The Master Player

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHLOE did set limits. She would not go out in public with Max. First, it was bound to create a frenzy of gossip, bringing the paparazzi down on her like a cloud of bees, just when they’d lost interest since nothing juicy had eventuated from her move to Max’s guest house. Second, the cast of the show would inevitably treat her differently. She’d already had a taste of that and decided that it would be much easier working with them if their suspicions about her relationship with Max were not confirmed. Third, she didn’t want to give Tony any nasty ammunition to fire at her, nor give her mother the smug satisfaction that once again she’d known better than Chloe. Which she hadn’t, but she’d think it.

‘When we’ve finished shooting this season’s episodes for the show, and I’ve moved to a place of my own, then I’ll go out with you if you still want me to,’ she’d said, being very firm on this point.

‘Uh-huh,’ Max had agreed, a gleam of wry amusement in his eyes. ‘I can see that making an independent stand is important to you. But in the meantime, can we carry on in private?’

She’d laughed and hugged him. ‘I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t.’

‘Then I shall attempt to make what time we have together as entertaining as I can.’

He did. For Chloe it was almost an idyllic existence, living in the children’s house and being with Max. There were so many pleasures-making love, watching episodes of M*A*S*H together, sailing, lazing by the pool, sharing the delicious dinners Elaine cooked for them in the big house, watching and discussing television shows Max was interested in acquiring.

At first she’d been a bit self-conscious about their new relationship where the three E’s were concerned, but she needn’t have worried about their reaction to it. Edgar maintained his air of deference at all times. Elaine, who was an avid fan of the show and loved how Chloe played her part in it, was only too happy to have a closer acquaintance with her and always welcomed Luther into her kitchen. Eric seemed to assume she was becoming a fixture at Hill House and took to asking her opinion of whatever he’d been doing around the grounds.

It would have been so easy to let everything else slide. Happiness was addictive. But the sense that she had to get her own life in order-apart from Max-could not be ignored. That had been her worst mistake in the past, letting things slide. She would not be guilty of it again.

Max gave her the name of a good divorce lawyer, whom she met, subsequently setting the ultimate separation from Tony in motion, listening very carefully to the legal issues involved so she could fully understand her position and make sensible decisions. The lawyer assured her he would negotiate a fair settlement with Tony, not allowing her husband to milk the divorce for more than he was entitled to.

She bought herself a little car, a white VW Beetle, which was cute and comfortable and easy to park in the city. Having acquired her own transport, as well as the confidence to handle her own problems, she dispensed with Gerry Anderson’s services, thanking the security guard for having taken such good care of her and Luther.

‘A pleasure, Miss Rollins. You have my card. Call me if you ever have a problem I can help you with,’ he’d said with a touching sincerity, which left Chloe feeling she had a ready friend if she ever required a security guard again.

She needed the car in her hunt for suitable accommodation. Her choice was limited because most apartment complexes would not allow pets and no way was she going to part with Luther. She didn’t want to commit herself to buying a property, not before her divorce was settled, so finding something right to rent was difficult. Saturday mornings were taken up with looking at places, none of which really fitted her requirements.

‘I’d like something close to a park that I can take Luther to,’ she remarked to Max after being disappointed in her search once again.

‘There’s no time pressure, Chloe. I’m perfectly happy for you to stay on here beyond the two months,’ he assured her.

She gave him an arch look. ‘I don’t intend to hang on until it doesn’t suit you, Max.’

He frowned. ‘I wasn’t suggesting you do.’ The dark brilliant eyes sharply probed hers. ‘I like what we have together, Chloe. It may suit me for a very long time.’

Her heart skipped a beat. She liked it, too. She loved it. But indulging in forever dreams with Max was not good for her. A long time might only mean a year or two.

Max watched the temptation to stay with him slip into uncertainty and the urge to do battle with her doubts was too insistent to deny. He liked coming home to her, more than he could ever have imagined coming home to anyone. He felt a buzz of joyful anticipation each time he drove through the gateway and it wasn’t so much the welcoming sight of Hill House he looked forward to, but being with Chloe again. She delighted him in every sense.

‘You’re happy here,’ he argued. ‘Luther is happy here. Eric and Elaine are happy to mind him when you go out. When we go out. As we will as soon as your work on this season’s episodes is done.’

They were in the children’s house and he drew her into his embrace, deliberately reminding her of the ready intimacy they shared. He stroked her cheek as his eyes bored into hers, commanding her surrender to his will. ‘You love this place,’ he said with soft seductive persuasion. ‘You have your own car, your independence. You can pay me rent if that will make you feel more right about staying on.’ He moved his fingers to her lips, arousing sensitivity to his touch. ‘I want you to stay, Chloe.’

He saw a multitude of emotions warring in her eyes-desire, hope, yearning, fear, panic…the latter jolting his drive to win what he wanted.

She pushed away from him, words tumbling out in a desperate burst. ‘I can’t, Max. I can’t. Don’t ask me to.’

Her hands clapped her cheeks, smacking off the lingering influence of his touch. Her eyes begged him to understand. Max didn’t but he stood still, instinctively knowing he had to wait for her to explain, not press for anything. It appalled him that he had struck fear in her. She was precious to him. Hurting her in any shape or form had never been his intention.

Her hands dropped from her face. She wrung them as she gulped in deep breaths, struggling for control of the agitation that had gripped her. Max was acutely aware of feeling more tension than he did in any critical business meeting. He’d always been prepared for them, confident of coming out on top, but he’d had no experience of what was happening here and now with Chloe.

She gathered herself to speak. ‘All my life…’ She stopped, swallowed hard, started again. ‘For most of my life, I did what my mother wanted. I learned…she made me learn…it was easier to obey, easier not to resist, easier just to fall in with whatever she decided.’

Max saw the memories of punishment flit through her eyes and his jaw clenched at a surge of hatred for Stephanie Rollins. He’d been the victim of negligence, indifference, crazy outbursts of emotion from his own mother throughout his boyhood, but never cruelly pressured into performing to her will.

‘Then when I married Tony and realised I was only a tool to him, too…someone he could use to get what he wanted…I took the easy path again, letting him do it because at least he made the process more pleasant than my mother did. He pretended to love me. I could live with that. He made it easy.’

The con man keeping his gravy train sweet, Max thought in blistering contempt. Yet a disturbing niggle of conscience started whispering he was doing a very similar thing.

‘And it would be all too easy for me to stay on here with you, Max,’ Chloe went on, nailing the tack he had used to keep her with him. ‘But if I did that, I’d be slipping back into the same old pattern that I need to break, giving you control of my life instead of being in charge of it myself.’

‘No!’ he vehemently denied. ‘I would not control your life, Chloe. You’d always have freedom of choice with me.’

Pained eyes looked back at him. ‘I can’t choose when you’ll meet some other woman who sparks your interest, Max. Shannah Lian had no choice at all in the end, did she?’

But it’s different with you.

The words burned to be said. He barely stopped them from exploding off his tongue. As true as it was, it didn’t promise the kind of longevity that would mean they would never part. They were still in the honeymoon phase of their relationship. The deeply honed pragmatic part of his mind dictated a much longer period was required to test the depth of his feelings for her. Rushing into some rash declaration would not serve either of them well.

‘I need a place of my own, Max,’ she asserted with quiet conviction, her eyes pleading for his acceptance. No more argument. ‘I don’t ever want to feel again I have nowhere to go if…other things…start falling apart.’ Her lips quivered into a wry little smile. ‘It might not be so convenient for you…for either of us…’

‘That’s not important.’ His hand sliced the air in sharp dismissal. ‘Your sense of well-being is. I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking…just wanting to hold onto what we’ve been sharing.’ He shook his head in mute apology as he moved to reassure her, his hands curling gently around her shoulders, his eyes projecting empathy with her feelings. ‘When my mother died, the welfare people moved me to a hostel. I couldn’t wait to leave school, earn enough money to get a place of my own. Do you want me to help you find one, Chloe?’

Relief and joy sparkled back at him as she wound her arms around his waist, pressing close to him. ‘No. You’ve helped me enough, Max. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate all you’ve done for me. Even when we’re not lovers anymore, I’ll always consider you the best friend I could ever have had.’

‘Hmmm…I’m not ready to end the lovers part yet. Are you?’

‘No.’ She looked wickedly at him as she rubbed her lower body against his.

He laughed and scooped her up in his arms, needing to assuage the strong sense of possessiveness that he had to contain. Luther barked at the exuberant action and he smiled down at the dog. ‘You get your fair share of her, little fella. This is my turn.’

Chloe laughed as he strode to the bedroom and kicked the door shut behind them. There was no sense of conflict between them as they made love. Chloe gave herself to him with uninhibited pleasure and Max revelled in the certainty that she would still be his woman, regardless of a change in residence.

Lying together afterwards, he felt a deep tenderness towards her, cuddling her close, softly stroking her hair and the lovely curve of her spine. ‘You are safe with me, Chloe,’ he murmured. ‘I’m not out to exploit you in any way.’

She sighed, her breath drifting warmly across his chest. ‘I know that, Max. You don’t need to. You run your own race.’

Which she had not done up until now. He understood her need to take control, given the victimisation she had helplessly resigned herself to in the past. It was right for her to establish her own ground, her own space. Yet the simple truth she had just spoken made him think about the life he had made for himself-running his own race.

He’d had to as a child. His mother had been totally irresponsible. More times than not there was no food bought for him, her single mother’s pension all spent on drugs. She’d slept in most mornings, not worrying about getting him off to school. He went because it was better than staying with her, trying to shut off her rants about whatever got stuck in her mind.

It had been a lonely life, looking after himself. Becoming self-sufficient had not been an easy journey but it had been the only way to survive in his mother’s environment. He’d hated it when she had bursts of sentimentality, hugging him, rocking him in an excess of emotion as she raved on about how much she loved her little boy. Her so-called love was just some mushy thing that had no reality attached to it. Max remembered thinking he would be much better off without it.

And he had done very well without it-running his own race-not letting anything or anyone divert him from achieving the goals he set for himself.

But would he be content to keep it that way, having spent this brilliant time with Chloe, sharing more with her than he had with any other person-man or woman-enjoying everything about her? He’d never minded being alone. It had been an advantage, not having consideration for other people hold him back from what he chose to do. He’d consciously avoided emotional strings that might tie him down. Yet he knew he would miss Chloe’s ready company when he came home.

He couldn’t stop this private idyll from coming to an end. However, he didn’t have to accept an uncrossable distance between them. The need to nail down some definite future with her was paramount. There was so much more he wanted to share with her, introduce her to.

‘When you leave here, Chloe, keeping our relationship a secret will become untenable,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘Someone will pick up on my visiting you. You will want me to visit, won’t you?’ he added confidently.

‘Yes, of course,’ she said without hesitation.

‘Then I see no reason why we shouldn’t appear in public together. Work on the show will have finished for the season. By the time we start the next set of episodes, the cast and crew will be used to the fact that we’ve linked up so our relationship will be taken for granted, not be a hot item for speculation. It shouldn’t cause you any discomfort. Agreed?’

She didn’t answer.

Max felt tension seizing him again as he waited. He couldn’t force her to agree with him. She had to want to. He couldn’t see her face, didn’t know what was going through her mind. Her marriage was dead. She shouldn’t be worrying about what Tony thought. Or what her mother thought. She now had her own life to do whatever she liked with it. Surely she would choose to spend as much time with him as they could arrange. No way would he accept remaining her secret lover! It was too limited!

Chloe’s mind was in turmoil. It was a daunting prospect, being publicly linked to such a powerful man, being labelled his new paramour, which would inevitably raise speculation on how long this liaison would last, given Max’s reputation for moving on. On top of that, despite the lapse of time since her separation from Tony, her relationship with Max could still be viewed as scandalous. The paparazzi would be all over every appearance they made together.

She shrank from having to face it, wishing they could still be lovers in private. These past two months had been heaven, so easy…

Easy.

The word mocked her, instantly accusing her of sliding back into her old mindset. She’d just made a stand with Max over not taking the easy path of staying with him here. Not only that, at the beginning of their affair, she’d insisted they not appear in public together until the show was wrapped up for this season and she had a place of her own. As he’d just pointed out, that time was almost up. Backtracking on her word, denying him what he wanted when he’d given her so much was simply not on. Besides, she knew she would crave his companionship, in every sense.

So what if it wasn’t easy going public!

She’d have Max at her side.

That was more important to her than anything else.

Having him.

She lifted herself up from his chest to smile that assurance at him. ‘I will be very pleased to go out with you, Max,’ she said, secretly wanting far more from him than she could ever ask or expect-like having this amazingly wonderful man with her for the rest of her life.

‘Good!’ A smile of satisfaction spread across his face.

Chloe told herself to be satisfied, too. The experience of Max had already changed her life for the better. She would always be grateful he had stepped into it…even when he stepped out of it.