Crazy for Love (18 page)

She hurried him toward a wooden gate just as tall as the wrought-iron one, and Max braced himself for thorns and grasping vines. He was more than a little surprised when they emerged into a very normal backyard, lit by harmless porch lights. No giant spiderwebs. No creeping zombies. “Nobody uses the front,” she explained needlessly. “It's just Mrs. Schlessing in the house now, and she doesn't like people much.”

“You don't say.”

“It's private here,” she said, gesturing toward the backyard before she led him up a set of rickety wooden stairs. “This is my place. The paparazzi are
gone for the night. Nothing ever happens here after dark. Not till now anyway. Er, not that I think we're going to… Hey, here we are.”

She opened a huge wooden door. The window in it was shielded by a blue curtain.

Once he stepped inside, Max was surprised again. He'd still been expecting quaint, but he had no idea why. Chloe was living in an overstuffed dorm room. Moving boxes were piled along one wall, leaking the occasional extension cord or shoelace between the seams. The coffee table was made of wooden crates. Literally.

“Oh. It's nice.”

She stiffened and slid her hand out of his. “I lived in a house before. A nice house. But I had to move out with no notice.”

“Sure, I understand.”

“I couldn't move into my parents' place. The photographers… It wouldn't be right.”

“Come on. It's great.” He gestured as if it were a grand loft and not a tiny 300-square-foot room. “Reminds me of living on the ship.”

“Right.”

“Are you hungry?” He held up the bag and gestured toward the little round table that marked the boundary between the kitchen half of the room and the living-room half. “You know, if you add some
raised edges to the cabinets, your plates won't slide off when the sea gets rough.”

“Oh, that's funny.”

She smiled, but he'd hurt her feelings. He could tell by the tight distance in that grin. Regret hit Max hard. Yes, her life was a mess, but she was living the immediate aftermath of a personal disaster. He put the bag onto the table and turned to her.

“I'm sorry. You've got all this going on. I probably shouldn't have come.”

The hurt deepened on her face, turning her mouth down.

Max shook his head. Where the hell was all his charm? He'd lost it somewhere back on that island. “But…I just wanted to see you.”

“Why?”

Why? Why, indeed? Some of it was out of a sense of responsibility. Some of it stemmed from worry. And some of it was just the truth. So Max chose to give her the truth, even though it felt as frightening as each time he set foot back on the ship. “Because,” he said. “I missed you.”

 

T
HE WORDS DIDN'T SLAM
through her. They didn't stop her breath and send her heart racing into overdrive. Instead, Max's words slid over her skin like a question. A tentative touch. She waited to see what she would feel.

“I'm sorry,” he said. “Was that weird?”

Chloe cocked her head, waiting… Finally, her skin grew warm in answer. Her nerves thrilled gently. She felt suffused with a quiet happiness. “No,” she finally answered. “No, it wasn't weird. I missed you, too.”

She didn't realize how tense Max's smile had become until it relaxed. “Really?”

“I did,” she answered. As if to prove it, her body swayed toward him of its own volition. Max met her in the middle, his mouth taking hers in a kiss that started soft and escalated to deep and hot within a few seconds.

And from then on, none of it mattered. Not her worries over her life or Max's reaction to it. Because he was here, and she wasn't alone.

She held tightly to his body, wishing she could simply melt into him and stay warm and safe inside him. But the second-best option was to have him warm and safe inside her, so Chloe tugged him toward the bedroom. He hesitated for a moment, to edge her to the side and reach around to lock the apartment door.

His paranoia made her smile as she nibbled at his bottom lip. She gave up his mouth to tug his shirt up and off, then reached for the button of his jeans. When her hand brushed his stomach, the muscles jumped, reminding her that she didn't know much
about him. Was he ticklish? Where did he like to be kissed and stroked?

She pulled him to her bed and pushed him down on his back, determined to find out.

Max raised an eyebrow. “Am I being taken advantage of?”

“Strange city. No car. A vicious dog between you and freedom. You're mine now and there's nothing you can do about it.”

Eyes narrowing, he swept his gaze down her body as she started unbuttoning her sleeveless shirt. “What are you planning to do with me?”

Chloe let the shirt slide off her arms and stood straight to maintain the illusion of rock-hard abs as she unzipped her jeans. “I'm going to find out how much you missed me.”

If she was going to be cast as the wild girl, she'd damn well play the part, so Chloe put her hands on either side of Max's knees and crawled up the bed to have a comfortable seat on his lap. When she settled herself against his erection, she took his wrists in her hands and pressed them into the bed.

“Ooh. Seems like you missed me a little bit.” She wriggled her hips against his. “A
little?
”

“Mmm.” Leaning slowly over, she opened her mouth on his chin and pressed her teeth into his flesh. He inhaled sharply, hips tilting up to hers.
Power zinged through her, flashing into her like water over parched earth. She'd hardly touched him and already, her body was going tight with lust.

She nibbled her way along his jawline, pressing his hands down hard. “You don't feel like a man left in desperate straits.”

“Liar,” he muttered, thrusting hard against her.

“Mmm. Maybe you missed me a…
medium
amount.”

“Shit,” he muttered as she sucked at a tender spot on his neck. “You're cruel.”

When she pressed her naked stomach against his, they both sighed. The sensation was so sweet that Chloe simply laid her body against his for a long moment, feeling their hearts beating against each other.

“Chloe,” Max said, twisting his arms to loosen her grip.

“No, not yet.” If he wrapped himself around her and held her close…she'd be lost. She felt too much for him already. So Chloe lifted herself an inch off him and kissed her way down his chest. Curious, she ran her tongue around his nipple and watched goose bumps spring up around it. “Does that tickle?”

“Yes!”

“And this?” She sucked gently and scraped her teeth against him.

“Ah! Yes. No.”

“Hmm.” Taking her time with the exploration, she brushed her lips over the crisp brown hair of his chest, then tested for ticklish spots with her tongue and teeth, all the while pressing herself rhythmically against his erection. “I'm still not convinced that you truly missed me.”

“Slide your mouth a little lower, and you'll know for sure.”

“Really?” Chloe rose up and rested her ass against his thighs as she released his wrists. “All right then. Show me.”

Surprise flared in his eyes, but it was quickly swallowed up by heat. Max reached for his zipper and Chloe tried to hide the way her breath quickened. But when he pulled his cock free, a sigh slipped from her lips. His hand circled the shaft and he gave himself one slow stroke while she watched. Her sex squeezed in sympathetic response. This felt dirtier than anything she'd ever done. And when Max reached for her hand and wrapped it around that hot flesh, her whole body shuddered. He was unbelievable heavy in her palm, and when Chloe tightened her fingers, there wasn't even a hint of yielding flesh.

She snuck a glance past her lashes and found Max's gaze locked on her grip, his lips slightly parted, eyes lit with hard need.

“This much, hmm?”

“Yes,” he answered gruffly.

“Oh, my.” Chloe scooted backward, sliding her hand all the way down to the thick base of his shaft. Watching his face the entire time, Chloe lowered her head and touched the tip of her tongue to his flesh. He grabbed a handful of the blanket as she slipped her tongue over him, pressing it to the underside of the head. When she closed her lips around him and sucked gently, he let loose the breath he'd been holding.

She teased him for a long time before she slid deeper in tiny increments. She loved the taste of him, the scent of his body, the smoothness of him against her mouth. And she loved the way his stomach tightened with every curl of her tongue. He was sensitive to every increase in pressure and pace. With Max, a blow job seemed designed for her pleasure, not his. With a moan of need, she took him as deep as she could, swallowing against the weight of his cock.

Chloe squirmed as she pleasured him, wiggling against the building need between her legs. She wanted to have sex with him right now, but that need was overridden by the desire to make him come like this. To hear his shout of need and feel his whole body spasm as he came.

When his hand touched her, it was trembling. “Wait, Chloe. Jesus.” He urged her up.

Chloe licked her lips and tried to bend back to her task.

Though he groaned with the struggle, Max shook his head and pulled her up to straddle him. Instead of taking her, though, he tugged her down so that her stomach pressed into his wet shaft. “God, I missed you.”

He kissed her then, and slid both his hands beneath her underwear to pull her tighter against his body. A moment later, the room shifted, and she was on her back on the mattress, and Max had her panties halfway down her legs. “My turn.”

She wasn't in the mood to demur. In fact, Chloe helpfully kicked off her underwear and waited impatiently as he knelt between her legs with an evil smile. “How much have you missed me?”

“Well… It's only been a few days.”

“Oh, sure,” he agreed, dragging one finger down her belly with deliberate slowness. He traced the very edge of her hair, then followed the line down to the sensitive skin just above the hollow of her thigh. She jumped.

“Ticklish?” he murmured.

“Horny!”

“But it's only been a few days.” His fingers traced the plump lips of her sex, offering nothing more.

“Okay, I take that back! I missed you like crazy. Come on now, you said it was your turn!”

“So I did.” But instead of giving her what she needed, Max propped himself up on his elbows and feathered both thumbs over her, teasing her into a frustrated groan.

“I'm still not convinced you really missed me,” he said, his mouth drawing closer, the words touching her with torturous faintness. “Maybe you'd better show me.”

His tongue touched her with almost the same ghostlike whisper as his words. She whimpered, any attitude lost now in the darkness of her closed eyes. The world shrank down to that place between her legs where Max's mouth hovered.

His tongue ran lightly down her sex, then slowly up. Chloe held her breath and silently prayed for mercy. Max finally granted it, flicking his tongue over the spot where she most needed it.

“Oh, God,” she moaned, hips twitching at the electric shock of pleasure.

“You did miss me.”

“I did, I did.” She let her knees fall farther open, trying to offer encouragement. It worked. Max finally put some effort into his work, and Chloe's thighs were trembling in an embarrassingly short amount of time. She already felt that rise of tension, heavy enough to feel that she was sinking into the bed, but strangely buoyant, too, raising her up, up.

And then he stopped.

“What are you—?”

“Shh. Slow down.”

“No!”

“Yes.” He nibbled at the top of her thigh, but before she could complain, Max slid two fingers inside her and sent her arching off the bed. In response, he wrapped his other arm around her thigh and held her still.

Chloe felt primal, fighting against his hold, trying to get closer to his hand. She needed him deeper, harder, needed him to push every anxious second she'd suffered out of her body.

“Please,” she breathed. “Oh, please.”

He made a thoughtful little purr in his throat, then pushed up on his knees while Chloe gasped at his abrupt withdrawal. He tugged a condom from his pocket, and his hands shook as he unwrapped it and slid it on. Not as much as Chloe's hands were shaking, though. She was right on the edge, in pain and empty.

This time he didn't make her wait. Max entered her in one hard, ruthless thrust. Her muscles froze with the shock of it, but her heart tripped over itself with greedy joy.

“Chloe,” Max murmured as he began to thrust. Oh, God, it felt so good. So good.

She dug her nails into his ass to pull him tighter. Max kissed her hard, devouring her mouth as he
shifted higher on her body. And, sweet Lord, that was just what she needed.

Chloe dug her nails in harder and he growled in response. Good. She felt like an animal and she wanted him to be a beast, too. He braced his hands against the bed and raised his chest, giving him more leverage. Arching her neck hard to the side, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the feel of him fucking her. Hard. And suddenly she was caught up in a wave of brutal pleasure. She cried out, screaming as her body jerked against his, squeezing his cock even tighter.

By the time Max came, she was almost done shaking, but she couldn't stop whispering, “Oh, God,” under her breath. Max was still above her, weight resting on his hands, head hanging down as he panted. She slid a hand into his messy hair and pulled him down to lie on her.

“Good Lord, Max.”

He made a sound like a mix between a groan and a purr. Chloe's heartbeat slowed, but she felt a little twitch of pain at the end of every beat. She was so happy in that moment that it hurt. If she could stay just like this forever, body melting, sex still stretched tight by his body, she would.

“I think you've ruined me for other men,” she whispered.