His End Game (MMG #1) (31 page)

Groaning in pleasure, he shut his eyes and dropped his head back onto the patio. After a minute, he grabbed my hand.

Out of my head with lust, I touched his face and asked the only question that would stop me from being with him, like this, right now. “Are you married?”

His eyes widened in shock. “What?”

“I asked if you are married? Do you have a wife, family, children, girlfriend, boyfriend?”

I watched his eyes narrow. “What the hell kind of question is that, Ellison?”

Before he could lay into me, I yanked his head down, pressed my lips back to his and silenced him. Running my tongue over his bottom lip, I taunted him to open up. As soon as he did, I swept in to taste him. Framing his beautiful face with my hands, I pulled my body in close and pressed my breasts against his
chest. I straddled his hips and could feel his hardness right at my entrance. I wanted to absorb him, to suck him into me and never let him go.

He pulled back in protest. “Not a good idea, babe. I don’t have any protection.”

“I’m covered,” I panted, not thinking or caring about anything but what I wanted to do to him right at that moment.

Before he could get the “No” out of his mouth, I slammed down and filled myself with something I never imagined that I would have again.

“Fuuuuck,” he loudly moaned, his hands tightly gripping my hips.

I couldn’t stop. I was frenzied with years of pent up lust and love for this man.

It was only ever you
.

Lifting myself up, I drove back down again. By the third time he took over and it was as wild and magical as it had always been, if not better. He gripped me by my hips, lifted me bodily out of the hot tub and laid me down on the patio. My ankles and feet still dangled in the water. Kneeling on the top step of the hot tub, he seized my knees, spread them apart and slowly licked me from top to bottom, gently sucking on my clit while running his fingers lightly back and forth. When I was beyond wild with desire, he crawled up my body and slammed himself back into me. Caged between his forearms, every inch of our bodies was touching as we moved in unison, a perfect cadence. All I could think about was how right he felt inside me and how much I had missed this.

“You’re really here,” I whispered.

Pulling his head back, he looked down into my eyes. “I have thought about you every day,” he breathed. The second the words left his lips, I was there and, screaming out his name, I took him over with me.

We both lay panting until, slowly, he rolled off of me. Before giving him a chance to overanalyze the situation, I grabbed his hands, hoisted myself up off the patio and, pulling him up with me, led him toward my bedroom.

As we hit the living room, he tugged back. “Ellison, wait.”

“No, Max, I have waited for five freaking years and right now, I am done waiting.” I continued steering him to my room. Finally we made it to the foot of my bed. “Sit,” I commanded. He just stood there glaring at me. “Fine, have it your way.” Before he knew what was happening, I shoved him down, climbed on top of him and kissed him silly.

Turning his head away, he protested again. “Ells baby, hold up a minute.”

This made me mad. Here I was, straddling the love of my life, who I hadn’t laid eyes on for five years, and all he wanted to do was chat. “Look, if you don’t want me, then you are free to go.” I pointed to the door.

His eyes narrowed into tiny slits and I knew that he was about to toss my ass across the room, finishing this between us once and for all. Instead, he flipped me onto my back and, dropping his head an inch away from mine, growled, “Before this goes any further, Ellison, promise me that we will talk first thing tomorrow morning.”

Glancing down between us, I could see that he was more than ready to go again. “I promise.”

Before I knew what was happening, his fingers were on me and then in me. “You feel like heaven, just like I remembered,” he murmured, all signs of anger gone.

“Don’t stop,” I gasped.

He chuckled. “Don’t worry darlin’, stopping never even entered my mind.” He flipped me onto my stomach and pulled me up onto my knees. “Grab on to the top of the headboard and don’t let go,” he commanded.

Just as I grabbed the headboard, his knee pressed between my legs, moving them wider apart. I groaned in pleasure as he entered me from behind. Shifting both of his knees to the outside of mine, he forced my thighs closer together, restricting all movement.

“Are you holding on?” he strained.

“Yes,” I panted.

“Good girl.”

I wanted to ask him how this was going to work when, slowly, he started moving inside me. I felt his hands as they skimmed down my stomach, his fingers finding my center and, as he picked up speed, I realized why he wanted my legs together…..the friction. I was tightly gripped around every inch of him. My inner thighs were pressed together and rubbing him as he pulled out and pushed back in. The friction was mind blowing. This combined with his hand slowly strumming me was driving me insane. I hummed in pleasure and he picked up the pace, surging in and out of me, faster and harder. We were both on fire.

“I’m there baby,” he panted, “need you with me.” I screamed as he made me soar. Two more strokes and he shouted my name as he spilled himself inside me. Tears coursed down my face. For a moment in time I had him back. Nothing in the world would or could ever compare to Max McClellan. I was so screwed.

A ringing phone woke us up. Max was curled tightly around me and my head was resting on the inside of his arm.

“It’s yours,” I moaned. “Mine doesn’t sound like a dead goose.”

Reaching down, he snagged his phone from the pocket of his jeans. “Yo,” he groggily answered.

In order to give him some privacy, I decided to head to the bathroom. Halfway there, I heard him mutter, “No fucking way.” He sounded surprised.

I wonder who it is
?

“Thank God it’s finally over,” he said, as I made my way back to the bedroom. He tossed his phone on the foot of the bed. Then, sitting up, he swung his feet to the side of the bed. My jaw dropped in complete awe when I saw his back.

How in the hell did I miss seeing this last night
?

Spread across Max’s lower back was a stunningly beautiful tattoo of a hawk.

“Oooooo” I murmured, as I crawled across the bed to him. Reaching out, I ran my hand over it. “It’s beautiful.”

Looking over his shoulder at me, he smiled. “You like?”

“I like,” I whispered and reverently traced my fingers over it.

“Look closely at the left wing.”

I leaned down and turned my head sideways to read what was written on the left wing. It took me a minute to see it. Surprised, my eyes shot to his eyes. “It says Ellison.”

“Now look at the right wing.”

Always
.

“You had Ellison Always permanently inked on your skin? Why?”

“That’s what I need to talk to you about. Unfortunately, it now will have to wait a while longer.”

My heart dropped. “What did you just say?” I wasn’t sure I heard him correctly.

“Something has happened and I have to go take care of it. I wasn’t supposed to come to Charlotte yet, but I couldn’t stay away. I have been waiting for this for five years. It’s the reason I had to leave you in the first place. The whole story will take too long to tell you right now and I have to go.”

Too shocked to speak, I sat there with my mouth hanging open. Grabbing my hand, he continued, “I will take care of this as quickly as I can and will be back before you know it, okay?”

“No,” I shook my head. “We are supposed to talk. I promised you. You promised me that after last night we would talk, so…. talk.”

“Look at me,” he commanded.

With tears in my eyes, I looked up at him and begged, “Please don’t leave me again, Max.”

He stroked his hand across my cheek. “I’m coming back. There is nothing left now that could keep me away from you.”

“I don’t believe you….I can’t.”

“I understand,” he patiently said. “How about I text you every day and call you every night? Will that make you feel better?” I nodded yes because the knot in my throat was too big to talk around.

Pulling me into his lap, he held me tight and sweetly kissed the tears away. Then, moving down, he kissed my nose and when he got to my mouth, slipped his tongue in and slowly stroked it against mine.

Not able to control it any longer, the damn broke and the heartache came pouring out.

“Please don’t cry. I’m not leaving you, I swear.” His voice hitched. “Hopefully this will only take a week. I swear, on everything I hold dear, that I will come back to you. You have to believe me.” He buried his head in my neck and broke down. We clung to each other and cried for all of the years we had lost.

A little while later, I lay across the bed watching him get dressed and wondered if this would be the last time I would ever see him.

“We’ll talk when I get back?” he asked, worry written all over his face.

To this I nodded and shrugged.

“Can you do something for me?”

I nodded, again, trying not to cry.

“Wait for our talk before doing anything rash or deciding anything life altering?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “You don’t ask for much, do you?”

His eyes pleaded with me. “Please?”

“Fine. But you better call and text every day.”

Smiling, he kissed me one last time and was out the door.

Great, how am I going to explain that I saw Max but still don’t know what happened five years ago
?

After Max left I dragged my butt around all day moping. By the time my dad showed up I was a basket case of mixed emotions. I alternated randomly between love, sadness, anger and elation.
As soon as I spotted the caddy rolling into the driveway, I was out the door. “Are you sure you want me here?” he joked as I helped him lug in three of his suitcases.

“I don’t think I’ve ever needed a dad more than I do right now.”

“Hey,” he paused. “What’s happened pretty girl?”

Walking into the living room, I sat down in my favorite chair and curled my legs under me. “Well, last night I decided that I needed a soak in the hot tub. So, I poured myself a glass of wine and hopped in. Then, I decided that more wine and music were a must. When I got back out to the tub, guess who had his gorgeous rear parked in it?”

He smirked. “Either Dillon or Max.”

“Max…in all his naked glory.”

“Did you kick him out?”

I looked into his stern fatherly face and squirmed. “Uh, not exactly.”

“Did you happen to be in all your glory too?”

This made me flinch. “Kind of.”

“Tell me you did not sleep with the man who has left you heartbroken for all these years. The man who, without the courtesy of a word, note or sign to the supposed ‘love of his life,’ disappeared off of the face of the damned planet. Tell me you were smarter than that, Ellison?”

Wow, he is really angry about this…

“Gee, when you put it
that
way, it sounds really bad, doesn’t it?” I winced.

“Jesus, honey, what am I going to do with you?”

“He was my first everything dad,” I quietly replied. “He’s all I have wanted for five years.”

“And now?”

I shrugged.

“Well, at least tell me you were smart enough to use protection.”

My eyes bugged in shock when he said this. Having the sex talk with Aunt Elizabeth was bad enough, but as a twenty-three year old woman with her
dad
?

Hell no
.

Taking my silence to mean that I had unprotected sex infuriated him. “Are you shitting me Ellie?” I had never seen him this mad. Looking around the room, he asked, “Where is Max now? Why isn’t he here with you? This is not completely on you. It’s on him too.”

Reaching out, I grabbed his hand. “Relax, dad. No need to call out the sex police. I’m on the pill.”

“That’s beside the point, Ellie. Are you one hundred percent sure that Max is clean? Just because you didn’t sleep around doesn’t mean that he didn’t. Did he show you his test results? And where the hell is he now?”

Of course, none of this ever occurred to me. “He had to go, I faintly replied. He said that he would explain everything to me when he returned. He’s supposed to call and text every day that he is away.” I was started to fidget under his scrutiny.