Chapter 6

“What happened to your wrist?” Max asked as Lana shrugged out of her coat.

She’d hoped Max wouldn’t notice the red, irritated spot on the inside of her lower forearm where Mr. Creepy Guy had sprayed her with his perfume, but that had probably been asking too much. Max was a cop. He was paid to be observant. Besides, the rash on her arm kind of stood out.

Lana shook her head, not wanting to worry Max. “Mom and I were at the Galleria today and someone spritzed me with perfume. It stunk to high heaven and made my skin burn until I washed it off. It’s starting to fade already.”

Ignoring her attempt to downplay what had happened, Max carefully took her arm and urged her from his apartment’s small entryway into the living room to get a better look. Lana quickly forgot about the rash on her arm as she enjoyed the feel of his warm hands on her body. It was crazy the way a simple touch from him had her getting all tingly.

“This almost looks like a chemical burn,” he said with a frown. “Are you allergic to alcohol?”

“I never have been,” she said. “In fact, I’ve never been allergic to anything. Whatever was in this stuff burned the moment it hit my skin.”

Max’s frown deepened. “I hope you talked to someone at the store you were in and made sure they stopped using the crap.”

Lana nodded, not looking at him as she did. Of course she hadn’t talked to anyone. What would she say? A police officer from central division spritzed me with perfume he bought from your store and it burned me? She didn’t even know which store the guy had bought it from.

“Enough about my weird reaction to some perfume,” she said, giving him a smile as she tossed her purse on the couch. “You going to tell me about this crappy day you had?”

One of the big reasons she’d come over to his place was because Max had sounded so wrung out when he’d called her earlier. She’d hoped they might get together tonight, but when eight o’clock had come and gone, she’d thought he’d gotten hung up at work and that she’d have to wait until tomorrow to see him. But when he’d called after nine and told her his day had been a train wreck and that he’d really like to see her, she hadn’t complained. While the day out with her mother had helped, Lana was eager to hang out with Max. She’d also been excited to see what his apartment looked like. Max was a unique man, and when she found herself trying to imagine his place, she simply couldn’t picture it. So she’d turned down his offer to come over and pick her up, figuring her dad would only make a complete butt of himself given the chance, and jumped in her car.

Max gave her a sheepish look, which was an entirely adorable expression on a man his size. “We can get into the details later, but to make a long story short, I kind of pulled a stupid today.”

She had a hard time picturing Max doing anything stupid. It didn’t seem possible. “What’d you do?”

“Yesterday, I went out on a domestic violence call along with a few other members of SWAT. We were there to provide backup support in case things turned violent, and when we went inside and I saw the kids, it was obvious that they’d been abused and it really pissed me off.”

Lana felt a slow burn in her stomach. When it came to people she just plain hated, child abusers topped the list. “Did you arrest the guy?”

Max shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. Even though it was obvious what happened, neither the wife nor the kids would say anything, so another report was filed and we had no choice but to leave. I knew the guy would end up smacking his family around again, so when I got a call from the neighbor saying he’d heard shouting coming from inside the house, I went over there on my own.”

She didn’t like where this was going. “You didn’t go in without probable cause, did you?”

“I had cause—I heard screams,” he said. “And when I got inside, it was as bad as I’d thought it would be. But unfortunately, this guy has his family so conditioned, they won’t say a word. Worse, I kind of went a little crazy and got too physical with the guy.”

Lana groaned. “Did you get suspended?”

Now she was even happier Max hadn’t come by to pick her up at her parents’ place. If her father had gotten wind of this, he would have lost his mind at the idea of her seeing Max again.

Max shook his head. “No, I got lucky. I’m basically on probation of sorts. I have to stay completely away from the family or I will be suspended.”

She was relieved to hear that. “Why would you do something so crazy?”

He sighed. “That’s the complex part of the story, so maybe it should wait until later. How about I give you the fifty-cent tour of the place first?”

She would rather have heard the details of his day but resisted the urge to push. They had plenty of time to get into it later.

“I’d love a tour.” She grinned. “I’ve been wanting to see what your place looks like.”

He flashed her one of those charming smiles. “Well, now you’ll get your chance. But try to contain yourself. You’re already looking at about sixty percent of my apartment from where you’re standing.”

Lana waved a hand. “I’ve been living in a college apartment for the past five years. This place is the Taj Mahal in comparison.”

Max laughed and offered his arm to escort her. “If your standards are really that low, this might just work out after all.”

Lana linked her arm with his and let him lead her into the small eat-in kitchen that was connected to the living room. Painted the same off-white color, it made the transition seamless and the apartment seem bigger than it was.

“As you can see, this is the kitchen,” Max said as they walked around the peninsula separating the two rooms. “Better known as the place where all the microwavable magic happens.”

Lana laughed. “You’re kidding, right? You might have forgotten, but I’ve been close enough to those abs of yours to know you don’t eat junk food all the time.”

He gave her a heated look. “Oh, I haven’t forgotten how close you’ve been to my abs. But in this case, I’m being completely honest.”

Before Lana could call him on the obvious lie, he walked over and opened a couple of the upper cabinet doors, revealing an endless collection of chips, pretzels, cookies, boxed dinners, and canned food—of the non-fruit and -veggie variety. But on the bright side, he was obviously getting his protein, since it looked like he had enough peanut butter to feed an army. It appeared to be his favorite food.

“Not a big fan of fruits and veggies, huh?”

He looked hurt. “I looked it up, and corn can be considered either a fruit or a vegetable, depending on who you ask. So, as you can see, I have bags and bags of fruits and veggies.”

Lana raised up on her toes to get a better look. “Those are Fritos.”

“Which are made of corn,” he said smugly. “So I’m covered.”

“I stand corrected,” she agreed, since he obviously already had this all thought out. “At least you don’t have pizza boxes stacked up to the ceiling.”

Max grinned and opened the fridge, displaying four Pizza Hut boxes stuffed in there so tightly Lana wasn’t sure if they’d ever come out.

“I prefer my pizza cold,” he said.

She threw up her arms in surrender. “Of course you do.”

“While we’re talking about food, have you eaten yet?” he asked. “I’m sure I can find something to your vegetarian tastes, even in my limited pantry.”

His offer reminded her that she hadn’t eaten since lunch and definitely could, even if it meant breaking into one of his cardboard-box dinners.

“I wouldn’t mind eating, but after you’ve finished showing me around,” she told him.

“That should only take another five minutes.”

With that, Max led her out of the kitchen and back into the living room. They slowed long enough for her to take in the monster-sized TV and video game station, which in her experience was mandatory for all single guys. But he also seemed to have what looked to be a pretty good selection of DVD and Blu-ray movies in a bookcase off to the side.

From there, they walked down a short hallway with a bathroom on the right, a larger-than-average bedroom on the left, and a nice walk-in closet in the middle. Max might have a bachelor TV and game station out in the living room, but his bedroom was surprisingly nicely decorated, painted in subdued tones of olive green and earthy brown. Even the blankets on the bed had a warm tan hue that went perfectly with everything else. Along with the casual furniture, the colors made for a relaxing ambience. She couldn’t help noticing that his bed, with its thick comforter and plump, fluffy pillows, was big enough to wrestle on—at least the kind of wrestling she had in mind.

Lana quickly forced her thoughts in a different direction. If she didn’t, it was possible they might not make it out of this room for a while.

As they turned to head back into the living room, a framed photo on the tall dresser caught her attention. In it, a teenage boy who looked a lot like Max had his arm around the shoulders of a younger girl with the same dark hair and charming smile.

“Is that you in this picture or your brother?” she asked, sure it had to be Max even though the boy in the photo was so much smaller than he was.

Max grinned. “That’s me. And I know what you’re thinking, but I was only seventeen in that picture and just starting my growth spurt.”

“Is the girl your sister?” she asked softly, remembering what he’d said the other night about his family not getting out of the crappy place where they used to live.

The smile disappeared, his face turning serious. “Yeah, that’s Sarah. She’s thirteen in this picture. It’s the last photo I have of her. She died a little while after her fourteenth birthday.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “What happened?”

The question was out of her mouth before she could stop it, but the moment she saw the pain in his eyes, she realized she should never have gone there.

She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Hey, I’m not pushing or anything.”

“I know.” His mouth curved into a sad smile. “It’s just that I’ve gone out of my way to avoid talking about the subject for so long, hoping the memories would go away, that it’s hard to open up about it. But after the day I’ve had, maybe it’s better if I finally do. And if I’m going to tell anyone the details about what happened to my sister—to my family—I want it to be you.”

Lana had a sudden, unsettling thought about the connection between his sister’s death and the bad day he’d had. She quickly pushed it aside for the moment though and focused on the feeling that came over her at his words. Here was a guy she’d recently started seeing telling her he felt comfortable enough with her to share something this incredibly private and personal. It was a powerful admission—and a little overwhelming. Once again, she was awestruck by how lucky she was to have stumbled across Max. Men this amazing didn’t come around very often. Tears stung her eyes and she quickly blinked them away before he could see.

“I’m glad you feel that way. How about we talk over dinner?” She smiled up at him. “Assuming we can find something out there to eat.”

Max laughed and took her hand. “I’m sure we can. Come on.”

That something turned out to be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and truthfully, she was thrilled. Lana hadn’t eaten a PB&J since she was a kid, and as she and Max stood side-by-side at his kitchen counter spreading spoonfuls of creamy goodness over toasted wheat bread, she had the feeling maybe she’d been missing out.

Max drowned several of his sandwiches in grape jelly before holding the plastic bottle out to her with a questioning look. She reached out and took it, figuring she’d better do it herself or risk overdosing on sugar from too much jelly.

While she did that, Max poured two big glasses of milk; then they carried everything over to the small table. She looked down at her two sandwiches, then at the big stack on Max’s plate. There was no way he could possibly eat like this all the time, not with the way he looked. Then again, maybe he had the same fast metabolism she did.

“My dad was always a mean SOB,” Max said without prompting after he’d washed down a big bite of his first sandwich. “He worked for a bookmaker off the main strip, intimidating people who were late paying off their gambling debts, breaking fingers and kneecaps when it was necessary.”

His words confirmed what she’d been thinking back in his bedroom, and Lana set her sandwich down, unable to eat. “Did he abuse you and your sister?”

Max took another bite of his sandwich, then another, seeming to take refuge in the repeated motion. “Yeah,” he said after a little while. “He abused Mom, too. I’d like to think he didn’t treat her like that from the beginning, but from as early as I can remember, he was always taking his problems out on us.”

“Didn’t anyone ever call the police?” she asked. “Or try to stop him?”

Max shrugged. “Mom would never say anything, and my sister and I assumed getting smacked around was the way it was supposed to be, so we never said anything, either. I doubt anything would have changed if we had.”

“What finally happened?”

Max took a big gulp of milk before continuing. “I had just graduated from high school and came home from my job at the convenience store to find Dad in one of his moods. Things went the way they normally did, and he ended up punching me. Sarah tried to get involved, and that only made him madder. I don’t know what came over me, but I couldn’t let him hit her again, so I fought back. In all the time he’d beaten us, I’d never fought back. Never.”

Max looked past her, staring blankly at something behind her, lost in old memories. “I beat him up pretty good and embarrassed him in front of my mom and sister, something he didn’t take very well. While I was checking to see how badly Sarah was hurt, Dad went into his bedroom and came back with his gun. He didn’t say a word. He just started shooting.”

Lana had known the story didn’t have a happily ever after, but this was worse than she’d imagined. “He shot your sister?”

Max looked at her, his eyes filled with pain. “Yeah. And me, too. He hit me twice before I lunged at him. I knew I was done the moment the first round hit me in the stomach, but I kept fighting, hoping to get the weapon away from him before he got around to shooting my sister, too. But he kept pulling the trigger. Sarah was hit in the head and died immediately. As my old man and I struggled for the weapon, it went off, killing him, too.”

Max said the words quickly, barely any inflection in his voice, and she could tell it had taken a monumental effort for him to say them.

She blinked back tears. “What about your mom? Was she okay?”

Max shook his head. “I was hurt pretty bad, and the doctors told her I probably wouldn’t make it. My dad and my sister were already dead, and I guess that was too much for her to bear. She took a handful of sleeping pills from the bottle she had in her purse, then went into a bathroom, dozed off, and never woke up.”

Finished with his story, Max turned his attention to his sandwiches again, slowly eating the rest of them. Even though she didn’t feel like it, Lana ate, too.

“Thank you for telling me all that,” she said when she was done. “I know it wasn’t easy, but I think I understand now why you did what you did today.”

He snorted. “For all the good it did. I only ended up making it worse for those kids the same way I made it worse for Sarah.”

“None of this is your fault.” She reached across the table to take his hand. “Back then, you were a kid taking on an adult with a gun. Now, you’re a cop following the law the best way you can. You couldn’t have done anything different in either case. You know that, right?”

He shrugged. “In my head, I know that. But sometimes, late at night, when I think about my sister, I wonder if things would have turned out differently if I hadn’t fought back, hadn’t punched my dad. What if I had turned and shielded my sister’s body with mine instead of trying to get the gun away from him? Even today, I wonder if things would have turned out better if I’d slowed down long enough to think about bringing some backup, or maybe looked in a window before shoving open that door. Maybe I would have seen enough to get the man arrested.”

She squeezed his hand. “Max, trust me when I tell you this. You can replay these situations in your head a hundred times, thinking about all the things you could have done differently. But all that’s going to do is twist your insides into knots and make you doubt every decision you’ve ever made. It won’t help anything, and it certainly won’t change the past.”

Max regarded her thoughtfully. “Something tells me you’re speaking from personal experience.”

“Yeah, I guess I am,” she admitted. “Like you, it’s not something I talk about very much.”

“I get that.” He nodded. “I’m not pushing, but if you want to talk about it, I’m all ears.”

For the first time in her life, she actually did feel like talking to someone about it. Maybe because something told her that Max would be able to understand more than most other people.

“You know, I think I would,” she said. “If you can tell me your deepest, darkest secrets, there’s no reason I can’t do the same.”

He glanced down at their empty plates. “You want to get a refill on our drinks and move this conversation into the living room?”

They cleared the table, then grabbed two diet Cokes and took a seat on the couch. She kicked off her shoes and tucked her feet under her, sipping her soda slowly as she considered where to start her story. She hadn’t talked to a soul about this stuff since she was a teenager, and even then, most of the conversations had been with a therapist who’d been helping her put everything behind her.

Finally, she took a cue from Max and decided the best way to do this was to jump in headfirst.

“When I was sixteen, I was in a bad car wreck with two of my best friends from high school, Shari and Viola,” she said quietly. “They didn’t make it, and I barely survived. For years, I blamed myself for their deaths.”

“I’m sorry about your friends,” Max said. “But how could you blame yourself for what happened? You weren’t driving, were you?”

She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t driving. Shari was. I blamed myself for the accident because it was my fault we were out on the road that night.”

“What do you mean?” he asked, lifting his arm to rest it on the back of the couch.

Lana scooted closer, resting her head on his chest as she remembered how that night had changed her life.

“It was rainy and foggy, which made it hard to see,” she explained. “We were at the movies and only realized how bad the weather had gotten when we came out. We should have headed straight home, but we’d planned to get something to eat after the movie and were too young and stubborn to change our minds. We passed half a dozen places we could have stopped at to grab a quick bite, but I really wanted to go to this particular drive-in because they had the best tater tots in the world. I should have realized Shari wasn’t comfortable driving in bad weather, but I was so busy daydreaming about those stupid tater tots that I didn’t slow down to think about how stupid we were being.”

“What happened?” Max asked softly.

Tears welled in her as she thought about those last seconds before the wreck. The music playing on the radio, Shari and Viola singing along in the front seat, her laughing like crazy in the back. Then suddenly, headlights were coming right at them, and Viola was screaming.

She hadn’t thought about the accident itself in a long time, and reliving the moment had her heart racing. Strangely, it also made her gums and fingertips tingle like they had today during her encounter with the cop from Central.

She pushed those thoughts aside and instead forced herself to get the words out that needed to be said—before she chickened out completely.

“We were on Highway 12 when another car veered into our lane.” She closed her eyes and listened to Max’s steady heartbeat under her ear. “I found out much later that the guy driving had been drinking, but in that moment, everything was a blur. One second, we were all laughing, and the next, all I could hear were the sounds of crushing metal and breaking glass.”

She took a deep breath and fought down the tears. “We all survived to make it to the hospital, but Shari and Viola didn’t live through the night. I was in a coma and no one expected me to make it, either. Mom and Dad said the doctors were amazing, never giving up on me through one procedure after another. But while they thought I might live, none of them expected I’d regain full use of my body or my mental capacity.”

“How long were you in a coma?” Max asked.

“Over a week,” she said. “The doctors had intended to leave me under for longer, but I came out of it on my own.”

“How long did you stay in the hospital after that?” Max asked.

“Only another day or two. Mom and Dad arranged for my doctor to take care of me at home. It probably cost a ton of money, but they’d been so freaked seeing me in the hospital that they got me out of there the first chance they could. I think even the doctors were stunned by how quickly I recovered. Some of them called it a miracle, but I think it was a matter of the right procedures at the right time.”

“Is that why you went into the pharmacology side of organic chemistry?” he asked. “Because of what the doctors were able to do for you?”

She nodded against his chest. “Uh-huh. They were working on the fly, giving me different drugs to help my body recover from the severe trauma I’d sustained. I wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for that. But they didn’t have anything that could help Shari and Viola. That’s why I went the direction I did in college, in the hope that maybe someday I could help create medicines that would allow patients like Shari and Viola to survive until their bodies can heal some of the damage, like mine did.”

Max slipped his arm off the back of the couch, curving it around her. “You said you spent years blaming yourself for Shari and Viola’s deaths. What helped you get past it?”

“Therapy mostly,” she said. “I was a complete mess for months after my parents brought me home. I didn’t even leave the house. Like you, I spent a lot of time wondering how things would have turned out if I’d done things differently—if I’d suggested we sit in the parking lot of the movie theater until the storm passed or told Shari to stop at the first restaurant we saw instead of insisting we go somewhere else. But after a lot of sessions with a really good psychologist, the raw edges finally dulled somewhat, and I was able to understand that playing what-if games would never change what happened. It would just keep me locked in the past.”

“Sounds like that psychologist really helped you,” Max observed.

“She did,” Lana agreed. “Maybe you should consider spending some time talking to one yourself. I’m sure the DPD has some on call that could help you.”

Max chuckled. “I know this sounds incredibly guy-like, but I can’t see myself sitting down and talking about my feelings with a complete stranger. I’d rather talk to you.”

She smiled as she leaned there against his powerful chest. “Anytime you want to talk, I’m here to listen.”

“Might be a bit tough to have deep, meaningful conversations if you end up taking a job in France,” he pointed out.

She absently ran a finger up and down T-shirt-covered abs. “I think I’m going to be sticking much closer to home than I originally thought.”

“Oh really? What changed your mind?”

Lana laughed softly as she pushed away from Max’s chest to look at him. “I think you already know.”

Max dipped his head to give her a quick, teasing kiss. “I guess I do. In fact, I’ve felt this thing building between us from the moment we met. I just wasn’t sure you felt the same thing.”

Lana traced a finger along his jawline, loving the scruff there. “Of course I’ve felt it. Are you that oblivious?”

He shrugged. “Well, yeah, I’m a guy. Being oblivious is what we do best.”

She laughed. “Well, Mr. Oblivious, I’ll spell it out for you. Yes, I realize there’s something special happening between us. We’ve just met and I already find myself trusting you more than anyone I’ve ever known.”

He regarded her thoughtfully. “Kind of crazy, isn’t it? How fast this is happening, I mean.”

“Maybe,” she agreed. “But when it’s right, it’s right. Mom was telling me today that she and Dad fell for each other fast, too, so maybe it runs in my family or something. Whatever the reason, I find myself wanting to spend every waking hour with you, losing myself in your arms and kissing you. I’m smart enough to recognize that feelings like this don’t come around very often, and I’d be crazy to walk away from them just for a job. I can work anywhere.”

Max tugged her closer, dragging her up until she was straddling his lap. Having her knees on either side of his hips, the crotch of her jeans pressing down on that most wonderful part of his body, seemed like the perfect place to be.

“Losing yourself in my arms?” he asked in a husky voice. “I like the sound of that.”

Leaning in, he kissed her again, more slowly this time, his tongue slipping between her lips to tease hers. She wiggled a little higher on his hips, sighing against his mouth as she felt his cock slowly harden in his jeans. She rocked back and forth on his hard-on, loving both the way it felt and the fact that she could get him so aroused so quickly. When she finally pulled her mouth away, gasping for breath and almost dizzy from his intoxicating taste, his cock was hard as a rock, straining to get out.

“I guess you’re not the only one who likes the sound of that,” she murmured. “Someone else down there seems to like it, too.”

Max chuckled. “Yeah, he’s thrilled. I’m pretty happy myself—not just at how good it feels to have you sitting on my lap like this, either. Your offer to be there when I need someone to talk to means a lot.”

“I’m glad. And I’m serious about that. I’m good at listening, and after spending so much time on my therapist’s couch, I picked up all the best lines.”

His hands slipped down to her butt, resting there as she continued to gently move on his lap. “And what kinds of lines are you thinking about using on me?”

She smiled as the bulge in his jeans found the absolutely perfect position, making heat pool between her legs.

“Well, there’s my personal favorite,” she said as she gave him an extra grind. “How does that make you feel?”

His hands squeezed her ass tighter, pulling her down even harder on his cock and making her clit tingle. “I think that’s obvious.”

“Maybe,” she agreed. “But then there’s the big follow-up to that standard question: Where do you think that feeling is coming from?”

He lifted a brow. “Your crotch grinding on my hard-on?”

She shrugged. “Possibly. But I think you might be holding back on me. I think you should tell me how you really feel.”

“I want to rip your clothes off and eat you up like a Snickers because I know you’ll be oh so satisfying?”

“Hmm.” She had to work hard to keep a smile off her face as she placed one finger on her chin and gave him a serious look. “I think we might be onto something here. Let’s focus on the emotion you’re feeling right this second. Where do you see this all going?”

“My bedroom?” he responded immediately, his hands moving up to the bottom of her tank top and sliding underneath to tease the sensitive skin of her sides with his fingers.

“That certainly seems like a reasonable direction to go at this point,” she said, her body starting to tremble as his hands worked higher, shoving her shirt up. “But I think you might be staying too close to your comfort zone. Where else might you take this if you wanted to really stretch yourself?”

“The kitchen table sounds good about now,” Max said.

A low, rumbling sound almost like a growl coming from his throat, he yanked her shirt up and over her head. Lana had no choice but to lift her arms and let him, or he probably would have ripped her top off just like he’d suggested earlier. The sexy sound he’d made combined with the alpha-male way he pulled her shirt off and tossed it across the room was a serious turn-on. She couldn’t help but wonder where this was heading.

Max leaned forward to kiss and nibble her bare neck and shoulder, and she shivered even more when she felt his sharp teeth nick her. She’d never been that kind of naughty before.

“Oh yes, I think we’ve had a breakthrough. We should definitely keep moving down this path,” Lana murmured breathlessly.

“That was kind of what I had in mind,” he muttered against her neck, not slowing down for a moment.

Lana was so lost in the sensations of his lips and hands moving across her body she missed Max slipping her bra off until his warm mouth fastened on one of her nipples, making her moan out loud. Mmm, that felt so good. He went back and forth between each sensitive peak, cupping and squeezing her breasts in his big hands. She could let him do this to her all night.

She hadn’t been with a lot of guys, but she’d been with enough to realize Max was getting her hotter than she’d ever been. She wasn’t even naked yet and her clit was tingling so much she thought she might orgasm from grinding on his lap. It had never been like that for her before, and she got the feeling it was only getting started.

When Max pulled his mouth away from her nipples, stood up with her in his arms, and headed for the bedroom, Lana didn’t complain. She did, however, remember one very important detail.

“Please tell me you have condoms,” she begged as she wrapped her arms and legs around him and held on tightly.

He gave her a look but kept walking down the hall. “I’m hoping that isn’t something your psychologist said to you at some point?”

She laughed. “No, that never came up in conversation. But it is a serious question. You do have protection, right? Not that there isn’t other stuff we could do, but…”

“While I’m extremely interested in all that other stuff you mentioned, that’s not going to be necessary. I have protection,” he said softly, placing her gently on the bed. “But before we get to any of that, we need to get you naked.”

Lana was more than ready to race Max to see who could get their clothes off first, but he didn’t give her a chance. One second, she was sitting on the edge of his bed; the next, her feet were in the air when he grabbed the bottom of her jeans and yanked. She quickly undid her belt and the top few buttons at her waist so he didn’t lift her right off the bed. The whole thing was so seriously sexy she swore a little growl escaped her throat. Max had her so hot she wasn’t even acting like herself. At this rate, who knew how wild she’d get?

She watched as her jeans sailed across the room to smack against a wall, leaving her lying on his bed in nothing but her panties. She would have reached down to wiggle them off, but a single look from him froze her. Something told her he wanted to take care of that little scrap of clothing himself. She lay back on her elbows, locking eyes with him as he moved toward her. He looked like a jungle predator, all muscular grace and barely contained hunger.

She expected him to take his clothes off, too. It would only be fair. But as he caught her ankle in his hand and kissed his way along her leg, she realized he wasn’t worried about being fair right now. He seemed more interested in eating her up—like a Snickers.

Yay for Snickers!

Max’s warm mouth moved lower and lower, kissing and licking every inch of the way. In between the gentle, teasing kisses, he slipped in a little nip here and there. Why did she like that so much?

When he reached her inner thighs, he slowed even more, nearly driving her insane as his mouth inched closer to her panty-covered pussy. She was so excited she was throbbing down there. She knew she was wet and wondered if the moisture was soaking all the way through the material. If so, Max would certainly be able to see it, since he was only inches away.

He pushed her thighs wide, giving himself room to work. She was waiting for him to pull her underwear aside when she heard a tearing sound. She looked down just in time to see the remnants of her panties flying through the air. In the quick glimpse she had of them, it looked like they’d gone through a shredder.

She was about to point out that little piece of material was more expensive than it looked. But she never got the words out because right then, Max’s mouth came down on her pussy.

There wasn’t a whole lot of teasing buildup. He put his mouth on her and made quick, little circles with his tongue. The sensation was out of this world.

She buried her fingers in his spiky hair, not because she wanted to hold him in position—it was obvious he wasn’t going anywhere—but so she’d have something to hold on to and wouldn’t float off into space.

Her orgasm started as a featherlight tingle, but it came on fast after that, charging at her like a bull. She didn’t bother trying to get out of the way, but simply threw back her head and screamed.

She’d had good orgasms before, but this one was different. It wasn’t just focused in that familiar area between her legs nor did it simply flutter outward and make her heart beat faster. This one enveloped her completely, lightning and tingles rippling out to make her whole body throb in time with the pulsing between her legs. Even her teeth felt like they were on fire, and when she clamped down on her lip in an attempt to silence the worst of her screams, she was sure she bit the crap out of herself.

When Max pulled his mouth away, she murmured a complaint, but it was a halfhearted one since the spasms were still tearing through her body, even though he was no longer touching her. Now that was the sign of a great orgasm—it kept going even after the sex was over.

But the sex wasn’t over—something Lana figured out when Max flipped her over on her hands and knees like she was some kind of rag-doll sex toy.

Actually, being a rag-doll sex toy sounded pretty damn good.

Lana snuck a few fingers down to help keep the orgasm tremors going as she looked over her shoulder and caught sight of Max’s clothes flying off him. Superman in a phone booth was a snail compared to him. He tore his shirt off so fast he ripped it in two.

Oh yeah, he was as hunky as her earlier manual explorations had suggested. Strong shoulders, a chest and arms that showed why he’d been able to carry her effortlessly, ripped abs with those V-shaped hip flexors that disappeared into his jeans in a blatant invitation to look down and see what else he had to offer.

She was just admiring the wolf head tattoo with the word SWAT above it on his pec when he stripped off his jeans, displaying legs so muscular and tasty looking she had a scary strong desire to roll off the bed and sink her teeth into them. When had she gotten so oral? She’d always been a fan of it, but not the biting part. Max was bringing out a side of her she’d never had a chance to explore.

Then Lana got a good look at the hard shaft jutting emphatically from between his legs, and oral sex took on a whole new meaning. She needed him. In her mouth. Now.

But as she was about to leap at him, Max pulled a condom from a box in the nightstand and turned back for the bed. He let out a low growl when he saw she’d moved from the position he’d left her and very quickly demonstrated he had no problem spinning her right back around.

Head down, butt up. Go, caveman!

She had no idea how he was able to get the condom on while at the same time putting her exactly where he wanted. But thankfully, he had this particular style of multitasking down pat, and it couldn’t have been more than a second or two before he was lining himself up with her very ready opening and sliding his thick cock inside her.

Lana moaned, burying her face into those soft, earth-toned blankets and giving herself over to the sensation of being filled up. His big hands came down and got a firm hold on her hips, and then the real pleasure started as he pulled almost all the way out and immediately slid back in.

“Yes!” she breathed, only slightly surprised when the sound came out more growl than moan. Max was definitely bringing out the animal in her.

She tried to look over her shoulder, wanting to watch Max as he took her this way, wanting to see his gorgeous face and know she was making him feel just as good as he was making her feel. But turning around to watch became impossible as Max gripped her hips hard and began to pound into her. The feel of his hard cock burying itself deep inside her over and over, his hips slapping against her ass rhythmically with every thrust, his hands taking control of her waist and moving her at an urgent, mind-blowing pace was all too much for her. She had no control over her body—certainly not enough to be able to look back at him. It was all she could do to not turn into a puddle of Jell-O right there on the bed.

Instead, she buried her face and fingernails into the blanket and held on for dear life as Max made her feel things she’d only dreamed of. She knew she was making a lot of noise, but she couldn’t stop herself. It felt too amazing.

At some point, she bit down on the blanket. Of course she was. It was all part of her new biting obsession apparently. But even as good as it felt to sink her teeth deep into the soft material, almost slicing right through it, Lana instinctively knew she would have preferred to have something else in her mouth.

The image of sinking her teeth into Max’s strong shoulder muscles hit her at the same moment he slammed into her so deep stars exploded in her head.

She came.

It wasn’t one of those tame, playful orgasms she’d experienced dozens of times before. It wasn’t even one of those rare, powerful moments of pleasure she’d been lucky enough to have when everything—man, position, speed, size, ambience—had all come together just right. No, this was something completely different. An orgasm so overwhelming Lana was sure she’d fly apart into a million pieces. It started deep inside her, right where Max was thrusting, then spread out until it consumed her.

She screamed, moaned, growled, and clawed at the bed like a crazy animal.

In a way that didn’t make a lot of sense, she knew when Max came. She just felt it inside her. Not quite in the same place where her orgasm had started, but close. He wasn’t coming inside her because he was wearing a condom, but he was coming with her and that felt equally amazing.

When the waves of pleasure receded, Lana found herself lying on her stomach, Max’s heavy weight smooshing her comfortably into the bed. His face was in the crook of her neck and shoulder, his teeth gently grazing her skin. It was even possible he may have bitten her, but she couldn’t find it in her to care. She was too busy thinking about the way he was still wedged firmly inside her, making her spasm and clench in the most delightful way possible. Okay, that was frigging awesome.

Max must have thought he was putting too much weight on her, because his mouth came away from her neck and she felt him start to lift up. She reached back and got her fingers in his hair, tugging him back.

“Don’t you dare move,” she whispered. “I want you right there for the rest of the night.”

“I’m not too heavy for you?” Max asked, his breath in her ear as he settled back down on top of her.

“Never,” she said.

She was serious. She was more than ready to stay like this the rest of the night. This was perfect. In the very core of her being, she knew that. This man, in this moment? It was exactly where she was supposed to be.

But then a thought struck her, making her turn her head a little and look at him. “Do you mind if I stay? I know you have to get up early for work tomorrow.”

He chuckled. “Of course I want you to stay. Tomorrow will take care of itself. Right now, all I want to think about is you, here, lost in my arms.”

“Nice answer,” she murmured.

But as good as it felt to have Max on her this way, at some point he had to hop off to clean up. The absence of his body heat left her feeling cold and she climbed under the blankets as he disappeared into the bathroom.

“You sure you don’t mind me spending the night?” she called out. “I’m worried you won’t be able to get any rest if I’m here.”

Max flipped off the light in the hallway, standing in the bedroom doorway looking gloriously yummy and hard.

“Who the heck said anything about getting any rest tonight?” he whispered as he turned off the light in the bedroom, then stopped at the night table for another condom. “The only way either one of us will be getting any sleep tonight is if we pass out from exhaustion.”

She laughed and pulled back the blanket, making room for him. “Well, I’m not worried about that myself. Like I told you, I can stay awake for days if I really need to cram.”

“I guess we’ll see about that,” Max said as he pulled her on top of him.

She shivered as his hard-on brushed her leg. She couldn’t believe she was ready to go again, but she was. Now this was the kind of all-nighter she could enjoy.

Max’s eyes caught the glow of the street lamp coming in through the window, reflecting it back with a yellow flash in the coolest way ever. Seemed like he was stoked at the idea of an all-nighter, too.