To the Max (24 page)

“I loved it too. I liked your taste in my mouth.”

Then he turned her, slowly, and caressed her from her neck to the small of her back to her ass, continuing until he reached her core. He whispered in her ear, “How do you want it, baby?”

His huge dick was pulsing in the crack of her ass. She fought to find her voice. “Do I get to choose?”

“I aim to please.”

“I want to watch you.”

He turned her around to face him. “And you get whatever you want from me. In whichever form you want it.”

He took her mouth, first sweetly, licking and nipping her lips, coaxing her while he held her by the nape, then stronger and more demanding, his cock poised at her entrance.

“You sore from last night?”

That was her way out on a silver platter, yet she found herself shaking her head.

“I’ll be gentle, baby.”

She didn’t know how she’d ended up in a sex swing, naked, with Angus the Highlander and his dick nudging her open folds, but she couldn’t get down by herself. She might as well enjoy the ride. She couldn’t believe she was going to utter these words: “Do you even know how this thing works?”

Her voice was just a whisper. A husky pant. His was rougher and male and so frigging sexy. “Not totally sure, but I’ve Photoshopped enough sex-swing positions. I think we can manage.”

* * * *

“Being Alden’s Halloween Queen’s minion is damn hard,” Christy complained as she blew out her bangs and dragged a sackful of Halloween candy to the table, where there were a bunch of empty bowls. “And do we really have to dress up?”

“Yes,” Holly and Sophie said at the same time while carving the last pumpkins. “Tradition.”

Halloween was the busiest holiday for Annie. Her mom had started the tradition by dressing up, decorating the lawn in front of the management office in her condo complex, and always having the best candy in town, along with a kick-ass performance. She called it public relations and marketing, but the truth of the matter was she enjoyed the whole shebang.

“It’s fun. The kids love it,” Annie said as she dug all the stuff for decorating the front door and the garden from the closet. Cobwebs, headstones, skulls, big spiders. She even had a fog machine.

She’d thought about canceling this year, with the renovations and all, or moving the whole show to Max’s, but as Holly had said, it was tradition. What she was going to do, put flyers all over town informing everyone that she was shacking up with Max? Not to mention what that would do in the gossip department.

“It’s your turn to wear the skeleton costume,” Holly warned her while she was finishing the last jack-o’-lantern.

Annie was just starting to show, but she had to give it a shot. “Pregnant women do not make great skeletons. And I may puke.”

“Sorry, but no way, José. You haven’t puked since you moved to Max’s. If you can be in the same room with this amount of candy and not lose your stomach, you can wear the mask.”

“Don’t look at me,” Sophie said, shaking her head. “I did it last year.”

Christy was totally at a loss. “What’s the problem?”

“We have four basic costumes that we update and tweak a bit every year: zombie, skeleton, witch, and devil. Not cute, sexy outfits. We try to keep it scary and gritty. Lots of blood for the zombie. Open wounds and hanging flesh. Gross moles and crooked nose for the witch. That sort of thing. The skeleton one has a mask, a very realistic skull that molds to your face. It’s hot, sweaty, and itchy. Frigging claustrophobic too. For some reason, kids love that mask, so we can’t skip it. No one wants to be the skeleton, so it rotates. This year is my turn,” Annie explained with a sigh.

On the plus side, she wouldn’t have to spend hours trying to get all the paint off her face. And the wig and the hat for the witch outfit weren’t a jolly ride either.

“We can swap if you want,” Christy offered.

“No. You’re new at this. I don’t want you to run for your life next year. The Halloween Queen needs her minions.”

“Okay, but I should go home to help Cole pass out candy. I’m sure I could dress up like the most terrifying monster and he still would be more intimidating than me.”

Holly waved at her. “Don’t worry. Every single kid and their mom knows the Bowens gather at their aunt’s. The lines there are legendary, second only to Annie’s.” Aunt Maggie ordered Halloween candy from the shop a month in advance. Always had, since the boys were small. “Although this year, with James married and Cole engaged, maybe the line will be shorter,” Holly continued while they started to move the stuff outside to decorate the lawn.

Christy snorted. “I doubt that. Remember the mayhem at Sweets and Tweets last time Max was there?”

Annie was sure the Bowens would get more than their fair share of traffic. Which, surprise, surprise, bothered the hell out of her. It hadn’t been twenty-four hours since she’d first had sex with Max, and here she was, feeling jealous.

“I brought all the ingredients for our Halloween punch,” Sophie interjected, distracting her from her thoughts. “We could do one nonalcoholic batch for you.”

“Sure, bring it on.”

Their Halloween punch was green. It had smoke coming out and plastic eyeballs and spiders swimming in it. Parents trailing their kids were treated to it after the candy.

“How’s it going?” Annie asked Sophie.

She shrugged, a sigh escaping her throat. “Going.”

That didn’t sound so good. “We miss you.”

“I miss you guys too, but I promised I would give it my best shot. It takes time and work.”

Yeah, Annie figured getting a broken marriage back on track wasn’t an easy feat.

“We’re here for you. You know that, right?” Holly said.

Sophie nodded.

As they continued the preparations, a familiar truck parked on her street and Max and Cole jumped out of it.

“We have reinforcements,” Christy announced with a big smile.

Annie watched Cole and Max approach. They were so different and yet so alike. Cole had his hair in a military cut and his usual regimented, rather severe demeanor. Max, with his Mohawk, long tresses, and beard looked like a frigging Viking. And that damn sexy, permanent smile on his face, like he was flirting with life. Nevertheless, now that she knew Max better, she saw Cole’s stubbornness in him. Both were possessive, both determined when they made up their minds.

She couldn’t wrap her mind around what Max had told her. The three brothers were so much alike, and they did resemble Nate so much, she would have never guessed Max wasn’t biologically his.

Cole held his hand out to Christy, who ran to him. His face transformed, as it always did when he was with her.

Max came straight at Annie. “We figured you’d need help, so here we are.”

He cupped her nape and kissed her. It was a short kiss, but it didn’t leave room for any doubt. Everyone was staring at them. The street was deserted; it was just her friends and his brother around, but still. She wasn’t ready for them to know. Heck, she wasn’t ready for herself to know.

He obviously had other plans. “Let’s start. I’ll take care of the fog machine and the pyrotechnics.”

Cole snorted. “No fucking way. You’ll blow us up. I’ll handle the pyrotechnics.”

By the time they were done, the lawn at the entrance of the complex looked like the Addams family playground. Fog. Several smoky cauldrons. Cobwebs with huge spiders. Dancing skeletons. Jack-o’-lanterns. Fake flames.

“Time to get dressed,” Holly said.

“See you later, Ace,” Max whispered against her lips. Then he and Cole left.

“You are so spilling your guts,” Holly said as soon as they entered the house and the door was closed.

“What do you mean?” she asked nonchalantly, working on the outfits.

Silence.

She lifted her gaze and found her friends staring at her, their eyebrows high.

Annie sighed and sat down. “Okay. We slept together. And had sex,” she specified. “It happened yesterday.” Several times, actually. And today in the morning on that damn sex swing. Not that she was going to bring that up.

Christy’s smile was huge. “I knew this was going to happen.”

Really? Because it’d been a surprise to Annie. So much so that she was still shocked.

Sophie lifted her arms. “What the hell has happened these past months while I’ve been out of touch?”

“Annie moved to Max’s because of the renovations here,” Holly explained. “Then her boobs grew and one thing led to the other, and bam, she started banging him.”

“Holly!”

She pointed at the wall clock and began dressing up. “What? We’re short on time. How was Angus the Highlander in the sack?”

“Who the hell is Angus the Highlander?” Sophie asked again, looking from Annie to Holly and then back.

“A Scottish barbarian with a two-foot dick who fucks like a god,” Holly offered.

Sophie’s eyes opened even wider.

“A hero from the romance book club,” Annie said and then addressed Holly. “And I’m not telling you how Max is in the sack.”

“You don’t have to. He looks like a sex god; he must fuck like one.”

Holly didn’t know the half of it. Max was a spectacular lover. Giving. Generous. Patient. With the shortest recovery time ever. Annie had the bruises to prove it. She was going to have to start exercising to keep up with him. On the other hand, he was the one doing all the work.

“What does he think about, you know, the pregnancy?” Christy asked. “Did you tell him who the father is?”

Annie nodded, pulling up the glowing skeleton costume. “He said he can handle it. But I’d rather keep a low profile. I don’t want everyone knowing about us. This is too sudden.” Too risky, she meant. She could so easily lose her heart to him. And not only that; if something went wrong, she couldn’t bear people thinking Max had left her with a baby on the way. It wasn’t fair.

“And? Now what? You together?”

“Now we’re going to get ready for Halloween,” Annie stated to cut off the conversation. She didn’t want to talk about that. Heck, she didn’t even want to think about it.

She must have looked scared enough because for once, her friends didn’t argue.

They finished dressing, and while they did their best to get Holly looking like a proper zombie and Christy like a devil, Sophie, already witched up, made the Halloween punch. She also attended to the early comers, all small children that the show would scare too much.

By the first true doorbell ring of the evening, they were ready and in place. Annie, with the damn mask on and holding a scythe, offered the candy bowls to the kids. Sophie mixed her smoking caldron in the foggy garden and laughed creepily. Christy, in the middle of the pyrotechnics, held a pitchfork, and Holly dragged her foot like one of the walking dead. They ramped up the show for the older kids and went easy on the smaller ones.

After two hours, they were truly walking dead, they had one hour to go, and they still had to dismantle the whole show. Suddenly, Annie noticed the devil in the garden was kissing a big guy in black leather pants and a long leather coat. Cole?

“Good evening, Ace,” she heard from behind her. She turned to find Max there, dressed in black and leather like Cole, but looking much sexier in her opinion.

“How did you know it was me?”

He grinned and brushed his lips with hers, which she barely noticed because of the mask and the panic attack she was having. “I know my woman. What do you think about our outfits?”

“Vampire killers?”

Max shook his head. “I’m Neo. Cole is Trinity. Don’t tell him, though.”

She couldn’t stifle her giggle. “What are you doing here?”

“We left James and Tate holding the fort at Aunt Maggie’s. We came to help.”

Oh hell. They were staying? She needed a paper bag because she was going to hyperventilate.

“Trick or treat!” two kids interrupted them.

Apparently she didn’t have time for panicking now.

She played her part. Max played his intimidating role perfectly.

Before Max had appeared, only parents approached the Halloween punch. After, even women who didn’t accompany children hovered around them. Not them—Max. Giving him looks and sweet-talking him. He was polite without encouraging them in any way, but Annie didn’t like it. The lines at the Bowens had bothered her without seeing them; now that she was experiencing the boobs-and-asses parade firsthand, she liked it even less.

When the trick-or-treating dwindled, Cole and Max dismantled the whole thing in a blink of an eye.

“Come on,” Max said, holding Annie’s hand and taking her to the car. “Let’s go home.”

She was too tired to fight him, so she removed her mask and went along.

After they arrived, he went to feed Tango and Cash, when the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it,” Annie said, opening the door.

“Trick or treat!” Two scantily dressed vamps were standing on the porch.

Man, she needed to start using the peephole. Pronto.

She felt like slamming the door in their faces, but she took a deep breath. Closed her eyes. “Max, it’s for you.”

“Who’s there?” he asked, coming to the hallway.

That was a tricky question. She glanced at the girls and pondered. “Racy Red Riding Hood and Pixie Lust Fairy. Or maybe Busty German Beer Maid and Horny Robin da Hood, not sure.”

“What?”

She’d spent the whole evening with a mask on her head. She was sweaty, her hair a mess. Her very unflattering costume covered her from head to toe, and under it she wore regular clothes.

She turned around and bolted upstairs. No way was she staying there to see those skanks flirting with the man she was sleeping with.

* * * *

As the girls took a step forward and caressed his chest, Max moved back with a flinch, not wanting their hands on him.

He was fucking pissed that they had come knocking at his door, trying to put their hands on him, disrespecting Annie like this and coming onto him. A month ago they would have been welcome. Now? Now he couldn’t even bare the thought of anyone touching him except Annie.

He got rid of the girls right away and climbed the stairs two at a time. She wasn’t in her room, nor in his, so he knocked on the bathroom door.