What Maxi Needs (Leave Your Shoes On)

by Calista Fox

  “Holy shit,” he muttered as he took her in, his jaw falling slack.

  She smiled deviously. “Turns out, I’m not the all-work-and-no-play type.”

  “And here I was, prepared to do whatever necessary to convince you of it.”

  Her head inclined to the side, and she confessed, “I actually wanted you to talk me into all of this. But that’s taking the easy way out, isn’t it?”

  “I can’t say I know for sure,” he admitted. “This is all pretty new to me.”

  “Surprisingly, to me, too.”

  Yet since Monday, she’d been regretting her decision for them to back-burner their scorching affair. Every time he’d cornered her at the office, she’d realized that he regretted it as well. And continued to pursue her. Which made her even hotter.

  So maybe it wouldn’t be the end of the world if they gave their spontaneous romance a shot.

  Hell, it’d worked out smashingly for Lola and Alex.

  And things were progressing steadily at Staci Kay, so perhaps Maxi and Ryan really were capable of balancing a personal and professional relationship.

  Because, honestly, Ryan was just too damn tempting to keep saying “no” to.

  He grinned at this change in direction. Said, “Well, then, we’ll have to figure it out together. You therefore might appreciate these.” He reached into the pocket of his overcoat and pulled out a small plastic bag that he tossed toward her.

  She caught it and inspected the contents, her smile widening. “A man who’s well equipped for anything. Nice.”

  “And there’s wine.” He showed her the bottle.

  “Good wine, even. Stag’s Leap cab. Very nice.”

  Maxi stepped deeper into the foyer of her condo so that he could enter—and so that no one caught a glimpse of her, scantily clad, from the hallway.

  As she closed and locked the door, Ryan set the wine on the sleek, glass-topped table in her entryway, which boasted a large dried floral arrangement she’d had custom-made when she’d moved in. A huge spray of jewel-toned flowers and foliage in a shimmery silver vase.

  Ryan shrugged out of his overcoat and hung it on the rack in the corner.

  “May as well take your suit jacket off as well,” she suggested with a coy look. “No need for the tie, either, unless you have the strong desire to bind my wrists. Then, by all means, keep it close at hand.”

  Heat flashed in his eyes. He stripped off the jacket. Removed his tie and stuffed it into his pants pocket.

  A wicked thrill shot through Maxi.

  “Better?” he asked.

  “Almost. Maybe slip a few of those buttons through their holes at your neck and roll up your sleeves. Leave the glasses on. They’re kind of sexy.”

  She spun around on her tall heels and sauntered off, purposely putting a bit more sway into her hips.

  She heard him snatch the wine from the table, and then he was just a step behind her as she crossed to the living room. The drapes on the floor-to-ceiling windows of one wall were pulled back to showcase the gorgeous Baltimore skyline as twilight faded into dusk. Large snowflakes began to fall from the pink-tinged cloud cover. Maxi loved it, December being her favorite time of the year.

  “Fantastic ambience,” Ryan said, as he passed by her and sauntered toward the wet bar, where he uncorked the wine.

  “I haven’t checked the forecast all week, so the snow is an unexpected treat.” She’d been happy to flip the switch on the gas fireplace when she’d arrived home, and had turned on the sound system, which was set to a classic jazz station.

  “Have you lived anywhere other than Maryland?” he asked, as he splashed the cabernet sauvignon into two glasses.

  “No. And I probably would have stayed in Columbia and commuted to the office, but our winters can get pretty brutal, and I didn’t want to take any chances. My Jeep Cherokee’s great in the snow, but I’m not a fan of being on the road at night or early morning when it’s icy.”

  “Very smart.” He joined her and handed over a glass. “My consulting jobs in DC typically come with a chauffeur service, but I do like to get out on my own over the weekends when possible. Though I try to avoid any exploring when it looks as though we’re going to get hit hard.”

  Maxi clinked her rim to his. “Cheers.”

  He grinned sexily and sipped. Her heart fluttered.

  Distracting herself from that unexpected sensation, she asked, “Does it snow in Australia?”

  “Sure, in the high regions and the Snowy Mountains, the Australian Alps. There’s ample opportunity for skiing and snowboarding. It’s also an amazing time to view the wildlife—the kangaroos, wild horses, possums, wombats, plenty of birds.”

  “Wow, kangaroos in the snow. That’d be cool to see.”

  “Yes. But our snowfall comes during your summertime. Typically around June through September.”

  She took a deep sip of wine, liking Ryan’s presence in her cozy home. The aroma from the kitchen permeated the condo as the pork loin and potatoes baked in the oven. Yet she could still smell his cologne and heat.

  Maxi sank onto the plush, royal-blue sofa in front of the fire, and Ryan joined her. She said, “It must get a little complicated when you fly back and forth from here to there—trying to remember what season it is and what clothes to pack.”

  “I pretty much always wear the same thing,” he told her. “Although, this time of year, it’s rather warm in Australia, so I do tend to bring along polo shirts.”

  “Finally show off those rock-hard biceps of yours?” She wagged her brows at him.

  “I don’t know about that—”

  “Oh, please,” she scoffed, her tone full of appreciation for his considerable assets. “I might not have seen them yet myself, but I’ve definitely felt them.” A slow burn started in her belly, filling her with warmth. “You are one seriously hunky man, Dr. Ryan Donovan.”

  “Well.” He hitched his glasses up his nose with his free hand. “That’s subjective. But at least you’ve stopped calling me ‘Einstein.’”

  “That nickname is a compliment.”

  His dark brow jerked up. “Oh, really?”

  “Sure. Super-smart men with bulging biceps are about the sexiest damn thing on the planet. Haven’t you heard?”

  The brow dipped. “As a matter of fact, it’s escaped mention.”

  Maxi was taken aback. “Come on, now. You said you had a former fiancée.”

  “Trust me when I tell you that she didn’t notice the biceps.”

  “Unbelievable.” Maxi drew in a long sip, then whispered into her glass, “That’s a fucking shame.”

  “It’s really neither here nor there.”

  Her gaze lifted and met his. “I beg to differ. Unless she was a zombie, exactly how did she not comment on, ogle over, or keep her hands off all of those chiseled-to-perfection muscles you possess?”

  Ryan groaned over the subject matter.

  Maxi set her wine on the coffee table. She sighed. “Let me guess. Frigid?”

  “Ice cold,” he concurred.

  “Oh, that’s bad. Worse than a zombie, because there’s actually blood pumping through her veins.”

  “Indeed. But Elizabeth’s entire attention span, and her every waking thought, is wrapped around her personal image. Moving up at the hospital, publishing medical journal features that rank higher than her colleagues’ articles, hosting dinner parties for all the right people, being invited to social engagements…by all the right people. She is a woman coiffed, dressed, and made up to absolute perfection at any given moment. She delivers all the appropriate lines, is Miss Manners personified, and everyone adores her. Well, except for Staci.”

  “She mentioned something in passing, but didn’t elaborate. What’s her beef with Miss Manners?”

  “I met Staci through Elizabeth, who was Staci’s gynecologist, initially. Elizabeth invited her to a few cocktail receptions, some charity fund-raisers, which was how I became well acquainted with Staci and her shoe company. She t
hen became a bit of a regular in our social circle. But that all came to a screeching halt when Elizabeth released me from fiancé detail.”

  Maxi’s heart constricted. “I can’t tell if you’re being funny…or if you’re crushed.”

  “It doesn’t matter. I’ve sufficiently bounced back.” His gaze swept over her. “And let me say, there is no finer representation of what I really want than you.”

  A smile tipped her lips. But Maxi could see in his dark eyes that he hadn’t fully reconciled the split.

  Yet…she could help him with that, couldn’t she?

  Taking his glass from his hand, she placed it on the coffee table next to hers. Then she leaned in close—close enough to press her breasts to the hard ledge of his pecs. Her lips swept over his, and the intimate touch jolted her to the core of her being.

  She whispered, “You are fantastically sexy, Ryan. Ridiculously gorgeous. And I want you.”

  Chapter Seven

  Adrenaline replaced the blood in Ryan’s veins.

  “Consider me thoroughly captivated” he said, as his gaze raked over her.

  Her breasts were plumped up so that they nearly spilled over the edges of her bra. She had a defined rib cage that gave way to a flat, delicately sculpted stomach. The gentle slope of her hips led to those long, silky legs he couldn’t get enough of. Despite them being partially encased in thigh-high boots—which he found incredibly, devilishly sexy—he’d long since committed every inch of tanned skin and toned muscle to memory.

  “I do like how attentive and observant you are,” she whispered.

  “Be assured, I’m not missing a single detail. You are by far the most seductive woman I have ever known.”

  “Now that’s a compliment.” Her long fingers skimmed over the buttons of his shirt, merely teasing him at first as her lips continued to brush softly against his. She kissed the corner of his mouth and murmured, “I want you naked.”

  “No argument here.”

  She laughed sweetly. “And I want you insanely erect. For me.”

  “I’m there. Since the moment you opened the door. And I won’t even bother to mention the riot you incited in my groin when I walked in on you this morning, bent over the conference room table.”

  “Did it make you want to push my skirt up and fuck me?”

  “Hard.”

  The mere thought ignited his insides. The visual had stuck with all damn day. And he’d had to put an extreme amount of effort into keeping his cool, because the idea of Maxi in that position, with her skirt hitched up, sparked myriad fantasies. And since he already knew she wasn’t the least bit inhibited—sure as hell not frigid—he had the strong suspicion that she wouldn’t mind him taking her that way.

  Which ratcheted his internal temperature several degrees. Made his cock surge with excitement. Made his blood sing.

  Maxi removed his glasses and set them on the tall sofa table behind them. Then her gaze locked with his. “You really do know how to turn a girl on.”

  “You’re no girl.” His hands plowed through her thick mass of hair, and his mouth claimed hers. He kissed her with all the desire raging within him, his tongue plunging deep, twisting and tangling with hers.

  Maxi made quick and easy work of his shirt flap, unfastening the buttons and then spreading the material apart. She splayed her palms over his chest, and it was incredible to feel her skin on his. To know she was so frantic to touch him. That she appreciated the time he devoted to staying in shape and even worshiped his powerful build.

  She caressed slowly and thoroughly at first, covering his shoulders, his pecs, his abs. A moan lodged in her throat, the erotic sound pushing him even higher. Her fingers skated over his skin, teasing his nipples, gliding smoothly and sensuously. Then her nails skated along his torso as she made her way back up to his shoulders and shoved the shirt off them and down his arms.

  Ryan helped her to divest him of the material without breaking their sizzling kiss. Then she pushed him back against the mountain of pillows in the corner and crawled all over him, her hands covering every inch of him and her body rubbing against his.

  He was half out of his mind, completely crazed by how assertive she was and how sensational she felt in his arms, sliding along his body, greedily returning his kiss.

  His heart hammered and his pulse raged. He didn’t think he could get any hotter. Wasn’t sure it was healthy to get even more revved. But then her fingers were on his belt buckle, unfastening it, and Ryan was instantly desperate to be inside her.

  She tore her mouth from his just as she freed the belt. She popped the button and eased down the zipper.

  “I’ve gotta tell you, Einstein,” she said with a hungry edge to her tone and a wicked glint in her eyes—truly denoting the nickname she’d given him as a term of endearment. “I’ve had some extremely dirty fantasies about you.”

  “And you think the ones I have about you are clean?”

  She grinned. “We might seem like oil and water in theory, but in reality…? We are nothing short of a powder keg and a lit fuse.”

  He couldn’t deny it. The way she devoured him with her scorching gaze was enough to set him off. The fact that her fingers were hitching behind the band of his briefs and gently tugging them downward, mindful of his erection, only pushed him closer to that ragged precipice.

  “Fuck, I want you,” he said, his voice harsh.

  Maxi licked her lips. Kept her gaze on his cock as she wrapped her fingers around the base and steadily pumped. “I have been dying to suck your dick.”

  He let out a low growl. Every nerve ending jumped to attention. “No sane man would deny you. And I would be eternally grateful to be the recipient of your very sinful affection.”

  She smirked. “That was quite the polite acquiescence. Now, tell me what you want in the sexy terms that I know are flashing through your mind right this very second.”

  He gripped her upper arms and said, “I want to fuck that very tempting, very luscious mouth of yours.”

  Ryan felt her excitement as it rippled through her.

  She said, “I knew from the second you stormed the conference room when I was trying to rally the troops at my first official meeting that there was so much more lying in wait behind the studious specs and the well-behaved persona.”

  “I’m still well-behaved,” he assured her, always the gentleman.

  “Don’t be.”

  Maxi shifted off the sofa and slipped between his parted legs. She had his shoes and socks off in a matter of seconds. Then she reached for his pants, and he lifted his hips off the sofa as she yanked and then tossed the material aside. His briefs followed. And goddamn, he was even harder!

  Her fingers circled his cock, and her hand moved slowly along his shaft, up to the tip. Her palm slid over his head, smearing the drops of pre-cum and coating his skin as she massaged with a firm grip that nearly made his heart burst from his chest.

  Her hand slid to his root again, and she pumped with an enticing pace that gradually increased, keeping time with the escalation of his jagged breaths.

  “Jesus, Maxi,” he said on a sharp sigh. “Fuck—”

  “Not just yet,” she jested, with a lascivious look. “I’m not done here.”

  She released him and quickly whisked off her bra. Her head dipped, and her tongue toyed with the slight indentation on his tip before she licked her way down one side of his shaft and up the other. Her mouth closed over his head, and his hips bucked as another groan ripped from his parted lips.

  Maxi took him in as far as she could. Her head bobbed as she sucked him deep. Then, when his cock was wet, she lifted her chin and grinned mischievously at him. Her hands pressed to the sides of her breasts, capturing his pulsating erection between the plump mounds. His hips rose and fell, and his cock slipped along her skin with the tiniest bit of friction that was oh so perfect. When his head peaked above her tanned flesh, her mouth was open and waiting. She sucked him good. He grunted, then pumped faster between her breas
ts.

  “Damn, Maxi…” The now-familiar inferno roared within him.

  No woman he’d ever known had offered herself to him like this—and none were the type to ever allow him to suggest it. The blow job, sure. In his younger years. But not this erotic pleasure of being fantastically encased between her full, firm mounds. Therefore, it’d never even crossed his mind to think he’d been missing out. Now he knew the truth.

  “You can come on my tits,” she told him. “I’ve never found that appealing…until right this very moment.” Her eyes were on her chest as he kept slipping and sliding between her breasts. “I don’t know what it is about you, but all I want is to make you absurdly hot.”

  “You already do.”

  “This is getting me hot, too. I never liked it before. It was like…a demeaning act, somehow. But now…with you…” She let out a long breath and then dipped her head again to take him in her mouth.

  When his tip popped out from between her succulent lips, Ryan ground out, “Oh, shit, Maxi.” His hips jerked.

  Her sapphire irises glowed. “Good for you, too?”

  “Better for me. I’m sorry.”

  “Never say that.” She pressed her breasts tighter around him, and he knew he’d come in two seconds if he didn’t get himself under control. At least a little bit.

  “Giving pleasure feels just as good as receiving it, Ryan.” Her eyes shimmered with heat…and honesty. “When it’s right.”

  Oh, this was so very, very right.

  Because he knew that this woman didn’t play games. She didn’t have ulterior motives.

  She was real. Genuine. Spectacular.

  He said, “I want to be inside you, Maxi.”

  “Soon.” She gave him a playful grin. “But I want to make you come first. On my breasts…or in my mouth?”

  Christ! Wasn’t this the decision every man wanted to be in the position to make?

  Damn it…she was too tempting, too exciting!

  To hell with his good manners. Because Maxi made him so in need of an explosive release that he couldn’t pass up this golden opportunity.