for him, then he worked on his sketches and other projects until midafternoon. After that he took her out into the city, showing her his Paris. So far they had toured Père Lachaise, explored the tangled streets of Montmartre, visited the Picasso museum and wound their way through the city via the secret covered corridors that made it possible for a pedestrian to walk under cover from Montmartre all the way across the city to the Palais Royal.
She didn’t kid herself that their excursions were for any other reason than to entertain and distract her from her evercircling thoughts. Max shared a bed with her—he knew she woke in the night sometimes, grief welling up inside her for the life she used to live. She never let herself cry, because it never made her feel any better. Still she couldn’t stop herself from remembering and regretting and mourning.
Pointless. A huge waste of time. But she couldn’t stop it. She’d spent almost her whole life wanting to be a ballerina, striving, enduring—and now it was all over. It was going to take some time to adjust. She kept thinking that if only she had known, consciously, that this was going to happen, she could have savored her last season, stored up memories, made each moment on stage count. But she hadn’t. And she couldn’t go back and change anything. It was what it was.
Maddy looked to Max. “We haven’t decided yet.”
“I was thinking the Rodin museum,” he said.
“I find it hard to believe that there won’t be a picnic associated with this expedition,” Charlotte said archly. “Or at least a visit to a bonbon shop or a patisserie.”
Maddy laughed. “Max, you see how predictable we are?”
“I can live with it,” he said.
“You’re going to make me fat.”
He loved feeding her all the things she’d denied herself for so many years. Chocolates. Éclairs. Macaroons. She’d nearly cried when she tasted her first passion fruit and chocolate macaroon from Pierre Hermé in St. Germain last week. Max had bought one for her every day since.
Charlotte stood and collected her handbag.
“Before I forget—Richard wants to go back to Côte d’Azur again this summer, and it looks as though we can get the same house,” she said to Max. “What about you? Do you have plans to go away?”
“Not yet,” Max said.
Maddy knew that the city basically shut down for the month of August as Parisians headed for the coast for their summer holidays. Charlotte had already told her that good holiday houses were as scarce as hens’ teeth, so it didn’t surprise Maddy that she was planning ahead.
“You and Maddy should come with us. There’s a private apartment attached to the back of the house—it would be perfect for you two,” Charlotte said.
Maddy
