Without Me (14 page)

Me: You only have a 25% chance of carrying the gene, Max.

Max: How about if I tell you that you have a 25% chance of living. Sound like good odds?

Me: Don’t be unreasonable. There’s a 75% chance that you’re going to have a long, healthy future.

Max: Meh. I have it. There is no doubt in my mind.

I took a laugh and sighed. Women were impossible creatures. They liked to say that men were hardheaded, but I’d never met a reasonable woman. Once they made their mind up about something, it would be easier to become President of the United States than to get them to change their mind.

Me: We aren’t done talking about this. I’ll be over later.

“What’s wrong, baby?” Ma asked across the table.

I looked up at her and blew out a puff of air. “Max has never been tested. She’s being a hardheaded woman like the rest of you and claims she doesn’t need a test to tell her what she already knows.”

Mia’s head jerked in my direction. “What? She’s never been tested? You need to get her to do it, Anthony.”

“I know, Mia,” I said. “That’s easier said than done.”

“I wonder why she’s so sure she has it.” Mia rubbed her chin as her eyes shifted.

“I don’t know. Who knows what a woman is thinking. Ever.” I rubbed my forehead as I felt a pressure start to build. I could feel the fight before it happened.

Max would throw a fit, but I wasn’t dropping the topic. She’d be tested and we’d know for sure what her future would be. If we were going to be a couple, there was no way in hell I’d let her “feeling” dictate our life.

M
ax had told
me not to come.

I’d do everything in my power to get her to agree to take the test. It didn’t matter if it showed that she carried the gene. At least we’d know for certain. But if it cleared her of a fate like her father, it opened up a world of possibilities for both of us.

I was nervous as I walked up her sidewalk. I knocked on the door and could feel the sweat that had collected on my palms. My stomach flipped, both from excitement and fear. I was scared as hell of the fight that was about to happen. Max wouldn’t make it easy, but I’d spent my entire life dealing with Gallo women. They could teach a course on standing your ground and getting your way.

I knocked again. I could hear music inside, but it didn’t sound loud enough to muffle the sound of a knock.

“Max!” I yelled into the door. “I’m not leaving until you open the door!” I pounded on the door this time and then followed it with two rings of the doorbell. “Max! I’ll bust the door down if you don’t open the damn thing up.”

Just as I stopped, the door flew open. Max stood there in a pair of booty shorts and a black tank top. I wanted to reach out and rip her clothes off, but I was here for more important things.

“Don’t you get the hint?”

“Listen, woman. We’re going to have this talk.”

“There’s nothing to talk about, Anthony.”

“You need to let me say my piece and then you can tell me to fuck off like you used to do.”

She sighed before a small smirk spread across her face and disappeared. “I just have to listen to you?”

“I’d prefer you to do as I say, but listening will work for now.” I smiled, knowing I’d find a way to get her to see the light.

Since she’d confessed, she’d become a different woman. The hardass girl I’d met in the bar had melted away. When she’d opened the door, pissed-off Max had returned.

“I’ll listen, but I’m not promising anything.” She opened the door more and waited for me.

As she closed it, I grabbed her and pulled her to my body. I’d missed her. We’d seen each other yesterday, but the time apart had moved slowly. Plus, I wanted her to feel my touch and remember the spark we’d had before she’d shut me out. That sizzle was what made us different.

I kissed her deeply as I ran my hands over her back. Her smell had intoxicated me from the moment I’d met her, and even now, it had that effect on me. I breathed her in, getting lost in her scent and the softness of her skin.

“Hey,” I murmured as I stared at her lips.

“Hi,” she mumbled before pulling her lips into her mouth and running her tongue along them.

I grabbed her hand, bringing her to the couch with me. I wouldn’t let her sit across the room. I needed closeness, and more importantly, she needed to feel our connection.

I wanted to drag her onto my lap, but instead, I let her sit and planted myself beside her. I needed to look into her eyes and for her to see my face. Grasping her hands in mine, I started to talk. “I know you said you don’t need the test to know you have ataxia, but what if maybe, just maybe, you’re wrong?” I asked, keeping my voice calm and level.

“Anthony.” She sighed like we’d gone over this a million times. “I don’t need a test to know what I have brewing inside my body. I can feel it. Every time I trip or drop something, I know it’s just the beginning.”

“Max, that’s ridiculous.” I regretted the words as soon as they’d left my lips. “I didn’t mean that.”

“Yes, you did,” she said as she closed her eyes and inhaled.

“Look at me,” I said as I squeezed her hands. As soon as she opened them, I spoke. “Some people are just clumsy. You can’t base your entire future on an assumption.”

“I can.”

“For the love of all that is holy,” I muttered through gritted teeth. Time to change tactics. “Do you have feelings for me?”

She blinked a couple of times but maintained eye contact. “Yes,” she said on a drawn-out breath.

“If I walked out the door right now and never came back, would you be upset?” I didn’t know exactly where I was going with this conversation.

“I don’t want to admit it, Anthony, but I’d be devastated.” She looked down at our hands and frowned.

“Really?” Dumb thing to say, but
devastated
wasn’t the word I’d expected to hear. Yeah, I knew she’d be sad, but devastated, not at all.

“Yes,” she replied, bringing her eyes to mine.

“What about the other times you threw me out? You didn’t care then?”

“I was upset, but I did everything in my power for you not to want me. I had to push you away. Now, you know everything and I can’t deny I have feelings for you.”

“Like ya love me?” I asked, jutting my chin out.

“I lo—”

“Don’t say it. Not yet,” I blurted.

“Why? I’ve admitted it in front of my mother.” she whispered as her forehead crinkled.

“If you’re going to say those words again to me, you have to admit you’re willing to give something of yourself that I don’t think you’re ready to do just yet.”

“I’ve told you everything, Anthony. I’ve given more to you than I have to most people in this world.”

“Max, you immediately shut me down when I said I wanted you to be tested.”

“But—”

“No buts. You did. If you ‘know’ you have the gene, what would it hurt to get the test?”

She sighed and blew out a breath, puffing out her cheeks. “Can’t you just believe that I already know?”

“I can’t.” I threw the line she’d muttered to me more times than I could count in her face, and the corner of her eye twitched. “I won’t accept it until you have the test.”

“Jesus,” she mumbled, and rolled her eyes.

“You’ve lived your life for too long based on the assumption that you’re going to have the same future as your father. What if you don’t have it? Imagine how different life could be.”

“I don’t know. The idea of getting the test is scary.”

She confused me. How could a test be scary when she was adamant that she had the gene necessary to cause ataxia?

“Why?”

“Because maybe…” She paused, closing her dark brown eyes for a moment as she bit her top lip. “There’s a small part of me that still holds on to the hope that I’m not doomed. Maybe I won’t be in a wheelchair. If I have the test and they say I have it, then there’s no hope.”

My confusion grew deeper. Women. How could she think knowing would be worse?

“Max, knowing gives you power. If they say you don’t have it, then you can live life without the giant ticking time bomb hanging over your head. If you do have it, then we can plan for the future and live every day like it may be our last.”

“Why do you have to make so much sense?” she asked with a small smile on her face.

“’Cause I’m a man. We’re more logical and less emotional.”

She shook her head and her mouth grew slack. “You did not just say that,” she whispered.

“I did, and I stand behind that statement.” I brought her hand to my mouth and brushed the delicate flesh with my lips.

“Anthony, I still stand behind the statement I made the first night. You are an asshole.” She laughed, leaning forward and planting a kiss on my lips.

“As long as I’m your asshole,” I murmured into her mouth.

“Mm, you are.” Her hands slid up my arms as the kiss deepened.

“Not throwing me out again?” I asked with our mouths still attached.

“Nope. You owe me big for agreeing to have the test done. I expect payment tonight,” she replied, raking her fingernails across my scalp.

I felt a tingle down my back as her fingernails tickled my neck. Tonight, I’d give her a performance worthy of a standing ovation. Something that would make her dream of more, want it so badly that she’d get the test done to keep me.

I’d be lying if I said that what we had was all based on sex. It wasn’t. The sex was amazing—some of the best I’d ever had. The thing that brought me to her and kept me coming back for more was her attitude—which was sometimes shitty, but then so was mine—and the tiny sparks of electricity when we touched.

No one in my life had caused my body to come alive from a single caress. The moment I’d kissed her in the bar with my cocky-ass “I know you want me” attitude, I had known I was doomed. When my lips had tingled, feeling her long after I’d left, I had known I’d be lost to her forever.

I moved away and gripped the back of my shirt, pulling it off my body. She did the same and removed her tank top. As the cool air of the room glided over her nipples, they stiffened. Her body was amazing, soft, and begging to be touched.

“Lie back,” I said as I stood up, unbuttoned my jeans, and wiggled them down my legs.

“Just jumping right in, are ya?”

“Nope. The jeans were killin’ my cock, babe. Shit this big can’t be contained when it’s hard for you.” I smiled. Then I tipped over, grabbed her shorts, and pulled them down her legs. “I plan to eat your pussy until I get lockjaw or you beg me to stop. I just wanted to get comfortable for the feast.”

“I want to get lost in you tonight. Make me forget everything in the world except your touch.” She relaxed into the couch and closed her eyes as I nestled between her legs.

I placed my hands on her thighs, caressing her skin with my palms as I glided them back and forth. Soft wisps of hairs rose underneath my touch as her skin became dotted with goose bumps. Her lips trembled as she pulled the bottom into her mouth and bit down on the tender flesh.

“Anthony,” she whispered.

When my hands drifted down her legs, I clutched them behind her knees. Unable to wait any longer to taste her, I pulled her legs apart and brought her body closer to my face. Leaning forward, I planted my lips on the soft skin above her knee. Skimming across her flesh, I peppered the surface of her body with kisses. I had become consumed by her scent and riveted by the feel of her.

As I followed an invisible path up her legs to her inner thigh, her body shuddered in my hands. She sucked in a breath, causing her breasts to jut out as her back arched. I could smell her arousal—the sweet smell of want I’d missed when we had been apart. It intoxicated me more than any liquor I’d ever absorbed.

Hovering over her pussy, I brushed the soft black tendrils of hair that dotted her flesh with my nose. Nothing else dominated my thoughts more than devouring her and lavishing in the taste of her. Then I captured her wetness on my tongue as I licked her pussy.

I pulled her forward, using my hands behind her knees to gain better access. I wanted to bury my face in her pussy and make the world disappear. She yelped as I got carried away by the moment and drank of her taste.

It wasn’t that I only wanted to bring her orgasm after orgasm, she needed to remember me long after I’d been with her, staking my claim. Even if she hadn’t said that I owned her, I knew I did, and so did she. The funny thing was she owned me too, but even scarier was that she held my future in her hands.

As I lapped at her flesh, she held on to the cushion, trying to brace herself for the orgasm that was simmering underneath the surface. Using my favorite move, I increased the suction and brought her deeper into my mouth. Feeling her clit swell on my tongue drove me forward. Her breathing grew shallow and ragged as I used the tip of my tongue to play her body like a musical instrument.

“Yes!” she yelled as I tapped her clit with more vigor.

I hummed my approval, changing the sensation of my lips on her flesh.

“Fuck,” she moaned, sliding her hands into my hair and holding my face to her pussy.

She didn’t have to do that. I wasn’t going anywhere. I’d have lived between her legs if I could. There was no place in the world I’d rather spend my time. No longer was my favorite thing in the world being on stage. It was now worshipping the softness and sweetness of Max’s beautiful cunt.

Just as her legs started to quiver, I removed my lips from her body. She gasped, pushing her body into my face.

“Promise me, Max.” I gripped her legs roughly. Even though she had said that she would take the test, I didn’t trust her to follow through. Promises weren’t something either of us had a lot of experience with keeping.

“N-n-now?” she stuttered as her chest heaved.

“Now,” I demanded before I swept my tongue across her swollen clit.

She twitched, ready to burst, and needed more friction. I wouldn’t give it to her until she said what I wanted to hear. When she didn’t answer right away, I nipped her lip to make her focus.

With glazed eyes, she stared at me as if she were trying to focus. “Yes. Yes!” She gripped my hair, pulling my face forward. “Anything you want.”

Her answer was good enough for now. I wouldn’t let her forget or go back on her word, but I’d use every opportunity to remind her of the promise she’d made me. I sucked her into my mouth, spreading her legs wider, and waited for her body to shake in my hands. She started to writhe on the couch, chasing the orgasm as she mashed her pussy into my face.

Opening my eyes, I watched as she came apart in my arms, a scream sounding from behind her closed mouth. It erupted in her throat and grew to the point that it had to break free. As her mouth fell open, the sound became almost operatic in nature. It was the most beautiful melody I’d ever heard.

When her hands softened on my scalp, her body grew lax into the cushions. I didn’t waste a moment as I latched on harder, ready to bring her the next orgasm. I wasn’t about waiting. We’d done that enough over the last however many weeks she’d had my dick in a vise.

“I need time,” she pleaded as I started to assault her most sensitive area.

I shook my head, not releasing her from my mouth as I drove forward.

“No. Gah,” she said as she pushed my head down. “Oh.”

Needing to feel her as she came again, I rubbed two fingers on the outside of her before pushing them inside. As I stretched her slightly, she whimpered from the intrusion and I increased the suction of my lips.

Her pussy contracted, sucking my fingers deeper inside. Using a rocking motion, I massaged her G-spot as I grazed her clit with my teeth and flicked it with my tongue. She pushed me away, trying to get out of reach from the onslaught of sensations my touch was causing. Ignoring her, I buried my face deeper and held her in place with my one hand still planted behind her knee. I ate like a starved man until she was writhing on the couch, screaming my name.