Stranger in my Ass-Chapter 292

Maxwell’s POV

I changed quickly, pulling on my clothes - they were completely dried now - and grabbed my jacket by the door.

When I came back out, Olivia was waiting in the living room, her expression unreadable.

"Do you want Ian to come over here," I asked, "or would you prefer to go to his place?"

She considered for a moment, then said, "I’ll go there. If the intruder is still close by, watching the house, Ian’s place might be safer. Less obvious."

I nodded, agreeing with her logic even as something in my chest tightened at the thought of leaving her with him.

"Okay. Grab whatever you need. Things that are important to you."

She disappeared into her room and came back a few minutes later with a small bag - some clothes, probably, and her phone charger, though the phone itself was useless without service.

We locked up the beach house carefully, checking all the windows and doors, then stepped out into the rain.

It had lessened a bit, but it was still steady and cold, soaking through our jackets within minutes.

We walked quickly down the beach road toward Ian’s house, our feet squelching in the muddy ground.

When we reached his place - a similar beach house to the Hoptons’, just slightly larger - we found all the lights off and the door locked.

I knocked. Waited. Knocked again.

Nothing.

"He probably left," Olivia said, hugging herself against the cold. "Went back to the city once the storm calmed down."

I cursed under my breath.

So much for leaving her with someone trustworthy.

"Come on," I said, taking her hand and leading her back toward my car, which I’d parked in the beach house driveway. "Looks like you’re coming with me."

Once we were inside the car, doors closed against the rain, I turned to look at Olivia. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

She was soaked, her hair plastered to her face, her jacket dripping water onto the seat.

"What happens now?" she asked, pushing wet hair out of her eyes.

"Looks like I’m taking you with me," I said, starting the engine. "We’ll drive into town together. Get the police. Then figure out where to go from there."

I pulled out of the driveway and onto the main road, windshield wipers working overtime to clear the rain.

The visibility was terrible. The road was slick and dangerous, with water pooling in the low spots and mud sliding down from the higher ground.

We drove in silence for a while, both of us tense, watching the road.

At one point, the car slid slightly as I took a turn, and I had to overcorrect to keep us from going into the ditch.

"Maxwell," Olivia said, her voice filled with concern. "Maybe we should stop. This is too dangerous."

I looked at the road ahead - barely visible through the curtain of rain, the pavement slick and treacherous.

She was right.

"Okay," I agreed, pulling over to the side of the road and putting the car in park. "We’ll wait it out here until it calms down a bit."

I killed the engine, and suddenly we were cocooned in silence, just the sound of rain drumming on the roof and windows.

Olivia was right beside me in the passenger seat, so close she was radiating warmth despite her wet clothes.

I ran my hand through my hair, frustration building.

"We should have just stayed at the house," I said. "This was stupid. I keep making really bad decisions lately."

******

Olivia’s POV

Bad decisions?

I had to bite back a smile.

This was possibly the best decision he’d made since we arrived on this island.

The intimacy of being trapped in this small car with him, rain creating a private world around us, no distractions, nowhere to go - it was perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

But of course, I wouldn’t voice that out loud.

We sat in silence for a few minutes, just listening to the rain, both of us acutely aware of how close we were in the confined space.

Then I decided to use this opportunity. To ask the questions that had been bugging me since I’d figured out he was my stranger.

"Can I ask you something?" I said, breaking the silence.

Maxwell turned to look at me. "Of course. Anything."

I took a breath, gathering my courage.

"That first time," I started. "At the concert. When you... when we..." I felt my cheeks heat. "When you had sex with me from behind, in the middle of everyone dancing. How did you even find me there? How did you know I’d be at that concert?"

Maxwell’s expression shifted, something like guilt crossing his features.

"Through Kira," he admitted.

"What?" I turned in my seat to face him fully. "How?"

He sighed, leaning back against his seat.

"I purposely didn’t ask your parents or Kennedy about your whereabouts all those years," he explained. "I felt like they might not be willing to help, considering our past. So I tried finding you on my own."

He paused, staring out at the rain.

"At some point, I stopped searching," he continued. "When I started dating Sabrina. I tried to love her. Really tried. I dated different girls in college too, looking for someone I’d feel that spark with, that connection. But there was no one. And that’s when I knew - there was no other woman for me except you."

My heart clenched at the raw honesty in his voice.

"So I started searching again," he said. "And I found you. Working at a law firm. I knew I needed to bring you to my company, so I immediately started working on resetting our policies against hiring female attorneys."

"You started working on it around that time?" I asked, amazed. "Just to hire me?"

"Just to hire you," he confirmed. "And once I found you, I found out everything else. Where you lived. Who your friends were. Your routines. Everything."

He turned to look at me, his eyes dark and intense in the dim light.

"I found out about Kira. That she loved concerts and events. So I gave two tickets to someone close to her, knowing they’d pass them on to her. Knowing she’d take you."

I shook my head in disbelief. "You’re really good at this."

"At manipulation?" he said bitterly.

"Yeah. And at planning as well."

He was quiet for a moment, then turned fully toward me.

"I’m sorry," he said softly. "For how I grabbed you that night. I’d only meant to dance with you. To be close to you. But the moment I touched you, I was consumed. All those years of waiting, of wanting, of dreaming about what it would be like to hold you - it just took over."

The memory of that night washed over me - the music, the crowd, the feeling of being completely possessed by a stranger who somehow knew exactly how to touch me.

"When I saw you at my love doctor’s office," Maxwell continued, a small smile playing on his lips, "I was shocked. You’d found me."

"Why did you even go into love therapy?" I asked, genuinely curious.