Defiance (New Adult Romance) (Isaac & Maya) (7 page)

Isaac tries to get away, but he can’t pull me off him by my hair and he doesn’t want to anyway. He only tries to resist for a few seconds before he finally starts kissing me back just as hungrily as I’m kissing him. If I don’t feel his body on top of mine, I will literally go insane. I can’t take this anymore.

He’s too busy tongue fucking my mouth and grabbing my ass to realize that my hands are sliding down his torso, my fingertips tingling as they enjoy every single peak and valley. By the time he figures it out, my hand is wrapped around him. He’s hard as a rock, he needs to get off so badly.

“Stop it,” he breathes, closing his eyes as he shudders. “Maya.”

“You’re so fucking hot when you say things that you don’t actually mean,” I whisper before I start sucking on his neck.

“I totally mean it,” he protests, bucking upwards into my grasp to invalidate his words. “I’m not fucking you yet.”

“Then at least let me jack you off.” I stroke him harder, nipping his earlobe as he squirms.

“No.” But then he kisses me, groaning as I tighten my grip. He’s loving every second, he’ll let me. His breathing grows ragged as he writhes, moaning my name. Then his resolve squares his shoulders as his eyes fly open. He grips both of my wrists harshly and pulls them off as I squeal and whine. “Red,” he whispers.
Crap!
“It’s not in my nature to get off and leave you hanging. I just can’t.”

“Please,” I beg. “I need to make you feel good.”

“Me too. Which is why you’re getting some sleep now. I wouldn’t mind some myself.”

“Isaac, c’mon. It’s just a hand job.”

“Yeah, a desperate, frantic, I-don’t-want-to-lose-you hand job,” he says. “And that’s not how you should be feeling right now. So we’re going to have a more accurate, cuddly, we’ll-be-together-forever nap instead.”

“I’m too horny to fall asleep.”

Isaac sighs, flipping on his back. “You say that every fucking time and you’re always wrong. Just close your eyes, Maya,” he commands as I huff and pull at his shirt. “Come here.” He reaches across his body and grabs my waist, rolling us to the side until I’m lying on top of him. Pressing his lips into my hair, his arms immobilize me in a long hug until I reluctantly admit to myself that he’s completely right about how sleepy I am.

“I missed laying on you like this so much,” I murmur. “I’d pretend I was here to fall asleep all the time.”

“You don’t have to pretend anymore, baby.” He inhales deeply so my body rises up because that always makes me giggle. Tentatively, he wraps his fingers into my hair gently as I nuzzle under his chin, stroking his collarbone. Isaac kisses the top of my head over and over and I start to fade fast.

9

Maya

He’s slumbering peacefully when I wake up a few hours later, one of his hands linked with mine and the other resting on the base of my spine. Ever since he hurt me there, he touches that spot all the time and kisses it every chance he gets. The bruise faded away long ago, but it left a single broken capillary behind that must torture him whenever he sees it. If Luke’s bruises do the same thing, I’m getting them lasered off, or whatever they do to get rid of them. Isaac doesn’t need to think about that for the rest of our lives.

Being careful not to jostle him I lift my face so I can look at his for a few moments before he wakes up. But his gorgeous green eyes are already open and waiting to meet mine, his perfect lips spreading into a wide smile. I squeal and scoot upwards, propping myself up on my forearms on his chest and flipping my hair so that it surrounds us like a tent. I peck his beautiful face everywhere as he laughs until my mouth can’t stand it anymore and latches onto his.

“I’m not letting you get carried away again,” he informs me, rolling us over until he’s on top. He lets me savor the sensation of his body pinning mine to the bed and even grinds against me a little bit. “Are you hungry?”

“For you? Hell yeah I am,” I reply, sliding my hand across his muscled shoulders.

“I can’t satisfy your carnal appetite, but I can satisfy your curiosity and fill your belly at the same time. Do you want to go downstairs and check out the restaurant?”

“Really?” I ask. “Are you serious?”

“I can tell you’re getting better,” he says, stroking my hair and grinning down at me. “It’s closed and I’m feeling a little trapped in this suite. Let’s sneak down there.”

“I like sneaking around with you.”

“Me too,” he chuckles, lifting his weight off me. I grab him by the collar of his shirt and pull him back down for another kiss. “Maya.” That gorgeous smile drops away. “You should put on a little makeup first,” he says, his lips dance around my fading black eye.

“That’s fine,” I whisper. “I told you, I’ll wear it all the time. I really don’t mind.”

“No,” he protests, prying himself off me. “The only reason I’m asking is because it’s too suspicious.”

“Okay.”

Isaac shakes his head wildly, casting off the frustration so I stop worrying about him. I flash on the way his hair used to fly around when he did that back at the apartment downtown. Being sequestered in this hotel suite feels a lot like being there, which is probably why I’m so excited to sneak downstairs.

A lot of my stuff was already here when we arrived and I don’t want to think about how Piper must have felt when she saw that it was gone. I haven’t been able to look at it yet, but now I need some concealer and I have to. The black eye has faded so much that I’ve gotten used to it, but now that I see myself without it, I realize just how awful it still is. I can’t let Isaac keep torturing himself like this.

His face lights up when I scamper out of the bathroom. That settles it, I’m wearing the concealer full time and he’s not going to stop me, but there’s no use having that discussion right now. He opens the door and peeks out into the hallway. All clear. Our suite is next to a service entrance that he opens with a key card and we disappear behind it right before a pajama clad man emerges from the room across from us.

“This is fun,” I say as we descend down the stair case.

“Yeah, it is,” he agrees, pinching my butt when we get on the first landing. “I can’t wait for you to finally see it, but I’m really nervous.”

“You’re so fucking cute, Isaac.”

“It’s closed, so you won’t get the full effect.”

“I figured it was, it’s three in the morning.”

“I’ll turn on the lights for a little bit, but if we eat in the dark we can sit by the windows.”

“What are you going to feed me?”

“Whatever you order off the menu,” he laughs. “But you’re still eating like a bird, so I’m guessing you’ll pick something lame like a salad.”

“What floor are we staying on?” I ask, doing my best to hide the fact that I’m getting a little tired out because we’re walking too fast. He’s so excited, it’s adorable.

“The 12
th
. We’re almost there, but you are clearly getting out of breath, so I’ll carry you the rest of the way.”

“No, you don’t have to, I’m—” I get cut off by a kiss as he picks me up, bouncing me into the air as he adjusts his grip. I throw my arm over his shoulders and peck his cheek. “Thanks,” I mutter.

“Not a problem. If I had my way, you’d never walk anywhere, especially when you’re sick.”

“That would be extremely condescending.”

“I know, that’s why I don’t do it,” he says. We go down a few more flights before he sits me down and pulls out a key ring. “We’re going in through the kitchen.”

“Oh really? We have an interesting track record when it comes to kitchens,” I tease him.

“Don’t get any ideas,” he shoots back playfully. “I have health codes to think about.”

“So? There’s nothing a little bleach can’t fix.”

“Maya,” he chuckles. “God, I fucking love you. I’m so glad that you finally get to see this.”

“Me too.” Glancing at me with an adorable smile, he inhales nervously and my stomach flutters as he opens the door. The kitchen is rather standard, blindingly white with stainless steel everywhere. It’s immaculate as I’m expecting, there’s not a speck of dirt or grime in sight. Typical Isaac. “It’s so big,” I say.

“It might sting a little at first, but you can take it. You always do.”

“You know…” I laugh, shoving his shoulder. “I’d love to fucking take it right now.”

“I’ll have to take your order instead.” He leads me through the prep area to the double swinging doors. “Close your eyes,” he whispers into my ear, kissing my neck.

“I suppose I’ll humor you.” I shut my eyes as he stands behind me, his hand interlocking with mine as his erection presses into the small of my back. It never goes away. We step forward slowly until I hear the door swing shut behind us.

“Okay, you can open them,” he says excitedly.

“Wow!” I exclaim. “Geez, Isaac, this place is huge.” Everything is so bright and modern, with all these awesome little seating areas tucked into the corners. There’s a huge bar which I’m sure gets a lot of traffic, but it’s still so comfy and inviting anyone would fit in here. “You designed a lot of this, didn’t you?”

“I did. Do you like it?”

“Yeah, I really do.”

“So do I,” he sighs. “Too bad I’m probably going to sell the place.”

“You are?”

“Yeah, I’ll explain over dinner. Let’s figure out what that is. Wanna ditch the lights and sit by the window?”

“Sure.”

Isaac strides over to the best seat in the house as he calls it and lights a few candles. “What floor are we on now?” I ask

“The third. It’s a good people watching vantage, not that there’s anybody out on a freezing night like this.”

“The river view is beautiful enough.”

“That’s my favorite part about the location. Actually, I hardly ever get to come out front, I’m too fucking paranoid.”

“So we’re being extra sneaky then, aren’t we?”

“We are.” He hands me a menu.

“A lot of this looks familiar…”

“I bet it does,” he laughs. “So what’ll it be?”

“Um… you were right, I’m not really that hungry,” I admit reluctantly.

“I know, it’s okay. How about some soup?”

“That sounds great.”

“I, however, am fucking starving,” he says, getting up from the table and motioning me to follow him.

“Does that mean I get to watch you cook?”

“Yep.”

We go back into the kitchen and Isaac picks me up to sit me on the counter. I hope I get bent over it tonight. “What about the health codes?”

“Fuck ‘em.” He shrugs, pulling out a pack of chicken breasts.

“This is weird,” I say. “You’re stressed out about work. How normal.”

“Yeah. Wow, I guess it is.” That seemed to lift his spirits a little.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“I think that I do,” he replies, almost surprised.

“So what’s going on? Why do you have to sell?”

“I don’t
have
to, I think I
want
to. Paul’s a chef. Like, a real chef, classically trained in France and Italy, annoyingly passionate about food, super picky about ingredients, that sort of thing. He’s not getting what he wants out of this place anymore. We don’t do fancy food, we do fantastic versions of American classics and we make a shit ton of money that way. But he’s bored. He comes up with something spectacular as a special, and has to watch everybody order a burger instead because that’s why they’re here. If they wanted something complicated, they’d have gone to an upscale restaurant instead.”

“That has to suck.”

“Yeah, I bet it does. Getting into this hotel was a big deal. I’m pretty sure he thought it would transform the whole business and he’d get to flex his creative culinary muscles. Instead we just had to go the opposite way to stand out from the other extravagant
places here. He hates it and I don’t blame him, but he’s too scared to move on. Too comfortable. And I’m… I guess I’m done too. I don’t even fucking like cooking, especially commercially. I never cared what kind of food we sold. I just wanted to make sure people kept buying it. That’s what I always got out of the whole thing. It’s like we built this place, it’s successful, and now what? There’s no more challenge.”

“But you’re attached, aren’t you?” I ask.

“Yeah. This was such a huge deal for me. And now… I don’t know exactly how this investigation will work out, but there’s a big chance that I can finally step out from the fucking shadows and do this for real. But it’s not what I want to do. It never was, it was just the only thing I
could
do. An opportunity arose and I took it, it worked, and now it’s time to move on. But move on to what?”

“Whatever you want to do, I guess.”

“I don’t have any idea what that is. Not a fucking clue. I never really thought about it.” Isaac slides a dish of whatever awesomeness he was creating into the oven and saunters over to me, putting his hands on the counter next to my thighs and leaning forward to rest his forehead against mine. “This is pretty awesome, Maya.”

“What, the normal couple talking about work and the future thing?”

“Yes.”

“I bet it’s a bit of a turn on for you, too,” I coo, kissing his cheek as he sighs. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to pester you anymore because you are
clearly
not giving in any time soon.”

“It’s about time you figured that out,” he laughs, wrapping his arms around my waist and giving me a big hug.

“You’ll find something, Isaac,” I assure him, interlocking my fingers behind his neck as his hands rest on my hips. “There’s no rush. You’re so smart, you can do whatever you want and you’ll be great at it. You just have to find it.”

“Is that really what you think?” he asks.

“Of course. You’ll find something, baby.”

“No… the smart thing.” Eyes widening, his lips part and I’m staring at that unsure little boy I love so fucking much it hurts.

“Yes,” I answer quickly, making him smile. “I think you’re very smart, that’s my favorite thing about you.”

“Seriously?”

“I’m completely serious.” I grab his hands in mine, kissing his scarred knuckles. “Honestly, I’m rather impressed. When we left that apartment, I didn’t think we had much of a chance. I was terrified that you’d rage out on Luke and get yourself killed. I didn’t think you’d be able to stop yourself. But you did. And you just kept making the right moves again and again even though it was driving you insane. You set up that elaborate surveillance thing, and yeah, I’m not that crazy about it. Objectively, the whole thing was pretty creepy, but you did what needed to be done and it worked. And you’ll handle whatever this investigation throws at you, too. You always handle everything, you’re so cunning. The way that you anticipate what other people will do, you’re almost always right… my brain doesn’t see that stuff, not even close. I don’t know how you do it. So yeah, Isaac, I think you’re
really
fucking smart. It’s actually pretty amazing and you will kick my ass in chess one day, I just know it.”

The surprised look on his face morphs into satisfaction, that giant grin possibly the happiest one I’ve ever seen him wear. He pulls me closer, burying his face in my shoulder. “That means a lot coming from you,” he murmurs, kissing the square of my jaw. “A whole lot.”

Tracing circles in his hair, I hug him back and press my lips to his temple. “I love you so much. I can’t believe that I get to keep loving you forever now. It’s like a dream. And it’s all because of you.”

“I love you, Maya,” he whispers.

My entire body shudders as his lips explore my neck. Each kiss is almost a bite, leaving a little bit of moisture behind that chills my skin as he moves on. I can feel the hunger, the need. His hands are greedier now too, gripping my ass so roughly it almost hurts. But it’s a delicious kind of pain, one that I’ve been craving so much for so long. I know he’ll pull himself out of it any second, but I slump forward into his body and breathe deeply. He doesn’t just want sex, he wants
me
.