MAX WAS INCREDIBLE.
So much more than the man I’d met on the casino floor the night before.
Every minute I spent with him drew me in a little more. Rosalee had described her oldest brother as a hard-ass with a bad attitude. Where she had said he was broody and grumpy, I saw an easy-going guy with and easier smile. Where she had said he was prickly, I saw funny. She had actually used the words ‘closed off’, but with me he wasn’t shy about how he felt. I wasn’t sure which Max was the real deal.
Was I lucky enough to see a different side to him?
I wasn’t sure why he was interested in me. Not when a man like Max could have anyone.
“Your house is amazing,” I said, taking in the living room.
“Thank you. Want anything to drink?” he asked with his lips twitching, and I shook my head. Dinner had been incredible. Flavorful and filling. The exact thing my body had needed after our all-too-quick trip to Vegas.
“I’m good. Thank you. That place was great!” I patted my stomach and he grinned.
“Good, right?”
“Amazing! I can’t believe I didn’t know about that place,” I gushed. “I can’t wait to tell some of my friends when school starts back up.”
“It’s your senior year?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. “Finally.”
“Were you local to the area before or…”
“No. I grew up in LA.”
“Ah… that’s why.”
“I could tell you of a handful of amazing Mediterranean places out there. Especially in Glendale.”
“It’s a date,” he said, and I laughed. He sat down on his oversized couch, and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I stayed standing, looking at the pictures on the wall. Some of the photographs were startlingly beautiful. But before long, I had nothing I could look at, so I sat down primly on his recliner. “Hey, Leti?”
“Yeah?” My voice cracked.
“Why are you sitting all the way over there?” his husky voice beckoned to me, and I shrugged.
“I wasn’t sure—“
“Come here, baby,” he ordered gently, and it was like my body had a mind of its own. I stood and walked over to him and sat next to him. His arm wrapped around my shoulder and pulled me in. I loved being cuddled into him.
“Pick something,” he whispered into the shell of my ear, handing me the remote control.
“Max.,”
“Hmm?” The rumble of his question made me want to swallow the words I was about to say.
“Just because I’m in your house, on your lap… it doesn’t mean we’re going to…”
“We’re going to what?” he asked in a low tone, and I trembled in his arms.
“You know,” I mumbled nervously, wishing I hadn’t said anything at all. I felt his smile against my temple, and it made my body react in a way I didn’t know was possible.
It was like déjà vu.
The sweetest déjà vu ever.
“Look at me, Leti,” he ordered again in that sexy deep tone of his, and I turned. He used that to his advantage and lifted me up and onto his lap, my hands landing on his muscular shoulders. “Nothing happens unless you’re on board. Ever. Understood?”
“Last night…” I wasn’t sure why I was bringing it up, but my heart was beating double time.
“We were three sheets to the wind, baby.”
“I know, but umm…”
“To be clear, we made out until you got dizzy and I helped you run to the bathroom where I… I held your hair back.” I cringed and had a small flashback of what he was talking about. “I see you remember.” He smiled warmly, his hands cupping my face so tenderly I was surprised I didn’t melt into a puddle of goo in his lap.
“Did you wash my face?”
“I did.” Now it was my hands on his face.
“And tucked me in?”
“Right next to me,” his voice rasped right over my lips, and it was too tempting to try and keep my distance from him.
“What if we make a last-minute adjustment?”
“Adjustment?” His lips quirked up wolfishly, giving me a peek at his boyish side as he shifted, and I felt his thick, solid length between my legs.
“Just a small one?”
“What, Spark Plug?”
“What if we have our first sober kiss,” I whispered just as his nose ran against the outline of mine. His warm, sweet breath fanning over my lips.
“I’m always up for anything that gives me another taste of your sweetness, baby.”
“I love the way you talk,” I moaned, leaning in slightly just as he met me halfway.
His lips touched mine, and it was sweet. His mouth was firm but soft. Powerful, but I could feel he was holding back as he kissed me softly. Tentatively. Almost like he was giving me an opportunity to change my mind, but there was no way in hell that was going to happen. I opened my mouth and his tongue slid in. Touching mine. Dancing alongside mine. His taste sweet and nutty like the baklava we had shared and something fully masculine. All Max.
My hands roamed upwards and tangled in his short hair. His hands roamed over my back, but one settled on my lower back while the other cupped my face. He was in complete control of our kiss. Sinfully sexy. The man was incredible with his mouth, and I wanted to know what else he could do.
“Max.” A strangled moan escaped from my throat, my hips shifted, and he felt incredible at the juncture of my legs. God, I wished I hadn’t said anything. I wished I had kept my mouth shut when it’d come to taking things to another level.
“I know, baby. Not yet though. You said no, and I’m going to keep my word.”
“But what if we just—“
“Shhh…” He pulled away and rested his forehead against mine, both of us trying to catch our breath.
Max
I had no idea how I was holding on to the control I was not to flip her and bring my body over hers, caging her in and dry fucking the hell out of her until I had her crying out my name. Her sweet ‘What if we just’ made me harder than granite, but I was going to hold back. I wasn’t going to go there. Not because I didn’t want to; I was freaking dying to take things to the next base, but she wasn’t. And as I looked into her eyes, her honeyed breath tickling my wet lips, I smiled. A weird sense of calm fell over me.
“Shh… we have all the time in the world.”
“I don’t think your sister has any idea you talk like some kind of book boyfriend,” she blurted, and I processed what she had just said.
“What?”
“Nothing.” Her face all pink and embarrassed, she tried to hide from me by leaning her head into my neck, but I pulled her away so I could look at her.
“First, I have no idea what a book boyfriend is, and second, let’s not bring up my sister when I’m in this state.” I shifted so she could feel exactly just what state I was in.
“Oh.” Her face brightened, and I stole one small peck. “That’s fair,” she said, and my body shook with laughter. Her giggles were like music to my ears.
“How about we watch a movie and cuddle together,” I suggested, and this time she moved in closer, grazing her nose against mine as we shared the same electric air. “Kiss a little more?”
“I’d like that,” she whispered so softly I almost missed it.
“How about a second last-minute first kiss?”
“That doesn’t even make sense,” she flirted, but her hand smoothed my hair down. “But I’m game,” she said and kissed me.
This time, there was no slow buildup. My hands stayed on her waist and hers stayed on my shoulders. Completely innocent, it was like we had gone back in time, both of us horny teenagers too scared to go too far, too fast.
Pulling away from her was hell, but I did it. I’d do anything not to scare my little spark plug away. Settled and comfortable on my couch, she picked The Fast and the Furious, one of my personal favorites, and it quickly moved to the top of the list.
By the time Dom and Bryan were becoming buddies, she drifted off to sleep, her breathing easy and steady. Her sexy body warm next to mine, I let my eyes rest for a little while.
Just for a minute.
But the couch was too roomy, and her body melded to mine just right, and sleep pulled me under like a riptide.
