To the Max (34 page)

“Working.”

“And Annie?”

“Too.”

She was very busy at the office, with all the extra work that asshole of a boss she had was dumping on her. And there was the candy shop too and all the Christmas prep going on.

“I heard from James you were in an evac drill. How did you do?”

He smiled. Boy, did his bros have fun with that. “Not too bad. We lost some points for not bringing baby’s survival kit and for sitting down to roast marshmallows, but all in all we passed.” They’d done better than Emily and Jacob, who had been late to the staging area and had been detained at the barricade until security confirmed that everything was in order.

After the surprise-attack drill that had them in a bunker for an hour, Max had been on guard duty with Larry, Thomas, and Crane.

For the first time since coming to Redwaters, Larry hadn’t been smiling at him.
“You know what some of the advantages are of being a prepper and survivalist?”
He’d shaken his head, and Larry continued,
“I know a thousand and one ways to kill you and make your body disappear forever. Don’t give me any reason.”

Thomas and Crane had stared at Max defiantly too, their arms crossed. Making their point loud and clear.

Max could take Larry down with his eyes closed, and maybe a couple of other guys at the same time, but he respected their protectiveness. It was comforting to realize everyone there had Annie’s back.

“I’m sorry I missed you guys when you came to Rosita’s,” Elle said, bringing him back to the present. “And the last get-together. But between classes at the university, work at the airport, and covering for Tate at the restaurant, I’m a bit short on time.”

He’d heard. Aunt Maggie was going to read her the riot act when she caught up with Elle. One needed force majeure to miss Aunt Maggie’s family dinners.

“Don’t worry; you’ll see her at Christmas. Or are you ditching us?”

“Nope, I’ll be there. Your aunt has threatened to come here and have a talk with my supervisor if I don’t get the day free. She’s coming with you for Christmas dinner? I mean Annie.”

Max nodded.

“So she’s it, right? How the mighty have fallen.”

“I have a feeling you’re next,” he suggested.

“Me? No. Too busy.”

As the passengers started coming from the gate, they saw Nate Bowen.

Max hugged his dad. He’d spoken with him regularly by phone, but they hadn’t seen each other since James’s wedding. And Max missed him. He was used to visiting him at least once a month.

“So good to see you, Son. You’re my appointed driver this time?”

“Yes. James and Cole are working, but they’ll join us for lunch.”

Nate hugged Elle.

“Nice to see you again, Mr. Bowen,” she greeted.

“You too, honey.”

Max took his dad’s bag. “Is that all?”

“No. I’ve checked a suitcase.”

Elle’s radio went ballistic, and she grimaced. “Guys, I need to go. Another emergency.”

“Go,” Max urged. “We can manage. Thank you.”

She kissed them both and hurried away.

Nate frowned. “I’m concerned what’s going to happen to that girl when she slows down.”

Even on vacation, Elle was a force to reckon with. The personnel at the Eternal Sun Resort adored her. Not an idle second for her. But Max agreed with his dad. Her rhythm was frantic. Not good.

Once at the baggage claim, Nate pointed at a huge suitcase. “That’s mine.”

“Wow, you used to travel light.”

“That was before Tate’s mom blurted about the pregnancy. Now she has the whole resort knitting.”

Max picked it up. “All this is full of baby clothes?” Because it was big but not big enough to warrant how heavy it was.

“They packed the clothes in vacuum bags. Be ready to evac the room once we devacuum them. The women couldn’t wait to know the gender, so we have all kinds in all colors. Hell, I don’t think you or your brothers will need to buy baby clothes ever.”

Man, Max couldn’t wait to bring Annie down to the Eternal Sun. She was going to love the place and the people.

“So, what about some lobster for lunch?” he asked as they walked to the car.

“Now you’re talking.”

“Good, because I already arranged for James and Cole to meet us at the Crabby Lobster. Are you staying for a while this time?”

“I’m getting two grandchildren next spring. You bet I’m staying.”

“Annie may freak out if you refer to her baby as your grandchild. She isn’t there yet.”

“She will be. You’re there already.”

He remembered the kicks against his palms when he came back from Canada and nodded. “I love her. Both of them.”

Since returning from Ohio, he’d been telling her he loved her at every possible occasion. She still had to reciprocate, but he’ll wait her out.

His dad said nothing, just smiled.

“She’s loaded, Dad. As in old-money loaded,” Max said as they were driving.

“And what? You think you don’t measure up? Because we aren’t rich, but we can stand on our own.”

Max didn’t answer. It wasn’t only the money. “Do you believe in genetics?”

“What is this really about?”

“I took her to see the trailer park,” he blurted out. “I explained everything to her. While we were there, Karl came at us.”

Nate Bowen tensed. “What happened?”

She’d claimed him, and he’d fallen in love with her even more. “He spilled some of his venom.”

“Son, a hundred thousand Karls wouldn’t be worth one of you. You’re nothing like him.”

Annie had said that too. When she’d stepped in front of him and almost given him a heart attack.

“No one is predestined to be a bastard or to be evil. Blaming it on genetics is the excuse of the weak who don’t want to grab destiny by the balls and make something of themselves. Besides, you shouldn’t be too quick in writing your mom off. There was a lot of good in your mother.”

“Right,” he muttered. He’d seen her only once, and that first impression hadn’t been so fantastic. Then again, Nathan Bowen had loved her, and he couldn’t have loved anyone not worthy.

“Max, your mom didn’t have a monkey on her back; she had the whole zoo. Once they took ahold of her, she didn’t stand a chance. You don’t have anything on your back.”

Yes, Max did. Nathan. But far from being an impediment, having such a man in his life had made a world of difference.

“I never thanked you for coming to get me that day,” Max said as he stopped the car in front of the Crabby Lobster and turned to his father. “Or for taking care of me every day of my life.”

“Nothing to thank me for, Son. You’re as much mine as Cole and James are. You’ve always been. Don’t give a shit what blood says. I would have gone to the edge of the world to get you back. Nothing would have stopped me, because at the end of the day, the one blessed to have you was me, not the other way around.”

He totally disagreed with that last part but kept it to himself. “I love you, Dad.”

“I know, Son. I love you too.” He hugged Max and patted him on the back. “Now let’s go for some smashers. I want to hear all about your trip to Redwaters.”

Max loved Nate Bowen so fucking much.

“I haven’t told you, but since I brought Annie here, the girls keep protective eye gear for the Bowens and hard hats for the nearby tables.”

Nate broke into laughter. “I already liked her, but I just fell in love with her too. Besides, who else has a survivalist daughter-in-law, right?”

* * * *

Annie couldn’t remember the last Christmas morning she’d woken up this early, or this happy—probably not since she was a child—but now, instead of running downstairs to see what Santa had left for her, she lay there, staring at Max.

He loved her, he’d told her. Many times already. Every day actually. And every time she got that same giddy feeling she had at the cabin. She still couldn’t believe it. Not because he didn’t seem sincere but because it was too good to be true. And so scary, because she did love him too.

Careful not to wake him up, she got out of bed. They were due back at the Bowens’ soon, but she wanted to prepare him breakfast. Give the present she’d gotten for him.

She was frying bacon when she heard Max coming down to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Boob Enhancer,” she said, glancing backward. He was all rumpled from sleep, undressed except for his boxers. His chuckles reverberated through her body as he encircled her with his arms. His smell enveloped her right away.

“Good morning, Pregnant Lady,” he murmured, kissing her neck, his hands cradling her protruding stomach. “What are you doing?”

He nuzzled her throat, goose bumps pricking her skin at the contact, his caresses making her lose her train of thought. “What?”

He whispered into her ear. “What are you doing, Ace? Why aren’t you in bed with me?”

“I wanted to make breakfast. You hungry?”

Max looked at the sizzling pan, then shifted her to the left, away from the stove, and shut the burner off. He wedged his thigh between her legs, parting them. “Yes, very hungry.”

He grabbed the hem of her T-shirt and took it off.

“Max!”

Annie tried to squirm away, but he stopped her. “Hands on the counter, baby,” he growled, holding her by her hips and pulling her back. He moved a chair with his leg and, hooking her knee, lifted her foot onto it.

Oh God. They were in the kitchen, her naked, bent over, the window open. Worst of all? She was totally turned on, and he knew it. He went on his knees, opened her core even farther, and placed his mouth on her. Her leg wobbled. If it hadn’t been for him holding her, she would have fallen to the floor. “Max!”

He ignored her, and went at it.

This level of exposure was nerve-racking, even though it highlighted her desire too. Max thrust his tongue inside her, and she tried to move away. Get herself some respite.

He held her tighter, and bite her in her inner thigh. “My way.” Her womb contracted, liquid rushing down her pussy.

“I see you like it,” he growled, his cool breath slamming against her pulsing clit. “I’ll give you more, but my way.”

Soon she was pleading but not for him to stop. For him to fuck her harder. She’d thought she didn’t like oral sex, but it turned out the problem wasn’t the oral sex, but the man performing it. This was different. This was Max. Max could make her melt with a smile. His mouth on her pussy? Overkill.

But she desperately wanted to climax with him. She tugged at him. “I need you inside of me when I come.”

Max stood up and putting a hand protectively on her belly, he rammed into her. She cried out at the sudden invasion.

He stopped, his ragged breath loud, his muscles trembling from the strain to keep still.

He feared he’d hurt her; she could tell. But he couldn’t hurt her, not even when he was going all caveman.

Annie turned her head to him and kissed his throat. “Don’t stop, Max. I need you. Please, fuck me.”

She felt his cock jerking inside her. Growing even bigger.

He fisted her hair and pulled it back. “Repeat that,” he growled in her ear, the rawness in his voice making her core clamp.

“Please, fuck me.”

He snarled and began pumping inside her, his hand protecting her stomach from the counter, no matter how hard he fucked her. And he did. Thrusting into her, his cock pressing at all her hot spots until he sent her over and then he let himself go.

Seeing him losing control, feeling how much he needed her was exhilarating.

“I love you, baby,” he whispered in her ear. “Didn’t like waking up without you. Don’t leave me alone again.”

“If this is my punishment, I can’t promise I won’t.”

“I’ll make it better for you if you stay in bed.”

Better? What was he planning to do? Kill her?

He slowly moved out of her, and as she was going to put her leg down, he stopped her, caressed her slit. “Love seeing my cum trickling down your pussy.”

At any moment, Wilma was going to pop through the window with a cake. Annie wasn’t afraid the old lady would have a heart attack—more like her snatching a pic of them or something like that.

She felt his hand on her inner thigh, catching some of the sperm.

Turning her to him, he painted her lips with his cum. She licked his finger, and with a growl, he captured her mouth in a deep, all-consuming kiss that left her more breathless than she’d been.

“I don’t think I can finish preparing breakfast in this condition.” Her legs were trembling too much. And she was soaking wet.

He lifted her in his arms and strode out of the kitchen. “Don’t worry. It will keep.”

“Where are we going?”

“To make my woman squirt.”

Oh God. Getting her to squirt wasn’t a quickie by any stretch of the imagination. “But we need to get cracking. Today is Christmas. Lots of food to make.”

He offered her a roguish smile. “We’ll get there on time.”

* * * *

The Bowens on Christmas were a sight to behold. Annie had very happy memories of the holidays, but they had always been spent with her mom. Since she and Larry had moved to Redwaters, and because of the bad weather and having to spend New Year’s Eve with her grandmother, Annie’s Christmases had basically included only the Vaughans. Frosty and awkward didn’t even begin to describe Vaughans’ celebrations. This was a totally different phenomenon.

She’d feared she would feel like an outsider, but nothing was further from the truth. The Bowens were the kind of people who attracted others, adding to their family. Tate’s mother had stayed in Florida, and James and Tate were flying down to spend New Year’s Eve, but Elle was there, as were Christy’s mother and stepfather, Fred. Nils, Rosita’s cook, and Paige were there, along with Tim and two siblings of his. Annie didn’t know a lot about Tim, just that he’d started working for Tate, but James had taken him under his wing. Cole too. It was like the Bowens went through life picking up people without family and integrating them into their group.

No one was allowed to bring presents, yet everybody had had something with their name on it under the tree. Annie had gotten a humongous puzzle, much to Max’s despair, Max some awesome gear for skiing.

There had been very little alcohol served, but now, with the table full of desserts, everyone was laughing their heads off.