FLOATING on my back in the canal just outside of casa Butcher, I make water angels with my arms, moving the water forward and back to keep myself stationary. There is no current here, but it’s deep enough to allow large boats through. Toni and I tried to dive to the bottom a few times, but I couldn’t touch the sand and the water is green and dark and slightly murky. It’s clean though, or so I’ve been told.
I glance down at my bathing suit to look for grime, but there’s none to be found. A smile curls my lips. I’m wearing the same pink one piece I wore the first time Max and I ever spoke without the added delirium of alcohol. Pink. High riding at the hips. Arching at the buttocks. I like them. They are both modest and somehow not. . .
As the sun’s warmth hits my cheeks in a lovely, soft way, I listen to the water swishing against my ears. Combined with the slow relaxed beat of my heart, it reminds me of my blob. Having only heard his heartbeat a few hours ago, I can honestly say it’s such a similar sound.
I have no idea why Max booked me in for another ultrasound so soon. It wasn’t necessary until twelve weeks gestation. Maybe, it has something to do with his caveman decision to switch my fricking phone off and have me sleep until fricking 10.am. Yeah, maybe it has something to do with that.
Fricking controlling butthead.
So my later than ideal start, combined with a spontaneous midday ultrasound appointment, basically wrote off today for me. When I feel fingers thread through mine, I grin over at Toni, who is now floating beside me. I drop my legs beneath me and begin to tread water so I can talk to him.
Water beads on his bronzed skin and dark lashes. ‘How does he even know my screen-lock pattern?’ I ask.
He rolls his brown eyes. ‘Firstly, you don’t need to know someone’s lock pattern to switch a phone off. Seriously, grandma? Secondly, are we still on this?’
‘Yes!’ I state, splashing him a little. ‘I’m pissed at him for making a decision like that for me. If he wanted me to have another ultrasound, he could have just asked. I would have said yes. I would do anything for him. I let him run every aspect of our lives but not my daily schedule. He is at work or the gym. I do my own thing. I’m. . . ugh. He’s such a butthead.’
Toni wiggles his brows. ‘Speaking of butts and head. You have to stop holding out on the details. So if you love it when he licks your arsehole, just say it.’
My mouth drops open; I am once again floored. ‘How do you find a way to redirect every conversation to suit your agenda?’
He chuckles, tipping his shoulders in delight. ‘It’s a talent of mine.’
A cheeky grin forms across his face, provoking flashes of last night to hit me in a rush. Max’s tongue and teeth and. . . I press my thighs together, ignoring the pulsing between my legs. ‘Yes.’ I breathe the word. ‘I like it. Can we move on from that?’
His entire face is suddenly bright with mischief. ‘Well, yes, you can move on from that, but that would be letting him fuck your arse.’
Ugh! ‘Not what I meant, obviously.’
Unfazed by my tone, he sings, ‘You’ll like it.’
I’m surprised when I shake my head, cause, like, all of a sudden this is the topic of conversation. ‘It’ll hurt.’
‘Actually, under the right conditions, it shouldn’t,’ he states smugly. ‘I’m kind of the authority on this topic. No offence waaaas‘ –he quickly changes the direction the sentence was heading– ‘needed and Braidy still handcuffs me and takes me like I’m a convict.
I smile hard. ‘You just did it again.’
‘Yeah. Sorry,’ he says, swaying his arms in the water. ‘Anyway, I’m surprised you haven’t already.’
I sink down a little, my legs getting tired of kicking. ‘He’s big, Toni. Like big and . . . you know, thick.’
He beams at me. ‘So it wasn’t really a starter shaft?’
‘Oh no,’ I say, wide eyed, remembering the ache I felt the first few times he entered me. And still, even to this day, sometimes it’s just too much. ‘It’s definitely not an apprentice appendage.’
His expression deadpans. ‘Not a rookie rod? Not a trainee tube?’
I cover my giggle, my cheeks burning. ‘More like an expert level erection.’
Toni smacks his lips in contemplation. ‘What’s above an expert?’
I beam so hard my face hurts, remembering the first time Max and I ever spoke. I thought he was too hot to be human and therefore must be a male witch. . .
A warlock.
‘A warlock!’ I state with a giggle.
He cracks up, his eyes thin smiling lines. ‘Definitely a warlock wand then?’ Toni pretends to wave a wand, chanting, ‘Impregnace uterius.’
I lose myself in laughter for like two whole minutes. It just takes over my body, my laughter on loop. I can’t get the image of Max chanting impregnace uterius while waving his warlock wand at me out of my head. ‘Oh my gawd.’
Toni keeps egging my laughter on, waving an invisible wand and then stroking it and then waving it again.
‘Stop it,’ I cry, laughing. I take a big breath in and exhale slowly. After which, I try to regain a sense of calm, coaxing myself with, okay, pull yourself together, Cassidy.
Toni, who can be laughing and serious all at once, suddenly squirms in the water. ‘I’m getting a semi talking about warlock wands. What are we saying now? Eight inches? Nine? Ten?’
With that, I steer the conversation back to where it started. ‘Thank you for the delightful detour, but can we get back on track and focus on the fact he switched my phone off?’
‘Sure.’ He nods with a feigned sincerity. ‘Fun police, I get it. Police are fun. Sorry. I’m done. . . You just need to tell him that you would have taken the day off if he asked. Talk to him like you want him to talk-‘
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ Max’s deep gravelly voice forces tingles through my whole body. I curl my toes under the water. Splashing around to face the bank, I find him striding down it, working fiercely to pull his tie and white shirt off. With all of those muscles now exposed and rippling, I’m somehow blinded from the other emotions I should be feeling right now. Arousal is holding the others under the water. Out of sight. Out of mind. Oh my God; he is a warlock. . . But I should be feeling something else. . .
What is it?
I blink at him – muscles. . .
Oh yeah!
What’s his fricking problem?
Toni swims towards the jetty and chuckles, ‘And here is your chance.’
‘Get out of the fucking water!’ Max barks before diving in with his black pants still on.
‘What?’ I mutter to no one, squinting at the ripples where Max just disappeared beneath the surface. My heart hits the back of my throat when something grabs me, and then Max reappears. I’m in his arms now as he powers through the water towards the jetty.
‘Max, stop it!’
Once beside the ladder, one big, tattooed arm reaches to grab the railing, bicep contracting as he pulls us both up. Water rushes off us. As soon as we are on top of the wooden slates, he lowers me down, a fierce scowl etched onto his face.
‘Big fucking boats speed down this fucking canal, Cassidy!’
Carter is suddenly nearby. ‘I’ve been keeping an eye-‘
Max snaps his deadly stare to him and points. ‘I’ll get to you in a fucking minute!’
His eyes hit me again. They snatch my breath straight from within my lungs. I try to stay firm, but he’s making me tremble beneath the intensity of his near-black eyes. ‘Xander said you guys swim in it all the tim-
‘Xander isn’t pregnant!’
My eyes well up. ‘Don’t yell at me.’
He turns around and grips the back of his neck with both hands, arms growing as they pulse beside his head. Turning back to face me, his expression has quelled in anger a bit. ‘Little one, you’re pregnant. I feel like you’re being fucking reckless.’
I blink the tears out. ‘Swimming? I was just swimming.’
He reaches to wipe my tears away and I step backwards, not wanting his comfort right now.
‘Don’t do that,’ he admonishes curtly.
I pant through my agitation. ‘You turned my phone off. You have no right.’
‘What?’ His brows draw in tighter. ‘No right?’ His body, big and powerful, looms over mine, the cords in his neck bulging, his jaw clenching. ‘Anything to do with you is my right.’
My sudden need to settle the darkness in him replaces my agitation. So when he turns to leave, I reach for his arm. He stills with his back to me. Circling around his staunch frame, I position myself in front of him again.
‘Max.’ I reach up to press my palm to his pulsing jaw. As he moves into my touch, he squeezes his eyes shut and sighs that rough sigh that is almost a growl.
I smile softly at him. ‘You just have to ask me, okay? Please, just ask me next time.’
He opens his eyes, the black of his pupils slightly smaller, allowing a ring of that beautiful grey-blue colour to shine through. ‘Everything okay with the ultrasound?’
I breathe a little harder in response to the soft confused edge to his voice. Why was he worried? I don’t understand. ‘Yes. Everything is fine.’ Stroking the afternoon stubble on his jawline, I say, ‘Why did you book it?’
He lifts his head to look over my shoulder. I twist around and relax slightly when I see Toni is out of earshot, chatting to Carter. I turn slowly back to the half-naked man-god in expensive black pants dripping canal water. ‘No one can hear us.’
The look on his face tells me he doesn’t want to share. ‘I fucked you on your stomach.’
Warmth moves through me and I try not to let my smile break my face because Max Butcher is irrationally concerned for our blob.
Yay.
And I have learned to accept his affections in the form of hints, tones, and actions. That is his way. And that is what he has just wordlessly told me.
‘He’s safe, Max. I promise.’ My fingers trace the tight cord in his neck. ‘It’s not until the third trimester that they kind of run out of room and we’ll need to be careful.’
The tension in him drops off like a lead belt and he wraps his big arms around my middle, arching my back, lifting me onto my tippy toes so he can kiss me deeply. The water on our skin causes our bodies to slide together. His tongue moves into my mouth, demanding mine. We breathe each other’s breath. I cup his cheeks with both hands, feeling his jaw work as he loves me with his kiss.
His hands start to roam, kneading down the muscles of my back to cup my bum and lift me so I can straddle him.
‘This suit,’ he groans, palming my cheeks. One of his hands slides lower, fingers dripping to tease me. ‘I wanted to tongue every part of your body when I first saw you in this.’
The need behind his lips is devastating to my will. To my sense of self. To the space between us because we don’t want any space. Want to be as connected as two people can possibly be. Moans crash loudly from me and into his mouth. He swallows my sounds as if they are his to claim, before shamelessly walking us up the bank towards the house.
I break away and, between laboured breaths, say, ‘Don’t. Switch. Off. My phone.’
His lips move to my jaw and neck, forceful in their pursuit to assert his words. ‘Don’t overdo it!’
I hear Toni laugh as we move past him. ‘I guess I’ll wait, like what? Twenty? Thirty minutes?’
‘You’re welcome to stay,’ Max declares just before his tongue chases my racing pulse up the length of my throat. ‘Settle in.’
