Her Best Friend's Brother (3 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Max’s words rang in her head. She tried to still her quivering limbs, tried to rid herself of the haze of desire fogging her brain. “Can’t we talk about this?”

“What’s to talk about.”

“Max, I don’t want you to regret—”

“I’d never regret you,” Max growled, glaring down at her. “Look at me,” he ordered.

She jerked her gaze back to his, only then realizing she’d been staring at his cock. At the broad, ruddy head of him and how the shower water looked as it trickled down the length.

“I want you to be my wife. Marry me, Chloe.”

She closed her eyes and leaned against him, clamping her mouth closed because she wanted to scream yes! But if he changed his mind come morning. If he’d had more to drink than he’d said. If he asked only because of the magic of the wedding and the romance of the island… She’d be devastated. “No,” she whispered, her hands finding his length and closing over him.

Max braced a hand against the wall by her shoulder, a shudder racking his frame.

“Two weeks,” he growled. “Stay here with me. Two weeks. Let me convince you.”

Two weeks of him and her and—this? Her body nearly melted on the spot. “Max…” Her thumb found the rich, wetness at the tip of him and she couldn’t help herself. She’d never gone down on a man in her life but she wanted Max to be her first.

Before he could argue, she lowered her head and closed her lips over the turgid tip.

“Chloe.”

She bent awkwardly to suck him, but Max’s hands guided her back, until her calves hit a bench seat in the shower. She sat with a plop and wrapped her hands around his hairy thighs, tugging him as deep as she could manage.

“You’re going to marry me. I won’t accept less.”

The words were bit out above her head, a challenge if she’d ever heard one. But she wouldn’t be bullied into doing something that might ruin the best thing that had ever happened to her.

Still holding his cock in her mouth, she lifted her lashes to look at him. A deep, belly growl erupted from him, and he palmed her jaw, his gaze holding hers as he urged her to go down on him again.

“You’ve never done this have you.”

Her face exploded in color and she pulled back, embarrassed. “I did something wrong?”

Max closed his eyes briefly,
that
smile hovering on his lips.

“Nothing. I just love that I’m your first.”

He was her first. In more ways than one. But he’d noticed?

She stared at him and realized that, yeah, he knew. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t…”

“I’m so glad I did. Even if I can’t believe you made it through college with your virginity intact.”

Some things were worth saving, and as a woman who’d always known there was more to sex than just sex…

“I’m thrilled to be the man you gave it to. But,” he pressed, kissing her forehead, her temple, that little spot beneath her ear, “if you’re willing to sleep with me, Chloe, why not agree to marry me.”

Since he’d resumed their lovemaking, she clasped his cock in her hands and fisted him, learning the feel of him. “I just want you to be sure,” she said.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything,” he said, straightening.

She ran her hands up the solid length of him and lowered her head, taking him into her mouth so that
she surrounded his cock. Hands, mouth. Warmth. He swelled even more. She felt it.

“Ah, love. You’re killing me.”

Chloe focused on him, swirling her tongue around his head, dipping just the tip of her tongue into the dip and teasing the ridge until the salty, manly taste of him emerged. He tasted musky and rich, unusual, but not bad.

Max let her play for a few long minutes, his breathing getting louder and harsher above her head. She was amazed how turned on she was getting from going down on him, able to feel the trickle of moisture between her legs growing as she responded to the act of pleasuring him.

“Enough. I can’t take more”

She’d climaxed inside Max’s mouth and she wanted to feel him do the same inside hers. When he gently palmed her face and tried to make her stop she refused, humming out a protest that left him groaning and gasping.

She took him as deeply as she could, slowly pulled her lips off his length until she reached the painfully swollen tip and nursed it like a lollipop before surging down on him again to repeat the move. But the next time she reached the tip of him, Max began to plunge his hips in shallow strokes and she knew he wasn’t able to hold off any longer. She gripped his rear and held on, not about to let him cheat her of this momentous occasion, holding her mouth open, lips gripping him with every thrust, her tongue sucking the essence of him with every withdrawal.

“Chloe. Ah, love. Let me pull out.”

She shook her head and suckled him harder, teased and flicked and rubbed until Max exploded, his groans filling her ears as his semen filled her mouth, ran over her chin. He made a few more shallow thrusts, moaning as he emptied himself completely.

Max bathed them both quickly in the aftermath before shutting off the water and lifting her to carry to his bed wrapped in a large, fluffy towel. She glanced at the clock and hated what she saw. Time was ticking away too fast, closing in on the time when she would have to leave Max and this wonderful fantasy behind.

Max lowered her to the mattress and instantly flung the edges of the towel to her sides to bare her to his gaze.

“Beautiful. So unbelievably beautiful, Chloe. I’ve waited a lifetime for you.”

She felt exposed and vulnerable beneath his intense gaze, but just as beautiful as he claimed her to be. “Me too,” she said simply.

“Then don’t deny either of us,” he ordered as he lowered himself to lay beside her. “Stay.”

She turned her head, a moan rising in her throat when he followed the words with his fingers playing with her puckered nipple. She couldn’t possibly climax again, but her body still responded to his touch. “My room,” she whispered.

“You don’t need your room. I’m asking you to stay with me here. In my suite. It’s why I booked it,” he added.

Why he’d booked it? “I don’t understand.”

“Em told me you were coming to the wedding alone. I hoped… I want you to stay here with me, Chloe. Spend the next two weeks here. Just you and me.”

It was a lot to take in. But the fact he’d come to Aruba so prepared for them getting together after all these years said something didn’t it? “Max, it’s a very generous offer but— to be honest, I can’t afford to stay. I worked a second job just to afford this trip.”

“You won’t need a penny. I’ll cover you.”

“But—”

“No buts.” He grasped her hands and lifted them to his lips. “You and me, Chloe.”

“I can’t think. I need to think,” she whispered, wanting to say yes. Scream it. But she’d never done an impulsive thing in her life.

Until tonight,
her mind argued.

And when in Rome… “Okay,” she whispered, her pulse pounding so hard she heard it squishing in her ears.

“Okay?”

She nodded, breathless. “I’ll stay.”

CHAPTER SIX

Max made love to her again after she’d agreed to stay and a few hours later she opened her sleep-deprived eyes to find him shutting off an alarm. “What time is it?”

“Too early to do much. Where’s your hotel key? I’ll go pack your things and bring them here.”

And have Max see her granny panties? “No, I’ll pack my stuff,” she said, forcing herself to roll over. Her body ached in places she didn’t know she had, and she moaned softly in complaint.

“Where’s the key,” Max asked again, smoothing his hand down her back to her rear in a long, slowly massage.

“Oh, that feels good,” she said, unable to pry her eyes open.

“Chloe, the key?”

“Purse,” she mumbled, sighing at the way the eight hundred count sheets felt against her skin.

She must have dozed back off because she didn’t remember Max leaving, or his return later with her stuff in tow. All she remembered was him sliding between the sheets once more and pulling her close, snuggling her against his long frame, his fingers tangling a bit in her wild, sex-tossed hair. “Max?”

“Hmm?”

She snuggled closer and moved her leg so that her thigh rested atop his. “In case I forget to tell you, thank you.”

Max’s lips brushed over her forehead.

“My pleasure.”

His pleasure. Hers.

She blinked and the room slowly came into focus as her bleary eyes finally faced the day and the decision she’d made to stay with Max. Her very Christian parents would not have approved of her staying with Max, nor would his parents approve for that matter, unless she accepted his proposal of marriage and made things right.

“I can practically feel your mind whirling,” Max murmured into her hair. “What are you thinking about?”

She raised herself up on an elbow and stared down at him, uncomfortably aware of his gaze roaming over her bed-head and smudged raccoon eyes. “This is crazy. Right?”

“Define crazy,” he countered.

“You. Me. Here. I mean, it’s wonderful and all but—”

“But?”

“But…it’s crazy. Right?”

Max shifted and rolled to his side, the move forcing her back onto the mattress so that he stared down at her.

“You’re letting your fears and doubts overwhelm what we feel for each other, Chloe.” He brushed a curl from her face and tucked it behind her ear. “I’ve waited years for you. For this. And if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll admit you’ve waited for it too.”

“I told you I have, but what about when we go home? When we’re not in paradise anymore and reality settles in? Will we still feel the same way as we do now?” Because that’s what she feared most. That once they were home and back into their daily grinds, Max would come to his senses and change his mind. “You’ve known me for years but you haven’t said anything. Haven’t done anything.”

“I told you why. We both had some growing up to do.”

“But what about since then?” she demanded. “What if all of this is just the sand and sun and our desire for each other, and it’s not…real.”

“How do I prove to you that it is real,” he asked. “How do I show you how much I love you? Chloe, I’ve asked you to marry me. To spend the rest of your life with me. Isn’t that proof?”

It was. At least, it should be. It should be plenty of proof. But— “I’m just so confused.”

Max lowered his gaze and she watched as he very deliberately reached up and snagged the sheet covering her chest, tugging it low with slow precision.

“I’m not confused at all,” he murmured. “I know exactly what I want. What I desire. Who I love.”

Max’s lips closed over the puckered peak of her breast, his tongue flicking her nipple before suckling her deeper into his warm mouth.

She slipped her fingers into the length of his cool hair, the strands as soft and silky as his mouth tugging at her. Every pull sent a sharp jab of desire shooting to her core, and she realized that in all of her life she had never experienced anything as wondrous and tantalizing as making love with Max. She’d never desired a man to this extent, never wanted to be with a man the way she wanted to be with Max.

But was that all this was? Sex? Lust? The fulfillment of a dream that would wane now that it had come true?

“Stop over-thinking,” Max whispered against her sternum as he kissed his way across her chest to lave her other breast.

“I can’t help it,” she whispered, closing her eyes when he captured the peak and suckled her.

“You know me, Chloe. I’d never intentionally hurt you. What do you have to be afraid of,” he whispered.

He moved over her and her thighs parted, her body and heart accepting him without question. If only her mind could do that.

When she didn’t respond Max stilled and lifted his head to look at her, holding her gaze and refusing to let her look away.

“You are mine. You’ve been mine for as long as I can remember. I’m not going anywhere. Especially not now,” he said, nudging her sex with his cock, slipping into her inch by inch.

The moment he impaled her, Max wrapped her in his arms and shoved off the bed, carrying her upward with him as he sat back on his heels with her atop him. The new position used gravity to drive him deeper into her, and she moaned, filled and deliciously stretched.

“Mine,” Max whispered, using his hands in her hair to guide her mouth to his, claiming it as thoroughly as he claimed her body.

Chloe was at his mercy, every pull of his hands on her hips driving her senses higher. She’d wrapped her legs around him when he’d carried her atop him, but now she loosed her hold and dug her heels into the mattress, grinding against him with every thrust.
“Max.”

Max growled and shifted onto his knees, ending her ability to control their movements and forcing her to cling to him, not only to keep him inside of her, but
also to maintain her hold around his body. Her thighs strained with the effort it took to hold onto him, her fingers digging into his shoulders and back as he thrust up into her and drove her higher. Higher.

Sweat beaded her skin and his but she didn’t care. All that mattered was the thick, searing heat of him and the words he muttered against her skin. Words of beauty and love, a future.

“Come on, baby. Come for me.”

The huskily growled order shattered her senses, surprising her with bluntness and yet tantalizing her already scandalized senses because she was getting down and dirty with Max. Naked. With Max.

But for how long?