Stealing Emma

Chapter 25 - The Final Countdown

Emma woke up with a knot in her stomach. Today was the day of their final presentation and then her master’s degree would be officially over. She tried to attribute the unsettling feeling to the fact that she was nervous about the presentation, but it certainly wasn’t that. She was great at presenting, always had been. She knew it by heart at this point, and could probably recite it in her sleep.

Plus, she couldn’t deny that she and Max made a great team. When he had first suggested they should partner up together for the presentation, she had thought it would be a bad idea to mix work with romance. But then he reminded her they had gotten the only A in class when they worked on the Econ project first semester. In the end, she couldn’t imagine spending a whole week with someone she didn’t want to, and decided she’d much rather spend what little time they had left together with him.

It had worked out pretty nicely, actually. As they had a week to prepare for the presentation after their last class ended, Max ended up taking her to his family’s beach house in Marbella and they worked on their project from there. He had made sure no one else would be there, so they had the entire house to themselves. In the mornings they would wake up, have a leisurely breakfast overlooking the ocean, and then spent the afternoons working on their paper with occasional breaks at the beach. They would then cook a nice dinner together at night and spend the rest of the evenings between the sheets.

It had been simply perfect. She never imagined in a million years that an MBA final could be so fun and stress-free. It had easily been one of the best and most relaxing weeks of her life. Then again, nothing in her entire year in Spain had gone as planned or expected.

But now all that was over and they were back in Madrid. Max would be going back to his job in London in a few days and she still hadn’t decided what the hell she was going to do. He had been trying to convince her to go back with him over the last month, but she couldn’t make up her mind. She just didn’t know if it was right thing to do. But now that the day was just around the corner, she had this sinking feeling and was absolutely terrified of his departure. The presentation just made the whole thing seem so final.

The alarm clock on her phone sounded and she leaned over to turn it off on the night table. She had just started to check her messages when Max immediately reached for her and brought her back into his hard body. “It should be illegal for you to move away from me,” he mumbled in his sleep.

She still hadn’t gotten completely used to the fact that he wanted her near him at all times. He was always so affectionate and caring of her. Something Roy had never been.

She turned around in his arms and ducked her head into his chest. She sighed deeply, thinking this would be one of the last mornings to wake up with him like this. The thought immediately terrorized her. Maybe if she just went back to sleep, it would all go away.

Max trailed his fingers slowly down her back and then cupped her ass, like he routinely did in the mornings. After groaning in satisfaction, he said, “Morning, beautiful.”

He started kissing her shoulder and down her arm as he brushed her hair back and ran his fingers through it. It felt so good she didn’t even dare to stir and relished in the feeling instead.

“Baby, we should wake up. We have the presentation soon.”