Innocently Evil (A Kitty Bloom Novel) Read Free

disappointed frown, he looked down at me with serious, nearly desperate eyes. And I felt an overwhelming urge to stay with him.
    “Please, Kitty. Let me go get changed and come back to talk to you properly. I will tell you everything, just please stay.”
    I pouted as I considered my options, glancing around the room in thought, and then looked back up into Max’s eyes. “Okay,” I said, feeling a little like I’d just agreed to something much more important than a chat.
                  Max’s eyes lit up, he grinned at me and then started striding backwards towards the bathroom. “I’ll be five minutes,” he said, then turned and ran for the bathroom door.
    Once Max had disappeared, I had a strange feeling that I shouldn’t have agreed to stay. The room was different without him and it was making me nervous. For some reason, I’d felt compelled to stay with him when he was in the room, but now my practical mind seemed to be screaming at me to make a run for it.
    I was up and heading towards the connecting doors again just as Max, now fully dressed, ran back into the room.
    “Wait,” he called to me.
    I paused and glanced back at him, but my gut still told me to leave. I shook my head and went for the button.
    “Please,” Max said again. “If I can say only one thing to you before you leave then let it be happy birthday. It is your eighteenth today, isn’t it?”
    My finger stopped by the button and I turned around again. “Yes,” I answered.
    Max walked towards me with a hand slightly outstretched. “Then, I have a gift for you.”
    In his palm was a little, black box, the kind that jewelers put your purchases in. He took the final steps towards me, until he was almost too close and had me cornered against the door. I caught a hint of his cologne and he smelled good. My body seemed to relax at his closeness and a little of my anxiety began to fade. I finally noticed his clothes. His elegant white button-up shirt and black tuxedo slacks were both done up in haste. He’d only managed to get a few shirt buttons buttoned with his time limit and his pants sat lower than they should have. I looked down at his bare feet and then back up at his face. His wide eyes and clenched jaw showed his worry. I thought it strange that he should ever worry about rejection. And who was I to reject a gift on my birthday.
    “You shouldn’t have,” I said. “How could you possibly have known?”
    Max moved his hand closer to me and gave me a saddened smile. “I have much to tell you, Kitty. If only you’d let me.”
    Still confused by his words and finding it hard to focus on the intensity of his eyes, I pushed my gaze back down to the box. Taking it from his palm onto mine, I lifted off the lid. Inside was a circular pendant on a long silver chain. I’d never seen anything like it before. In the centre of the pendant was a pearl collared circle, with several small lines neatly severing it into what appeared to be the phases of the moon. Then, along the circumference of the pearl, in silver, ran an intricately carved pack of wolves. It looked so expensive – an heirloom maybe – I knew I shouldn’t accept it.
    “Thank you,” I said, never taking my eyes off the pendant . “It’s magnificent.”
    “If,” Max began slowly, “you would do me the honor, I wish you to wear it.” Without my answer, Max’s fingers slipped into the box and he carefully lifted the pendant out by its chain. He undid the clasp and moved in close to me. His fingertips grazed my collarbone as he brought the ends of the chain together.
    I arched my neck to the side when his cheek brushed past mine as he looked to do up the clasp. Closing my eyes, I felt almost frozen. Half of me was screaming to escape and the other half would have gladly followed any orders given. I shook my head slightly in confusion, then licked my lips and opened my eyes. I straightened my head a little as I felt Max begin to move back.
    His face brushed