Suddenly, Max is beside me. His arms are around me and all I can smell is him. All I can feel is the heat of his body next to me, and all I can hear is the soft murmur of his voice.
Tears slide down my cheeks and I melt into him. His palm slides over my cheek, wiping my tears away. He stares at me for a moment, and the pieces of my broken heart start to fuse back together.
Then, he brings his face closer and I know it will heal. He presses his lips to mine and I wrap my arms around him, clinging onto him for dear life. His hand slides from my jaw to the nape of my neck, pulling me in for a deeper kiss.
The cafe melts away. The whole world disappears. I forget who I am and where I’m sitting. All that matters is him, and me, and our kiss.
Our love.
He rests his forehead against mine, touching the tip of his nose against the tip of mine.
“I gotta go,” he says. “Coach will kill me if I’m late, and then I’ll never be able to expense this meal.”
I laugh, pushing him away and shaking my head.
“Ever the romantic.”
He’s laughing as he picks up his jacket and our stack of notes. “That’s me. Don’t you miss being engaged to me?”
“Every day,” I say. He turns to look at me as a smile spreads across his lips. He leans down and kisses me softly.
“Come on,” he growls. “I’ll walk you to your car. Dinner at my place tonight?”
A lump has mysteriously appeared in my throat, so all I can do is nod. He slips his hand into mine and I’m grateful for it, because tears have completely misted up my eyes. I’d probably walk into a pole if he wasn’t there to guide me.
We kiss again when we get to my car. I watch him walk back towards the college athletics building, and then I smile.
I missed having him around, too.
Chapter 39 - Max
When Naomi gets to my place, she’s changed out of her work clothes and into casual jeans and a black tee-shirt. All the blood in my body rushes between my legs. She puts a hand on my shoulder and gets on her tip-toes to lay a gentle kiss on my cheek.
“So where’s this fancy wine of yours?”
“Just here,” I say. “I opened it to let it breathe.”
“Of course you did.”
She grins at me, kicking off her shoes and hooking her arm around my waist. I tuck her hair behind her ear, breathing in deeply as my heart does cartwheels in my chest.
“You smell like you,” I breathe.
“Who else would I smell like?”
“You always have a retort, don’t you?”
“You still sure you missed me?”
I chuckle, dropping my hands to her waist and pulling her closer. “Yeah,” I say. “I’m sure.”
Creases appear on her porcelain forehead. Her eyebrows draw together and she tilts her chin up to study my face. She takes a deep breath. I feel her chest move against mine. She still has her arms hooked around my waist, and I feel her fingers curl into my shirt.
“What are we doing, Max? What is this?”
I drop my hand, finding hers and guiding her towards the couch. I’ve already laid out the wine and two glasses, so we both sit down. I pour us two glasses and hand her one, and then I look her in the eyes.
As many times as I practiced saying this over the months, and as sure of myself as I was an hour ago, right now is different. With her bright eyes staring at me, my certainty evaporates and my whole body starts to stress. My palms are sweaty, and I brush my hair back with my fingers.
“Naomi,” I start. I need to stop and take a breath. She puts her glass of wine down and places her hands on my thighs. Her touch helps, and I can keep talking. “I fucked up. I know I did. Before, with you, I didn’t act right. I shouldn’t have put you in that position and I shouldn’t have accused you of those things. I was a coward with anything relating to my parents.”
“Max…”
I shake my head. “It’s true. It wasn’t until you left that I realized how special you are. You gave me the courage to quit working for my father, and to pursue what I really want. You showed me what matters. You,” I say, tucking my finger under her chin. “Are incredible.”
“I also fixed your knee, if we’re listing my accomplishments.”
I chuckle, and my nerves evaporate. She takes my glass of wine from my hands and puts it beside hers on the table, and then slides her hands into mine.
“Let’s just start over,” she says. “Just like you said.”
“You and me. We can date. No engagement, no pressure, no contract. Just you and me.”
“Just you and me.”
A smile spreads across her face and her eyes twinkle.
“Is this a terrible idea?” She asks. “I can’t tell. It feels like a great idea, but I’ve been wrong about these things before, especially with you. You’ve got a way of making me forget about common sense.”
“Funny,” I reply. “You have the same effect on me.”
She laughs until I stop her with a kiss. She wraps her arms around my neck. I lean forward until she’s laying down on the couch and I lean on top of her. I drop my arm to her waist and roll my hips towards her. Her body feels just as good as I remembered.
No, it feels better.
She deepens her kiss, tangling her fingers into my hair. Her back arches and her breasts press against my chest.
I knew this would happen when she agreed to have dinner at my place. Well, I hoped it would happen. But now that she’s here in my arms? My body is going wild.
My heart is thumping, and my cock is rock fucking hard. Every time her fingers brush against an inch of skin, they set it on fire. I can’t get enough of her. I kiss her harder and she moans into my mouth.
Her hips press against me and I feel the heat radiating between her legs. She spreads her legs and squeezes them around me, sending another wave of heat through my body.
“Max,” she pants.
“Yeah, baby?”
“I missed you.”
“I missed you too.”
“And I missed your cock.”
I grin. “My cock missed you too.”
She laughs as I drop my hand between her legs. I wish we weren’t wearing so many clothes. My fingers run along the inside of her thigh as she closes her eyes and drops her mouth open. She lets out a soft sigh as I reach the apex of her thighs and lay my palm between her legs.
I want to savor every minute of this. I want to etch every touch, every sound, every smell into my brain so I never forget it. I want to worship her body and make her feel like a fucking queen.
I want to hold her, and never let her go.
I tear her jeans off, running my fingers up her silky thighs until I reach her sopping wet panties. They’re clinging to her lips as she shivers underneath me. I push her panties aside and feel the velvety wetness of her slit. She moans when my skin touches hers, rolling her hips towards me. She shivers when I roll her bud under my thumb, opening her eyes and panting. The emerald green of her irises looks almost hazy as she runs her fingers through my hair.
I drop my head between her breasts, inhaling her scent as she pushes back against my hand. When I slip my fingers inside her, she gasps.
This is heaven. It has to be. How else could I explain it? Watching the woman I love get closer and closer to orgasm—I love her. I know that. I’ve always known it, even when I tried to convince myself otherwise. Her back arches, and her walls clamp down around my fingers with surprising strength. Her honey covers my hand as she presses herself into me, digging her fingers into my shoulders. My lips find hers and she kisses me fervently.
I twirl my fingers around her bud, loving the way she moans at my touch. I kiss her again until her mouth falls open and I feel the orgasm wash over her.
I smile as my cock throbs. Fuck, she’s gorgeous.
When she opens her eyes again, she stares at me and grins.
“My turn.”
Chapter 40 - Naomi
I’ve missed thi
s—our sex. I’ve missed it all. Lazy mornings with him, long evenings talking, or even the times where we said nothing at all.
But the sex… the sex I’ve definitely missed. I’ve tried to pretend that I wasn’t missing it, but my body has felt like a shell of what it was when we were together.
Within minutes, he’s ignited the fire inside me again.
I can feel his length against my stomach, and all I want to do is make him feel as good as he makes me feel. Whatever is between us, as confusing as it is, I know it’s real. It’s love.
We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t.
It only takes a couple frenzied seconds for us to get all our clothes off. My hands are around his shaft in an instant. He groans when he sees me moving closer to it. When I take it in my mouth, he sighs, running his hand across my shoulder.
“That feels so good, Naomi,” he moans.
I make a noise in response, wrapping my fingers around the base of his shaft. I love making him feel good. I like seeing this big, powerful man melt at my touch. It turns me on so much to know that I’m doing this to him—these noises and moans and sighs that he’s making—that’s because of me.
He lifts my head off him, shaking his own.
“You’re not getting away without me being inside you,” he growls.
I grin. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
He picks me up easily and I wrap my legs around his waist. He carries me to the bedroom and lays me down, groaning as he leans his body over mine.
“You have no idea how many times I’ve dreamt of this.”
“I have some idea,” I respond.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. Probably half as many times as I have.”
He chuckles, brushing his lips against mine. He shifts his body and I feel the tip of his cock brush against my slit. I shiver, spreading my legs and wrapping them around his waist. The feeling of his skin against mine is intoxicating.
When he enters me, the whole world disappears. I sigh in contentment, melting into the pillows and wrapping my body around his. We move as one.
When I come, I know that Max is the man for me. I know that there’s nowhere else I want to be other than his arms. I know that there is no one else, nowhere else, nothing else that will make me feel as good as being right here in his arms.
The pleasure heightens my emotion—or maybe it’s the other way around. Maybe it’s knowing that I don’t have to fight it, I can be with him. I can let myself love him fully and completely.
Once I let myself do that, my orgasm floods through me like a dam breaking. It crashes into me without hesitation, carrying me into a world of ecstasy. My body holds onto his and he moans into my skin. His teeth drag across my shoulder, and I feel him get harder as he drives himself deeper into me.
We’re panting, sticky with the sweat and heat of our desire. Of our pleasure.
Of our love.
When it’s over, he stays inside me and kisses me tenderly. He slides off me, draping his arm across my chest and sighing as his head hits the pillow.
“I think I needed that,” he groans.
“I definitely needed that,” I laugh. “Haven’t had an orgasm in way too long.”
“No?”
I snort. “Well, I haven’t exactly dated anyone since you,” I admit. “And I guess I just didn’t really feel like masturbating unless entirely necessary.”
His fingers caress my collar bone, and I turn to look at him. I smile.
“I haven’t been with anyone either,” he admits. “I couldn’t even look at other women after you.”
“So I guess we’re stuck with each other, then,” I grin.
“I guess so. You wanna save some time and get married?” His eyes flash and a grin spreads across his lips.
I laugh, pushing his shoulder and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed. “No. Not yet. Not for a while.”
“I can deal with ‘not yet’,” he grins.
“You think that wine has breathed enough?”
“I’d say so,” he grins.
“I’ll go get cleaned up and grab our glasses,” I say. He smiles at me, and I slip into a towel. I go to the bathroom to wash our sex off my body, and then tip toe to the living room to grab the wine. I can see some food he’s laid out on the counter and I go to investigate.
I smile when I see bruschetta. I stuff one piece in my mouth and carry the platter over with one glass of wine. I set the glass on his side of the bed, jogging back out to grab my own.
“Dinner in bed,” I grin as I come back in. He’s already chewing on a piece of bruschetta, nodding at me and wiggling his eyebrows.
“Starving,” he says with his mouth full.
“Me too,” I say, grabbing another piece.
“I’ve got some salmon for us, should only take a few minutes to cook up.”
“Let’s just eat this, and drink these,” I say, lifting my glass. “And then we can reassess.”
He arches his eyebrow, and I grin.
“You never know what we might want to do after a little snack.”
“I’ve got a couple ideas,” he says, lifting my hand and pressing his lips against my fingers. His hand drifts up my arm, sending a shiver of desire through me.
I smile, sip my wine, and let the happiness permeate my entire body.
In the darkest corners of my mind, I’d hoped this would happen. I wanted to come back to him. I wanted to leave our past behind us and start fresh, but I didn’t believe it could happen.
Watching Max crunch on another piece of bruschetta makes me realize that it is possible to start over. Not only it is possible, it’s happening.
He smiles at me again, and clinks his glass against mine.
“To us,” he says.
“To us.”
We drink our wine, and eat our food, and then I lean into the man I love and wrap my arms around him. He pulls me on top of him and we forget about dinner for a little while. We’ve got more important things to take care of.
Epilogue - Max
When I invite Naomi over to my parents’ house, I see my mother’s eyebrows raise ever so slightly in surprise. To their credit, my parents don’t make any untoward comments. I think they were disappointed when it didn’t work out between us, and they’re happy to see us together.
Ever since I quit the company, they’ve given me a lot more space. It feels good to have my own job, and to be my own man. I think my parents, for all their faults, understand that. I think they respect it, too.
Naomi’s mom is happy, too. She doesn’t hide it as well as my parents. She wraps her arms around me and lays a big, sloppy kiss on my cheek whenever she sees me. Her eyes are brighter than they were when we first met, and when I see her with Jerry, I understand why. They look as starry-eyed as I feel when I look at Naomi.
Naomi moves in with me, and her mother spends a lot of time at her apartment. She says it’s for doctor’s appointments, but I think it might have something to do with Jerry.
The partnership between PhysioFIT and my football team works perfectly, and we renew the contract for another year. I tell Coach Carter about Naomi and me right away, and he just grins at me.
Life just slips into place. It feels natural.
One sunny summer morning a few months after we decide to start over, Naomi wakes me up by wrapping her arms around me.
“I have a surprise for you,” she says.
I open my eyes one at a time, clearing the sleep from my throat. She’s grinning like the Cheshire Cat, and I look at her suspiciously.
“I thought you hated surprises.”
“I hate being on the receiving end of surprises,” she says. “I like giving them.”
I grin, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her down beside me. She yelps, laughing as I roll on top of her.
“Five more minutes,” I groan, closing my eyes and clamping my arms around her.
“Come on,” she laughs, poking me in the side. “Get up, get up, get up!”
> I groan, trying to stop the smile from spreading on my face. “Fine. What’s this surprise?”
Naomi grabs my hand and pulls me out of bed. She smiles at me, nodding towards the living room. When I walk out, I notice the couch has been moved and she’s cleared a space in the corner. There’s a yoga mat on the ground, and a foam roller with a few bands hanging off the wall.
“Your very own physio corner!” She proclaims. “I bought all the stuff online and set it up this morning. You’ve been slacking on your knee.”
“I thought this surprise would be nice and romantic,” I say, rubbing my eyes. “This just looks like work.”
Naomi wraps her arms around my waist and lays a soft kiss on my lips. “It is work, but I remember you saying that Connor had asked you to be on his fall football team. The season starts in three months, and I think we can get your knee strong enough to play.”
My heart jumps. “Yeah?”
She nods. “I can work with you right here at home. I’ve developed a plan that I think should get you well enough to play by September.”
My eyes widen as I look at the little physical therapy corner she’s made. I tighten my arm around her as my throat closes with emotion.
“Naomi…”
She smiles. “Come on, let me show you. So I bought a foam roller and one of these spiky balls that you hate.”
“Great,” I say. Naomi laughs. She explains what all the things are for, and walks me through her plan for the next few months. I sit down and rub my hand over my knee, watching her stretch one of the rubber bands and demonstrate a new exercise for me.
My heart grows in my chest as I watch her.
She’s incredible. Thoughtful, smart, dedicated, and all mine. I feel like I’ve won the lottery. When she’s finished her demonstration, she stands up and puts her hands on her hips, looking at the equipment and smiling at me.
“So what do you think?”
I stand up and wrap my arms around her. “I think you’re the best thing that ever happened to me.”
She smiles and tilts her chin up. I kiss her, holding her close to me and feeling my heart beat along with hers.
Engaged to Mr. Right: A Fake Marriage Romance (Mr. Right Series Book 1) Page 17
