by Ali Parker
I pulled him down to me. Max’s mouth crashed against mine, and I spread my legs as he dropped his hips. His cock grazed my clit. I whimpered. He smiled into our kiss, teasing me.
I reached down and guided him inside. He filled me up, inch by inch, and his breath shuddered out of him as I ran my nails up his back. He held himself deep inside me, and I rolled my hips involuntarily. His size put pressure on my insides. The pain wasn’t sharp, but mild, and it passed quickly to be replaced with the kind of sensation that made it hard to breathe, it felt so good.
I clung to him as he began thrusting.
The sounds of my wetness seemed to drive him wild. He pushed back onto his heels and pressed his thumb to my clit as he fucked me. I gripped the sheets above my head and moaned until it was too much, until I couldn’t take it, and then he grabbed my hips and held me in place as he fucked me hard and deep.
I came instantly.
Max rode out my orgasm, and I watched as his muscles tightened and strained. I wanted him to come. I wanted everything he could give me.
“Come for me, Max,” I breathed.
His jaw flexed.
I reached for him and gripped his forearms. “Please. Fuck me hard.”
He lost it. The world shattered, and he drove deep inside me. I screamed his name at the ceiling as my toes curled and my insides burned with release and pleasure.
He came when his name escaped my lips for a second time, and then he descended upon me with sweet gentle kisses until the highs of our orgasms fell away and we were left in the warm afterglow of it all.
Chapter 16
Max
I woke up the morning following mine and Piper’s magical evening at Pier 39—and between the sheets—in a daze of sunshine and contentment. The window was open a crack, and a breeze filtered through the gap that was neither cool nor warm. It was bright out, but not bright enough for it to be past nine or so in the morning.
I checked the clock on my nightstand.
Quarter to nine. Right on the money.
My body was heavy with well-earned fatigue, and it felt like I sank deeper into the mattress with every deep breath I drew as I came around. Piper and I had earned our late start to the day. After a brief half-hour interlude last night, where we found sparkling ciders in the fridge downstairs and made a bowl of popcorn, we kicked off another round of vigorous fucking.
She was a dream. A flexible, sexy, breathless, tight, slippery-wet dream.
With great tits. And an incredible ass. And—
My train of thought broke when Piper shifted in bed beside me. She let out a soft sigh, and I held perfectly still, not wanting to wake her. She settled deeper into her pillow and fell still.
The girl had an edge to her in the bedroom of the like I’d never encountered before. She was soft and firm all at once. Her body moved in ways I couldn’t comprehend, and she was stronger than even her toned legs and arms promised she would be.
I reached for my phone on the nightstand and flipped through my notifications. Over the course of yesterday, the night, and the early hours of this morning, I’d been bombarded with nearly six hundred emails. Four hundred of those were marked as urgent.
As the CEO, I got more emails than I knew what to do with. Usually, I took them pretty seriously. There were people who needed my attention. But all of that responsibility seemed infinitely less important after last night.
I held the power button down on my phone until the screen went black. Then I set it back down and smiled up at the ceiling with my hands resting on my ribs.
Last night had put a lot of things into perspective. For starters, I knew what I wanted now. That much was crystal clear.
I wanted Piper.
I wanted love. I wanted laughter and light and evenings where we could act like kids and eat good food and kiss each other like it was the last time we were going to see each other. And I wanted everything that came with a relationship. The ups and downs. The hard days and the even worse days. The days where it took everything we had not to let it all fall apart and walk away from each other.
Piper was the sort of girl who made the risk worth it.
And I wasn’t a man who liked risk.
Yet here I was, smiling like an idiot at a hotel ceiling, contemplating the rest of my life with a girl I’d known for ten days.
Jackson Lee had warned me this month would be insane. I hadn’t really taken him all that literally, but now I understood it.
Piper rolled over in bed. She pulled the blankets with her, and a sleepy smile played on her lips as she blinked her eyes open and her gaze focused on me.
“Good morning,” I said softly.
Her smile broadened, and she nuzzled her chin into the plush white blanket. “Good morning.” Her voice was thick with sleep and muffled by the bedding.
Her thick mane of dark brown hair was spread out all around her pillows, and some strands clung to her eyelashes, twitching as she blinked. She didn’t seem to notice. Her cheeks were rosy and so was her nose, and her lips appeared a little swollen.
I rolled over to face her. “How did you sleep?”
“Like I was a little kid who spent the entire day at a carnival.”
I chuckled. “That good?”
She nodded. “And you?”
Like a man who had vigorous, life-changing sex the night before with the woman he’s falling for. “About the same.”
Her stomach growled. Piper hid under the blankets. “Oh my God. That’s embarrassing.”
“No, it’s not.” I sat up and pulled the blankets down to swing my legs over the side of the bed. I was naked, as was she, and I stood up to find the room-service menu I knew was in the room somewhere. I found it in one of the dresser drawers and brought it to the bed, where I slipped back under the covers with her.
“What do you say to breakfast in bed?”
“And shitty TV show reruns?” Piper asked hopefully. “It’s the best cure to a hangover.”
“You’re hungover?”
“I have a foggy head. And I desperately need coffee. All the coffee.”
I slid the menu to her and turned it around so she could read it. She scanned the page and pointed at the image right smack in the middle of a stack of waffles drowning in maple syrup and topped with blueberries. “Those,” she said. “I want those.”
“Then that is what you shall have. Stay here. I’ll call and order. Coffee. Waffles. Anything else?”
“Promise not to judge me?”
“Cross my heart.”
“A chocolate milkshake.”
“All right.”
“For the hangover,” she added hastily.
I chuckled. “I get it, Piper. Fuck it. I’m going to get one too. This is a vacation, right?”
She smiled and nodded.
I changed, saw to ordering our room service, and waited downstairs for it to arrive. When it did, the employee offered to bring it upstairs, but I selfishly wanted to keep Piper all to myself and made three trips to bring everything up. Piper was still naked under the sheets, and she watched with hungry eyes as I carried everything up.
“I might have gone a little overboard,” I admitted when I stood back to look at the spread.
She giggled and pursed her lips around the straw of her milkshake. She sipped some back and nodded graciously. “So good. And much needed. And hey, we can make our way through this smorgasbord. My friend Janie and I have conquered bigger food mountains than this.”
“Is Janie a linebacker?”
Piper laughed. “Shush.”
I slid onto the bed and we dug in. Piper devoured her waffles, and I indulged in a full breakfast platter complete with eggs, bacon—some of which Piper sneakily stole from my plate—hash browns, and toast served with strawberry jam.
We spent the later hours of the morning picking at the massive fruit bowl and indulging in the baked goods I’d had sent up, including muffins, pastries, and savory sweets.
By the time noon rolled aroun
d, I felt like I was packed to the brim. I propped myself up against the headboard, and Piper did the same while she sipped an ice water. We were watching an old sitcom she’d grown up watching. I’d never seen it before, and truth be told, I wasn’t really watching it now.
I was watching her.
The way she laughed at the jokes and rocked forward, almost always spilling water in her lap. How she teared up at the soft moments, even though she knew there was a happy ending coming. How she constantly flexed and wiggled her toes like she had a mild case of restless leg syndrome. The way she crunched on her ice cubes when her water was empty.
She caught me staring. “Are you even watching the show, Max? Come on. This is the best part. This is where they finally get together after four seasons and go on their first date. Look. Look!”
She beamed at the screen as the scene unfolded. The guy asked the girl out. The girl said yes. Happily ever after was sure to ensue.
When the credits started rolling, Piper eyed me. “You didn’t pay any attention, did you?”
“I was distracted.”
She shifted to face me and propped her head up in one hand. “Is this how we’re going to spend the rest of the month? I’m going to be having fun, and you’re going to be staring at me?”
“I mean, we could. I don’t see any downsides to that.”
Her eyes danced with mirth.
I chuckled and slid down the bed to lie on my side, propping my head up so that we were eye level. “We can spend the rest of the month however you’d like to. I’m going to step away from work and limit my time in the office to be there only when absolutely necessary.”
“Max, you don’t need to do that.”
“I know I don’t, but I only have you for three more weeks. Not even. Work can wait. You can’t.”
“You are a natural-born Casanova, aren’t you?”
I grinned. “I try.”
She inched closer. I could smell the sweet coconut scent of her shampoo and the honey lavender of the moisturizer she’d put on last night shortly before we fell asleep. “So how are we going to spend the rest of the month then?”
“However you want to. Tell me your ideas. I’m open to anything.”
“Well,” she said slowly, pursing her lips thoughtfully. A smile curled her lips. “I can think of something we could do.”
“Yes?”
She slipped even closer until she was mere inches away. She reached out and ran a hand down my chest. Then her smile turned wickedly sexy, and she pinched her bottom lip between her teeth. She knew full well what that did to me.
“We could make the most of this bed before we have to leave,” she said.
I pushed myself up and gave her a playful smile. “Oh? You want to jump on it? These luxury hotel mattresses have the best bounce—”
“Shut up, Max,” she said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me down, where she met me with a warm kiss and hooked one bare leg over my hip.
I went willingly and found myself swimming in a sea of Piper, of lavender and honey.
Chapter 17
Piper
“Hold on, Pipes,” Janie said. She sounded far away on the other end of the phone.
I waited through the sound of a cash register beeping as someone rang through her grocery order. I overheard Janie making small talk, where she told the cashier how miserable she was with this New York City fall weather. She exclaimed that it already felt like it was winter.
As she checked out, I put her on speakerphone, set my phone on the table beside my lawn chair at the edge of Max’s in-ground pool, and slathered myself with another layer of sunscreen. The Californians might have found the weather chilly in November, but for me, it was perfect poolside weather. Not too hot to break a sweat, but not too cold to not be comfortable soaking up some rays in my red bikini.
Of course, part of me was simply looking forward to Max coming home from the afternoon meeting he couldn’t bail on and finding me all spread out by the pool. I’d worn this bikini especially for him.
I knew how much he liked me in red.
And half-naked.
“Sorry, Pipes,” Janie said into the phone. “That cashier was a chatty Cathy. Couldn’t get her to shut up. Anyway. How are you? What’s new? Tell me all the things. Oh. Wait. Hold up. I’m getting in the car and you’re probably going to switch over to Bluetooth.”
I sighed as the call cut out and waited for her car to connect. It always took a bit longer than others.
Finally, we connected again, and Janie apologized again before asking me how the month was going.
“Are you holding up to what you wanted for the month?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Janie said, stressing the word, “have you put your foot down on falling for another guy?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek. How did I put it delicately that my entire “don’t let your feelings get involved” plan had been blown to smithereens last weekend when Max took me to the pier in San Francisco?
Apparently, I didn’t need to worry about explaining it because my silence said everything Janie needed to know.
“Piper.” She said my name the way my mother used to when she was disappointed with my biology grades.
“What? It’s harder than it sounds, okay? Max is—he’s—he’s—”
“He’s what? Charming? Handsome as hell? Rich? Swoon-worthy?”
I groaned and pushed my sunglasses up on my head as a couple of fluffy white clouds passed in front of the sun. “Yes. All of those things.”
And he’s crazy good in bed.
“That’s the point, Pipes. All these guys are tens across the board. It’s supposed to be easy to fall for them. If it wasn’t, they wouldn’t call this the Casanova Club. They’d call it—I don’t know—the ‘Maybe You’ll Get Lucky’ club.”
“Ha ha.”
“I’m serious. This whole thing is rigged to hook you. And the guys, too. It is specifically designed to make you fall in love fast. Or to trick you into falling in love fast. With the travel and the luxurious accommodations and fancy dates, how can you not get the tingles?”
“I know.”
“Then why do you keep letting yourself walk into these situations? I can’t bear to see you heartbroken again.”
I grimaced. Heartbroken again.
I didn’t want that either, but there was no denying that Max and I were growing closer and closer with every passing day. The pier was just the beginning. Since then, we were inseparable. Sure, he still went to work and maintained a semblance of his old routine, but for the most part, we were together.
I hadn’t slept in the guest room at his house since the night before San Francisco.
To say I was walking a fine line was an understatement.
“Piper?”
“What?”
“Did you hear me?”
“Sorry. I missed it.”
Janie sighed wearily. “I said don’t have sex with him. The flirting and kissing won’t kill you or him, but as soon as sex is involved, shit gets complicated. If you keep it off the table, it will be easier to walk away.”
Oops. “Right. No sex. Got it.”
Janie was quiet a minute. “Oh God, Piper. You didn’t?”
“Didn’t what?” I asked innocently.
I should have known I wouldn’t be able to pull one over on Janie. She could smell dishonesty even if she was thousands of miles away.
“Piper,” she growled.
“I didn’t mean to,” I whimpered.
“Oh my God! Seriously?”
“It just happened. I mean, what was I supposed to do? He swept me off my feet, Janie. It was like I was living in a movie and everything was perfect and I—” I broke off and sat up, strengthening my resolve. “And I wanted to, okay? I really fucking wanted to.”
“Pipes, you and I both know I’m the last person to tell you not to get your whistle wet. If you want to fuck, I say fuck. But this is different.”
> “How?”
“You’re not going to choose him, Piper,” Janie hissed into the phone. For the first time in this process, I felt genuine anger coming from my best friend. “You’re going to abandon him. Like the others. And I get why you’re doing it. I do. I’ve come to terms with it, and I realize it’s your choice, not mine. But this? This isn’t right. You know full well the two of you aren’t going to get together, and you’re letting him move through the steps with you. He’s going to develop feelings if he hasn’t already. He’s in this to find a wife. He’s in this to fall in love. With you.”
The temperature felt like it dropped thirty degrees, and my heart shriveled up. I swallowed past the sudden lump in my throat as my gut rolled with nausea.
Janie’s car started beeping when she took off her seatbelt. “Hang on. Turning the car off. You’re going to lose me for a second while the call goes back to my phone.”
“Okay.”
The call went silent.
The sun came back out from behind the clouds, but I still felt the weight of Janie’s words like a storm.
This was wrong.
Deep down, I’d known it all along. But denial was so much easier. Falling for him was so much easier. Because it felt right. And easy. And comfortable. And so fucking good.
We fit together like all those clichés couples talked about, puzzle pieces, and peanut butter and jelly, and chocolate and caramel, and all that bullshit. It just worked. He made me laugh harder than anyone I’d ever met. And he made me feel cared for every day. Protected.
And here I was, hurting him one kiss at a time.
“You still there?” Janie asked.
“Yes. Yes, I’m here.”
I could hear her gathering her grocery bags. Neither of us said anything for a while. Janie knew when I needed time to process and chew on something. I listened as she said hello to someone in the lobby of our apartment building. She rode the elevator up and didn’t have to warn me that she might lose cell service. I already knew. Then she fumbled with her keys at the front door and let herself in before heavily setting the groceries on the counter.
