Contracted

by Marni Mann

  Get him anything?

  “Are we going somewhere?” I asked him.

  He took my hand and led me back to the couch I’d been sitting on. James was now next to Brett in the row of seats across from us, so Max sat beside me and said, “I’m getting you out of town.”

  Excitement began to mix with the tingles, and I glanced at James. “Are you guys coming, too?”

  “Hell yeah, girl,” she blurted out. “Bathing suits and maxi dresses for the next four days.”

  When James had asked me yesterday if I traveled with my passport, I hadn’t thought much about it. Now, her question made perfect sense. The only problem was that I hadn’t packed right for this trip. I only had one bikini with me. One dress. I didn’t even think I’d grabbed a cover-up.

  “I can tell by your face that you’re freaking out a little,” James said. “But I don’t want you to worry. While you were in the shower the other day, I snuck around your house and grabbed everything that Max had instructed me to. It’s all on the plane now. And, whatever I didn’t get, he bought, so it would all be new for this trip.”

  “I seriously love your ass,” I said. Then, I gazed at Max, and I felt my voice start to soften, a wave of emotion working its way through me. “Why?” I whispered to him.

  “I knew you could use it, and if James could come, I had a feeling you’d have an even better time, so I worked it out with her and Brett. Jack and Samantha and Scarlett were tied up, or they would have also come.”

  He’d kept the trip a secret, coordinated all of our schedules, had James grab things around my house, and bought whatever she hadn’t packed.

  And he’d done all of this for me.

  More.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his cheek. His beard was rough and scratchy, and I loved how it felt on my skin. What I loved even more was the feeling inside my chest.

  “You did so much for me.”

  He nuzzled my face, causing his whiskers to scratch even harder. “You’re worth it.”

  Fourteen

  Max

  Vacation sex.

  It was my fucking favorite.

  There was something about a bed full of pillows and all the extra counter space in the rooms and the glass walls of the shower and all the other surfaces that I’d gotten to fuck Eve on that I liked.

  Shit, my dick got hard, as I just thought about it.

  But that was only one of the reasons I enjoyed getting her out of town.

  The other was that, when I took her somewhere tropical, she showed so much more of her body. Bikinis during the day, dresses at night. She never wore a bra or panties, so there was just one layer resting over her skin.

  One thin, tiny layer that was separating us.

  And I constantly broke that layer, my teeth nipping those hard fucking nipples, my fingers sliding into that warm, tight cunt.

  I never had to wait to have her.

  So, I’d taken advantage of that from the second the plane lifted into the air.

  And I’d continued to taste her every few hours for the last three days.

  Holding her body against mine, I ran the tip of my finger down the backside of her arm. She let out a long, deep breath, and I did it again.

  Goose bumps rose over her body, and her legs swished over the sheets.

  It was past eight in the morning. She never slept this late unless she was on island time. Here, she shifted into a slower pace. She didn’t check her phone as often. She ate more and always ordered dessert.

  She was even hotter when she was this relaxed.

  But, from the second we’d landed in Punta Cana, I’d noticed something was distracting her. And, thinking back over the last several weeks, this wasn’t the first time I’d felt it. I’d heard it in her voice, and more recently, I’d seen it in her face.

  She was stressed.

  I was sure that was it.

  I decided not to push her for answers. That wasn’t what this trip was about. I needed us to unplug, and my job was to make her as relaxed as possible.

  My mouth was capable of that.

  So, I rolled her onto her back and moved down her body, lifting the tiny piece of lace that hung to the top of her pussy. That was the only scrap of clothing I let her sleep in because it looked so fucking sexy on her. Situating myself between her legs, I felt her stir, but my attention was locked on the bare cunt that sat a few inches below me. Holding her open, I pressed my nose onto the middle of her clit.

  And, slowly, I inhaled.

  Fuck.

  I could never get enough of that perfect smell. One that was so unique to Eve. One that I wanted to coat myself in.

  I lifted my nose and stuck out my tongue and swiped it across the entire length of her clit.

  “Max,” she groaned, her hands fisting my hair, tugging it from the goddamn roots. “Yesss.”

  She loved when I ate her pussy.

  But there was no way she could love it as much as me.

  That was why I spent so much time down here.

  Why I thought about it every day she was away from me.

  Why I made her show it to me when we video-chatted at night.

  I kept my tongue at the top of her clit and slid two fingers inside her, licking at the same time I drove in and out of her pussy.

  My cock was so fucking hard, growing from her sounds, from the way her hips bucked the air, from how good I was making her feel.

  And I knew that because the walls of her pussy were clenching my fingers, telling me how close she was to coming.

  I increased my speed and sucked her clit into my mouth, holding it between my teeth. As I rubbed my tongue across the edge, her back arched. So, I pumped my fingers, twisting them at the knuckles, and I felt her build.

  “Oh God!” she screamed.

  Mmm.

  My teeth released her, and I just licked.

  Licked as hard as I fucking could, and she immediately began to shudder.

  “Max, yes!”

  She let go of my hair, and her hands went to my shoulders, nails digging straight into me. Her thighs clenched my face, and my beard scratched them.

  I knew that was what she was after.

  She fucking loved the feel of my whiskers on her skin.

  And, as she got more of it, she moaned even louder.

  When her body eventually stilled, I gently lifted my mouth off of her and shifted onto my side, pulling her against my chest.

  “I wish I could wake up this way every morning.” She sighed.

  “With my tongue?”

  “Well, yes, but I meant just with you.”

  I growled against her cheek, my lips brushing over it before I asked, “Have you had a good time in Punta Cana?”

  She nodded. “I always do when we travel together. The trips you plan are incredible.”

  I couldn’t take much credit for any of the plans. My assistant had put together every trip we’d ever been on. But I always picked the destinations, and this time was no different.

  For this long weekend, my assistant had gotten the four of us a six-bedroom house on the beach. It came fully stocked with butlers and maids and a chef. When Eve and James weren’t spread across the sand or in the ocean, we would find them floating in the infinity pool.

  She needed time with her best friend.

  Time with me.

  This trip had given her both.

  But, once we got back to the States, I was going to be busy as fuck.

  I didn’t like that I’d be seeing so little of her.

  I just had no other choice.

  She ran her fingers through my hair and down my cheek. “I can’t believe it’s our last day here. It went by too fast.”

  “There will be other trips; you know that.”

  “For some reason, I feel like they won’t be happening for a long time.”

  She was always so goddamn intuitive.

  “Eve, I’m not going to lie; things are going to be pretty rough for
a little while.” I circled my thumb across her shoulder and went down to her chest and back up. “My schedule is fucking ugly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I’ll probably get to see you only once a month. That’s all I can fit in.”

  Her eyes locked with mine. “How long is that going to last?”

  “Three, possibly four months. It depends on if I meet my clients overseas, but right now, it’s looking that way.”

  She looked surprised. She shouldn’t have been. Toward the beginning of our relationship, we had gone almost the whole summer without seeing each other. That was the kind of business I was in.

  She knew that.

  As I reached for her face, she pulled back. Her body turned stiff, and the glare in her eyes was identical to when she’d walked out of the elevator after we fucked in it.

  “Don’t worry about this right now; we’ll deal with it once we’re home.”

  Her stare bounced between my eyes several times before she said, “Sounds like it’s already been dealt with.”

  That fucking mouth.

  My hand inched forward again. This time, she let me wrap it around her cheek. “Go get dressed, so we can grab some breakfast downstairs.” My thumb dipped to her lip, and I gently tugged it. “Then, we’ll take the Jet Ski’s out.”

  “Fine, but I need you to give me a minute.” Her tone was flat, her eyes almost defeated.

  Some time with me on the water would fix that. I just needed to get her out there and get her mind off the news I’d just delivered, so I climbed out of bed and looked for a clean pair of swim trunks. When I found some, I slid them on and went into the bathroom.

  “What time is our flight tomorrow?”

  “Ten.” I grabbed my toothbrush, squirted a line of toothpaste over it, and stuck it into my mouth.

  “The plane will drop off you, Brett, and James in Miami, and then I’ll continue on to LA?”

  I moved to the doorway of the bathroom while I brushed, so I could see her. “Jack, Samantha, and Lucy will be flying with you. They’re taking her to Disneyland.”

  “Oh, that’s cute.”

  “They do everything for that kid.”

  She sat higher in bed, pulling the blanket up to her chest, hiding the lace that covered her tits. “You would, too, if Lucy were your child.”

  I took the toothbrush out of my mouth and shook my goddamn head. “I just don’t know how Jack manages it all. I sure as hell couldn’t.”

  “He makes time, Max, because he wants to. He’ll have to again when they have their second child, which I’m sure will happen sometime soon.”

  I walked to the sink to spit, and when I was done, I looked at her and said, “This is why we work so well together, Eve, because neither of us would ever want something like that.”

  Fifteen

  Eve

  James and I were standing in the shallow end of the pool with wine glasses in our hands. The sound of the ocean and the rustling of the palm trees were almost as loud as my thoughts.

  After getting back from jet-skiing, the guys had gone inside to do some work, and James and I had found our way out here. That happened almost every day around this time. For a few hours, I would get to have my best friend all to myself, savoring these moments since I knew it would be weeks before I saw her again.

  At least it wouldn’t be a month.

  Like Max.

  That was complete bullshit, and so was his ridiculous work schedule.

  I understood this was what I had signed up for, that he was in the prime of his career and that slowing down now would only send him backward.

  My situation wasn’t any different.

  But that didn’t mean I liked it or that the conversation we’d had this morning hadn’t gutted me.

  Because, as I waded in this pool, my chest feeling so tight and heavy, my heart was literally screaming, More.

  I needed it.

  And, God, I wanted it.

  But the man I’d been dating for the last two years had told me he wouldn’t be able to manage it all—me, work, us.

  That wasn’t even the worst of it.

  The worst had come at the end of the conversation when he told me that we worked so well as a couple because a family wasn’t anything either of us would ever want.

  Marriage wasn’t something we’d discussed before.

  It certainly hadn’t been the first thing on my mind when I met him two years ago on James’s balcony.

  And it was something I wouldn’t have necessarily pushed for. I’d watched my parents get divorced when I was ten years old. I had seen what it did to our family. But, before that, I had seen how being wed had made them into two of the most miserable people.

  I didn’t want that.

  I didn’t want the possibility to be taken away from me either, especially because, over the time we’d been together, he’d grown to mean so much to me.

  But, as for having kids, I still felt that punch in my stomach, the burn in the back of my throat, the unsteadiness it sent to my limbs.

  Just because I didn’t talk about having children didn’t mean I didn’t want them.

  Whatever had caused him to assume this, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

  “Refills?” I heard someone say, sucking me out of my thoughts.

  I turned my head and saw one of the butlers moving toward the edge of the shallow end. He knelt to set down two glasses of cucumber water.

  “I’m good,” James said, “but please get her another and keep them coming.”

  As the butler disappeared to go get me more wine, I glanced at my best friend. “Are you trying to get me wasted?”

  “You have a lot going on up there”—she nodded toward my head—“so I’m hoping it calms you down a little.”

  “You might be right.”

  “Girl, you’ve been so distracted since we got in this pool; you didn’t hear any of the story that I was telling you before the butler showed up.”

  I felt my brows rise. “You were talking?”

  She laughed. “I was going on and on. It doesn’t matter. What matters is the thing that’s eating you right now, so start talking.”

  I sighed as I walked to the side of the pool, pressing my shoulders against the hard stone and resting my arms over the brick pavers. I tilted my head back, the sun coming down hard, tingling my forehead. “I’m in a weird place with Max.”

  “I know, and we need to do something about it.”

  I lifted my head to look at her. “But how? I want more from my boyfriend—things that he won’t ever give me. I want more from my job, and I already work twenty-four/seven. I basically want to be in two places at once—change Max’s priorities and have everything I’ve ever wanted, all at the same time.” Before she could respond, I added, “It’s impossible. I know.”

  James swam several feet closer, and she put her arms on the edge of the pool to hold herself up. “You know I’ve been there before. God, I feel like I’m there at least once a month.”

  My body straightened. “But, James, it’s not even close to the same thing. You and Brett make it work. You want to take your relationship to the next level. You want marriage and kids. Max and I…” My voice trailed off.

  As I was about to reveal the conversation I’d had with him this morning, James said, “Eve, it’s not easy. In fact, it’s so much harder than I ever thought it would be. And, every month, I swear, it gets worse because the two of us keep getting busier.” She turned, resting her side against the pool while she held her cheek with her palm. “It’s going to take a lot of hard work, and the both of you are going to have to sacrifice, but you’ll find a solution.”

  A memory from this morning flashed in my head. It was the look on Max’s face when I’d told him that Jack had to make time for his family. It was as though the concept was completely foreign to him.

  Like he couldn’t fathom it.

  Like he’d never even consider it.

  “We’d both have
to sacrifice; that’s the only way it would be fair. But, based on some of the things he’s said, I worry that it would just be me doing it,” I told her.

  “I don’t believe that.”

  “It’s true.” My voice wasn’t higher than a whisper.

  The butler returned with my glass of wine, taking the half-full one that had warmed under the sun. Once he left, I wrapped my fingers around the chilly stem.

  Sacrificing for Max would mean downsizing my business. Losing some of the fifty clients I had worked my ass off for. Hiring a staff larger than just the one I’d planned, so I wouldn’t have to be in LA all the time. I’d have to give up my rental and the money I’d saved to go toward a down payment on my first real home would just have to be spent on something else.

  Did he deserve all of that?

  He had swooped into my life so fast. I’d almost immediately questioned everyone I’d dated in the past. I’d compared them all to Max, and they couldn’t measure up. Not just physically—although there was that, too. He owned my body; his devotion to it made me feel a pleasure I hadn’t known was possible.

  When it came to sex, Max Graham had no competition.

  But, emotionally, there was a difference, too. It was intense. A surge that grabbed ahold of my heart and didn’t let go. A pulsing in my chest that was so strong, I felt it in the back of my throat. A feeling of warmth that wasn’t just on my skin.

  But, after this morning, I’d learned I was the only one.

  Even if I were willing to throw it all away, that wasn’t what he wanted. He was happy where things were. And he was relieved I didn’t want what Jack and Samantha had.

  A family.

  “You both will sacrifice,” she said after a short pause. “It won’t just be you.”

  I stared into her eyes, searching for the answer before I asked, “How are you so sure?”

  “Because, if he doesn’t, he’s going to lose you.”

  My lungs tightened as I broke contact with James and looked out toward the ocean.

  Now, it was my turn to address a thought that had been so foreign up until she said it.

  A breakup.