Beautifully Brutal (Southern Boy Mafia #1) (6 page)

But as she’d told him, she was a big girl, and she certainly knew how to take care of herself.

“Are you good to drive?” she questioned.

RT smirked. “I live on the property. It’s a one-minute drive.”

“I know, but still. I—”

“You sure you’ll be okay?” he interrupted as he moved closer, his tone full of concern.

Watching him carefully, Courtney remembered that Max would be knocking on her door any second. No, she didn’t think she’d be okay, but it wasn’t as though she could tell RT that. He would think she meant physically, and that was the farthest thing from her mind. In that sense, she was probably safer with Max than anyone else. But emotionally… That was an entirely different story.

“I’ll be fine.” She prayed she’d be fine. Prayed like hell she’d be able to resist Max. And, unfortunately, her weakness for him had nothing—absolutely
nothing
—to do with the liquor.

RT’s hand was on the doorknob when the knock sounded. Sucking in a deep breath, she nodded to RT when he shot her a dubious look over his shoulder. He pulled open the door, and Courtney didn’t budge from where she stood a few feet away. Her eyes instantly drifted to Max, gliding over him from head to toe.

God, he looked so fucking good.

He’d changed out of the tux and into faded jeans and a black polo. Despite the black leather jacket he had on, Courtney could still see every hard angle of his body, from his sculpted chest to his muscular thighs.

Why? Why the hell did she do this to herself?

“Good night,” RT said, nodding at Max as he stepped outside.

The two men shared a look, and Courtney could practically hear the threats they were silently sending one another. RT was warning Max, and Max was assuring him that she was fine, all without either of them saying a word.

Men.

Max walked in, his eyes on RT until the door closed, leaving the two of them alone in her living room. And then he turned that penetrating stare back on her.

That was when Courtney realized her shitty night had just gotten worse, and no amount of liquor was going to help.

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to give it the good ol’ college try.

Chapter Seven

A gangster does have a heart.

Who would’ve thought?

When the door to Courtney’s house opened, Max immediately took in the scene before him. RT was standing there, still wearing the tux he’d donned at the party, his blond hair mussed as though he’d been…

Fuck no. Max wouldn’t go there.

Likely RT had been running a frustrated hand through his hair for most of the night. That was one of RT’s tells. Something Max had noticed about him from the first time they’d met.

So, upon seeing RT’s disheveled state, Max had tamped down his initial anger. He reminded himself that, one, RT was climbing the ladder within the ranks of Sniper 1 Security and had every right to ensure Courtney got home safely, and two, the guy was gay and nothing would’ve happened between him and Courtney.

Nothing.

Granted, the acceptance wasn’t easy, especially when Max’s gaze strayed past RT, landing on the woman responsible for messing with Max’s head for longer than he cared to admit. She was so
fucking
beautiful, standing there with her hand cocked on her hip, her shoes off, her short dress showcasing her incredible legs, her creamy shoulders bare…

No, not fucking easy to resort to the calm he typically managed to cloak himself in. Then again, she was probably one of the only people who could so easily push his buttons.

“Why are you here?” she questioned when they were alone, turning and heading toward the kitchen with a heavy sigh. He smiled when she paused, reaching for her gun and carrying it with her.

Max watched her walk away, noticed the slight sway of her magnificent ass. His hands itched to touch her, to hold her, to draw her beneath him while he claimed her with his own body. A torrent of memories flooded his mind, memories of those days when she’d been his.

He forced them away, refusing to stray from his reason for being there.

A quick glance around the room told Max that not much had changed over the last year. Courtney still had the black-and-white pictures of Marilyn Monroe decorating her living room, along with the giant television, mounted on the wall over the fireplace—which, oddly enough, had never been used to warm the house and was actually lined with tiers of candles, a decoration Max didn’t quite understand. On his left, there was the same black suede sofa that they’d rolled around on during that one night she’d brought him back there, and yes, there on the bar that separated the living room from the kitchen was the crystal bowl that held Courtney’s guilty pleasure—M&Ms.

Not much had changed, not much at all.

As she approached the table, placing her gun within reach, he noticed the bottle of vodka.

Great.

Just what he
didn’t
need tonight.

Courtney was a wildcat without liquor, but when she was inebriated, she tended to get incredibly feisty. And not necessarily in a good way.

“I wanted to check on you,” he told her honestly.

He’d spent the rest of the evening thinking about little else other than her. After what had happened with Duchein—after Max had
killed
the bastard—he’d had the overwhelming urge to go to her, to see how she was doing, to make sure she was processing what had happened, dealing with it rather than shoving it aside as she’d been known to do. He knew firsthand that watching someone die wasn’t easy, especially for someone like Courtney, someone with a conscience.

Courtney spun around, her gaze slamming into his.

“Check on
me
? Why the hell would you wanna do that?”

Because it was an excuse to see her. But that wasn’t what Max told her. “I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

Courtney huffed as she returned to pouring the vodka into a glass, adding 7-Up from a can sitting on the table. Max’s gaze instantly strayed to the extra glass, and his frustration rose again.

She tossed him a glare over her shoulder. “Oh, you’re referrin’ to when you blew some guy’s brains out in the middle of your office? Don’t you have a dead body to clean up or somethin’?”

He didn’t say a word. His rule was that he’d never own up to anything. He didn’t feel safe anywhere that wasn’t home, never knew when someone was trying to trap him. And of all people, Max wasn’t delusional enough to believe Courtney wouldn’t turn on him with the right motivation. Ultimately, she was one of the good guys. And that was why they never had been able to find a middle ground. It was more difficult than it appeared considering they were at opposite ends of the spectrum—middle ground was just too far away for either of them.

Not to mention, arguing with Courtney was moot. Max knew from experience that she would never let up, which was why he’d given up long ago.

“Oh, right. You have people for that,” she continued, turning to face him again before taking a sip from her glass. “I’d offer you a drink, but then you might think you can stay.”

“I’m gonna stay,” he informed her.

Courtney’s eyes narrowed on him, and Max’s body instinctively reacted, hardening instantaneously.

“You’re
not
gonna stay,” she retorted, her tone clipped. “Not today, not tomorrow. Not ever.”

Max shrugged out of his leather jacket, folding it across the arm of the sofa as he moved closer.

“I’m serious, Max,” Courtney said, her eyes widening as she backed up until her ass hit the table. “You’re not stayin’. RT’ll be watchin’ my house until you leave. It’s not an option.”

Max continued to stalk her slowly until he was standing only a few inches away from her. Unable to resist, he cupped her face in his hands, enjoying the silky smoothness of her skin against his palms.

Damn, how he’d missed her. It’d been damn near a full year since the last time he’d touched her, since the last time he’d made love to her. Although touching her now … it was as though not a minute had passed since that fateful day.

“I’m stayin’,” he said softly.

Courtney shook her head, opened her mouth, but then snapped it closed. She wanted to argue; it was evident in the lines that creased her forehead.

Leaning forward, Max tested the waters, allowing his lips to brush hers lightly. Even that was nearly more than he could handle. It’d been too damn long since he’d touched her, tasted her,
loved
her. And fuck if he didn’t want to do it all again. Right here. Right fucking now.

“Max, please,” Courtney pleaded quietly. “
Please
don’t do this.”

“Do what?” he questioned roughly, pulling back and allowing his eyes to slide over her beautiful face, down the slender column of her neck, where he noticed the rapid thump of her pulse.

“We’re through,” she stated, her tone holding a hint of conviction.

“So you’ve said.” In fact, Courtney had told him they were over many times during the year they’d been together. And for the year that followed, right up until this very moment, Max had thought about her every single day, about the way she’d ended things so abruptly the last time. Didn’t matter that he’d called her bluff and that had technically been the reason they’d gone their separate ways.

Had it not been for the crazy shit he had to deal with on a daily basis, he might’ve actually taken the time to play her games. But there was another problem with that. He was fucking tired of playing, which was the only reason he’d allowed her to walk away then.

And that was the real reason he was there tonight. He wanted to know whether or not this was truly over. For him, it wasn’t. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d ever be able to get over her. Probably not in his lifetime. But that didn’t mean that moving forward wasn’t possible. With or without her.

If she didn’t want him, he’d move on. He had business arrangements dangling in the wind, one in particular that was entirely dependent on where he stood with Courtney.

“Tell me you want me to leave, Courtney. Tell me to go, and I’ll never darken your doorstep again. You’ll never have to see me.”

Max could see the surprise in Courtney’s eyes, in the way her throat worked when she swallowed hard. He’d never made her that promise, never told her that he’d willingly let her go, although he’d spent the last year staying away from her. He’d had eyes on her the entire time; he knew every single move she’d made during those months. He knew for a fact that Courtney had never brought another man home with her, nor had she ever gone home with a man. Had she made that choice, Max wasn’t sure how things would be at this moment, but more than likely, there’d be another dead asshole buried six feet under.

The point was, she hadn’t.

“Tell me that’s what you want, and I’ll do it, Courtney. But know this … if you send me away this time…” Max took a deep breath, exhaled. “I won’t come back. Whatever this is between us, it’ll never die, never go away completely, and we’ll both have to live out the rest of our lives with the decision that you make right here. Tonight.”

“I want…”

The pause that followed stole the air from the room.

“What? What do you want?” he implored quietly, his thumbs gently brushing her cheeks before he trailed his hands down her neck, over her shoulders. A tremor ran through her, and he paused, taking the glass from her hand and setting it on the table. “It’s all up to you.”

“I can’t do this,” she answered, her voice so faint he hardly heard her. “I can’t be with you.”

“I’ve heard that before, but you’re a grown woman, Courtney. There’s nothin’ stoppin’ you.”

Max noticed the instant the fire returned to her eyes, brightening them with a flame fueled by lust and need.

And denial.

“Are you fucking serious right now?” she exclaimed, her palms flattening on his chest as she tried to push him away.

He didn’t budge, refusing to give her any space. This decision had to be made tonight.

“Deadly,” he answered.

“Do you
know
who you are?” she asked, her voice pitched higher than before. “For that matter, do you know who
I
am?”

Max lifted one eyebrow. He figured the questions were rhetorical. That or she was more intoxicated than he thought.

“You killed a man tonight, Max. You didn’t even blink when you shot him. In. The. Head.”

He wasn’t going to deny her statement, but he wasn’t going to cop to it, either. She might be questioning who he was, but he knew exactly. He wasn’t a good man, a noble man. His conscience wasn’t ringed with worry or concern. He lived his life by one rule … live to see tomorrow. Sometimes, that was the only thing he
could
do.

“Do you love me, Max?”

Her question surprised him but only because Courtney had never brought up the subject of love before. Not in all the time they’d been together. Yes, he loved her. He loved her more than anyone or anything in the fucking world. He loved her enough to lay down his life for her. But he’d never told her that. There was only so much power he could relinquish, and admitting that he loved her was more than his quota allowed.

So rather than tell her as much, he said, “That seems irrelevant at the moment.”

“No! It’s not irrelevant, Max. It’s… Fuck.”

Courtney tried to maneuver past him, but Max held his ground, not budging an inch. “Don’t walk away from me,” he ground out. “Tell me what you want, Courtney. What. Do. You. Want?”

When she didn’t speak, Max gave in to his craving for her. He cupped her face in his hands again and crushed his mouth to hers, tasting her defiance. And then she was kissing him back as she’d always done. A brutal mating of tongues, lips, teeth. Her arms went around his waist, beneath his shirt, her fingernails digging into his back as she pulled him closer. There was nothing gentle about this, but there never usually was.

No, what he and Courtney had was combustible. Hot. Erotic. Intense. And no matter how long they were apart, that need, that desperate craving he had for her, and she for him, never seemed to abate. But as with anything, there was only so much pressure that could be contained before the lid was blown sky high, and that was the exact point they’d reached.

Max shifted, shoving her against the wall as he crushed his body to hers, grinding his cock at the juncture of her thighs as he desperately tried to touch every part of her with every part of him. They devoured one another, teeth clashing, tongues mating. When she forced her hands between their bodies, reaching for the button on his jeans, jerking it loose, Max sucked in a breath.

She wasn’t tender as she sucked on his tongue, bit his lip, roughly attempted to pull his cock free. Within seconds, she had his dick in her hands, her smooth fingers gripping him firmly.

Aww, fuck.

She was … heaven.

Her hands …
fucking
spectacular.

He’d missed her touch. He’d missed
her
. He needed to be inside her, to bury himself in the deepest parts of her.

Without hesitation, he lifted her dress, ripping her panties from her body as he thrust his hips forward, grinding his cock into her hand.

“Condom,” she groaned against his lips, biting him again, this time harder than before.