To the Max (35 page)

“Honest to God,” Elle said, taking a bite from a chocolate truffle. “I’m not exaggerating one bit. The guy might be a business mogul, but he’s an ass. Now he refuses to board a plane if I’m there. Can you imagine? He calls beforehand to make sure I’m nowhere near him. And he took out a restraining order against me.”

“What?” Aunt Maggie asked, coming from the kitchen with a new pot of coffee. “Who took out a restraining order against you, dear?”

“No one,” she said, taking the pot from the old lady’s hand and gesturing for her to sit while she filled the empty cups. “A moron turned famous.”

Aunt Maggie was livid. “How dare he. You should take out a restraining order against him. And make sure you’re on every one of his flights.”

Between Elle’s airport stories and Max’s Hollywood ones, the afternoon went by in a flash. Max spent all that time with his hand on the back of Annie’s chair. She had been standing, chatting with Christy, when he’d come from behind, rested his hands on her stomach, and kissed her head. “What are you guys talking about?”

For as long as they had stood there, Max hadn’t removed his hands from her belly. Annie was probably so red everyone noticed. He’d done that before but never so openly in public. And these were not some random guys from the street; they were his family and closest friends.

No one had asked. No one had made any comment. All of them seemed to have accepted that she and Max were together. Nate Bowen had kissed and hugged her, congratulating her on the baby. Never a reproving look or question. Exactly like her grandmother. Ha.

Nate Bowen flew across the country to spend Christmas with his family. Patricia Vaughan lived in Boston, yet she couldn’t even bother to call Annie. She’d had Charlene send her a text.

“Smile,” Elle said to her and Max snapped a shot of them. She’d taken several pictures of everyone around the dinner table and some individual shots. “This one is going up on the wall of fame.”

“Elle is putting the pictures in Rosita’s,” Max explained. “Apparently we made the cut.”

Annie remembered seeing some newer pics in the restaurant, side by side with the older ones from Tate and Elle’s grandparents, featuring the Bowens very prominently. Now she knew where those had come from.

At that moment, Annie’s cell rang. It was her mother, so she excused herself.

“Mom?” The connection wasn’t too good, and the people inside were too loud, so she took her coat and headed for the porch. “Merry Christmas.”

They couldn’t talk long, because her mother was apparently at the diner, where their prepper group always spent Christmas. Considering they spent Thanksgiving in a bunker and digging ditches, that was a huge improvement.

After the call, Annie heard, “Beautiful day, huh?” She turned and saw Mr. Bowen sitting on the porch swing, putting down his half-smoked cigarette, dispersing the leftover smoke with his hand so that it wouldn’t reach her.

“Oh, Mr. Bowen, I didn’t see you. Sorry if I bothered you,” she said, lifting the cell. “I couldn’t hear my thoughts in there.”

“It’s okay, sweetheart. I came out to feel the cold. Florida is great, but nothing beats snow at Christmas. Sit with me.”

She joined him. “You smoke?”

“Very seldom. Don’t rat me out. My boys will come down on me.”

She was positive everyone would be able to smell the smoke, but she assented. “My lips are sealed.”

“They are a big, rambunctious bunch to take in, huh?” he said, gesturing inside.

Annie smiled. “They are great. You have a fantastic family.”

“Yes, I do.”

They were silent for a long second, and then Nate said, “So you and my son.”

She began fretting. “Yeah, well, we—”

Nate chuckled. “Calm down. Me and Max talk every week. He’s been going on about you for months.”

“I guess I’m not what you imagined for Max…”

“I’ve known you since you were a little girl and you moved to Alden with your mom. If I’d had to choose a woman for my son, I would have chosen you. I wouldn’t be able to find anyone better. You’ll make him happy. Hell, you already do. Happier than I’ve ever seen him. I was afraid this was never going to happen. I saw him dating a lot, but he always moved on before it got serious. He didn’t want to commit, was restless. Always chasing the next adrenaline high. You bring him peace.“

Mr. Bowen had been in her life forever, but now she was looking at him through new eyes. Max’s eyes. He adored his dad. The same way her daughter would adore Max and call him Dad if Annie let him into their lives. The part of her brain that had always screamed at her that being with Max was too risky was quiet. If she had to be honest with herself, then she would admit it had been quiet for a long time now. She trusted him with her heart. And more importantly, with her daughter’s heart.

“I can’t wait for the additions to my family. Two grandchildren. A baby girl,” Nate said softly, looking down at her belly. “I’m so going to spoil her rotten.”

She wasn’t sure if Max had told his dad, but she thought she had to. “The baby is not Max’s.”

Nate smiled at her. “That’s something you need to discuss with my son, but if Max says she’s his, then to me she’s his, and that makes her mine too. My first grandchild.”

Annie looked down at her hands, nervous. She didn’t want Max feeling responsible for the baby, much less all of the Bowens.

“And it’s the baby who decides,” Nate added.

“What do you mean?”

“The baby decides,” he repeated. “He’s born, grabs your finger, and he owns you. You’re his. Never the other way around. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.”

“You stealing my girl?” Max asked from the threshold.

Nate smiled at the sound of his son’s voice. He winked at her, and then he turned to Max. “You’re lucky I’m not thirty years younger. You’d be in trouble. I’m going inside now. That’s enough cold for my bones.” He stood up, patted Max’s back, and went inside.

Max wrapped her with a quilt he’d brought, and they rocked in the swing.

“You okay, baby?”

She nodded. “Your dad is awesome.”

“He is. He’s going to get the third degree from Cole, though, when he smells the cigarette smoke on him.”

“For all it’s worth, he put it out half-smoked.”

“Oh I know, but it won’t make a lick of difference to Cole.”

Annie smiled softly. Yeah, she supposed it wouldn’t.

“Ace?”

“Mmm?”

“We need to buy a couple of those extremely tacky individual TV dinner tables,” he said.

“Why?”

He looked at her, grinning. “A ten-thousand-piece puzzle? We won’t see the dining table for a year at least.”

* * * *

Max loved to watch Annie sleep. Loved the way she rubbed her nose against his chest, how her hot breath felt against his skin.

When she woke up, she smiled lazily at him. “You watching me?” At his nod, she grimaced. “Was I snoring? Drooling?”

Man she was funny. “No, you weren’t. I love waking up to you,” he said, tracing his finger from her face to her breast to her exposed belly.

“How did we get back?”

“I carried you here. You fell asleep on the sofa.”

“I had a Christmas present for you,” she said with a pout. “I was going to give it to you before we went to your family’s, but you distracted me with all the glorious sex. Does the day after Christmas count?”

He reached for the drawer in his nightstand. “It better, because I also have something for you.”

Her smile was blinding. “Really?”

“Just keep in mind it’s damn difficult to buy a present for someone who has the money to buy Central Park for herself.”

“Gimme, gimme.”

She took the package and ripped the paper off. She stared at the box while Max shrugged uneasily.

“It’s a small thing. If you don’t like it, we can exchange it.”

It was all the seasons of
Sons of Anarchy.

“No way in hell are we returning it.”

“I figured this is a good one for when we finish
The Sopranos
. After your comments about all bikers being ugly and fat, I thought you needed an update, you know, with Fonz being the last biker you probably saw in TV.”

She threw her arms at him, giggling. “You won’t believe my present.”

She went out running and came back with a package of her own. Rectangular. Flat. It felt like…yep, a DVD box.

“
Firefly
?” he said, looking at the cover. “You got me
Firefly
?”

“Great TV show. Got canceled after a season. A huge tragedy. I told you about it, remember?”

Yes, he did. “You know, we might have an issue with too much TV.” They hadn’t agreed on anything, yet both had come up with the same present. “I love you, Ace. Thank you.”

She kissed him sweetly, then went on all fours and straddled him.

“And this?” she asked, noticing his humongous hard-on.

He shrugged. “Morning wood plus you sleeping on me plus your cliterature.”

“You were reading one of my e-books?”

She was gaping at him, shocked. So fucking cute. “One has to check out the competition, right?” he said, cupping her neck and nibbling at her lips.

“Max, I want to try something with you. Can I?”

He looked down at his cock, which was already twitching and leaking. Reaching for her pussy. “Whatever you want, but I’m not climbing up on the sex swing,” he warned her.

Her shoulders shook with laughter. “No sex swing. Although I can tell you from experience, it’s good.” Then she leaned over the nightstand and took something from the drawer.

“What do you have there, baby?”

She opened her fist. It was a silicone ring with a vibrating bullet attached to it. “It’s a vibrating tongue ring. Got it from the sex party Elle organized for Tate last summer. It’s for oral sex. I want to blow you with it.”

Max’s cock jerked so badly, he wasn’t sure he hadn’t come in the bed.

“You want to suck my cock with that?”

She nodded. “I’ve never liked blowjobs too much, but I want you in my mouth. I might suck.”

Max smirked. “That’s the idea, baby.”

“I mean I might not be any good, you dork. I know you’ve had much more daring women in your bed and that this may be a small thing to you, but for me it’s—”

Big. A milestone. He knew.

“You’re the only woman I want in my bed,” he interrupted her. “And you’ll be perfect.”

She turned the thing on, keeping it on her hand while she worked her way down from his face to his groin, taking a detour to torture his nipples. He’d thought he was going to get rid of the piercing after the movie, but no way in hell. Every time she pulled at it, he felt it in his cock.

Her warm, soft lips kissing and nipping at him and the vibration of the cold, hard bullet against his skin was killing him. By the time she reached his badly throbbing hard-on, he was so ready to explode he couldn’t think about anything else. He bunched his jaw. He had to get a hold on himself, fast. Otherwise he was done, and he didn’t want this to end.

She licked and played with his cock, lapping at his slit, while the bullet vibrated against his balls, and he fought for breath.

“Watch me,” she whispered, lifting her gaze to his.

“Not even blinking, Ace.” He didn’t want to miss a second of his woman pleasuring him. Getting hot and bothered while doing it too, by the looks of it.

She placed the silicone ring in her mouth and then showed it to him. The bullet was on her tongue, vibrating. She leaned over him and took a leisurely swipe from his balls up to the tip of his cock.

He hissed, his whole body tightening. “Fuck, Ace.”

“Like it?”

A growl was the only answer he could give her. It was hot and cold at the same time. Soft and hard. Playing havoc with his system. As soon as he unlocked his muscles and regained mobility, he was going to flip her over, spread her wide, and fuck her senseless. Show her how “like it” didn’t even begin to describe it.

It would be easier to hold out if he could close his eyes to block the sight of her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do that. He needed this too. She hadn’t told him she loved him, even though he said it every day. He knew deep inside she had feelings for him, but for the first time in his life, he felt unsure and badly in need of reassurance.

All his internal rambling came to an abrupt halt the second she took him in her mouth, the instant heat zapping his mind. He threw his head back and let out a growl, fisting the sheets.

“Jesus, Ace, your mouth is so hot. So fucking good wrapped around me.”

She was sucking his cock, her lips stretched over him, bringing him to the back of her throat while her sweet hands worked the base of his shaft and stroked his balls.

She was so damn gorgeous, and he loved her so damn much.

No amount of jaw clenching and sheet bunching was going to help. He was in full sensory overload, his synapses firing all at once. It was not only her mouth on his cock, it was the way she was humming and moaning, her eyes heavy-lidded, visibly turned on. “Ace, stop. I’m ready to blow.”

But she didn’t. She did something, and suddenly the vibration was right on his slit. He tried to move away from her, but his body wasn’t obeying. Of their own volition, his hands moved to her head.

Max came and came, while Annie accepted all of him, wrenching until the last drop of cum from him. He might have lost consciousness; he wasn’t sure. It took for fucking ever before he managed to open his eyes. Annie was on her knees in front of him. “That was fantastic, Ace.”

“Yes it was. Now let’s go to the ER. I swallowed the bullet.”

* * * *

Max was losing his mind, pacing in the hallway of the hospital. He’d been with Annie while she was given some concoction to make her throw up, but as they were about to check the baby’s heartbeat, he’d been called to fill out the admission form. When the door opened and she came out, he darted to her.

“Everything is okay,” she reassured him. “We just have to wait here for the nurse to bring us the discharge papers and we can leave.”

“Good,” he said, hugging her. “You scared the living shit out of me. Baby okay?”

She nodded.

Thank fucking God.