He looked at her, and the depth of emotion on her face told him he was right. This had cost her, but she was doing it because she loved him and because she believed in him.
He handed her the envelope back. “I don’t want this.”
She frowned. “Why not? You haven’t even opened it. You don’t even know what’s inside.”
“I don’t have to open it because I know what it says.”
The butler returned, breaking the moment, and set the tray with the teapot, cups and cream and sugar in front of them on the settee. He went to pour it, but Maximus stopped him. “Thank you, I’ve got it.”
Maximus reached for the teapot and began pouring, stalling for time as he prepared for the biggest speech of his life. The moment was here. Tahlia had come to him yet again, offering him everything she had in the hopes that this time he wouldn’t reject her love.
He wouldn’t make that mistake twice.
Maximus handed her the teacup and saucer and watched as she brought it to her delectable lips. And despite his injuries, his shaft sprung to life.
When she was finished sipping, she set the cup down on the settee. “Aren’t you having any?”
He shook his head. He probably should have some tea to calm his nerves. He’d never told a woman he loved her before, so this was certainly a first.
“Tahlia...” he began, but she interrupted.
“Why won’t you open that envelope?” she asked, inclining her head to the envelope sitting on the settee.
“I don’t need to,” he responded. “It says that you’ve signed your two percent share in Knight Shipping over to me.”
Her eyes grew large in surprise. “H-how did you know? Did Lucius say something to you?”
Maximus chuckled. “So my brother knew you were going to do this and he let you?”
“Like he could stop me,” Tahlia replied with a snort. “It’s my stock to do with as I please, and I’m choosing to give it to you because it’s rightfully yours and because it’s what you deserve. Knight Shipping should have been yours to begin with. You earned it, but instead your father chose otherwise. And I’m here to tell you he was wrong, Maximus. He should have chosen you, because I do. And I always choose you each and every time.”
“Oh, God, Tahlia.” Maximus fell to his knees in front of her and clutched at her legs. “I don’t deserve you. I never have, but I’m so glad you’re here and that you’d do this for me.”
Tahlia’s hands grasped both sides of his face, and Maximus thought he’d died and gone to heaven just to have her touch him again. How he’d longed for her! “I’d do anything for you,” she said, “even come here again, not knowing how you’d react and...and—” Her words got choked from emotion, and she stopped, dropping her hands from his face.
“Not knowing if I’d reject your love again,” he finished, glancing up at her warily.
She nodded as fresh tears formed in her eyes.
“I won’t,” Maximus said, shaking his head. “I won’t ever again.”
“You won’t?” Her voice was hesitant and unsure.
He couldn’t put his feelings into words as relief surged through him. Tahlia was one in a million. She was without guile and had every reason to hate him, to never want to see him again, but instead she’d come here with her heart in her hands asking for his love yet again. He wouldn’t fail her.
Summoning all the courage he’d ever had, Maximus took her hands in his and raised them to his lips. He couldn’t resist the forces any longer. She’d unlocked the door to his heart, a door he’d kept hidden because of his father, but she’d transformed him and set him free.
“I love you, Tahlia,” Maximus said simply, remembering Lucius’s words to speak from the heart. “And I’m sorry for everything. For foolishly thinking that I could seduce you into my way of thinking to vote for me when it was you who was seducing me with your every look, your every action and your every kiss.”
Tears shone in Tahlia’s eyes at his words, and Maximus was thankful that she wasn’t pulling away from him. Instead, she was clutching his hand to her heart, and Maximus’s heart swelled with love. He hadn’t lost her!
“You’re my every dream come true, Tahlia. You’re the dream I didn’t even know I was looking for, but I am so happy that I found you. I was a scared man before you came into my life. Afraid of love because I’d been rejected by my father so many times.”
“I know that, sweetheart.” She whispered the endearment.
“I was so afraid to let you in because I was afraid of being rejected, but what did I do? I did the same thing to you that my father did to me. In the hospital, I rejected your love even though you’d been there for me in my time of need, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever truly forgive myself for hurting you that way. But I promise you that I will spend my every waking minute trying, trying to be the best man that I can be for you, the woman I love.”
“Oh, Maximus!” she cried and threw her arms around his neck and began planting kisses on his neck and ears, but he pulled away.
“Wait, sweetheart. I’m not done yet.”
“You’re not? I thought that was really, really good,” she said. “Can’t you just stop there?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Because there’s so much more I have to say.”
“Like what?”
“That you didn’t have to give me your stock,” Maximus said, glancing down at the manila envelope that sat on the table.
“Of course I did. I wanted to show you that I just want you. And only you. None of it, any of it, means a thing without you in my life.”
“And you mean more to me than Knight Shipping. So much more. Do you have any idea how much you’ve enriched my life?” he asked. “You’ve helped bridge the gap between me and Lucius.”
“I have?”
“Yes, we’ve been talking since I’ve been in the hospital, and I have to admit, I kind of like having an older brother. Someone to bounce ideas off of. And it’s why I can’t let you give away what’s rightfully half his.”
“But he doesn’t want Knight Shipping,” Tahlia said. “He just wants you to be happy.”
Maximus grinned and playfully tapped her nose. “There you go again, ever the optimist.”
She shrugged. “What can I say? It’s who I am.”
Maximus swung her into his arms, causing them both to fall onto the floor. Tahlia ended up on the rug with Maximus hovering over her. He loved looking at her and knew he’d never tire of it. So he took his fill now. Tahlia was all he would ever need. “And I love who you are,” he said, lowering his head until his lips were mere inches from hers. “Matter of fact, I love everything about you.”
And then he did the one thing he’d wanted most, the one thing he’d missed over the last few months. Maximus finally kissed Tahlia.
Chapter 17
A kiss had never been sweeter to Tahlia than the one Maximus bestowed on her after he’d just professed his love to her. She’d taken a risk coming to the estate today, and it had paid off. Maximus now held her in his arms on the throw rug in his family’s sitting room as he kissed her gently at first, stroking her hair.
Tahlia cried out in disappointment. She wanted more. It didn’t help that the scent of his cologne was teasing her senses, and it made every part of Tahlia’s body tingle, especially when she felt the jut of his erection in his jeans. Her nipples thrust toward him through the confines of her blouse, desperate for his touch. They hadn’t been together in so long; she didn’t want to wait a moment longer.
Tahlia began writhing beneath him even more so when he dipped his head and licked at the seams of her mouth, seeking entry. She parted her already moistened lips, and his tongue darted inside, possessively mating with hers until she was going mad for him. Her senses were roaring to new heights, and she arched into
him for greater contact and was rewarded when she felt the hard ridge of his manhood pushing against her pelvis. But Maximus stopped her.
“We should, uh, take this to my room,” he murmured huskily.
That was when Tahlia realized that they were still on the throw in the middle of his family’s sitting room. He had aroused her to fever pitch, making her forget their location. She blushed beet red. “Yes, of course.”
They left everything in the room, including her purse, exactly where it was, and she took the hand Maximus offered her and let him lead her to his bedroom. It was up a flight of stairs and down the hall, heightening the anticipation of finally being with Maximus after so long without him.
When they finally made it inside the room, Maximus closed and locked the door. Then they began peeling their clothes off, eager to feel the friction of body against naked body.
“I’ve looked forward to this moment for so long,” Tahlia said as they met on the bed, and he slid down on top of her.
“As have I.” Then he claimed her mouth with a hot, hungry kiss. Tahlia moaned as he kissed her with skilled mastery. Her entire body trembled with every thrust of his tongue inside her mouth. His tongue invaded hers, and all Tahlia could do was take, take more of him as he went deeper, giving her everything. And when his lips left hers to nip at her earlobe and then glide to her neck and throat, molten heat began to pool between her thighs.
Maximus had always made her feel this way, this hot, this aroused with him and only him. Then his hand slipped underneath her and downward to cup her backside, bringing his arousal against her belly and rubbing her there with his engorged tip. Tahlia wanted to drag him inside her to have every inch of his skin imprinted on her. She writhed in his hold, eager for him to reach her slit, but instead of driving into her, he slid her up and down the steel of his erection with slow, leisurely strokes.
“Enough of the foreplay,” Tahlia whimpered. “Please...take me.”
“Not yet,” Maximus said and began molding and massaging her breasts before dipping his head to sample one and then the other. At the graze of his tongue, licking and swirling her breasts, corkscrews of ecstasy went through Tahlia, and she was forced to take a sharp breath.
But he continued his onslaught of her senses when his hands delved between her thighs and touched her exactly where she wanted him to, dipping and withdrawing, making her pant his name as he stoked the fire deep within her. She opened her legs wider to give him better access. And he took it, moving down her body.
His hands were no longer possessing. It was his mouth at her slick, hot core, milking every ounce of her satisfaction as he used his tongue and teeth to suckle her. She whimpered and keened as he licked his way in and out of her, pleading for him to end her agony as she bucked helplessly beneath his lashing tongue.
She was sweaty and delirious when she finally saw him pause long enough to put on a condom, and then he was back between her thighs, thrusting into her. He plunged inside her, into the very depths of her, then he withdrew and plunged in deeper until he was all the way inside her. Then he began moving, slowly, then faster and faster until she convulsed and shattered around him. Maximus’s roar came next, and he stiffened in her arms, but he didn’t stop ramming into her until her body gave way again and she shattered into a million pieces.
* * *
Maximus gathered Tahlia’s exhausted and shaking body into his arms. He loved her so much and with everything in him. What they’d shared just now was more than physical. It transcended anything he’d ever felt. Time and space ceased to exist. And he knew he never wanted to let her go. He loved her.
When Tahlia finally began to stir, he found she was still awake. “Hello, beautiful.” He stroked her cheek.
“Did I pass out?” she asked in disbelief.
He laughed. “Uh, something like that.”
She poked him in the ribs. “Don’t tease me. You just wore me out. I wasn’t prepared for your exuberance.”
Maximus thought about how he reveled in the taste of her sweet stickiness when he’d been between her thighs. Her sighs of pleasure as he’d licked her and she’d pleaded with him to take her. He liked that she gave herself so completely to him, but there was one final thing he hadn’t done.
Maximus slid from the bed and reached for the nightstand drawer.
Tahlia saw his actions and held his hand. “Oh, no you don’t, mister. My highly sensitized flesh needs time to recover.”
He chuckled to himself. She thought he was reaching for another condom; he wasn’t. Instead, he reached for the ring box he’d purchased yesterday, thanks to a little help from Kaitlynn, Tahlia’s sister. After leaving the hospital, he’d called her and picked her up. He needed assistance because he wasn’t sure what ring Tahlia might like. At first, Kaitlynn hadn’t been too keen to meet up with the man who’d broken her sister’s heart, but when he’d told her just how much he loved Tahlia and that he would make things right, she’d agreed. And they’d found a beautiful six-carat princess-cut diamond ring.
“Tahlia.” Maximus kneeled at the bedside. “I know this might seem sudden to you since we’re just getting back together, but you were right about something. Having a near-death experience changes you. And it changed me. It made me see life is short, and I don’t want to miss a single minute of being with you.” He opened the ring box. “Tahlia Armstrong, will you do me the honor of being my wife? Will you marry me?
“Wh-what?” Tahlia’s eyes grew large with wonder. “You want to marry me?”
He nodded. “I was so lonely until you came into my life, but you’ve brightened up my whole world. You’ve changed my life, Tahlia, and I’m the better for it. So I want us to last a lifetime. Please—say you’ll marry me.”
Tears streamed down Tahlia’s cheeks as she looked at him and nodded. “You’ve changed my life, too, Maximus. You’ve enriched it with your love and your encouragement. So yes, I’ll marry you.”
Maximus clutched her shoulders and kissed her. His lips parted hers with bold assurance, and his tongue slid firmly between them to explore her with an eroticism that left her trembling. “You’ve made me the happiest man alive, Tahlia.” Then he slipped the diamond ring onto her finger.
“And I’m the happiest woman alive,” Tahlia said. Then she pulled him into her embrace as she whispered, “Now I’m ready for round two.”
Epilogue
“I never thought I’d see the day that Maximus and Lucius would be running Knight Shipping together,” Tahlia said as she and Naomi set the table at Maximus’s penthouse. Lucius and Naomi were joining them for dinner because she and Maximus had just returned from their honeymoon in Saint Bart’s.
They’d had their wedding on the Knight estate on the great lawn surrounded by family and friends. Her mother had walked Tahlia down the aisle, and Kaitlynn and Griffin had been maid of honor and best man. Lucius had been groomsman and Naomi bridesmaid, along with her coworker, Faith. It had been a spectacular day, one that Tahlia would never forget.
“Neither did I,” Naomi said. “That was no small feat you accomplished, sister-in-law.”
Tahlia turned and stared at her husband while he and Lucius grilled steaks on the grill on the balcony outside. “I didn’t do it alone. It took both of our strong, yet very powerful husbands to put in the work.”
“True, but you were the catalyst.”
“No.” Tahlia shook her head. “In his own weird way, it was their father, Arthur,” Tahlia said. “Though I don’t think even he could have envisioned this.”
Tahlia smiled as the two brothers sparred over who was the better grill master and drank their beers.
“How was the honeymoon?” Naomi queried as she played with her curly fro. Tahlia wished she was like her sister-in-law and could rock the natural look.
“Oh, Saint Bart’s was amazing,” Tahlia said, “
and somewhat exhausting. Your brother-in-law was insatiable.”
Naomi giggled. “It must run in the family.”
Later, when both couples were gathered at the table, Maximus opened a bottle of wine and began pouring each of them a glass.
“None for me,” Naomi said, placing her hand over the rim of the wineglass.
“Are you feeling all right?” Maximus inquired as the foursome usually drank quite frequently together as they each had a love of wine bars.
Naomi beamed from across the table, and Tahlia instantly knew the truth. “I’m feeling fine.” She patted her flat belly. “I’m just eating for two now, so it’s best I avoid alcoholic substances for the next six months.”
* * *
Maximus’s eyes grew large, and he reached across the table and pulled Lucius into a one-armed hug. “Congratulations, bro. And you, too, Naomi.” He looked at his sister-in-law. “This is wonderful news. I’m going to be an uncle.”
“That’s right.” Lucius grinned from ear to ear. “My baby is having a baby.”
“Aw, honey.” Naomi smiled at his sweet words.
“Soon it’ll be your turn, Max,” Lucius stated. “You mark my words.”
Maximus chuckled as he looked across the table at his gorgeous wife. “Well, it certainly won’t be for lack of trying on my part. I kept Tahlia flat on her back for most of our honeymoon.”
“Maximus Xavier Knight!” Tahlia blushed from across the table.
He grinned mischievously. “Sorry, babe.” But deep down, he wasn’t sorry. He couldn’t wait for the day when Tahlia told him she was pregnant.
He told her so later that evening, after Lucius and Naomi had gone and it was just the two of them staring out at the Los Angeles skyline on the balcony of the penthouse.
“You don’t want to wait?” Tahlia asked, glancing behind her. Her back was to him, and Maximus had circled his arms around her middle. “I’d think you’d want me all to yourself.” She could feel the bulge in his pants. Her husband had a voracious appetite for her.
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