The Soldier's Poisoned Heart (True Love and Deception) (Victorian Historical Romance Book 1) (23 page)

“No, I have him. Thanks, Madelaine.” Tiffany steps around the car and grabs Max's arm, checking his face for any lasting damage. A long time ago, this maid had a problem with Tiffany. Because of her skin. Over the years, though, Madelaine came to terms with Tiffany being the only good friend Max had. “It's just a few small scrapes from the rocks. Come on, let's get inside and we can watch a movie.”

“And drink?” He asks with his most pitiful voice.

“And drink,” Tiffany answers.

Cooper House has been in the Cooper family since before the country was founded, and its decoration does not hide that fact. Paintings of the patriarchs of the family throughout the ages dot the walls and the architecture is similar to that found in Washington DC. Old. Colonial. A Roman revival in some areas. It's worth more than most of the houses in the area, and though the land it sits on is still sprawling with beautiful gardens, most of the farmland that the Coopers once owned have since been sold and turned into suburban neighborhoods.

A long time ago, many of Tiffany's ancestors worked on that farmland. The Cooper family were some of the kinder slaveholders, but they were still slaveholders. She's never told her mother this, because she knew it would become a source of drama.

Acting as a gate between these neighborhoods and the Cooper estate are large, lush old forests, long since protected by Max's great-great-grandfather. Not one Cooper man has been willing to fell even one tree since then, and so the suburban neighborhood growth has slowed to a crawl. The forest grows, coming nearer to this old house every year.

The second living room, far to the back of the house and overlooking the large swimming pool where Max taught Tiffany and Charlotte how to swim when they were eight, is where Max spends most of his free time. His computer is shoved into the corner, barely used since they left high school. In the middle of the room is a treadmill, used daily now. To the back is a new bar, added just this year when Max turned 21. It's always stocked with the hard stuff, though most of the more expensive liquor is full. Gifts from his father.

“What's your poison, Rich Boy?”

“Stop calling me that! And give me some vodka. Lemon.” Max throws himself onto his leather couch, covering his eyes from the light hanging from the ceiling. Tiffany grabs a fifth from the bar and another one for herself.

“To heartbreak, she says, handing the vodka bottle to her best friend and crush since she was eleven. Oh yes, she knows of heartbreak. She knows it well.

“Yeah, whatever,” he replies, holding up his vodka. They both take a long swig before Tiffany sits herself in the leather recliner and flips on the TV. She glances at Max's face, noticing his puffy eyes and disheveled brown hair.

For hours they watch reruns of old TV shows, drinking and drinking until both fifths are gone and both of them drunk. Halfway through their liquor, Max pulls Tiffany over to the couch and lays his head in her lap. She brushes her fingers against his cheek softly, a little thrill coursing through her.

“Tiffany,” Max says. He looks up at her, his green eyes serious. The little flecks of amber dotting his eyes sparkle in the light. “Do you think I'll be alone forever?”

Tiffany thinks for a second. She could take advantage of this situation, use Max's frail state to convince him to date her. It's what she's wanted for so long, and it's the kind of advice her friends would give her.

Biting her bottom lip, she considers kissing him there and now. In the end, though, her conscience wins out over her heart. What kind of scumbag uses someone like that? “No, I don't think so, Max. Charlotte might just not be the right girl for you. You did cheat on her, after all.”

“It was after my mom died! I was distraught and drunk, and she was in India and she wasn't even answering my calls! I didn't even do anything more than kiss the other girl! If she had been here...”

“Hey! I know. You don't have to explain this to me, I already know all of that. But she doesn't have to forgive you, and you should probably move on. What you're doing, drinking yourself to oblivion every time she tells you to fuck off? It's not healthy. It's going to kill you.”

Max lays his head back down on her lap, enjoying her warmth as he mulls over her words. Tiffany watches him as every emotion he feels displays itself on his red face and hopes that he'll at least remember her words after he sobers up. That's more important than him making any sort of life choice right now.

Pushing himself up, Max stares hard into Tiffany's eyes. They're green like his, though more gray than emerald. Her dark skin makes them look all the more dazzling.

His eyebrows knit together with worry and sadness and probably a thousand other emotions, each one of them battling for control of his body. He lifts his hand, then sets it back down. He looks to the floor blushing, and Tiffany's eyes widen with confusion. She wishes he would do something, anything. Claim her.

His hand brushes her jaw, pushing errant hair away from her features.

Even though Tiffany knows these touches are the touches of a drunk man, she relishes in them. When she was a teen she had fantasies about being touched this way, his soft skin exploring her body. She gulps back a small sob as she watches him search her eyes.

When he kisses her, she doesn't resist. She can't. Her whole body accepts the pressure and sensation, the tingles and heat that arise from between her legs almost instantly. She stops breathing for a moment and melts into him, too drunk and too full of years of desire to pull away. Her hands clutch his shirt. His soft, warm lips press against hers, and they open and their tongues tangle.

Tiffany might be a wild child. She might party hard and drink too much, but she's a virgin. She's saving herself for the one man who has ever kept her interested for more than five minutes, the one man who has protected her and guided her and taught her so much. For the longest time, she thought her patience was in vain. As he presses against her and lays her back onto the couch, she can't help thinking that it was worth the wait. He smells of liquor and his lips still taste like his salty tears, but this moment is so heavenly.

Good things come to those who wait.

His mouth leaves her lips and finds her neck. It still smells of her perfume and her sweat from dancing with her girlfriends. Max licks these memories away, finding her skin salty but also sweet. His mouth surrounds a chunk of black skin, sucking in hard and breaking the blood vessels that will leave a lovely bruise.

A shiver goes down Tiffany's back. Her arms wrap around the boy of her dreams, her hands pulling his shirt up and holding him tight. Teeth graze her flesh as she thinks to herself,
the whole world could end right now and I would be happy
.

Max sloppily slides a hand up Tiffany's shirt. It's so tight that his hand is pinned to her, forced to spread out and feel every part of her slender body that it can reach. His hand grazes beneath her right breast. Frustrated with the tightness, both hands tear the shirt open.

“Max!” Tiffany gasps, and then she laughs. She can buy another shirt. The look on his face is serious, lustful, manly. Not the boyish face of the Max she grew up with. No, this is the face of a man who wants to fuck her brains out, and she is more than happy to oblige.

“Do you like it rough?”

Tiffany blushes, but she has no answer for his question. “I-”
Shit, I don't want to say I'm a virgin. That'd be weird.
“I don't know! I've never tried it before.”

Max growls into her neck and bites hard. She gasps again, her toes curling and her nipples getting hard. “Do you want to find out?”

She only nods in response, her womanhood pulsating heat and desire. Tiffany can't wait for Max to touch her there, to feel her heat and her wetness. She bites her bottom lip and arches her back as Max tears away the rest of her shirt, leaving her topless aside from the tattered fabric draped over her arms.

He moves down, his mouth focusing on her breasts. Delicious globs of flesh, the perfect size for his hands. Her nipples are stiff and sensitive, each lick and nibble sending a shock through Tiffany and making her clitoris twitch. She's never felt it twitch before. It's pleasant, in a way.

His fingers scratch down her sides, leaving raised trails, dark streaks that claim her as his domain. Beautiful, territorial, sexy. Max's hands reach behind her back and pull her chest towards him, allowing him a different angle for suckling on her beautiful pink nipple.

Kissing her collar bone, he moves down again. His hands hold her thick thighs apart, spreading them wide and exposing her hidden flesh. He pushes her leather skirt up and exposes her panties. They are sheer pink and lacy with a damp spot from her desire.

“God damn,” Max groans. “I can't wait to taste you, Tiffany.”

Tiffany is embarrassed by the comment at first, her face flushing dark red. When Max dips his head into her skirt and nibbles at her pussy lips through her panties, though, she stops caring and gives in. His large fingers push aside her thin panties. Max examines her luscious pussy lips, pulling them wide and exposing her stiff clitoris. The way her juices for droplets on what little hair she has down there, and how it drips down to her ass, drives Max wild with desire. Her pubic hair is as black as night, curly and wild, which shouldn't be a surprise for him but somehow is.

Max dips his tongue into her folds, only probing her for now. Tasting her, savoring the experience of being with his best friend. Thoughts of Charlotte are miles away for right now, his mind solely focused on exploring this black goddess below him.

Bringing a finger to her folds, he drags it up and then down on both sides. It teases around her clitoris, never fully touching it. Tiffany gasps, raising her ass to try and trick him into touching her and giving her some release.

Max doesn't give in, enjoying her desire and the torture he's inflicting. A wicked smile crosses his face and he licks her folds again, enjoying her taste. As with his finger, he drags his tongue around the velvet inner skin but never once touches her most pleasurable spot.

“Please,” Tiffany begs, her fingers tangling in his hair. “Please just lick me, please!”

Max watches her face contort with frustration before finally giving her what she wants. His tongue slips over the hood covering her clit, and Tiffany jolts upright with an “OH!”

She tugs at his hair, directing his mouth to apply pressure in certain spots. His tongue darts all around, still teasing her, only sometimes pressing against her clitoris. She moans and whines and grunts, trying to get her pleasure.

Max stops and pulls away, setting a finger at her entrance. He inserts it and Tiffany makes a face.

“What's wrong?”

“I'm- well, I'm a virgin.” Crap. She didn't want to tell him that.

Max pulls away, his eyes wide. “Seriously? You have had a ton of boyfriends!”

Blushing, Tiffany shrugs. “I was waiting for the right time.”

Drunken realization dawns on Max. She was waiting for him. A renewed hunger for her overtakes him. Max pushes himself up and kisses her with passion, his hand cradling her head and pulling her close.

His finger then falls to where it was, and it's inserted again. Slowly, he enters her, not wanting to hurt her. He pumps his finger in and out until the discomfort on her face turns to pleasure, her mouth open wide in an O shape.

“Do you like this?” He asks, eying her for any sort of negative reaction. She nods, holding her breath and letting it out slowly. “Do you want me to... to take your virginity?”

Tiffany thinks for a second. It's what she's wanted most of her life, but she's drunk now. Maybe it's not the best time.

In the end, her drunk lust wins. She nods. “Yes. I want you to be my first.”

Max tries to sweep Tiffany up into his arms, to carry her into his bedroom and make her first time more special than just on the couch in his living room. He puts his arms below her body and heaves her up, but the alcohol in his system causes him to swerve and fall over, nearly cracking his head on a bookshelf.

Tiffany gasps and pushes herself out of his arms before dragging him back to the couch. “What were you thinking?” She asks, surprised and worried.

“I wanted to take you to my bedroom and you know, make it special.”

Tiffany looks at Max with wide eyes, and then she bursts out laughing. “You don't have to carry me around and be romantic for it to be special! You just have to be there!”

Max gives Tiffany a quivering bottom lip.

“Come on, let's both walk to your bedroom. It's safer that way.”

Tiffany helps Max back to his feet and then leads the way to his room. It's up a flight of stairs and past a few other rooms in Max's huge family mansion.

Trying to save face, Max decides to at least wrap his arm around her waist while they climb the stairs. Tiffany giggles and then stops before they enter the room. Max ogles at her, her breasts still uncovered. They look wonderful even though they are small. She opens the door, then looks to Max and lifts up her arms.

“Alright, carry me from here!”

Max laughs, then swings her small body up into his arms. His muscles ache from the beer, but he carries her to his huge bed and sets her down gently with a kiss before spreading her legs again. He gets between them, dragging his hands up and down her skin.