To the Max (22 page)

“Can’t be the first time you’ve been rejected.”

No, but it was the only time in his life that truly mattered. It figured that when he finally lost his heart to a girl, she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with him.

A fucking bitch when your past came back to bite you in the ass.

“Hang in there. She’ll come around,” Cole said, patting him on the back and standing up. “I’m going home. I promised Christy in LA I would never walk out on her or shut down, so I’m going back to apologize. Or yell and then apologize.”

“You mean you’re going back to grovel,” James corrected.

“That too.”

As Cole strode toward his home, they saw Christy walking to meet him. That rain was pouring didn’t appear to bother neither of them. There was no yelling. No altercation of any kind. They stood in front of each other for a moment, and then they hugged.

“Our older brother seems to be learning,” James said.

Yep. If only Max could too.

* * * *

Annie ordered a hot chocolate and tried to calm down. Ever since she’d left Luigi a message that morning, asking him to meet her in the coffee shop near her work, she’d been a wreck. Well, she’d been a wreck before that too. She hadn’t slept the whole night, Max’s words playing in her head on a continuous loop.

There was a storm outside, but when Luigi arrived, he was perfectly put together. Even the handful of snowflakes on his hair and shoulders were fashionable in place.

“Thanks for coming. I need to talk to you.” Annie realized she sounded weird. Off. Luigi didn’t ask anything. He just nodded and sat down.

She was still searching for the right words when he spoke.

“You’re dumping me.”

“How could you tell?”

He smiled softly. “If I understand anything, it’s women, Annie. Your baby is mine, but your heart is not.”

Annie shook her head. No, it wasn’t. “You’re the biological father of the baby, and I will recognize your paternal rights if you want me to. You don’t have to give them up.”

“I know, sweetheart. You don’t have feelings for me, and although I like you a lot and could see myself growing to love you, this,” he said, pointing at her incipient belly, “is something I don’t want. If it had been up to me, this pregnancy would have been terminated. You didn’t go that way, and I respect your decision. But that doesn’t change the way I feel.”

“I understand. I just wanted you to know you can still be there for the baby if you change your mind.”

Luigi smiled. “It has been a pleasure knowing you, but as a couple we were doomed from the beginning.”

“Yes, we were.”

“I take it you and Max are…”

She lowered her gaze. “Working on it.” That’s all she could say. Max hadn’t come home. For all she knew, he might have gone back to filming. Or to the Rockies, where he’d planned to go from the very start. Or maybe he was just too pissed to even talk to her, let alone forgive her.

“Well, I can’t tell you I wish him the best of luck, because I’m a tad jealous he’ll get you. But I want you to be happy.”

“I want that for you too.” She really meant it. He was basically walking out on her baby, but still she wished him well.

Annie hugged him. “Take care,” she whispered to him as he returned her embrace.

When she lifted her face from his shoulder, she saw Max across the street, looking at them. Before she could say or do anything, Max turned around and left.

For the rest of the working day, she jumped every time her phone beeped, hoping against hope it was Max. Disappointed beyond belief when it wasn’t. Fighting her own desire to call him. She drove all the way home praying he would be there, in the living room or the kitchen, waiting for her with a ready smile. Or mad at her, raring to hash it out.

Someone up there must have been listening, because Max’s truck was in the driveway. When she walked in, the house was silent. She climbed the stairs and could see light coming from under Max’s door. His closed door. It had never been closed to her. Now it was.

Not letting this deter her, she took a deep breath and knocked.

No answer. She knocked again, this time stronger.

Finally, footsteps. Max opened the door, but instead of moving aside, he stayed blocking her way. She wasn’t welcome.

Annie stood there for what felt like an eternity, staring at his harsh expression and waiting for him to say something and put her out of her misery, but it seemed that wasn’t to be. “You angry? I think you misunderstood what—”

“You don’t owe me any explanations,” he cut in, his tone hard. “He’s the father of your baby. I understand. I’m sorry I crossed the line the other day. However, we can’t continue sleeping together. I want you. I know I can’t have you, but that doesn’t mean I can stop wanting you. I won’t do this to myself anymore. If you need this bed, I’ll find another place to sleep.”

She grabbed his arm, panicked that he would leave. “Please don’t go.” It wasn’t the bed she needed; it was him. Not that she could bring herself to voice it.

He didn’t reply, didn’t even move.

“I’m sorry about yesterday, Max,” she whispered at last. “You’re right. We do have a relationship. I’m a bit confused at the moment, but I don’t want you to go. And I don’t want to go either.”

He wasn’t forthcoming. He remained silent. His stare forbidding.

She lowered her gaze. It might be better like this. “I understand.”

Annie was already walking away when he reached for her. Suddenly she found herself with her back against the wall and his arms immobilizing her, their foreheads almost touching.

“If I sleep with you tonight, I will fuck you,” he growled. “I don’t want to be roommates.”

In spite of the harshness of his words, or maybe because of them, a shiver of excitement ran over her body.

She was still scared, but she reached for him in a silent plea. “Max—”

He kissed her, deeply. Possessively. His voice was hoarse. “I mean it, baby. I have to leave if you don’t want me inside you. I won’t be able to stop myself. If I stay, then you have to accept that you’re mine tonight.”

“Please stay.”

“Luigi might not want any pressure or expectations, but I do. I want all of them. The promises too. The exclusivity. I won’t watch you go out on another damn date with him. I can’t be the other man. He’s the biological father of your baby, but I won’t share my woman.”

“Luigi is the biological father of the baby, but that’s all he’ll ever be. Nothing more. We’re through. You misunderstood what you saw. That was good-bye.” Then she took the leap of faith and going into her tiptoes, looked him straight in the eye. “It’s you I want.”

He fell upon her, his tongue ruthlessly taking possession of her mouth, ravaging her. And she was there with him, sinking her hands in his hair and kissing him back. With greedy handfuls, he hoisted her skirt to her waist and then lifted her.

The sound of her panties being ripped kicked her desire even higher, her pussy flooding in anticipation. Then she was on the soft mattress and he was on top of her. And she was losing herself in his hard kisses, in his rough touch. In his need.

In spite of his intensity, he was holding his weight off her, so she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled him down. His erection was quite impressive, but she managed to unbutton his jeans.

Max pushed two fingers inside her, and she whimpered, her core spasming, more liquid rushing down. He let out a curse, his shaft jerking against her hands. “Fucking tight, Ace. I would love to make you come first, but I can’t wait to take you. I’m afraid there’s not going to be much foreplay, and I’m too wound up to go slow on you.”

“Don’t want slow,” she panted, slipping her hand under his T-shirt. “And we had a month of foreplay.” As far as she was concerned, it was plenty.

“I will make it up to you, baby. After I fuck you.” He parted her legs even wider, his eyes full of lust, his breath labored.

She planted her hand on his chest. There was something they had to talk about before she lost the little mind she had left. “Protection. This is a bit like shutting the door after the horse is out of the barn, but there are other matters to consider, and I want to use condoms.”

Nodding, he reached for the nightstand, suited up with a condom, and then moved to her. God, he looked breathtaking. She would want to undress him, but she couldn’t wait either.

He pushed inside her in one thrust, parting her sensitive flesh, his eyes never straying from hers until he was fully seated, throbbing against her walls. He was huge. His voice was a deep growl. “You’re fucking perfect, Ace. Fucking. Perfect.”

It was a tight fit, and she wasn’t as wet as the other day, but she wanted him desperately so she wrapped herself around him and pressed at his ass, bringing him deeper.

Max groaned, the muscles at the sides of his neck bulging. “So hot, baby. So good.”

Pulling almost all the way out and then plunging back in, he pounded into her, sending her higher and higher with every stroke, her whole body tensing as the tempo got more frantic.

“Hold on to me,” he ordered and went to his knees. With a hand on her ass and another at the back of her head, he brought her up to sit on him.

She cried out, her core spasming while he impaled her.

“Fuck. Too good.” He powered inside her, roughly lifting her up and down his cock, her clit throbbing every time his pelvis slammed against it. “Coming, baby,” he warned with a growl.

She was already there with him, her core locked in a powerful contraction, as he planted himself deep in her and shouted his release.

THEY WERE IN each other’s arms for a long while. He didn’t move, just nuzzled her face, and tensed every time her pussy convulsed. She’d floored him. Totally. In two seconds flat after getting his hands on her, he’d fucking lost it, so desperate to be inside her he hadn’t been able to think of anything else. Talk about jumping the gun.

He leaned on the bed, taking her with him. “Getting rid of the condom,” he whispered and slowly withdrew from her. Her pussy clamped around him. So sweet. “There’s nothing I want more than stay buried deep inside you, Ace, but it’s full and I need to replace it so that I can fuck you right this time.”

“You fucked me right.”

“Righter then.”

In spite of having come explosively, his words made her core spasm. Fuck, she was responsive.

He pulled out completely. “Don’t you dare move.”

“Can’t.”

After quickly disposing of the condom, Max swept his gaze over her. Man, he’d ravaged her. She had her heels still on, her torn panties dangling from her ankle. Her skirt was bunched on her waist, her hairdo was holding by a frail thread, and he hadn’t even taken off the jacket of her power suit before fucking her senseless. Now it was a bit worse for wear and her blouse was missing a couple of buttons. His only saving grace was that she didn’t seem to mind.

He took off her shoes, dropped the ruined underwear on the floor, and lay beside her. He kissed her for a long time, undressing her little by little. He got her out of her jacket, but when he opened her blouse and delved under her bra, she jumped.

“Sorry. I’m nervous,” Annie confessed.

She had to be shitting him.

Max stared at her and laughed. “I know you consider yourself ancient, bordering on dementia, but you remember we just had sex, right? You were so fucking hot, you made me come right away. So fucking good I’m already hard again, dying to get back inside you. Why would you be nervous?”

She gave him a duh look. “You Photoshop models for porn magazines.”

“Your last lover was a pro, Ace, from the most famous escort agency in the country. I’m the one shaking in my boots. Talk about raising the bar, for Christ’s sake.”

Her voice was a whisper. “I somehow doubt you get any complaints.”

“True. Still. None of them were you. And none of them mattered to me the way you do.” And he had one botched fuck to make up for.

Her eyes were frantic. “Max—”

He silenced her. “It’s all good.”

He kissed her all over. Her face. Her breasts. Her stomach. Then he rolled them so she was on top. “Undress me.”

Getting rid of the shirt was easy, but she was distracted by his piercing. She took it between her lips and pulled a bit. Now the one jumping was him. Max growled.

“Did I hurt you?”

“
Hurt
is not the word,” he said. Not the word at all.

Doing his damnedest to keep his body in lockdown, he let her play with him until she didn’t seem so nervous, never mind he was so ready to come his balls were blue. “Now undress for me. Slowly.”

She hesitated, and he pressed his rock-hard cock against her exposed core. “I want you, baby. Never doubt that.”

After pulling the rest of her blouse from under the skirt and shrugging it off, she unzipped her skirt and pulled it over her shoulders. Then she reached for her bun and unraveled it, wavy locks cascading around her.

She was so beautiful, all creamy and white and soft.

“I want you totally naked,” he growled skimming his fingers over her thighs and gesturing at her bra.

She complied, rocking slightly as she unclasped her bra, his cock totally bathed in her juices and throbbing like hell.

Fuck, she was going to kill him.

She lowered her arms and her bra dropped. Finally she was naked.

“You’re gorgeous, Ace,” he said as he sat and caressed her, brushing his lips against those glorious tits. He knew what that would do to her, so before she went wild and robbed him of the little control he had left, he rolled them over again and moved lower between her legs. “Can’t wait to eat you out.”

Annie squirmed, looking very uneasy. “Max, I’m not a big fan of oral sex.”

“What? You’re kidding, right?”

“Nope.”

He kissed her bare mount. “I can guarantee you’ll come in my mouth.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t come that way. And it’s just as well, because I don’t go down on guys either.”

Her logic didn’t make a lick of sense to him. “You think I want to eat your pussy so that you’ll feel obliged to suck my cock? I want my mouth on your pussy because I’m dying to have your taste on my tongue and because I know I can make you come. I don’t want nor expect anything in return. You don’t have to suck my cock. You don’t have to do anything but lie back and enjoy.”