The Billionaire Playboy's Regret (Lark and Max)

Lark parked her car in the spare spot where Max instructed her to via text before taking a deep breath. This felt more than two friends meeting up for dinner. This felt very date-like, and she'd never done a first date in a man's home before, especially a man like Max Villeneuve.

Despite being in his home over the weekend, this was different. Saturday was playful and fun with the goal of

reconnecting as friends but this, well, this felt entirely unique. The way he kissed her before leaving her office this morning left her panting, breathless and very, very horny.

The more time she thought of Max and the way his length was pressed against her belly when he'd kissed her, the needier her own body became. She was so sexually frustrated right now, and it was so foreign to her.

Not that s*x with Doug was bad. It hadn't been life changing and it never made her feel like the entire world shifted on its axis the way it did for the heroines in a romance novel, but he always made certain she came first, and he always lasted more than a couple of minutes. However, she knew not once had she yearned for Doug the way she was for Max right now. While Doug knew how to touch her to make her excited, the wink Max gave her simply walking out of her office nearly caused her undergarments to combust into a puff of smoke.

She was walking towards the elevator when she saw it open and Max step out and immediately his thoughtful demeanor of meeting her at the parking garage made her smile. She also noted he was wearing a pair of sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt and was dressed for comfort, yet her thighs clenched in a muscle spasm worthy of a whimper. She was in over her head she decided when his face lit up the moment he saw her. "f**k me, I'm screwed," she whispered to herself. "There you are. I know you said seven and it's fifteen minutes past. I was worried maybe the parking attendant didn't let you through." He held his hand out for her.

"Sorry. I had a quick chat with Dad before I left. He let me know he has his investigators working double time.

"I bet he does. This Sawyer guys is a piece of work. Johan and I managed to find the video of your dad punching him out. Dude dropped him like a sack of potatoes, and he was out cold in one punch. Your father also looked right into a camera and said, "apology not f*****g accepted" and then walked away like the coolest bastard on the planet."

"No, he didn't!" Lark covered her mouth with her hand as she got into the elevator, aware her other hand was tightly held in his, their fingers interlinked. His easy conversation was easing her libido somewhat but not near enough.

"He did. It was the coolest thing I ever saw your dad do. Badass."

She snickered, "my dad is not badass. He's a marshmallow. This morning before work he was brushing my mother's hair and offered to braid Fallon's."

"Really? He still does that?"

"Yup. Mom has him whipped," she made the motion of cracking a whip with her other hand and the requisite hissing sound to go with it. Max laughed at her, and she grinned. "He's a big pushover." "Nothing wrong with a man taking care of his woman," Max pulled her out of the elevator as it opened. Lark froze at the sight in front of her. "Max," she whispered as he let her hand go and she walked into the space. He'd set up a beautiful romantic table set for two with the biggest bouquet of red roses she ever saw laying over one of the plates. She felt she was floating as she took in the candles lighting up the space and the scented air around them. "What is this?" "Dinner," he jammed his hands in his pockets and rocked back and forth on his heels.

"You bought me flowers?" She lifted them up and noticed his nervous posture as she looked over her shoulder at him. "You did all this for me?"

"It's too much isn't it. Ollie said it was, but I wanted to do it. I should have listened." He was shaking his head and walking towards a candle as if intending to put it out.

She stopped him with a hand to his chest, "it's perfect. I love it. Thank you. Nobody has ever done such a thing for me before." She rose on tiptoes and kissed his cheek.

He closed his eyes, exhaled through his nose, and leaned close to kiss her forehead. "Come on, let's get some dinner into you before I try to put me in you." At her shriek he laughed and wrapped his arm around her shoulder and sat her down at the table, chuckling when she pulled the roses onto her lap.

"The last flowers I got changed my life." She voiced her thought and watched as Max froze at her words. "Maybe these ones will too.

"It won't be flowers to change your life, Lark. It's going to be all me and you doing it together." He disappeared and a few minutes later came out with two bowls. "Dinner."

He sported a smirk on his face, and she giggled loudly as he put the bowl in front of her. "Mac and cheese? From a box?" "Mom said she caught you in the pantry at her place the other day looking for some since your mom didn't have any and it was your favorite food growing up. I think you ate cases of it during exam times."

"Last Thursday," she took a happy spoonful and moaned. "Dad took Mom to dinner and told me and Fallon to get our own dinner but then Fallon went out with the triplets, and I wasn't in the mood to make a whole meal for one person. I started thinking mac and cheese and you know how it is when you suddenly crave something and nothing else will satisfy it?" "Yes. From the time I was ten until this very moment." He sniggered as she kicked him under the table.

"Fool," she shook her head, "anyway Mori let me in to check their pantry, but she said both of our moms cleaned out the cupboards recently for a food drive. I've been craving it ever since."

"What did you end up eating?"

"A ham sandwich."

"Why didn't you order pizza or something?" he was laughing in earnest now.

"Max. I'd worked all day. Came home to deal with the countless text messages from Doug the Douche and the annoying ones from Ollie when she's apologizing for being over the top. I was avoiding anyone I could, and I certainly didn't want to interact with a delivery driver."

"What happened with you and Ollie last weekend. She said she blew up at you and you freaked out." She moved her spoon around the bowl of orange noodles and sighed, "everything is dramatic with her. She's always been fiery and loud but its always this huge production whenever someone doesn't agree with what she says or wants. She said I needed to learn to accept her behavior as it was because she accepted me being the pretentious b***h I was in high school. I told her I was not going to be her doormat any longer and while I realized she was clearly hurting from whatever was going on with the guy from Houston, it didn't give her the right to use me as her emotional punching bag. She didn't like me saying she was abusing me, called me some names, and slammed out."

"You forgave her already?"

She shrugged, "you two crashed my room Friday night when I was already feeling vulnerable from a shitty week. I'd received about fifty messages and voice mails from her and then the drunken apology Friday night and then she apologized again Saturday." She looked up to Max and saw him listening to her attentively, "she needs help, Max. She has so much rage in her and when things go sideways, she goes nuclear. We aren't kids anymore and she doesn't get to use the excuse of a bad temper for her behavior. It's not fair." She whispered the last part hating how emotional it made her to talk about Ollie.

"I'm not going to apologize on her behalf," Max said quietly. "Your relationship with her needs to be sorted out and I think therapy will help her, but it might do you good as well. In fact, this morning in my session my therapist suggested maybe you and I have a few sessions together as well."

"Aren't we a bit early for couples therapy?" she made a face.

"If you don't want to go, it's okay. She thought it might be good for us to have some guidance. I told her how angry you are with me and how I would do anything to fix it and she -"

"Stop," she held her hand up. "Max, you don't ever have to tell me what you talk about in your therapy sessions. If you think I should come with you to a few, I'm happy to do so. It's just," she was going to hate to admit this part knowing it would open her to more questions, "I already go to therapy pretty frequently. I mean not as much as I did years ago but at least monthly. I actually engaged in two virtual sessions last week and I have another one booked tomorrow."

"Really?" He wrinkled his nose, "you go to counselling?"

"Yes. Around the time I left I went through some traumatic stuff," at his widened eyes, "I don't want to talk about it Max, but I needed help, and I got it."

"When you went away to school?"

"Around then, yes but I'm done discussing it, even in therapy."

"Are you okay?" his voice was hushed, and his eyes were searching her face for clues on her feelings. "I'm fine Max. I promise. Nothing from what happened back then is affecting me now. I found I really liked going to therapy and kept going. It doesn't work for everyone but somehow it keeps me from losing my mind when I'm getting bogged down in the weirdness of the world."

"Okay. As long as you're okay. Do you think you could come to my next in-person session. It will be in two weeks. I told her I'd have to do virtual next week since I anticipate we'll be in Houston but the following week we should be back. I want us to work, Lark."

"I'll come," she nodded, "but this is a first for me. I've never been on a first date and have the guy ask me to go to therapy with him."

"Wait until you see what I ask you to do on the second date?" he wiggled his eyebrows mischievously and she gave loud laugh.

"I can't wait."

She found she meant it.