Chapter 24 : Surprise intervention

AJAX. Maxine reaches out to shake my hand, and I meet hers for the same purpose. I was ready to leave after the deal’s been done, but the moment her palm touches mine, a bolt of electricity courses through my body and lights me up from the inside. I gasp internally, but I find that I can’t step away from her. The seconds stretch into minutes, and the sensation of her skin on mine just gets better and better. The warmth is impossibly comforting. The softness makes me weak in the knees. I look into her eyes and I get thrown back to the night I met her when her eyes were still blue. I wasn’t mesmerized by the color then. It was the fire that was underneath the frightful gaze, and the softness that collides with that in a very interesting way. I immediately knew then that I could feel something with her, a connection. I didn’t know what it was before, but it was becoming clearer and clearer now…. “Maxine,” I whisper, and her name escapes my lips like a plea. I lean in slowly, feeling