by Ciara Cole
“Just why did you ask me to dinner? We dated in college and then drifted apart, and now you feel like rekindling things between us, is that it?”
“Since you have no problems being direct, then my answer is yes. It feels like fate that we met again, and I’m supposed to treat you like a stranger?” He held her hand in a warm, firm clasp across the table. “I never forgot you, not even for a day. I made some mistakes, but who doesn’t? Having you forgive me would be a great start, and we can move closer from there, back to the way we were.”
Indiana slipped her hand from under his, her face going cold. “You say you never forgot me. That’s only because you’re always searching for things you can't attain or that you have lost,” she said, her head cocked to the side as she viewed him with a glare. “Once you possess them, you no longer cherish them.”
She saw his eyes sharpen in response. “Are you saying this simply to lessen your own guilt?” Max asked calmly. “You never actually loved me, did you? You were able to go so easily on that trip even when I tried to convince you to stay. You already hated me for trying to have a hold on you or tie you down. But I don’t care about any of that. I know we can put it all behind us.”
Indiana gave a scoffing laugh. “After what you put me through, you simply expect me to let it slide like it didn’t turn my whole world upside down?”
Before he could reply, she rose from the table and turned away to pace the floor. “After I got back from India and felt that you moved on, I did blame and hate you. But I soon found a new chance at happiness, and I discovered that your face was no longer what I saw in my heart.”
Yes, she’d replaced that girlish love with the joy of motherhood and cherishing her babies, who came to fill her whole world and heart.
Drawing a deep breath, Indiana turned around again to see Max had also risen and come to stand behind her, and now she found herself face to face with him.
His unexpectedly close and tingling presence had Indiana edging away until her back hit the counter behind her. She made herself add firmly, “That was when I knew my heartbreak was over. I was finally free.”
“Don’t say any more.” Max rested his palm gently over her lips. “I understood so much too late.”
Indiana drew his hand down and freed her mouth, managing to sound calm as she said, “We can’t return to how we were.”
“You’re right.” Max had a darkened gaze that sent her heart tripping. “We’ll build a whole new path to where we need to be. Just don’t ask that we stay acquaintances, or to forget how it feels when we touch.”
Indiana stared into his eyes then quickly averted her gaze. “Max, stop this. If you really missed me, you would have looked for me. No, better yet, you’d have fought to keep us together.”
“I tried, Indiana.”
“Doesn’t look like you tried that hard. You were my first, Max. I gave you not just my heart but my everything. Yes, I left for a trip you didn’t really approve of. You wanted us to wait until we could go together.”
“Now that you bring that up, yes, Indiana, you really could have waited. I’d just received an internship at a company I’d always dreamed of working in. I promised we could go to India as soon as I could make the time, but you picked your best friend over me.”
Indiana huffed in anger and then tried to move away, but in one quick swoop he lifted her up and placed her on the counter.
“We’re not going to do this, Max,” Indiana said wearily as she attempted to get down, but he grabbed both of her thighs, standing between them as he held her in place.
“Why not, Indiana? Give me one good reason.”
“Because you have a whole new life that’s vastly different from mine. Plus, I’m way past being over you.”
“You can’t possibly be over me, Indiana. I won’t allow that to happen.”
“What do you mean, you won’t allow it? Max, you don’t own me,” she said clearly. “I’m no one’s property.”
Indiana sighed and rested her hands on his shoulders in a bid to try to push him away. “Listen, Max,” she said as calmly as she could. “It’s been over for four years now. I let it all go, and now it’s your turn.”
“This will never be over. I guarantee that,” Max said with a set jaw, his voice stern with passion. “You’ll be mine again, Indiana.”
A mist of danger swirled in the air out of nowhere, and Indiana felt her heart begin to pound. Her fingers on his powerful chest tingled, and she wondered why they seemed unable to shove him away.
Still, she made her brain work and said, “I don’t know who you think you are, but I’m never going to be with you again. Not like that.”
Indiana told herself she meant it. They could never go back to being in love and sharing a romance. She was only here to try to bring the twins and their father together somehow. That was all there was to it. Right?
Max shook his head, his eyes closing briefly as he let out thickly, “You have no idea, do you?”
Indiana stared at him. “About wh…”
He smashed his lips against hers, completely cutting off her words. Indiana was still processing what was happening, until she found herself suddenly responding to his kiss.
Her hands found their way to his hair and fisted on him, pulling him closer to her.
That earlier spark that always simmered between them even after four years boiled over with a new intensity. When they finally broke out of the kiss to catch their breaths, Indiana felt her heart beating super fast, as if ready to grind through her ribs.
Max gripped her face in his hands, while her fingers were still clutching the hair at his nape. They panted the same breath as they stared at each other. The dark heat in his eyes pulled Indiana to him, making her grip his hair even tighter and drag him down for another kiss. He groaned deep in his throat, the sound sexy and raw.
His tongue coiled with hers as they tasted each other. His hands on her waist were tight, effectively pulling her closer to him. The fire burned between them in extreme degrees, each flicker igniting her body, quaking it and stirring it up from the oblivion it had been.
The next moment, Max had lifted her off the counter and slammed her to the wall. He kissed her jaw, trailing soft nips all the way down her neck to her collar bone, while in contrast, his hands ripped her jacket and corset away. His left hand took hold of her thigh and wrapped it around his waist, and Indiana gasped in pleasure to feel his arousal pressing against the heat between her legs.
Indiana yanked on his hair still, even though she felt shocked at her rugged aggression. Max chuckled darkly and leisurely moved down to tease her nipples turn by turn, making Indiana even more wet with need.
In a surprise move, Max suddenly kneeled down and ran his nose up the expanse of her thigh all the way to her apex. It was so hot that her hips tilted forward instinctively in offering.
“God, you smell just as amazing,” Max said. He looked up at her with heated eyes. Without breaking that smoldering gaze, he slowly pulled her lace panties down her legs, his touch gliding over her skin and leaving it sizzling hot.
He got up suddenly, seizing her face in his hands once more as he kissed her recklessly and shamelessly.
This time he pulled her up his body and wrapped her legs around his waist. They moved without Indiana even being truly aware of it, until they found themselves in his master bedroom.
“You want this?” His eyes seemed to gleam in the dimmed light of the bedside lamp. Heavy butterflies loaded her stomach, and Indiana gave a surreptitious nod. She felt like twenty-one again, tasting passion for the first time.
It had been so damn long…too long.
Max kissed her again, then ran his hand beneath her body to cup her spine and arch her tightly up against him. Shifting his lips to her ear, he bit her ear lobe, which resulted in her moaning sob.
“You sure?” he rasped, his breath warm and delicious on her throat.
“Yes.” She almost ground it out through tight jaws. Did he want her
screaming it before he knew she meant it?
Yes, she had mouthed all those denials earlier, but she'd truly never seen this coming. Never thought she'd ignite so fast.
Indiana swore she could feel his smile on her neck before he raised up to look at her. His green-gray eyes were now a deeper, mystic shade that pierced through her. She was sure her cheeks and neck were on fire.
Straightening to balance on his knees, Max slowly unbuttoned his shirt. Nothing was more thrilling and erotic than watching a fine-ass man like Max take off his shirt, bit by bit revealing his perfect pecs and six-pack. Indiana swallowed deeply. His youthful body had chiseled into a more defined perfection more befitting of a Greek god.
Max got on top of her, holding his weight up so he wouldn’t crush her while he placed himself between her legs. His eyes never left hers.
Then he began kissing her slowly all over. He cupped her breasts and trailed nips and kisses from her breasts to her ribs and all the way down to her navel. Indiana leaned up on her elbows, biting on her bottom lip as she watched what he was doing. His mouth moved dangerously to the center of her heat.
“Max.”
“I miss touching you,” he whispered and ran his hands down her body. “I miss kissing you.” He kissed her inner thigh. “I miss hearing you moan.”
With that, he rubbed her plump sex. Indiana threw her head back and moaned.
“You like that, don’t you,” he said hoarsely.
Indiana nodded, and he stroked her folds faster. Indiana moaned louder and gripped his hair. She felt his tongue toying and playing with her sex with tantalizing passion. Her eyes closed tight to lose herself in the pleasure churning deep inside. He showed her no mercy.
“Please,” was all she could cry out.
Max continued his sensual assault of licking her and sucking, while his two hands cupped and squeezed her breasts, his thumbs and index fingers rolling over her nipples. The moment he grazed his teeth on her clit, Indiana’s spine formed a bow off the bed.
Indiana couldn’t stop gasping, losing control. Her lower half was tightening, trembling, reaching…to that almost forgotten ledge. She wanted to plead for him to stop and yet scream for more. Her thoughts soon became incoherent, Max making her body enslaved to his mouth.
With just his lips and tongue, he drilled away her final hold on reality. Indiana hovered at that dizzying peak for as long as she could, before shattering into the most body-wrenching orgasm, crying out Max’s name in the process.
Indiana never thought she’d feel this way again, her body, soul and mind on cloud nine. She fought back oblivion and tried to grasp the present.
Finally becoming aware of her surroundings, Indiana slowly opened her eyes to find Max staring. She was startled by the wonder in his eyes, so similar to her own expression. He was lying naked next to her, and her eyes traveled down his body in eager appraisal. She marveled at the length, the power, of his erection.
Max moved suddenly, once more looming over her as he leaned on his elbows with his face inches from hers. Indiana’s heart pounded ten times faster in response to his proximity, and she wondered why the sensation felt so good and bad at the same time. Why did he still have this power over her senses? She was happy to feel this alive again, but was scared if it meant she’d never truly let go.
They could never go back to the beginning. She only had to remember all the pain, and her heart closed in on itself.
“Are you sure this is what you really want?” Max asked, his voice husky and dripping sex. Indiana knew this was her chance to end this. How could she take Max back so easily for a lover? She shouldn’t have let things get this far.
She could almost see that he sensed her withdrawal, and she knew that if she did say no, Max would back off immediately. He wouldn’t take anything she didn’t willingly give.
Instead of listening to any kind of inner reason, Indiana followed the fierce craving in her moist depths. With a single nod from her, Max had the confirmation he needed.
The next moment he thrust into her with such power, Indiana cried out in ecstasy. The shocking collision of his hard flesh within her soft sheath gave way to vision-blurring pleasure as Max began to move in and out of her.
Indiana couldn’t take this much bliss lying still. She rolled her hips under him and heard Max hiss out a curse. Only to make her scream his name as he slammed into her more deeply this time.
“Are you okay?” he asked in concern as Indiana stiffened. But she was simply trying to get used to the immense feeling of him inside her. It took some time to get her bearings, but once she did, Indiana began to tilt her pelvis up to meet him boldly.
“I’m…I’m good. Don’t stop,” she moaned.
Max cursed again and complied with her words, thrusting slowly inside her. It still felt fiendishly good, feeling him stretch her so thoroughly. Indiana had to muffle a cry as she bit the back of her hand.
He took her at his own pace, and Indiana couldn’t help but follow, conform. Her desire for this man unfurled like a virgin rose, taking her to an unexplored place. Even with all her insecurities, pains and memories, all that mattered was this right now. Their passion, the heat so strong it melted them into one entity.
They kissed and touched and moved and felt each other, and Indiana was overwhelmed by it all. It went on and on, and with each thrust she cried out in pleasure. Max plunged harder and faster, his whispers of seduction sliding her irrepressibly down a spiraling chute into nirvana’s pool.
Right at that moment when the tilt was steepest and sharpest, Max told her to come for him–and she did. She reached her second orgasm of the night with her calling out his name in a wrangled moan.
Three more thrusts to her very fathoms, and Max reached release, his breath rasping through his clenched teeth as he poured himself inside her.
Not a single percent of intensity had dulled, even when Max fell onto her with his face in her neck. He kissed her one final time before pulled he out and then gathered her close.
Indiana rested on top of him, her eyes fluttering as the last energy drained from her. Before she succumbed to cushiony sleep provided by Max’s muscled chest, Indiana vowed to stop feeling led astray. Sex this good couldn’t be wrong. She wasn’t falling in too deep, not yet. And it was okay, just this once, to be selfish.
Tomorrow, she’d think of the best way to break the truth to Max once and for all.
***
Reaching for Indiana some time later in the night seemed as natural for Max as breathing. It seemed incredible that she was lying there with him. To think how many nights he’d dreamed this. Her willing body, her responsive kisses and touch. She drove him crazy.
He told her to come on top of him, and she obliged. Straddling him, she lifted up and reached round to grasp his rigid length, which she slowly began to lower herself onto.
The moment she'd filled herself with all of him, she moaned and started to move, danced her hips on him and sent her breasts swaying before his blurred vision. Her honey pot was like home to him, snug and moist. Max let Indiana take the lead, moving only his hands as he molded her sexy tits. He arched off the pillows and seized a nipple, sucking so hard she screamed in lust.
Suddenly Max twisted her around on her back and started going a lot faster and harder while kissing her neck.
“Oh!” she cried out as he hit her g-spot, then whimpered his name. Her nails hooked to his back as he thrust deeper, rougher. Their sounds of passion were syncing as the room seemed to swelter.
Max pulled out and turned her on her stomach. Indiana had the perfect heart-shaped ass and hips. Max grabbed her sexy thighs and pulled them up, arching her back so her ass was in the air. He spread her cheeks and plunged himself deep inside and almost came instantly, but thankfully he held on.
“Fuck,” he mumbled with each thrust. Indiana felt him in her stomach, and she rocked her hips on his length, throwing her ass back.
They’d never had sex this dirty. He drove in hard and merciles
sly. Each cry that escaped her lips made Max ram even deeper and harder. He could feel her shaking, they both were, with pleasure and lust.
Finally, he seemed to snap and spanked her ass hard. He grabbed her hair, making her spine double back. The slightly awkward position had him reaching deeper inside her, his strokes hitting home each time. He slammed as hard as he could into her tight walls, making her juices flow. She screamed his name, he groaned hers.
Max knew he was being rough with her, his thrusts becoming more unforgiving. If it wasn’t for her pleasurable response, the way she begged him for more and moaned “yes, baby, oh so good,” he’d have thought he had to be hurting her. But his brown sugar could take every inch of what he was bringing, and in that he was well pleased.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he said almost to himself. Indiana was the only woman who had him being vocal in bed, even sentimental. She was the one woman he’d ever told her he loved her. Even though she’d never said it back, Max didn’t regret the fact that he’d been open with her and still was. Maybe one day he could win her trust completely. Maybe it wasn’t too late.
Max sank in to the hilt, feeling her walls spasm around him in warning as he realized she was close. So was he, dangerously so. His strokes reached a grinding pace, his pelvis smacking against her bouncy ass. Pushed to the very limit, it was all Max could do to bring Indiana to the finish, sensing her orgasm erupt even before she cried out with a full body shudder.
A loud groan escaped him as his release also came. He held on tightly to her as he fell on top of her, kissing all over her back. She said something like “damn, Max.” It made him smile. All these years, sex for him had been almost clinical, detached. But with Indiana, he cared a lot about giving her pleasure, satisfying her fully.
Max didn’t know what that spelled for them. He just couldn’t picture Indiana going out of his life again. Whatever he had to do to make her stay, he’d do it.
Chapter Seven
Indiana was coaxed from sleep by the morning light streaming softly into the room. She’d slept better than she could remember and felt light as a feather even though slightly sore. That man had worked muscles that Indiana had even forgotten she had.