Pru kept her face carefully blank, trying to figure out if he was serious or if this was some kind of deep corporate spy game he was playing with her. “Well, thank you for letting me know your thoughts on my recent marriage,” she said after a few disbelieving moments. “I’ll keep them in mind.”
“You do that,” he said with another killer smile. “And if anything changes after this Friday, look me up when you get back to Vegas. I know someone on his way up who would be very interested in a girl like you.”
This time Pru couldn’t keep the shock off her face. Friday was Max’s birthday. The day he’d officially receive his trust money—the day he’d officially be free to divorce her.
Gus knew about Max’s inheritance. Knew and must have guessed that what she and Max had was more of a monetary agreement than a true marriage.
She narrowed her eyes, prepared to press him further on the subject. But before she could, a voice said, “What are you doing in here with my wife?”
Chapter 15
Max had never been a jealous man. In his life. In fact, the few women he had officially dated for longer than a few nights had been the type who went out of their way to turn heads. And it had never bothered him that other guys coveted what he currently had.
But walking in on Gus and Pru, both dressed in nothing but towels, bothered him. His lips curled into a sneer as he directed his attention toward Gus. “What are you doing in here with my wife?”
Gus turned to him with a condescending smirk on his face, muscles flexing as he lowered his hands to his side.
“I just came down here to take a shower before this morning’s round of presentations,” Gus answered, his voice a near drawl. “Imagine my surprise when I found such a beautiful sight. Must have been serendipity.”
The towel and the new set of clothes Max had brought to change into quickly ended up on the shower room’s floor as Max started toward Gus.
But Pru stepped in front of him. “Max,” she said, “you dropped your clothes on the floor. Do you want to go back to the room with me? Get some more?”
“No, I don’t,” Max answered between clenched teeth. “I’d much rather stay here and punch this guy out for daring to look at another man’s woman.”
Gus tilted his head. “Really? Because that’s how I heard your parents met. Wasn’t your dad still with Cole’s mom when he got her sister, your mom, pregnant? Or is that just hotel gossip?”
Max pushed forward. Only Pru’s hands pressed against his chest kept him from going farther.
“Max, please don’t...” she said, her voice desperate. Though she hadn’t looked all that surprised when Gus had dropped that nugget of scandalous Benton family lore. Yet another thing she must have found out before hunting him down in New Orleans.
Feeling like a fool, Max decided to back down. But not politely.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart, I won’t hurt your sad little admirer,” he said to Pru, throwing Gus a cold smile. “Looks like you’ve had some major heart surgery there, desperado, and I’m a charitable man from a charitable family. I’d never forgive myself if I did anything to make you need more surgery, which of course we Bentons would have to pay for, just like we pay your salary.”
Pru’s eyes widened. “Max!” she gasped.
But he didn’t care. It was true, he wasn’t about to go after a guy who’d had heart surgery. But he also for damn sure wasn’t going to just let him get away with flirting with Pru.
Gus took a step toward Max. “That surgery was a long time ago, man, and I assure you, I can more than take care of myself if you want to do this.”
“He doesn’t,” Pru answered for Max. “And more important, I don’t want you to, because there’s nothing to fight over. Max, we were just talking, I swear. And Gus, if you’re going to take a shower, go take it, please. More people are probably going to be getting back from the trip soon, including my brother-in-law.”
Gus looked between her and Max as he clenched and unclenched his fists. But perhaps sensing that it might not be the wisest thing for his career to get into a physical fight with the younger Benton, he backed down.
“Never let it be said that Gus Martinez would turn down a beautiful woman’s request. Sure, I’ll go take my shower now,” he said, his eyes outright challenging Max. “See you later, Pru.”
Pru didn’t answer, which was a good thing. Max couldn’t have been responsible for his actions if she had in any way responded to the heavy flirtation in Gus’s voice.
Pru stood there, her hands still on Max’s chest as they both watched Gus disappear into one of the shower stalls. A moment later the water came on, and Pru let out a breath of relief.
A breath was all she got, because in the next moment, Max had her lifted up in his arms, carrying her to the closest hidden space.
“What are you doing?” she demanded in a whisper when he set her down and shut the door behind them. The bathroom’s metal locking device slipped closed with a jingling clang.
The front of her towel was nearly undone now, hanging on to its tuck by just a tip. A tip Max reached out and undid with just a flick of his finger.
His nose flared when the towel fell away, and his member came to thick life inside the jeans he’d worn on the canoe trip. It was angry and ready to be inside her.
“Cashing in a wallet,” he answered.
He cupped her newly uncovered sex then, needing to feel her, needing to know if she was slick with her own arousal. Her sex pulsed in hot invitation.
It was an invitation he took, pushing three fingers into her and biting down a groan when her tunnel clenched around his fingers with hot need.
Her head fell forward onto his shoulder, her whole body melting into his touch, even as Detective Pru protested, “You said I had thirty-six hours.”
“You need to revisit the language of our agreement. I said I could give you thirty-six hours,” he murmured against the top of her head. “Could. I never guaranteed I would.”
She whispered a word, one that wasn’t very kind, but she didn’t push him away. Just whimpered and gripped his shoulders, helplessly watching him guide her hips as he made her ride his hand.
Damn if she wasn’t just about the sexiest sight he’d ever seen. So sexy that his own painful need became background noise as he watched her naked body pumping into his hand. Her whimpering became louder and louder until eventually her mews turned into full-on moans and her hips started moving faster against his hand.
Max’s own arousal became untenable then, and though he hadn’t meant to take it this far, he stopped.
“What...why did you stop?” Pru looked adorably dazed and confused, which made Max move even faster with the condom he’d brought out of his pocket. He didn’t want to leave her feeling abandoned any longer than he had to.
In mere seconds he was fully sheathed, his jeans around his ankles.
“Pru, sweetheart, I know you don’t want anyone to hear us, but—” he lifted up one of her long legs and wrapped it around his waist at the same time that he began the long push into her wet tunnel “—I’m going to need you to get loud for me. Think you can do that?”
He pushed the rest of the way in, and Pru gasped, her eyes widening with pleasure. But then she shook her head. Shook her head even though Max could feel her core tightening around his shaft, already milking him with her need.
She was fighting it. Fighting him, and that made Max pick her up, pressing her hard into the stall’s wall as he wrapped her other leg around his waist, too.
“Are you trying to make me mad, Prudence?” he asked, pushing into her with short, jerking strokes that rubbed her clit both on the way up and on the way down.
Her body caved into his, obviously overwhelmed by the sensations Max was producing inside her. But she remained mutinously silent, clamping her lips togeth
er and shaking her head. Refusing to do his bidding. Refusing him.
Max’s strokes became vicious. He barely held on to a thin edge of self-control as he took his wife. Marked his claim. “I need you to understand something, sweetheart,” he whispered viciously in her ear. “While you’re here, you belong to me. No one else.”
Pru answered this time, her voice little more than a broken gasp. “Y-you need to revisit...th-the language of our agreement. I was—I was speaking to Gus, for the case...case is my first priority—not your st-stupid pissing contest with G-Gus.”
Her breathless words burned through Max, and that wild feeling came over him again. The one that made him feel as if he couldn’t get close enough to her even though he was all the way inside her.
“Unless you want me cashing in my wallets at very inconvenient times, I suggest you make me your first priority,” he growled, thrusting into her even more savagely.
Then, before she could even think to respond, he brought his hand down and pinched her most sensitive place, brutally triggering her orgasm.
She did scream then, but soundlessly. Her head falling back as her hand circled around his wrist, trying to push it away.
“Too much,” she seemed to be saying, and he could feel the intensity of her climax, her core nearly locking him in.
But he didn’t stop. He continued to drive into her, continued to torture her clit, so that she couldn’t escape the orgasm, couldn’t escape the pleasure’s unrelenting assault.
And she soon lost her battle to stay quiet, helplessly screaming out. So loud that there was no way Gus couldn’t hear her, even with the noise of the shower.
What Max didn’t expect was to join her. Instead of reveling in the satisfaction of her surrender, the entire lower half of his body involuntarily pushed him into Pru’s tight space as deep as he could go, releasing into the condom as if compelled by her helpless screams.
He yelled out then, just as loud as Pru, and then he went completely mute. For moments on end, he couldn’t talk, couldn’t breathe, still couldn’t get close enough to Pru as he finished releasing into the condom.
Not enough...
He was in trouble. He knew now that what had just happened between him and Pru wasn’t his usual fun and games, but something much more. Because he hadn’t broken their implicit agreement and taken her in the bathroom stall just because he could.
No, the real reason he’d taken her like this was because he wanted her to know that for the time being, she was his. His alone. Not Gus’s.
This was crazy. This needed to stop. This needed to stop right now.
Not enough...
What the hell was he going to do? he wondered as the orgasm finally subsided. How was he going to get this girl out of his system by Friday? Breathing hard, he looked down at Pru and saw his own fear reflected in her brown eyes.
A tap suddenly sounded on the stall’s door.
Pru’s eyes went wide, and she began shaking her head frantically.
Her unspoken request brought a much-needed dose of amusement back into the situation for Max, and he arched his eyebrows at Pru. That cat was most definitely out of the bag, thanks to her screaming.
“Yes, Gus?” he answered, unable to keep the self-satisfied note of triumph out of his voice.
“It’s not Gus, it’s Cole,” came his brother’s dry voice on the other side of the door.
Now Pru was really mortified. She shook her head and covered her eyes with both hands.
Max just answered, “Yes, Cole?”
“A reminder that the other execs weren’t allowed to bring significant others on this trip,” Cole said. He somehow sounded both annoyed and amused. “Let’s not give them any reason to be jealous.”
Max had to work hard to keep the chuckle out of his own voice as Pru uncovered her eyes and shoved at him. Perhaps she hadn’t realized that both her legs were still wrapped around his waist, and that he was the only thing keeping her pinned to the wall.
“Will do, bro,” he answered, clamping one of his hands around one of her wrists to keep her from battering him. “Thanks for the heads-up.”
“You’re welcome, Max.” Cole waited a beat before saying, “And good morning, Pru. Sunny told me to tell you she’s looking forward to seeing you on Friday when she gets here.”
Pru cringed for several seconds, seemingly stuck in a paralysis of complete embarrassment.
But eventually she managed to squeeze out. “Good morning, Cole. I’m looking forward to seeing Sunny, too.”
“Perhaps the four of us can go out for lunch that day. Celebrate Max and me signing his papers.”
“Sounds great,” Pru answered, her voice laced with discomfort.
“Good, good, I’ll have my assistant make reservations,” Cole said. He then finally walked away, leaving a very embarrassed Pru and a rather amused Max in his wake.
Chapter 16
Perhaps not surprisingly, things got awkward between Max and Pru after what happened in the downstairs showers.
But not at first. At first Pru had been the only one caught up in embarrassment. She didn’t slip out of his grip until she heard the sound of Cole’s shower being turned on. As soon as that happened, she climbed off Max, rewrapped her towel around her body and dashed out of the stall. She then shot up the stairs to their room as fast as her bare feet could carry her.
Max reappeared in the room about twenty minutes later. She could feel his eyes on her back, watching as she pretended to be so wrapped up in her case notes that she didn’t notice him come in. But to her relief, he didn’t call her bluff, just headed for the closet.
She listened to the sound of him changing and somehow resisted the urge to peek over her shoulder at him while he did so.
She sat tight for about fifteen excruciating minutes, then came the sound of the room’s door opening and closing. And he was gone again without either of them having said a word to each other.
She spent their time apart trying to figure out a way to show her face at breakfast the next day when she could barely work up the nerve to text back and forth with Cole about tonight’s plan. For once she wished she hadn’t left the old Pru so far behind.
She probably would have just laughed.
But then again, who really knew what she would have done, because it wasn’t as if the old Pru had ever had the kind of sex she’d had with Max. Tits, butt, legs and sass—she used to think those were her best assets, and her relationships had been a reflection of that. Back then she’d worked at being a good trophy girlfriend. And when it came to what happened in the bedroom, it had been more about her putting on a good show than actually being pleased by her partner.
Until Max.
Pru had never ever experienced anything like what she’d had with Max. Twice. And that scared her, the memories of what he’d brought out in her, making it hard for her to concentrate on her work, even after he’d left the room.
Luckily for her, the Benton execs spent all morning in meetings. Then, according to the lodge’s manager, instead of getting lunch catered as usual, they’d all gone to Kanab, a town about thirty miles away, to eat.
Pru was happy to grab a sandwich out of the lodge’s vending machine and use the extra time to make sure everything was in place for tonight. By the time Max returned to the room, carrying quite a few shopping bags, she had a pretty good grip on her emotions.
“Looks like you did some shopping,” she said.
Not the coolest observation ever, but at least she was able to keep her voice casual. Maybe it wasn’t completely obvious that her insides were still quivering with the memory of how thoroughly he’d possessed her body that morning.
Max didn’t answer, just deposited the bags on the bed.
She tried again. “How did giving back the wallets and phones go?
I tried to cover my tracks to make sure no one knew I’d been rooting around in there, but you can never be sure.”
No answer, and Max pulled a new backpack out of one of the bags, a sleek and hardy nylon number that looked as if it could easily withstand both wind and rain.
“Going somewhere?” she asked, as if she didn’t already know.
This question finally got a response. “Escalante for a surprise camping trip,” he said, through what sounded like gritted teeth. “Cole just announced it. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
Her eyes widened with pretend shock. “Whoa, short notice.”
She wasn’t surprised Max was in such a bad mood. He didn’t seem like the type of guy who belonged anywhere near a campground.
Feeling a bit sorry for him, she went over to the bed and picked through his bags, checking over his supplies.
“It looks like you’ve got most of what you need here. I would have made Jakey pack a hat, since it can get a little chilly there at night, and maybe one of those solar-powered backup chargers, just in case you wear out the battery on your phone. But it probably won’t matter, since you’ll have a bunch of other people there to keep you company until it’s time to go to sleep.”
She held out her hand for his phone. “Here, let me charge your phone while you finish getting packed. Though I’m not sure how much good it will do if you want to make a call. You’re probably not going to get great reception out there.”
Max handed over his phone but gave her a quizzical look as he did. “So you’ve done this before,” he said. “Camping in Escalante?”
Pru nodded. “In Escalante, in Arizona and nearly every campground in Las Vegas. Jakey was in the Hiking Club, and I tried to chaperone all of his field trips.”
Max looked at her as if she’d just grown another head. “Why?”
“Why?” she repeated with a quizzical look of her own. “Because I love my brother.”
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