Chapter 10

Jana

“Are those extensions?” A woman with yellowish blond hair shouted across the room at yet another Friday night art class.

I glanced up and shook my head. “Nope, it’s all mine.”

“Damn,” she pouted. “I was totally gonna ask who did them. Lucky bitch.” She grinned and shook her head before returning to her friends.

Class hadn’t yet started but the book club women had arrived about ten minutes ago and cracked open a bottle—or two—of wine, so things were rowdy already. I sat in my usual spot and kept to myself, sketching in a small pad until class began. The week had been long but productive and I really needed to blank my mind out for a couple hours, so I was happy when Moon stepped into the center of the half-circle and introduced the dancers we’d paint tonight. They were dressed in white and nude bodysuits, frozen in motion.

I pulled out my paints and began mixing when the bells above the door sounded, followed by the heavy thud of boots. Not just any boots. Motorcycle boots. I knew, before he even took the seat beside me, it was Max because my body told me. The tiny hairs all over my body stood up, electrified as my skin began to heat up. “Sorry I’m late,” he called out to Moon. “Hey,” he whispered to me but I wasn’t interested.

I kept my gaze fixed on the dancers, focusing first on the way they were connected from the collar bone to the hips. I focused on the shadows that would add depth to the overall image, gently filling in the other spots. It was harder than I thought, ignoring Max and his attempts at conversation, but I knew that I had to. As good as his body had been to mine, the rest of it was too risky. I didn’t take risks because I knew I wasn’t willing to pay for the consequences.

“There’s too much shit here,” he grumbled, struggling to focus his painting. “I know you hate me, but help me out. Please.”

It was the passion in his plea that did it, forced me to speak to him. To look at him. “I don’t hate you, Max.” I didn’t. I blamed myself more than him for how things played out. I knew better than to have expectations, but the sex was so good it made me forget. “Focus on one thing to start, like the way the legs are entangled.”

“And then?”

I shrugged, trying to hold back a smile. “By the time you’re satisfied with it, class will be over.” He flashed a grin at me and I sucked in a breath at just how handsome he looked. I kind of missed out on the going crazy over boys part of life because I’d been in the hospital and foster care when I should’ve been kissing boys and going to school dances, so it made sense that a man as potent as Max could easily turn me inside out.

“Smart woman.”

Not that smart, I thought but I kept it to myself because being snarky wouldn’t change anything. “That’s me. Smart woman.” I was smart, not beautiful. Being around Max was too hard and I refused to let my gaze wander anywhere other than from my canvas to the dancers and to the paint. I’d nearly relaxed when Moon dismissed us for the night.

“Jana, a word please?”

My shoulders sagged, but I was grateful to Moon for the temporary distraction even though I already knew what she wanted to talk about. The art show she was hosting and my role in it. I hadn’t decided yet even though Teddy thinks it would be good for me, but I also had a feeling Max would try to talk to me and this way he might get tired of waiting. “What’s up, Moon?”

“Have you given any more thought to the show? I was thinking two sketches and two paintings.” I was preparing my next excuse when she kept talking. “Just show up and see how you feel. If you’re not up to mingling, tell me on the night and I’ll say you’re shy or something. Okay?” When she looked at me with those kind, pleading eyes that looked otherworldly with her long silver hair, I could only say one thing.

“Fine, Moon. I’ll stop by later this week with some options for you.”

Her face lit up with joy and excitement and I felt a small rush that my answer had pleased her. “Oh honey,” she pulled me into an unexpected hug that felt natural and soft and warm. I couldn’t remember the last time I was hugged like that. “Thank you so much. This will be fantastic, I promise.”

I wasn’t so sure, but these classes had given me contact with the rest of the world and in Moon, I’d found something like a friend. “If you say so.”

“I do. Have a good night, dear.” She waved me off with a knowing smile on her face that I ignored. I shouldn’t have, I realized as I stepped outside and my gaze landed on Max, looking delectable as he leaned against the brick façade, one booted foot on the wall while he stared up at the sky.

“I wondered if you’d gone out the back to avoid me.”

I laughed but the sound was bitter. “Yep, because it’s all about you Max.”

His smile dimmed. “Okay, maybe not all about me. Grab dinner with me.”

“Not hungry,” I told him quickly. Too quickly because my stomach piped in to prove me a liar. “I’m going to eat when I get home,” I quickly amended.

His lips spread into a slow, killer smile that made my entire body wing. I’d never seen a smile do that before and certainly I’d never experienced it. “Come on. I’m buying.” He took my hand and I let him because I was too weak to resist. But a girl had to draw the line somewhere.

“I’m buying dinner.”

“Let’s argue about it later, what are you in the mood for?” He tugged me closer until I was practically nestled under his arm and dropped a kiss on top of my head.

“There’s a steak and seafood place just a few blocks that way.” The place always did a steady business, but it was a higher end place and more importantly it was dimly lit. Max held me close the whole way, his hand still clutched mine as we walked through the restaurant towards our table.

He took the seat across from me and I took a moment to soak in his appearance. Max was best described as ruggedly handsome but tonight his facial hair was overgrown, giving his sharp edges more depth and darkness. It enhanced his whole brooding thing. His gray eyes looked like melted down silver and his lips were lush and pink, making it hard to look away from that bottom lip that I’d learned was imminently bitable. And thoughts of biting Max immediately brought me right where I didn’t want to be, smack dab in the middle of another fucking fantasy, or maybe it was a replay of the orgasm he’d given me last time I saw him.

His lips curled up. “I wonder what’s on your mind, Jana.” His tone indicated he did, in fact know.

I was quiet, but people often mistook that to mean I was shy. Those people were wrong and after a moment of thought, I decided to go for honesty. There was no reason not to be, since we were nothing but former lovers. “I was thinking about the orgasm you gave me up against the door.”

He blinked, choked on the beer the waitress had set in front of him, and wine for me. “Good, because I haven’t stopped thinking about it. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, I can still taste you on my tongue.”

I swallowed hard and squeezed my thighs together, grateful for the long white tablecloth. “You’re too damn male, I swear,” I told him and I heard the frustration in my voice.

Instead of being upset or offended, Max laughed. “I don’t believe that’s a thing, but I am glad to know that I still affect you.”

“I never said you didn’t. But it’s probably best we keep that night where it belongs.”

“Right here between us?”

Damn him. My gaze narrowed and he laughed again. “No, right here,” I told him and tapped the side of my head.

“Pity. Because all I can think about is doing it again.”

A shiver shot through me involuntarily and I swallowed a humiliated groan. He just laughed, amused and filled with masculine pride at the whole situation. “Max. We can’t.”

His smile dimmed. “I know.” The air between us changed, shifted from lighthearted and shallow to serious. “I owe you an apology, Jana. A real fucking apology. You have every right to be pissed off at me, but I need you to know that it’s me, not you. As cliché as that sounds.”

“It does, but I’m listening.” I was also drinking, because I could only have this one glass of wine and right now I needed it more than the air traveling down my lungs.

His smile was grateful. “The dreams I have, sometimes they fuck me up. Bad. I appreciated the way you pulled me from that dream, it must have been fucking terrifying for you. But my reaction was, apparently, based on embarrassment.”

“Understandable.” I’d dealt with those same feelings in the years after my foster father attacked me, so I did understand. But I couldn’t get over how cold and callous he’d been just moments after we made love. No, we had sex. Maybe we fucked, I wasn’t sure but I would find out from Teddy later.

“So you forgive me?”

“Do you really need my forgiveness, Max?” I didn’t get the feeling I was all that important to him so my opinion should be irrelevant.

“I do. I like you Jana and I would hate it if you thought that careless bastard from that morning was me. It’s not.”

That much, I did believe. “Have you heard from your brother?” It was a clumsy change of topic, but I didn’t really do emotion and certainly not in public.

His gray gaze narrowed but his lips curled up as if he knew what I was doing but didn’t want to call me out. I shot him a grateful smile. “No. Not one fucking call or text to tell me that he was free or where the fuck he is.”

I could see he was getting upset about it and I understood, but his anger wouldn’t make Tate reach out any sooner. “The good thing is that he’s out of prison, Max.”

He gave me a strange look, one I couldn’t decipher. “Sometimes I think you’re too good to be true.”

That was a first. I don’t think anyone has ever thought that about me, much less ever said it aloud. I smiled as a warmth spread throughout. Our plates were empty as were our glasses, which meant dinner was over. Max would go home, possibly alone, and I would definitely go back to my place and spend the night alone. Wishing I wasn’t. “You think so?”

“I do.”

“Thanks.” I slid my bank card into the leather booklet to pay the bill and grinned when his hands flexed with the desire to reach for it. “I appreciate you keeping your word about dinner.”

“I wasn’t going to,” he grumbled.

“I know,” I told him and licked my lips because my mouth ran dry at the sight of his smiling lips. “I never got a chance to just make out with a guy until we were breathless and hot and too out of our minds to make good decisions.”

His big hands tightened on the tablecloth, nostrils flared as fire swept over his skin. But the waitress returned so I could sign the bill and he had to wait. The moment she was gone, he sat forward. “Is that an invitation?”

“No, it’s a request. Can you fulfill that request, Max?”

He stood, practically knocking the chair over as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of my chair and out of the restaurant. “Damn right I can.”

I grinned to myself. I was asking for trouble, but making memories was better than having none.

At least tonight it was.

***

I woke up slowly, struggling to stretch with the big beefy arm draped over my waist. Max. He was hot and hard, like my own personal furnace. Not that I needed it, especially after that hourlong make out session on the sofa. My body had burned up with, liquid heat coursed through my veins as I straddled him, grinding against his cock while he kissed me silly. I’m not sure that make out session would have had any place in my childhood, but it had certainly exceeded all of my meager expectations by at least two football fields.

No matter that I’d begged him to make love with me, to fuck me, he wouldn’t. He said I had to be sure, so he carried me up the stairs, laid me out on the bed and spent hours exploring my body with his mouth and his tongue. He brought me several glorious orgasms that left me weak and sated, and when I turned to return the favor, he’d simply tucked me against his body and fell asleep.

I appreciated it because Max had made me feel not only sexy and desirable, but precious and cherished. Like I mattered.

And this morning I wanted to show him how much it meant to me. I turned in his arms because escape wasn’t an option, his hand dropped to my hip as I took in the rugged cut of his jaw, long dark lashes fanned his cheekbones. He had a masculine beauty that was hard to describe, but I’d spent more hours than I would ever admit, sketching that face.

His chest rose and fell, dislodging the sheet as I adjusted to get a better look at him. His chest was so big, a deep grove ran between his pecs and down to his abs. My hand traversed the path, gaze riveted on his scarred, tan body. His cock twitched and began to come to life and I grinned. The moment was perfect.

Slowly I slid down his body, careful not to wake him so I wouldn’t lose my nerve. I hadn’t gotten a chance to really look at him last night or the night we made love. Had sex. He was gorgeous, his cock was long and thick. Now that I held it in my hand, stroking gently I pegged it as nine solid inches of hard—and getting harder—cock. I leaned forward with a tentative flick of my tongue across the slit at his cockhead and the bead of liquid there. It was salty but also intoxicating.

I lowered my mouth to the thick mushroom head and wrapped my lips around it, pulling it into my mouth and allowing the length and weight of it settle on my tongue. It didn’t have a taste, not really. It was slightly musky and smelled like Max, but the more I licked and sucked, the thicker his scent became and the wetter my thighs were.

“Ah, fuck,” he bit out and my eyes flicked up to meet his, dark and intense. “Jana,” he grunted, “you know how to welcome a man to a new day.” He grinned but I could see the clench of his jaw, the way his nostrils flared.

I sat up, unable to read his body language or facial expressions. “Am I doing it wrong?”

“Honey, if you did it any more right, I might be fucking that dirty little mouth of yours.”

I swallowed, his gaze and sensual tone went straight to my clit, making it swell. My channel flooded with desire and I grinned. “That sounds intriguing. Will it hurt?”

“No, but Jana, you don’t want that.”

I shrugged. “How will I know? I want to make you crazy.”

“Keep doing what you were doing,” he assured me and with a proud smile, I bent back down and took him in my mouth, taking more of him in my mouth until the tip of his cock hit the back of my throat and he shouted my name. My pussy flooded with moisture at the sound and I did it again, sticking a hand between my legs to see if it worked. Sure enough, my pussy clenched around two fingers when I took him deep. When his hips flexed and those sexy totally masculine sounds came from his mouth.

I did it again, this time trying to lick his balls as I did and his hips flexed again, so deep I choked, but it turned me on too. I should have been worried, at least, but all I could focus on what how this made both of us feel. The more I pushed him, the more his hips moved and he began to fuck my mouth like he said. I moaned and flicked my tongue against the underside of his balls.

“Jana,” he warned in a deep, dark voice. I ignored him, too lost to pleasing him to understand his tone. His cock tightened on my tongue, hardened and then I felt the first trembles of his orgasm and then his cock shot hot spurts of liquid down my throat, salty and thick. Intriguing.

I slowed my mouth and only stopped when he pulled me away. “What?”

“Why didn’t you stop?”

I frowned at his tone. “You didn’t like it?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Okay, now I really was confused. “I felt how much sucking you off was turning me on and I wanted to see how far it could go.”

“And,” his lips curled into a sultry smile. “Come here.” I climbed up the bed beside him and his slid two fingers deep inside me, pulling a satisfied moan from me. “Shit, babe. All of that from sucking my cock?”

“Apparently.”

“Well honey, you can suck my cock anytime you need to get yourself in the mood.” I laughed and smacked his chest but he grabbed both of my wrists and his expression sobered. I swallowed, suddenly wary. “But now I feel compelled to return the favor.”

I blinked. “It wasn’t a favor.” I didn’t want him to do anything because of some tit for tat system of payback. “And you’re not quite ready yet,” I said, glancing down at his cock.

Max laughed. “That’s okay, I have something else in mind.” He slid down until his head rested on a pillow. “I want you to put your pussy right here,” he said and stuck out his tongue.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Oh you can. And you will.” He pulled me until I straddled his hips. “Scoot up,” he urged and though I moved tentatively, I did settle right over his mouth. “Perfect.”

He palmed my ass until I leaned forward, hands braced on my headboard. Then his tongue, slightly cool to the touch, slid through my drenched folds, the sound so loud I cringed with embarrassment. “Oh, god!” My own hips began to move as his tongue and lips worked my body, flicking and sucking and bringing me so close to the edge, I could smell the freedom below. “Ah!” I couldn’t stop moving, not when below me Max growled and licked like me and my pussy were his life force. “Max, oh fuck, Max!”

He gripped me tighter, holding me at his mercy while his lips pulled my clit and sucked it hard. Millions of shards of lights flashed behind my eyes, my body jerked and convulsed as the orgasm washed over me. I had a white knuckle grip on the headboard, my hips grinding against him until he’d wrung every stitch of pleasure out of body, leaving me limp and sated. My body sagged against him and one long finger slid deep, sending me back up over that edge of pleasure one more time as he growled and kept sucking my clit until I was so filled with pleasure, my body was so slick with desire that my legs gave out. “Fuck that was worth being nearly suffocated to death.”

I laughed and rolled off him, resting my head on his chest. “That was like a drug. I felt naughty and kind of dirty.” I kissed his nipple and he groaned. “I liked it.”

“Good, I’m glad. Now let’s go back to sleep and when we wake up later, I’ll show you how dirty you really are.”

I snuggled close to his strong, sexy masculine scent, letting it travel to my brain and lull me into a deep, restful sleep.