MY BODY BURNED with desire for the man deep inside me. It had been hours since our moment at the gallery. Dale had come back to my place and as much as I knew we needed to talk, right then I just wanted to feel. I had shut off all my emotions and wrapped myself around him. Feeling. Needing. Craving.
“Max.” Dale brushed his mouth over mine as he shuddered against me.
Running my hands down his sweat-soaked back, I placed a final kiss on his mouth before crawling out from beneath him. I got dressed, throwing on shorts and a tank top, and sat on the edge of the bed.
“I need a smoke,” Dale muttered, rising from the bed.
“You don’t smoke,” I reminded him.
“I know. Still need one though.” He came around to my side of the bed and pinched my chin. Tilting my head back to meet his mouth, he smacked a hard kiss on my lips. “Hmm … so damn delicious.”
I shivered. My scent was all over him. My taste on his tongue. But it was only that. Sex. Nothing more. This wasn’t what I wanted but it was what I needed at the same time.
“You should go,” I told him, itching to get back to a new painting.
“You kicking me out of your bed, baby?” He brushed his mouth down the length of my jaw.
“Yes.” I gently pushed him back and rose from the bed. “I need to paint.”
He grunted, smacking me gently on the ass. “Fine.”
My body heated, the slight tingle of pain spreading through me like fire. “Come back later?” I blurted, grabbing hold of his arm.
Dale did up his jeans, leaving the top button undone.
I swallowed hard at the treasure trail that dipped below his belt.
“I will come back until you push me away for good.” He kissed my head, leaving the room as he threw his hoodie on over his head. “Oh, and Max?” he called from the hallway.
“Yeah?”
“This will be the only time you’ll get a chance to kick me out of your bed.” He peeked his head into the room, his gaze roaming down my scantily-clad body. “Remember who your pussy belongs to.” And with that, he left the room.
I sighed, scrubbing my hands up and down and my face.
What the hell was I doing?
I was playing with my heart and I damn well knew it would be me that got hurt in the end.
***
(Dale)
It had been a month of nonstop sex.
Screams, passion, and the delicious begging I had come to crave from Max’s lips. I knew she was using me but I was using her body to tell her how I feel. Both of us needed each other to feel something. Anything other than the pain we both dealt with on our own but could never share. I had no issues talking to Coby but when it came to the woman I was fucking—the words froze on my tongue.
We used each other to comfort the pain we felt, channeling it, and unleashing it through our bodies.
Max and I were both stubborn that talking about it only turned into fighting which turned into sex. I could still hear her screams and it had been hours since I left the warmth of her sheets. I had made good on my promise. She never kicked me out of her bed again.
We didn’t talk but like Coby suggested, I made sure to show her how I felt through my body. Every word I thought, I unleashed them onto her skin with a kiss. A bite. A lick.
Every time we were done, she tried kicking me out; using the excuse she needed to paint. And then I would kiss her and the thought of painting left her when she kissed me back. It wasn’t right. She needed to do her job and my dick was going to fall off but I also needed to make her feel good. It was the only thing I looked forward to doing anymore. I was medically discharged from the Navy. I worked for Angel’s construction company as a side job. I wasn’t good at anything else.
I fought. I killed. I fucked.
I was finally ready to admit how I loved Max then and loved her still. But I wouldn’t tell her until I felt she was ready to hear it. I didn’t want those three little words that impacted such a punch to hinder any progress I had made with her. Even if it was just sex.
My phone rang, jarring me from my thoughts. Grabbing it off the table, I hit speaker. “Yeah.”
“Meeting at the club,” Coby said and hung up.
My body vibrated knowing I would see Max in a couple of minutes. As much pain as I was in from the excessive amount of sex we had been having, my dick still grew.
I put on my running shoes, locked up my apartment, and headed to the club. It was only a couple of blocks away but the closer I got, the tenser I became. Every inch of me came alive over seeing Max. We spent the last month together, and I still couldn’t get enough.
Once I arrived at the clubhouse, the hair at the back of my neck tingled. My muscles tensed. Scanning the area, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Hell, no one was around. The tingle shot down my arms and straight into the tips of my fingers. I needed to fight. And hard.
“Hey, brother.”
I jumped, spinning around to find Coby standing at the doorway into the building.
“What’s up?” he asked, taking a step toward me. The guy was good. He was scanning our surroundings. If I didn’t know him well enough, I wouldn’t have seen it. The slight flick of his eyes looking past me was fast, even I almost missed it.
“Nothing.” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Something seems …”
“Off,” he finished for me.
“Yeah.” I followed him into the club, clenching and unclenching my fists, trying to ward off the impending rage traveling through me. “What’s going on?” I asked when I saw Max standing by the bar. Every nerve ending came alive at the mere sight of her. She wore a sexy as fuck white dress I couldn’t wait to dive beneath.
She glanced my way, her tongue peeking out to lick along her bottom lip.
My cock grew, remembering where that tongue had been earlier that morning.
She winked, turning around on the stool to go back to her conversation with Brogan.
Fuck. Me.
“You might want to take care of your issue before seeing Angel.” Coby raised an eyebrow.
“What issue?”
He pointed at my waist.
I looked down, noticing the wood I was sporting in my pants. “Shit.” I adjusted myself.
Coby chuckled, shaking his head, and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I know how it is, brother.”
I grunted.
“We’re meeting in five,” Angel said, walking by us without giving me a look.
“Angel,” I said, following him.
He stopped. “Yeah.”
“We good?”
His brows narrowed. “We are, but hurt her again and we’ll revisit that question.”
“I appreciate you watching out for her but what happens between Max and I is none of your fucking business.”
“No?” He stepped into my face. “When her being upset effects my pregnant fiancée, you better damn well believe it is my business.”
“I love you, and I respect you, brother” —my lips pulled back, baring my teeth— “but right now, I don’t give a shit what you or anyone else thinks. I’m trying to do what I can for Max and make up for the wrong I’ve done without having you breathing down my neck. So, Angel? You can fuck right off.” Instead of waiting for his answer, I turned around and headed back out to the main part of the club.
“Dale?” Max came up behind me, placing her hand gently on my arm. “You okay?”
Taking a breath and then another, I relaxed my body and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.
She shivered, giving me a small smile.
My heart jumped. “I am now.”