Beyond the Breaking Point (33 page)

Max let himself into Cassidy’s apartment and flipped the locks. He pocketed the keys and made his way toward the dim glow and muted music pouring from Cassidy’s bedroom. At the entrance, he set down his overnight bag and leaned against the doorjamb, content to simply watch Cassidy.

She was sound asleep. He glanced around the room before returning his gaze to Sleeping Beauty. Despite her reservations about what they were doing, she’d set the scene for romance. In the hour it had taken him to get there, the candles had burned low. The music was soft and mellow, and from what he could see of her form partially covered by the sheet, Cassidy wore something silky and sexy.

“What are we doing, Max
?
”
she’d asked, and his answer had been honest. He really didn’t know. All he knew was that he wasn’t ready to let go. Was it love, lust? Hell, who knew? To see Cassidy was to desire her. To think of her was to want to be with her. Beyond that, he didn’t have a clue.

Like Cassidy, his conscience had given him a few bad moments. And, he admitted, he had his own reservations. Cassidy was a married woman. She’d forgiven Phillip once and stayed with him when his crimes were much worse. Could Phillip convince her to do so again?

Yes, she was with him now, but how much of it was due to her pregnancy? If Max wasn’t the father, it would give Phillip an even stronger hold on Cassidy. Cassidy’s honesty and honor went bone-deep. She wasn’t cut out to be an adulterer.

If Phillip continued to fight her on the divorce, did she have the necessary determination to resist Phillip’s persuasive arguments for two years? The man was a master manipulator. That was what made him so great in the courtroom. Phillip excelled at closing arguments and had the ability to sway entire juries to his way of thinking.

So where did that leave him? In lust/love with a married woman who may or may not be carrying his child. His Catholic upbringing reared its ugly head and Max had to fight feelings of guilt. He wasn’t the cause of Cassidy and Phillip’s divorce.

But are you hindering their reconciliation
?  The voice in his head sounding a lot like their Parish priest, Father Murdock.
Marriage is for life and adultery is a sin
.

Max pushed the priest’s voice out of his head and undressed. He slid into bed beside his woman and lay for another moment, studying her face feature by feature. She really was beautiful.

Cassidy slowly opened her eyes and gave him a sleepy smile. “I must have drifted off.”

The warm welcome in her gaze made him groan inwardly. He was a goner, completely done for. Max leaned over and kissed the smile off her face. Instantly, his cock came to full attention as the taste of her filled his head.

Yeah, he might be going to hell but at this moment, the pleasure was worth any price he’d have to pay later. 

Cassidy wrapped her arms around him and tangled her legs with his. Max smoothed a hand down her spine to her butt, using the action to pull her closer. As he reversed directions, he realized she wasn’t wearing underwear. This time he groaned aloud.

“I don’t think I can go slow,” he warned, kissing her throat. “I’ve missed you too much.”

“Fast is good,” she gasped, tugging him on top of her. “I’ve thought about you, about this all weekend.”

Max reached down and tugged the hem up until he pulled her gown over her head. It was cute, but he wanted skin. He buried his face between her breasts and inhaled deeply. “What are you wearing?” The delicious scent made him think of hot nights and sweaty bodies entwined together.

“Sensual…” Her breath caught as he licked a nipple, then sucked the point into his mouth. “Sensual Amber. It’s lotion.”

Max briefly wondered if she’d previously worn the lotion and the nightie for Phillip before pushing the thought out of his head. It had no place here.

Cassidy ran her fingers through his hair and lightly scratched his scalp with her nails. His whole body shuddered and broke out in bumps. He was trying to slow down, but she was driving him out of his skin. The sinuous flow of her body beneath his as she undulated combined with her throaty moans of pleasure eradicated what little control he’d maintained.

He slid a hand between them to test her wetness. Cassidy arched hard into his touch, forcing his finger deeper into her hot silkiness as she cried out, “Max!”

She was primed for him. Max nudged her legs apart, angled his cock, and took her with one sure stroke.

Cassidy yanked impatiently on the sheet and Max helped her snatch it away from them. Then she wrapped her legs around his waist, dug her nails into his ass and with her body, urged him deeper. “Good, so good,” she said.

Max pushed up on his arms and positioned himself to give her the hard, long strokes they both craved. The feel and sight of his shaft pumping in and out of her flesh was better than anything he’d ever experienced. This was what he craved. This was his addiction. No woman had ever gone to his head or blew apart his control the way Cassidy did. She made him feel like a sex god and every woman’s fantasy lover, all rolled into one.

“Max, Max, Max,” she chanted and Max felt himself grow harder.

Shit, he wasn’t going to last. With each plunge he rotated his pelvis so he ground down on Cassidy’s clit. She went ballistic beneath him, frantically arching her hips and clawing his back. Her passionate response brought out the wild man in him. He hammered into her. The box spring squeaked its protest at the abuse and the headboard slapped rhythmically against the wall.

Cassidy suddenly reared up and locked her teeth into his forearm. Her pussy clamped down tight around his dick and began to spasm. The shock of pain combined with the unbearable pleasure of her release did him in. Max buried his cock as deep in Cassidy as he could get and held the position, shaking and shuddering as wave after wave of climax racked him. 

Utterly drained, he slumped on top of Cassidy, dragging in gulps of air. One day his heart would give out from the intensity of the orgasms she wrung from him. The epitaph on his gravestone would read,
He died with a smile
.

Gradually he found the strength to roll to the side, but when he tried to move off her, Cassidy locked her arms around him and wouldn’t let go.

“Don’t move. Not yet,” she said.

Since Max was in his favorite place in the whole world—inside of Cassidy—he didn’t have any problems with her request. He shifted some of his weight to the side so he wouldn’t hamper her breathing. The smell of their lovemaking lingering in the air spoke to something primitive within him. His woman and unborn child, in his arms, held protectively beneath him. Yeah, he could get used to this.

Cassidy’s breathing slowly evened out. After giving the candles one mild, unconcerned thought, Max followed her into the land of slumber.

Chapter Eighteen

Max sauntered into the office building that housed the law firm for which he worked, a lazy grin on his face. Great sex will do that to a man. He’d been awakened in the pre-dawn hours by Cassidy’s lips on his dick. Things had only improved from there.

He entered the elevator with visions of glistening, wet skin, hungry mouths, and the intricacies of shower sex on the brain. As he exited, he bumped into Marge, one of the senior partner’s executive assistants.

“Sorry, didn’t see you there,” Max said as he caught her by the elbow to steady her, grinning down at her like a loon.

“Someone’s in a good mood,” she said.

“It’s a beautiful day and all is right in my world.”

“It’s raining,” she said dryly.

 Max hooked an arm around her waist and hefted her off her feet, planting a loud smacking kiss on her weathered cheek before setting her down gently. “Like I said, a beautiful day.”

She flushed a pretty pink and popped him on the arm. “Go on with yourself now, you rascal.”

Max winked at her and kept going. Before he got too far away, he heard Marge say, “Someone got laid last night.”

Another woman, Becky, from the sound of her voice, responded, “Any man that happy got laid this morning.”

Max glanced over his shoulder, confirming it was indeed Becky and Marge standing together in the hall discussing him, and said, “Both. Last night and this morning.” Laughing at their embarrassment at being caught gossiping, he continued on to his department.

He should call Cassidy and see how she’s doing. It had been, Max glanced at his watch, a whole hour and a half since he’d seen her last. Remembering the good-bye kiss he’d laid on her by her vehicle that could have gotten them both cited for public indecency, Max felt the grin that just wouldn’t die for long reappear and his loins stirred.

Maybe he could steal her away for lunch, or…

Max rounded the corner to see Phillip sitting in his desk chair. It was enough to kill his grin. “Forgot where your office cube is located?”

“I came to see you,” Phillip announced as he reclined in Max’s chair, the picture of comfort and ease.

“Lucky me,” Max muttered, knowing after his talk with Cassidy that he should have expected the ambush. He set his briefcase on the desk, shrugged out of his suit jacket and hung it on the hook. Still, if Phillip wanted a confrontation, he’d have to work for it. Max wasn’t in the mood to indulge him.

“Do you mind?” he asked, motioning to the computer Phillip blocked.

The other man didn’t budge. “You had sex with my wife.”

Max sighed and leaned casually against his desk, one ankle crossed over the other. “Haven’t we had this conversation already?”

Phillip’s right hand tapped impatiently on the armrest and his jaw clenched. “Don’t toy with me. You did it again,” he accused.

Keeping his expression neutral, Max asked, “Did Cassidy tell you that?” knowing damn well she hadn’t.

“She didn’t have to. I saw the evidence with my own eyes,” Phillip all but growled.

“I’ve got a newsflash for you,
friend
. What I do and who I do it with is none of your business,” Max told him simply, keeping his voice low.

“It is if you’re doing it with my wife,” Phillip lashed out.

“Your wife left you. Took off her wedding ring, established a separate residence,” Max reminded him, smiling grimly when the nerve over Phillip’s left eye began twitching. “What she does and who she does it with is
her
business.”

“Cassidy will always be my business,” Phillip said coldly.

Max took a good long look at his former friend. “What the hell happened to you, man? You had a beautiful, loving, sexy wife and you fucked it all up for what…a cheap, quick and easy lay? You deserved to be divorced.”

Phillip slowly rose from the chair. “To borrow your words,
friend
, what I do and who I do it with is none of your business. Stay the hell away from my wife.”

“And if I don’t?” Max asked curiously.

Phillip stepped closer so that only a couple of feet separated them. “Cassidy’s my wife. Yeah, she’s pissed with me right now, but she loves me. You may be able to mess with her head temporarily and use her pregnancy to play on her sympathies, but in the end she’ll always return to where she belongs—with me. I won her back before and I’ll do it again. Get in my way, I promise you’ll regret it.”

Phillip brushed past him and left Max standing there, staring into space.