The new clothes had helped build a confidence Paige hadn’t exhibited before. She laughed and preened with the rest of her new friends, acting like a normal teenager should.
A multitude of voices and no longer discordant music swirled around Olivia as she looked up into Max’s eyes, into the unwavering, unshakable gray.
He took her punch glass and set it aside with his own before he held out his hand. “Olivia, will you dance with me?”
Olivia noticed the music had changed to a slow country song. She stared at him, breathless. Her skin seemed to tighten in anticipation; her heartbeat sped up. “I thought we were supposed to watch the kids, to keep them in line?”
“There’s no reason we can’t have a little fun along the way.”
She accepted his hand, aching for his touch. He pulled her into his arms. Her hands slid up the soft, silken fabric of his jacket to anchor behind his neck. He leaned down and kissed her—restrained; then slowly, reluctantly, they pulled their lips apart. Something light and wonderful whispered through her.
“Did you go to your high school dances?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I was the girl everyone avoided back then—too geeky, too aloof. My mom had come back for me by then, but it took me until college to become comfortable in my own skin.”
His grin lit up the room. “Then this is a first for both of us,” he said as he sent her into a dip.
She could feel the magic of the night wrap around her as Max led her around the dance floor, ignoring the startled looks of the teenagers all around them.
Tonight, she could forget all about his pretty fiancée and even how mismatched she and Max were, according to his own invention. Instead, she wanted to focus on the thousand little ways he made her feel as if the two of them existed only for each other.
They managed to fit in a couple of dances while they made sure the teenagers remained well behaved. After the prom had ended, Max and Olivia dropped Paige off first, giving Brad an opportunity to walk her to the door.
No doubt Olivia would hear all about the event from Paige’s point of view tomorrow when they picked her up for a special Sunday counseling session. As Paige had put it, “The counselor is holding a special session to help us all with end-of-quarter stress.” After dropping Brad off at his house, they headed back to Olivia’s condominium.
“I realized something tonight,” Olivia said to Max as he flicked on the light switch near the door.
“What’s that?”
She sighed quietly. “I used to think I missed so much of my childhood because of my mom’s problems. I used to bemoan the fact that I never went to a school dance, or that I never had a grandmother to kiss my cheek, or that I never had a dog. But I didn’t miss a thing. I see that now. I had then and I have now all that’s important—people I care about and people who care about me.”
“You did go to a dance,” Max reminded her as he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. “Maybe just not when you thought you would.” He stroked her hair back behind her ear. “You’re more than welcome to my grandmother. And I’d be happy to get you a dog, Olivia, anytime you want.”
She could feel the heat in her cheeks. She immediately changed the subject. “Do you think Brad kissed Paige?” Olivia asked, surprised she wasn’t as nervous as she thought she’d be at the prospect.
“Yes,” Max said. “I know how much I want to kiss my date, and not on the cheek.”
Olivia laughed. They were standing so close she could feel the soft caress of Max’s breath against her cheek. If she leaned forward the tiniest bit . . . and then she did. Her lips touched his. Feather-soft at first, then more firmly.
She slipped her hands up his chest and locked them behind his neck. As though he’d held her a hundred times, his arms moved around her, and his hands settled in the hollow at the base of her spine. His body molded to hers. No one but Max had ever felt so good, so right in her arms.
His tongue slipped through her parted lips and touched hers. At the contact a jolt of pure fire went straight to her core. She arched into him, pressed the tight peaks of her breasts against the firmness of his chest. Lost to all around her, her nerves exploded.
At her unspoken invitation, his hands moved from the base of her spine upward, gliding over the soft curves of her back, across her bare shoulders and arms, leaving her skin flickering with anticipation.
The kiss went on, spun out, and left her slowly whirling along the outer edges of a vortex of pleasure. She felt the brush of his fingers as they slid across her hip to her waist and higher still along the underside of her breast. Moving slowly, smoothly, he cupped her sensitive breasts. Her nipples hardened. Raw pleasure streaked through her.
He released a groan as he broke the kiss, stepped back, swallowed hard, and drew a long, tortured breath. “Dear God in heaven, you’re hard to resist.”
“We should, though—shouldn’t we?” Olivia pressed a hand against his chest, her breathing ragged. She could feel the thunderous beat of his heart beneath her fingers.
“I never could resist you.” His eyes were stormy with unconcealed passion.
A tremor of anticipation skittered through her body. “Then don’t.”
At the invitation, his hands fumbled with her coat. He found the belt and then the buttons, sliding it off her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.
Need darkened his eyes as she removed his jacket and slung it over her arm before extending her hand. “Come with me,” she said.
Max accepted her hand and followed her into the bedroom. Neither of them reached for the light. With only the moon to guide them, Olivia could forget about all else except the man in her arms. His breath was rapid as he expertly found the zipper at her back and slowly pushed the silken fabric down around her hips. His hands followed the curve of her hips, her outer thigh, until her dress fluttered to the floor around her ankles.
She stood before him in only her panties, bra, and shoes. She felt incredibly feminine wearing her best lingerie. His gaze traveled from the swell of her breasts to her waist, across her hips, and down to her metallic rose T-strap pumps.
“Nice shoes,” he said, echoing the words he’d said to her on the night they’d met. The heat in his eyes made her feel incredibly erotic and bold.
“You, Mr. Right, are wearing far too many clothes for my liking.”
He drew a sharp breath. “Then you’d better do something about that.”
She reached for his shirt, tugging it out from the waistband of his pants, and slowly unbuttoned each tiny pearl button from the bottom up until she finally peeled his shirt away. As though unable to wait a moment longer, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her with a passion she’d never experienced before. He kissed her until she couldn’t breathe for wanting him.
He broke the kiss with a groan. Instead of waiting for her to finish undressing him, he eased his pants off, then his boxers, until he stood before her naked and boldly aroused.
He stepped forward and unhooked her lacy, black bra, letting it slide through his fingers to the floor. Her matching bikini panties followed until only her shoes remained. She started to kick them off, but he stopped her with another kiss. “Leave them on. There’s something terribly sexy about a woman wearing only high heels.”
Dressed in her four-inch heels and nothing more, she smiled up at him as he lowered her to the floor, directly in the light of a moonbeam streaking through the window. “Here?” she asked as he knelt down beside her.
“Here,” Max replied, staring down at her as though she were the sexiest woman on earth. She’d never thought of herself as particularly sexy until she saw the heated look in his eyes. He leaned down and touched his lips to hers, teasing, nipping, until he deepened the kiss. His tongue stroked and delved while his hands roamed her back, her hips, her inner thighs.
She arched against him. Her nipples ached, longed to be touched, as she moved against him, blatantly inviting him into the seduction she craved.
His lips m
oved to her chin, her neck, across her shoulder and down until he answered her unspoken plea. His mouth closed over her right breast. Just the feel of his tongue against her sensitive flesh brought a wave of intense pleasure that almost sent her shattering over the edge. He sucked, licked, teased her, switching from side to side until she felt boneless, quivering with need.
Needing an anchor in the storm, she tangled her fingers in his hair. She couldn’t think. She simply tried to breathe. There was something wildly exciting about the intensity of his lust for her. Finally he released her from the sweetest torment and positioned himself between her thighs, his palms feverishly running up and down her flesh, feeling the texture of her skin, her warmth. Her heart was beating so hard she couldn’t get her breath.
He moved against her, molding the rigid length of his erection to her most intimate core, so she could anticipate having that hard length inside her, thrusting into her, filling her fully.
Heat spiraled through her, the most powerful force on earth, swallowing her up, enveloping her in nothing but raw, unabated desire.
Then, with both hands, he reached for her, tilted her hips beneath him, and entered her. His body over hers, he pressed her against the carpet, filling her, stretching her, possessing her fully. The intense pleasure of his slow, fluid movements swamped her, until her body burned and something more powerful, more intense, more all-consuming took hold.
She cried out and arched beneath him, breaking the thread of his control. He thrust into her with long, then short strokes, changing his tempo. They were evolving into something more, something they could share and believe in together. Sensation after sensation streaked through her, building, spiraling. The world narrowed to a pinpoint of light until pleasure exploded within her, spinning wildly. She melted into bliss, taking him along with her. They stayed there, hovering on that moment of exquisite pleasure, until they both cried out, then collapsed in each other’s arms.
Deep inside she felt her womb continue to contract, felt her body clutch him, holding him within her, longing for that physical connection to spin out forever. When satiation came, leaving her feeling drugged and disconnected from her senses, she finally relaxed, releasing him.
Not ready to let her go, he pulled her intimately against his side. One hand caressed the skin of her abdomen while the other cupped her breast.
“Let me stay with you tonight?” he asked, his voice still heavy with passion.
Olivia pushed herself up on her elbows, her long, dark hair spilling around her shoulders. “In this room, the outside world doesn’t exist. There is nothing but you and me.” She lifted a hand to his face, touched the roughened texture of his chin as true contentment settled inside her. “Stay forever.”
“Nothing would please me more.”
“I don’t know about that.” She kicked off her shoes and got up, extending her hand to him. “Let’s try that again in my bed.”
He accepted her hand and gained his feet. A moment later he scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the bed, laying her down first, then pulling her on top of him. He stroked her breasts, lifting them, cupping them in his palms, and she was once again consumed by heat. His erection pressed intimately against her stomach. His face was flushed, his eyes glazed with an expression of primitive pleasure. And still he held back.
“What is it?” she asked, running her fingertips down the muscled texture of his abdomen.
“I didn’t protect you on the floor. Are we okay?”
For a moment her fingers stilled. In the heat of their passion, they’d completely forgotten about using protection. “There’s no problem.” She’d make sure there was no problem. Tomorrow she’d see her doctor about birth control.
Did that mean she was willing to keep doing what they were doing now? There was no going back.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The following Tuesday, Olivia sat at her usual table in The Lucky Club, waiting for her friends to join her. Ellie arrived first, sliding onto the seat opposite Olivia. Her sharp gaze searched Olivia’s face. “You’re sleeping with him again, aren’t you?”
Olivia’s jaw went slack. “How do you always know?”
“It’s not hard.” Ellie pursed her lips. “Let me see—you’re smiling like an idiot. Your skin is glowing, and, if I’m not mistaken, there’s a hint of orange scent on your skin.”
Olivia shrugged. “I finally figured out that it’s Max’s shampoo that makes him smell that yummy all the time.”
“Did you have a good time?”
“I can’t ever remember better.” Olivia sighed just as Jordan came to join them.
“Oh no,” Jordan groaned after a quick look at Olivia. “Really? You gave in again?”
Olivia shrugged. “I couldn’t help myself.”
A frown crossed Jordan’s pale face. “They have medication for that, you know.”
Olivia laughed. It felt good to laugh again after the anxiety of the past few weeks. “I’m not crazy—you’re just jealous.”
“Of Max? No way. The last thing that man needs is another woman in his life.”
Ellie studied Olivia with a sudden seriousness. “Okay, so you slept with him again. Where do you go from here?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Olivia swallowed a sudden tightness in her throat.
“Never in all my years of planning weddings have I ever encountered a situation this—”
“Strange?” Olivia finished for her.
“Complicated.”
“Fake fiancé, real wedding,” Olivia said, pushing her hair from her face.
“Don’t forget the secret baby.” Ellie giggled.
Olivia rolled her eyes. “It would be funny except this is my real life.”
“I know. I’m sorry.” Ellie sobered. “What can Jordan and I do to help?”
Olivia couldn’t help smiling despite the seriousness of the situation. “Tell me it’s all going to work out. That Max and I will really end up together when this is all over.”
Ellie offered her friend a soft smile. “Everything’s crazy and a little messy right now, but it will be all right, Olivia. You’ll see.”
Jordan, however, was not smiling. Her green eyes filled with frustration. “You’re both crazy. How will this turn out all right? I’ve been running scenario after scenario in my head, and in none of them does Olivia come out the winner.” She turned her intense gaze on Olivia. “You’re going to get hurt again.”
“No, Jordan. I’m wiser now than before Damien.”
“I’ll have to take your word on that,” Jordan grumbled, searching the room, no doubt, for their waiter. “The only thing that can fix what’s wrong with all of us tonight is a glass of champagne.”
Ellie sat back in her chair with a bittersweet sigh. “I’m almost tempted to try his Matchmaker 2.0 app myself.”
Jordan threw up her arms. “Whatever happened to good old-fashioned dating? What’s so wrong with meeting a guy in a bar, buying him a drink, and talking?”
“Now who’s crazy?” Ellie laughed. “We’ve been coming to this bar every Tuesday for the past eight months after all of our dating lives took a disastrous turn. We vowed to be each other’s dates, even though we all hoped for something more. Yet how many ‘dates’ have any of us had during that time?”
“Even I can do that math,” Olivia replied with a cocky grin. “Zero.”
Jordan rolled her eyes. “That’s because not one of us is paying any attention to the looks we get from the men around us.”
“She has a point,” Ellie admitted.
Olivia watched as Ellie straightened and looked about the room. “What do you see?” Olivia asked, curious about her friend’s response.
“I see three young women who are about to get their champagne,” Ellie replied as their usual waiter came to the table with their usual order of drinks.
“Is it sad that we don’t even have to place an order for the waiter to know what we want anymore?” Jordan asked after their waiter distribut
ed the drinks and moved away.
Ellie’s face fell. “Are we really that hopeless?”
“I’d rather think of us as hopeful,” Olivia said, raising her glass in a toast. “Here’s to our future. May it be filled with luscious men.”
“And luscious sex,” Jordan added as they brought their glasses together. “Olivia can’t be the only one succeeding.”
The three of them laughed.
“Paige,” Mrs. Miller called from the front of the house. “There’s someone at the door for you.”
Curious who might have stopped by to see her so early on a Saturday morning, Paige set the photos of her and Brad at the dance down on the table before she made her way to the door. Just looking at Brad sent a flutter through her stomach. How weird was it that she felt like that about a boy? That ripple of excitement stayed with her until she saw who waited for her in the hallway.
Annalise Ellington. They’d never met, but she’d seen plenty of pictures of the woman online to know who she was and of her connection to Mr. R.
A look of distaste curled up the socialite’s lips as she looked around the hallway and sitting room off to the left. That look shifted to one of neutrality when she saw Paige approach. “There you are,” Annalise greeted her in an oversweet tone.
Paige stopped before her with a frown. “What do you want?”
Annalise lifted her chin. “That’s no way to greet someone who is here to do you a favor.”
Paige narrowed her eyes. “What kind of favor?”
“Max sent me to come get you and take you to meet your new geometry tutor. Max will be so busy with our wedding two weeks from now that he’s decided to turn over his tutoring duties to someone else.”
“Is that so?”
“Well, yes.” Annalise turned back toward the door but hesitated in touching the handle. She looped her purse handle over the door and tried to turn the knob. Instead of opening the door, her purse fell to the floor, scattering the contents. With a sigh, Annalise bent down and hurriedly scooped things up. “If you’ll be so kind as to come with me, we’ll get you squared away.”
Along Came Mr. Right Page 16
