by Abby Green
When she’d cooled down a little, Zoe put her gloves on again and went back to her punchbag. Maks was still pounding his bag, lost in his own world. Zoe almost felt she was intruding.
She got back to her own workout, but was too aware of Maks in her peripheral vision. He stopped and she heard him breathing. She tried to pretend that every cell in her body wasn’t swivelling towards him like the bud of a flower opening to the sun.
‘You’re good.’
She stopped and turned around. She shrugged. ‘Not in your league. There’s a boxing gym near me. I started to go there after—’ She stopped, feeling the creeping shame she always felt when she thought of her weakness.
‘After your ex-boyfriend?’
Maks’s voice was like steel.
Zoe nodded. ‘I went to learn self-defence, but I found sparring and boxing surprisingly satisfying.’
Maks tugged off his gloves and picked up a couple of punch pads. ‘Come on—practice on me.’
‘I’m not that good...really.’
Maks started to move around her. ‘Come on, Collins, show me what you’ve got.’
Zoe rolled her eyes but took up her stance, trying to remember to stay on the balls of her feet and mobile. Maks started off easy on her, but as she matched him he got faster and more unpredictable, forcing her to duck and react more quickly.
Finally he stopped and stepped back. They were both breathing heavily. Zoe more than Maks. She wished she could take off her top, but she only had a sports bra underneath.
As if reading her mind, though, Maks put down the pads and pulled off his own shirt. He must have seen the look on her face. ‘Do you mind?’
Zoe shook her head as a roaring sound drowned out everything else. It was the blood in her body rushing to every erogenous zone. She’d seen men in states of undress in the gym—it was normal. But never one like this...
Maks was not human. He was too beautiful to be human. His powerful torso was a finely etched work of art, ridged with muscles. Not an ounce of spare flesh. Hard. Unyielding. Mesmerising.
She dragged her gaze up and looked at him suspiciously. ‘Are you trying to distract me?’
He looked innocent. ‘Me? No. Only as much as you’re distracting me.’
Zoe nearly guffawed, but then Maks’s gaze narrowed on her and drifted down, taking in her heaving chest under the clinging Lycra of her top, down over her belly, hips, thighs and lower legs to where her three-quarter-length jogging pants ended. Normally she worked out in a bra top and shorts, and even though she was more covered up right now, she felt naked.
Wanting to push back against the easy way Maks could manipulate her body, Zoe knocked her gloves together. ‘Ready for round two, Marchetti?’
This time he put on his own gloves and started dancing around her. ‘Sure, bring it on.’
Zoe launched a few jabs, but Maks ducked them. She knew he was going easy on her, and that only spurred her on. She took advantage of a split second’s hesitation on Maks’s part to throw a quick right-handed upper cut. The last thing Zoe expected was to make actual physical contact with Maks’s jaw. But she did. And, not expecting it either, he stumbled back and fell over a stool, sprawling onto his back.
Zoe wasn’t even aware of taking off her gloves or moving. She was on her knees at Maks’s side, her hands on his face. His eyes were closed. ‘Maks? Oh, my God, Maks... I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to actually hit you. Are you okay? Where does it hurt?’
‘All over,’ he growled.
His eyes opened and suddenly his hands were on her arms. The air between them was so charged Zoe was sure she could smell electricity in the air. All she could see was hard sinew and sculpted muscle.
She focused on his jaw, which looked red. ‘Your jaw...let me get some ice, or something...’
Maks shook his head. ‘Don’t need ice.’
He was urging her down and towards him, until her chest was pressed against his.
‘What are you doing?’
Maks moved his hand from her arm up to her shoulder and then to the back of her neck. He lifted his head. ‘Kiss me better and we’ll call it quits.’
Zoe’s heart hammered. She realised she’d been waiting for this moment ever since she’d agreed to come on this trip with Maks. She bent forward and avoided his mouth, pressing a kiss against his jaw.
Maks said, ‘I didn’t mean there.’
Zoe raised her head. There was something heady about being over Maks like this, even though she was aware of the strength in his body and knew that within a split-second she could be on her back with him overpowering her...
‘I’m aware of that.’
He arched a brow. ‘Are you, now? I’m not getting any younger, Collins.’
She smiled. She hadn’t expected this either. Lightness. Flirting.
She bent down, her mouth so close to his that she could feel his breath feather against hers. She stayed there for a moment, relishing the sense of power she had...but every cell in her body was screaming for contact, so she lowered her head and pressed her mouth to his.
At first it was tentative. He was letting her explore...move at her own pace. But she could feel the tension in his form. As if his muscles were swelling against her.
Then all of a sudden, even though she was still on top, she was being kissed. Maks’s hand was in her hair, urging her closer, enticing her to open her mouth, allowing him access. It would have been impossible to resist and she breathed him in, tasting him, letting him taste her.
Her blood ran hot and fast. She was very aware of the steel-like muscles under her breasts and instinctively she pressed closer, seeking to assuage the ache building at her core.
Maks drew back and Zoe cracked open her eyes. Everything was blurry. She realised that she was sprawled on top of him and his arousal was pressing against the top of her thighs. She’d been moving against him like a needy little kitten.
Mortified, she tried to slide off him, but he held her fast, hands on her hips.
‘Where are you going?’
She didn’t want to go anywhere. She wanted to stay right here. ‘Nowhere...?’
Maks shifted slightly and grimaced. ‘Actually, I think we need to move somewhere more comfortable. When we make love for the first time it’s not going to be on the floor of a gym under fluorescent lighting.’
Zoe’s heartrate picked up. ‘Make love?’
Maks looked at her. ‘Sweetheart, we’re halfway there already.’
He shifted against her subtly and his erection teased the apex of her legs. Damp heat flooded her core. She almost groaned. He was right. This was it.
He moved and stood up in a fluid movement, pulling her up with him. Zoe couldn’t take her eyes off him. He let go of her hand briefly, to bend down and put on his T-shirt. Then he took her hand and led her out of the gym and into the elevator.
He turned to her as they ascended. ‘Are you ready for this?’
Not, Do you want this? Because they both knew it was a foregone conclusion. Was she ready?
On one level she didn’t think she’d ever be ready for Maks. Could she possibly live up to what he expected of her? Nerves assailed her. It would be so easy to say No, not yet. She knew he wouldn’t push it. But he also wouldn’t wait around for ever.
She nodded.
‘I need to hear it, Zoe.’
Damn him. She lifted her chin. ‘Yes. I want this. I’m ready, Maks.’
It should have felt unsexy to be spelling it out like this, but the way he was looking at her was so...intense.
* * *
The elevator doors opened with a soft ping. Maks almost didn’t notice, he was so fixated on Zoe. His body was tight with a need he couldn’t remember experiencing for a long time.
Once inside his suite, he pushed the door closed behind him. He’d let go of Zoe’s hand an
d she turned and walked into the room. His gaze tracked down her body, lingering on every dip and hollow. He wanted to taste her on his tongue. He wanted to taste her when she came apart.
She turned around. Her hair was up, exposing her neck and slim shoulders. She looked vulnerable.
Maks held out a hand. ‘Come here.’
She hesitated a moment and Maks held his breath. Then she walked over, took his hand. He turned them so that her back was to the door. He cupped her jaw, traced his thumb over the scar above her lip. Then he bent his head and pressed a kiss to it. And then higher, over her other scar, high on her cheek, where it disappeared into her hairline.
Zoe whispered, ‘Why are you doing that?’
Maks drew back. Her scent wound around him, through him. Musky. Sexy. ‘Because they made you a warrior. Don’t forget that.’
Sudden emotion made Zoe’s throat tight. She cursed him again silently for his ability to see right down to her most vulnerable spot. She could still feel the imprint of his mouth on her scars. They tingled. She swallowed the emotion and reached up, wrapping her arms around his neck, bringing her body flush with his.
‘Make love to me, Maks.’ She couldn’t disguise the huskiness of her voice—she only hoped he hadn’t noticed.
Maks looked serious all of a sudden. ‘If you want to stop at any moment, that’s okay, Zoe.’
The emotion was back. ‘It’s okay. I trust you.’ The words came out before she even had time to process their full significance.
Maks bent down slightly and then Zoe was being lifted against his chest as if she weighed no more than a bag of sugar. He took her into the bedroom, bathed in the golden glow of a few small lamps. The bed looked massive.
Maks put her down on her feet. He put his hand to the back of his T-shirt and pulled it up and off, over his head. Zoe felt dizzy from his scent. Citrus, and something much deeper and darker.
‘Take off your top.’
Zoe pulled her Lycra top up and off. She suddenly felt self-conscious in her very plain sports bra. Conscious that she was less than well-endowed.
She almost brought her arm up, but Maks said roughly, ‘Don’t do that. Turn around.’
Zoe turned around and felt him undo the bra at the back. He slipped the straps down her arms and it fell to the floor at her feet. She kicked off her trainers.
Maks stood behind her, the heat from his body making her shiver with awareness. Not cold. His hands were on her shoulders, moving down her arms. On her waist, spanning it easily. Then up, under her breasts. Zoe’s breath was choppy, and it stopped completely when his big hands cupped her breasts. Her nipples pebbled against his palms into tight points of need. She bit her lip.
Maks’s mouth pressed a kiss to the spot where her shoulder met her neck. One of his hands moved down, over her belly, teasing at the top of her jogging pants before tugging them down, over her hips. Meanwhile his other hand was massaging her breasts.
Her head fell back against his shoulder. She could feel the smattering of hair on his chest abrading the skin of her back. She wanted to turn around and feel it against her breasts. Her skin. Except she couldn’t turn around because Maks’s hand was exploring under her lace panties, and further, to the place where her legs were tightly clamped together.
He said in her ear, ‘Let me feel you, Zoe. Let me feel how much you want this.’
She relaxed, and Maks’s hand slipped between her legs, his fingers coming into contact with the seam of flesh that hid the beating centre of every nerve-point in her body. He touched her there, until she was helpless but to relax even more, opening herself up to his wicked fingers.
She gasped when he found the moist evidence of her desire. She felt him tense against her, even as he stroked her flesh until she wasn’t sure how she was still standing.
His movements became more rhythmic and Zoe’s body responded, moving against his hand, willing him to explore deeper. He was a master of sorcery, penetrating her flesh again and again while he stroked that sensitive cluster of cells. Then, on a cry that came from some guttural place as his other hand squeezed her breast, Zoe’s whole body tightened like a vice, before a rushing pleasure exploded outwards and upwards, washing everything she’d ever known away and replacing it with a pure kind of satisfaction she’d never felt before.
She wasn’t aware of collapsing against him. She was only aware that he was laying her down on a soft surface and resting over her on both hands.
‘Okay?’
She could barely nod. Her whole body was suffused with pleasure. She could feel her inner muscles still pulsating in the aftermath.
She watched through heavy-lidded eyes as Maks took off the rest of his clothes, revealing a body that was densely packed with muscles. He had a boxer’s body. Immensely strong, but graceful.
Her eyes drifted down and widened when she took in the most potent part of him. Long and thick. Hard. She could see moisture beading the head and her mouth watered at the thought of running her tongue along his shaft, tasting that moisture.
Somewhere else, where her brain was functioning, she wondered who she had become. She had thought there was something wrong with her after—
Maks came down alongside her. ‘What are you thinking?’
Zoe’s face flamed at her outrageous fantasy. Her hair had come loose. ‘Nothing important.’
He put a hand on her belly. ‘You’re incredibly responsive. You seem surprised... You didn’t—’
She cut him off. ‘No, not with him.’ She wanted to get him out of her head. She turned towards him. ‘Kiss me, Maks.’
He pulled her close, and as he did so he reached for her underwear, pulling it down and off completely. Now they were both naked. His mouth covered hers and she fell into the deep, drugging pleasure of it.
Maks’s hand went between her legs again and, emboldened, Zoe explored his body. Tracing his pectorals, the small disc-like nipples, the ridges of muscle that led down to a flat lower belly, and further...to the pulsing heat of him. Strong but vulnerable. Silk over steel.
She wrapped her hand around him, moving it experimentally, up and down. She felt the moisture against her palm and pressed her thumb there, spreading it over his head.
He reared back, putting his hand over hers.
Instantly she felt gauche. ‘What is it?’
He looked tortured. Stark. ‘Later we can play...you can torture me all you want. Right now... I need to be inside you.’
Her inner muscles clenched at his words, as if her body was already ahead of her. She took her hand away and lay back, watching as he reached for protection and rolled the latex along his length, sheathing all that silk and steel. For a second she lamented that barrier, and bit her lip.
He came over her, nudging her thighs apart with his. He was all sinew and hard lines and those silver eyes... ‘Zoe, I meant what I said. If you want to stop—’
‘I won’t.’ She reached up, overcome with a dangerous rush of tenderness for his consideration.
Maks notched the head of his erection against her. She could feel how slippery she was, and might have been embarrassed—but it was too late for that.
Zoe held her breath as Maks slowly joined his body with hers. She could see the strain on his face. ‘I’m okay. Keep going.’
In one cataclysmic movement Maks thrust deeper, and Zoe sucked in a shocked breath at the sudden sharp pain.
Maks stopped. ‘Zoe...?’
She felt impaled, as if she couldn’t breathe. The force of Maks’s body deep inside hers was so alien and yet...utterly right. She moved to try and escape the sharpness and it subsided. She breathed out on a shuddery breath. ‘I’m okay...honestly.’
Maks moved again, pulling back before seating himself deep again. He did this over and over, letting Zoe’s body get accustomed to his.
At one point he said, ‘You’re so tig
ht...are you sure I’m not hurting you?’
She shook her head, a feeling of awe and wonder moving through her as she felt flutters of sensation eclipsing the sense of discomfort. Tension was spiralling inside her, adding to a hunger that made her move restlessly under Maks. There was no pain now, only a delicious sensation of building pleasure, deep at her core.
Maks’s movements became harder, faster. He reached under her and tipped up her hips, and she gasped when he touched her so deep inside she saw stars. She was overcome with a primal need that only this man could fulfil. She was almost sobbing, begging him for something she knew only he could give her, and that was when he reached between them and touched her, just where his own body was moving powerfully in and out.
That was all it took. A featherlight touch and she flew apart into a million brilliant shards of ecstasy.
* * *
It was only when Maks felt Zoe’s body climaxing around his that he was able to let go. It had taken superhuman strength not to spill as soon as he’d entered her tight, slick body, but somehow he’d managed it. His whole focus had been on making this good for her.
And now...as his own climax ripped him apart, inside out...he knew that he’d never experienced anything as good as this.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHEN ZOE WOKE, dawn was just a faint pink trail outside. Maks was sprawled beside her, on his front, legs and arms splayed. Every inch of his magnificent body was no less powerful in repose. His buttocks were two perfectly taut orbs, and Zoe felt hot when she thought of all that power thrusting between her legs.
He was facing away from her, and she was glad of that tiny respite. Even in sleep she was sure she would feel as if he could see right into her...to where she was freaking out as the full enormity of what had happened last night sank in.
She’d slept with Maks Marchetti. She was no longer a virgin.
