To the Max (31 page)

She shook her head. It was actually because they’d been apart that she’d realized how much she wanted him with her.

“Really? Because I expected you to. I even have a list of reasons why we should stay together.”

“No. No more freak-outs from me.” She was terrified, no two ways about it, but she was seeing this thing with Max through. “I have my reservations, but we are giving this a go.”

“Reservations about me?”

She shook her head, ironing out the frown that had appeared on his face. She had concerns about them being able to make this work, but now was not the moment to discuss the matter. She had to welcome her man.

They kissed for a very long time. She could feel Max’s erection, huge and throbbing, but he didn’t rush anything, showering her with soft touches and sweet words.

She went on her knees and took off the shirt she had on. His shirt. At his questioning glance, she lifted her shoulders. “I’m proving it to you. No more freak-outs. I want you.”

His expression went fierce. “You have me, baby, never doubt it, but you need to want me for the long haul. I won’t accept anything less.”

She nodded. She knew.

Her extremely sensitive breasts felt even heavier now under Max’s intense scrutiny. She sat on him, and both groaned at the contact. He was so hard and velvet at the same time, and she needed him so much. She moved slowly until she had the tip of his dick at her entrance.

“Baby, wait,” he said, cupping her face. “Before I lose my mind, I want to tell you I have the doctor’s papers. I took a new test. I’m clean. I know I didn’t give you much choice that night I fucked you bareback, but I can show them—”

She didn’t let him finish talking and pressed down, clamping her walls around the head of his dick.

“Fuck,” Max grunted, his whole body tensing.

“I appreciate that you retook the test for me. I truly do, but you don’t need to show it to me. I trust you.”

“You should never trust a guy with his dick hard as a baseball bat, dying to fuck you.”

“How gallant of you. Now shut up and let
me
fuck you.”

Obviously, he hadn’t expected to hear that, but by the look in his face and the way his cock was jerking, he liked it.

She lowered herself on him little by little, until she was fully seated. He was so huge, and the pregnancy hormones had her so hot and swollen, it was a miracle she could accommodate him, but she did.

“You’re getting tighter, Ace. Don’t move, love. Let me get my bearings,” he pleaded, the muscles of his throat corded, his hands gripping her hips.

She stayed still, panting, her gaze never leaving Max. He was so damn handsome. But it wasn’t his physique that got to her; it was him. His soul. All the thoughtful things he did for her. How he always made her laugh. How he always put her first. How he never gave up on her.

She lifted herself a bit to slide back down again, his hoarse groan racking her body.

“I love feeling you like this, Ace. Skin to skin. So fucking good.”

She was five months pregnant, and Max had been away for a total of ten days, but she’d gotten bigger. Or so it seemed to her. She leaned to kiss him, but with her expanding belly, it was a bit complicated. “Damn, this is unsexy. “

He propped himself on his elbows. “Do you feel me inside you? How hard I am? How much I want you? There’s nothing unsexy about you, baby. Not a single fucking thing. You believe me, right?”

She did. She had his huge erection impaling her, swelling every time she slid on it.

“That’s my girl,” he said and then cupped her neck, kissing her so thoroughly that by the time she came up for air, she’d forgotten any inhibitions she’d had. “Now ride me. I’m dying to come inside you. I haven’t been able to think of anything else.”

She placed her hands on his ripped pecs and rocked on him, first slowly. When he reached for her ass and parted her cheeks, making her pussy feel even fuller, her speed increased.

“Fuck, baby. So hot. Hottest, tightest pussy I’ve ever been in.”

She was already trembling in arousal, her core tightening as she impaled herself on his cock. Then he placed his thumb on her clit and rubbed it.

“Max, can’t stop. I’m going to come,” she whimpered, riding him hard, clamping around him.

“Come for me. Milk my cock.”

At his words, the release that had been mounting at the base of her spine spread through her body, burning all her synapses. Max took over, gripping her hips and jackhammering into her, prolonging her orgasm, until he let out a roar and spent himself inside her.

“CAN I HAVE the list?” Annie mumbled against his chest.

“What?” She’d milked his cock
and
his brain.

She lifted her beautiful face to him, the corner of her mouth quirked up. “You said you had a list ready in case I was freaking out.”

Ah, that
. “I do. It’s in my head. You want to hear it?”

“Duh,” she answered, propping her chin on her hands.

He was still hugged by her sweet pussy, and he could feel the mild contractions. For a second, he considered telling her the most important point on that list, which was that he loved her, but he was scared shitless she wasn’t ready to hear that, so he went for funny. “Well, let’s see. I give great sleep-inducing back rubs.”

She laughed softly, burying her face in his chest.

He petted her hair. “You sleep fantastically with me by your side.”

“True.”

“I can make you so hot you squirt.”

“True again,” she grumbled against his skin, still a bit uneasy about that.

“And most important of all, no one else will put up with Magnum and Higgins, so now that you’ve trained me, you should keep me.”

All in all, he believed they should stay together because they belonged together. Because he hadn’t been able to think of anything else but her when he was away. Because the thought of anybody else touching him made him cringe. Because he would lay his life down for her. All those reasons he kept to himself too.

One thing he couldn’t keep inside. “I’ll erase them.”

“What? “ she asked, looking at him.

“Your reservations. I will blast them out of the sky. Every single one of them.”

Her eyes softened. “Max, the renovations at my place are finally in full swing. I think in a couple of weeks, I could move back.”

“Please don’t go.” He wasn’t going to give her any excuses. As it was, Cole had left her condo for last.

Again there was doubt in her voice. The surprise. “You want me to stay? Permanently?”

“I couldn’t wait to get back home. To you. I loved arriving and finding you in my bed. If the problem is that you prefer your place, then I’m willing to move to your house. It’s too small and we are better off here, but it’s your choice. Unless the issue is that you don’t want to live with me.” In which case he was utterly fucked, because he couldn’t imagine his life without her.

“Sure I don’t want to live with you. That’s why I greeted you with such bad manners, right?”

She was naked on top of him in broad daylight, his cum dripping down her inner thighs. She was so damn beautiful.

“Does that mean you’re staying?” He needed the words.

It was the longest two seconds of his life. An eternity until she nodded. “Yeah, I’m staying. But you heard the gynecologist. The last trimester is the worst. I may get very bitchy.”

That was his Annie. Wiseass till the very end. He hugged her. “I’ll risk it.”

Chapter Eighteen

“Max Bowen? You said Max Bowen?”

Annie smiled at the cell while she pressed the button of the elevator at work. “Yeah, Mom. Max Bowen.”

“How did that happened? I thought you said you were staying with a friend while the condo was being renovated.”

“And I was. We were friends. Now we’re something else. Something more.”

Annie had finally bitten the bullet and called her mom about the pregnancy. She would have rather told her in person, but the way everyone was talking in Alden, Annie wouldn’t be surprised if someone called her mom to inform her of “the situation,” and she loved her mother too much for her to find out about her granddaughter from somebody else.

She had taken it very well. Even the news about the father being out of the picture. Then again, Annie’s mom had been a single parent for most of her life. And of her own free will.

News of her daughter’s new boyfriend had left her more stupefied.

“
The
Max Bowen? Are you sure you know what you’re doing? I haven’t been in Alden in couple of years, but last I remember, he was the county’s most famous landmark.”

Annie laughed. That was true. Alden had top-notch public facilities thanks to the money from the yearly bachelor auction—that is, the money the Bowens, and Max in particular, brought in.

“You know I adore that little rascal,” her mom continued, “but I thought you wanted something serious.”

“He says he wants something serious too,” she answered, opening the front door of her building and walking to the street. She had still several hours of work left, but their coffee machine had run out of decaf, so she had decided to brave the snowy weather outside and head to the coffee shop nearby.

Her mom was quiet for a long second. “Okay.”

“He flew back to Boston from Canada, where he was working, to make it to the ultrasound. He even came with me to Dad’s birthday party.”

“Oh God. And he didn’t leave screaming and kicking?”

It was mid-November, and the weather in Boston was horrendous. Annie lifted the hem of her coat, trying to protect her face from the icy wind, and ran to cross the street.

“You have to—”

Suddenly Annie heard the screeching sound of tires. She barely had time to turn and see the car speeding her way.

Oh shit.

* * * *

“It’s amazing how being metrosexual has gone out of fashion before it ever arrived in Alden,” Max said as he watched Cole being shaved by a cutthroat razor at the barbershop.

“Not true. The towels are softer,” James answered, his voice muffled by the cloth on his face.

“They are not. Your skin is older and losing feeling.”

“That too,” James admitted.

Going to the barbershop was something their dad used to do every week. Max and James weren’t that fanatical, mainly because they always kept their hair on the shaggy side, but since Cole had come back from the Marines, they found themselves there quite often.

“Your turn,” the barber said, gesturing to Max.

“Can you remove fusion hair extensions?”

The old man lifted his bushy eyebrows. “Fusion what?”

Max heard the amused snorts coming from his brothers. “Never mind. Trim the beard. Chop off the hair. Not with the cutthroat razor.”

“He needs his scalp pretty for Hollywood,” James said.

Forget a pretty scalp. He needed a scalp.

“So you’re done with the movie?”

Max nodded. “Unless something gets screwed up later on, all the stunt scenes are ready.” And not a second too soon.

“Weren’t you shipping off to one of your crazy expeditions after you were done?” Cole asked.

“Didn’t feel like it.”

“I thought I would never see the day you would turn down throwing yourself off a cliff for staying in Alden with a girl.”

“Says the guy getting messages in Klingon from his fiancée.”

Cole pondered for a second. “True.”

“How is it going?” James asked, lifting the towel from his face. “You’ve been home for a couple of days and we haven’t seen you. We figured that’s a good sign.”

“We’re moving in the right direction. She’s done running scared.”

“Losing the braids will help,” Cole stated. “Now you just need the tattoos at the sides of your skull to fade, and she might start taking you seriously. Especially considering who she really is. Man, she’s probably the only heiress in disguise in a two hundred miles radius and you had to bump into her.”

“Annie doesn’t care about stuff like that.” Although he would be lying if he said he wasn’t still in shock about her being a Vaughan.

She was getting along with Tango and Cash even better than he was. Now, more often than not, she kept them on her chest while the little fuckers snored their asses off on her boobs. On the other hand, he understood them completely.

“She’s staying with me permanently.”

“Thank fucking God,” James said. “Cole was already stealing his own materials from the worksite to keep delaying the reno. And forcing me to be his partner in crime.”

Max smirked at his brothers. “Really?” he asked Cole.

“Well, we had to buy you time until you could prove to her she had to choose you, right?” Cole muttered. “By the way, what does she think about your so-called office and all the…unconventional shit lying around?”

Max smiled at the memory. “The first time she saw it? She said there were support groups for that kind of disorder.”

James barked out a laugh. “She’s so damn funny.”

“Yes, she is.” But he was going to speak with his company. It was time to make some changes. Nothing bad about the Photoshop gig, but it wasn’t him anymore. Besides, he didn’t need to keep freaking the shit out of Cole. Christy was doing that now. “You know, she’s expecting a girl.”

Both his brothers chuckled.

“What’s so funny?”

James patted him in his back. “Oh man, that’s cosmic retribution.”

“I wouldn’t laugh too hard. You’ll be going for an ultrasound in, what, two weeks?”

“Point taken.”

“I wouldn’t worry too much,” Cole said. “Do you really think anyone in this town will dare to mess with a Bowen girl?”

No. No one would dare. He would make sure of that, regardless of what happened between Annie and him.

The barber finished trimming his beard. As he was chopping off the braids, Max realized it was past five, so he unlocked his phone and dialed. She took a while to pick up. “Hi, Ace. You on your way?”

“Hi, Max. Umm, no. I may take a bit longer.”

Her voice sounded weird. A whisper. And what was that loudspeaker in the background? “Where are you?”

“I’m in the ER.”

Max stilled. “You okay?”

“Yes, everything is okay. I just…umm…tripped and fell.”