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Chapter 19

Fucking finally

I trailed Max to his room, his hair a mess and my lips feeling like I’d rubbed them with sandpaper. It was like being drunk and pretending to be sober.

A well-dressed couple crossed our path on their way from their room to the elevator, and I caught the woman’s eye.

Did they know?

Probably.

Did I care?

Hell, no.

Max’s key card made quick work of the lock and the door closed after us with a click.

We paused just inside, our gazes holding.

“So,” I murmured.

“So.”

Max deftly unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt, stripping it off and dropping it to the floor. His deliberateness sent shivers down my spine that joined the fluttering already in my stomach.

If there’d been any doubt about where this was headed, it was gone the second I looked in his eyes. They were full of exactly what we were going to do as his fingers went to the hem of his t-shirt.

I was frozen in place. I’d never been nervous to have sex, but the room was suddenly pressing in on me. Full of him and me and this need between us. Within us.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked, his hands stilling.

I flushed. “Nothing. It’s just…scary how much I want this.”

He tilted his head, and those warm chocolate eyes peered into mine.  “Know what else is scary? How much sleep I’ve lost imagining what I want to do with you.”

The corner of my mouth twitched, which was his intention. “Same.”

“So maybe we can lose a little more sleep together, yeah?”

“Yeah.” A new wave of desire surged through me, washing away the doubt. My eyes ran over the sculpted muscles of his biceps, forearms. I wanted to see what else was underneath the clothes. “Keep going.”

Max’s breath caught. I stepped into him, running a finger along his arm, his hand where it had frozen on the hem of his shirt. My teeth grazed his ear and he groaned. “Keep. Going.”

Like I’d flipped a switch, Max reached both hands behind his head and pulled the shirt off, dropping it on the ground without another thought.

My throat tightened at the sight of his body. Max was perfect, shallow lines carving out his pecs, his abs. Running down his abs and disappearing into his jeans.

I wanted to lick his muscled, lean chest like an ice cream cone.

“You’re staring.”

“Sorry,” I murmured.

“You don’t sound sorry.” His mouth dropped to mine again. The hunger was there but so was something else. Like now that he knew he had me, he wanted to enjoy it.

“This,” he murmured between kisses, splaying his hands over the corset top, “has to go.”

“Can you help?” I turned, exposing my back to him. 

He cursed. “That’s a lot of laces.”

“Then you better hurry.” His teeth grazed my neck in retaliation but I arched away from him on a laughing moan. “They should make a quick release hatch for easy access.”

“That is the best idea you’ve had all day,” Max breathed in my ear. He pulled me back against him, one hand slipping under the skirt, under everything. When fingers found me I jerked against him, whimpering.

“
Shit,
Payton.” I knew how wet I was from the way his fingers slid over my skin. My eyes fell closed as he rubbed slow, perfect circles. “Every night since the one in my office I’ve wanted to finish this. I can’t get the feel of you, the fucking smell of you, out of my head.”

His words were so sexy.
He
was so sexy.

My fingers flexed on his neck. His rough breath on the side of my face mixed in with the million other sensations I was drowning in. His hard arms locked around me, promising to keep me upright even if I started to fall. His fingers grazed my clit in a way that had me taking these gasping little breaths until I thought I’d pass out.

“Oh God.”

Max’s hands were working me into a state of madness. Sensing how close I was, he slipped two fingers inside me. I felt the cliff approaching and waited.

So close.

Then…

Nothing.

Max’s thumb abandoned its circles and he worked his fingers instead.

I collapsed back against him, making incoherent noises as I chased the feeling he was holding just out of reach.

He built me up again, just to vanish at the last second. Like he knew what I was feeling before I did.

Max.

It took me a moment to realize I was saying his name out loud, not in my head.

And on repeat.

“Let me come already,” I panted.

“Fine. But when you do, I want to hear it,” he murmured in my ear, the cockiness I loved to hate creeping into his voice.

Max slid another finger inside me, stretching me and pressing down on my clit at once.

My moan filled the room, and maybe the entire floor, as my body exploded in his hands. I held onto his neck for dear life as sensation rained down on me. I fell back against his chest, and his heart was thudding every bit as hard as mine.

It took me a minute to realize the crunching around my ribs had eased. Max and I managed to get my costume off. Instead of feeling clumsy as we worked the fabric over my body, it was sexy as fuck. His hands grazing my back. The sides of my breasts. My hips.

When I stepped out to stand in front of him, his face was tight with need. I didn’t have Dawn’s figure, or Charlie’s for that matter, but from the rough way he was breathing, his fists clenched at his sides, I’d never felt as wanted as I did this second.

He stepped into me and I ran my fingers up his chest in encouragement. One hand cupped my breast, lifting it and grazing my nipple with his thumb. When he dipped his head to suck the peak into his mouth, electricity jolted down my spine and between my legs. My head fell back on a sigh.

“Shit, the sounds you make.” Max’s voice rumbled as he pulled my hips against him. His hands skimmed over my skin. “How can you be so prickly on the surface and so soft underneath, Coyote?” I started to protest but he kissed me, hard and hot, his tongue telling me exactly who was running this show. I forgot what I was protesting.

Is it possible to get off from just kissing?

I couldn’t wait. I reached for his jeans, working the belt and his fly loose so he could shove them down.

My attention dropped to Max’s erection.

I’d never imagined a guy’s cock before I slept with him. Sure, I’d wondered if he was big. But I hadn’t fantasized about the shape, the width, the feel, the taste.

After the night in Max’s office, I’d found myself wondering. I wasn’t disappointed now. Max’s cock was thick and straining and perfect.

Right now, in this hotel room, he was also completely and utterly mine.

I reached for him, and the feel of soft skin over steel had me purring.

“Shit, Payton,” Max hissed, pushing my hand away. “Give a guy a chance, OK?”

His face was tight with need as he turned me and backed me toward the bed. I hit the edge and fell, caught between the post-climax high and desperation to finish what we’d started.

I arched into his hands, pressing my thighs together. Without his fingers inside me, I felt empty. Only one thing could stop the ache.

“Max, I need you.”

“My cock doesn’t run on batteries,” he muttered.

I stared him down. “You know the only reason I brought that thing was to get my mind off you.”

“Thank fuck.” He retrieved a condom from his discarded jeans and rolled it on. I’d already lost my mind when he moved over me, positioning himself between my shaking thighs.

“You ready for this?” he murmured.

I met his gaze, even though I was thinking about something other than his mouth for once.

“Yes.”

No.

It was too late to second-guess as Max buried himself inside me in one smooth, long motion.

“Ohhhshit!“ I bit my lip, hard enough to taste blood.

All I could feel was where we were joined. Where his body filled mine, stretching me until my muscles clenched around him.

“Payton,” Max grunted. “Fucking finally.”

I squirmed underneath him, but his hips held mine in place. The discomfort promised pleasure just beyond its borders and a whimper escaped my throat. “Can you move already?”

“In a second,” he whispered roughly. “See, I’ve been waiting a while for this. The way you’re looking at me right now, the way you’re squeezing me.” He lifted my chin and the intensity on his face shook me, “It’s selfish, Payton. But tonight and tomorrow and a hundred days after that, you’ll remember this. I’m going to make sure of it.”

With a determined look on his face, Max drew back. I had no time to protest before he drove back into me, stealing my breath and making my muscles ache again in a sweet echo of his first entry.

The feel of him inside me was better than anything. But more than that was the feeling of watching him. I could see everything going through his mind as he fucked me. His handsome face, tight with shock, need, pleasure. More than anything, I wanted his pleasure.

He was every fantasy I could’ve conjured up, holding his body off mine with such fierceness and affection I couldn’t look away.

I reached up to brush his lip the way I’d seen him do a million times. When I flexed my muscles, pulling him deeper, he turned his face into my hand and squeezed his eyes shut on a groan. “
Fuck
, that feels unbelievable.”

We were lost in each other, mindless. Every movement was to chase the other’s pleasure. My breathing was shallow, my hips lifting to take him further with each stroke. I changed the angle and was thrilled when he groaned in response.

What we were doing was simple, but I’d never felt this alive. Like I would’ve glowed in the dark, my skin lit up all over from Max’s touch.

His clenched jaw and shaking arms meant he was getting close. The pull was overwhelming, shoving me toward an invisible edge. I heard Max’s rough voice from far away, even as his mouth brushed my ear.

“Payton, come on me. Let go. Let it all go.”

Instead of being pulled across, I threw myself over. My fists clenched at the hotel sheets as I came, gasping Max’s name.

The reverberations set him off too. He grunted my name like a curse and wrapped me in his arms, so deep I felt the explosion through every inch of my body.

The ceiling over the bed contained whorled patterns of ivory. Staring up at it, my heart thumping in my chest, I could almost imagine I was lost in the clouds.

At least until Max grazed my finger with his.

“Hey.”

I turned my head. “Hey.”

Max’s throat bobbed as he swallowed. The hair that was usually spiked was damp with sweat, plastered against his face. “I know this is the part where I’m supposed to say ‘that was better than I imagined,’” he murmured. “But I knew it would be like this.”

I pushed up onto my elbows to look down at him. “Really? For a while after we met, I thought you hated me.”

He stroked a finger down my side and across my stomach, sending shivers across my skin. “For a while I told myself I did. Then that night in my office, you were baiting me…”

“I was not!”

Max eyed me knowingly. “You were baiting me, Coyote. I fell for it, but you have no idea how pissed I was. I wanted to push you back on that pool table and eat you until you begged me to stop.”

The thought had me wet again, and speechless for a long minute.

I cleared my throat.

“So why didn’t you say anything? Even after that night?”

Max studied me, his finger stilling. “I knew it would complicate things. You know my track record. I didn’t think I had anything to give you. Maybe I still don’t. And you deserve better.” His eyes were earnest on mine.

I didn’t have time to process his words because a ringtone alerted us to the fact that outside this room was a whole other world. Max reached for his phone and hit accept without sitting up. “Yeah.”