Without asking who it is, I open the door to find Max standing there with a six pack of beer and a gallon of my favorite ice cream.
“Didn’t know which one you were up for, so I brought both,” he says as he walks into my apartment.
Max puts the ice cream in the freezer and the beer in the fridge as I close and lock the door in stunned silence.
“I see wine on the table,” he says and grabs a wine glass out of the cabinet before he goes over and sits on the sofa. He fills the glass with wine then pats the place next to him.
“Come sit with me. Let’s catch up.”
My words dripping with sarcasm, I say, “Please make yourself at home.” I sit down, leaving plenty of room between us.
Max gives me his million dollar smile and says, “Thank you, Lexi. Now tell me how you got into the dog walking business, and how that’s going for you.”
I take a long drink from my wine glass and refill it to the very top.
“I wanted to make a change, so I did.”
Max watches me pick up the glass and take another long drink. He reaches up after I’m done and takes the glass from my hand, setting it further away from me. He looks back at me and asks, “Nervous?”
“Thirsty,” I answer as I sit back. “Who’s the woman you were with at the park?”
The grin which comes over Max’s face gives me a clue he’s happy I asked. He leans in.
“Tell me, Lexi, are you wearing your contacts. Can you see me?”
“I have them on, I can see you just fine, Max. So who was she?”
“That’s my shirt you have on,” he says as he plays with the hem, his hand brushes my thigh. “Do you wear it often?”
I pull at the bottom, trying to cover more of my exposed legs.
“No, it’s been months. I didn’t realize I was having company. Are you going to answer me or not?”
Only one side of his lips raise in a crooked smile.
“What do you care who she is?”
I lean up and grab the glass again, taking another long drink before I place it back on the table and answer, “I guess I don’t. You can see whoever you want to Max. Why you keep choosing the same type I don’t understand, but it’s not my business anyway.”
Max takes a drink of his wine and puts it down.
“I may ask her to marry me.”
My mouth drops open and I jump up and begin pacing back and forth. “Why?” I ask as I throw my arms in the air. “Why do you want to do that? I realize I don’t know her, and she didn’t say anything mean to me like that last girl, but she’s so, so… Well you get what I’m saying.”
He laughs. “There’s that stammer I love so much.”
I glare at him.
“Tell me why you’re in such a rush to get married?”
“Three days after you snuck out on me I turned thirty years old,” he says as he pats the place next to him, beckoning me to sit. I comply, but not as closely as he directed.
“Guess who I spent my birthday with, Lexi.”
“I have no idea. Probably a bunch of models.”
“Hilda, James, and the guy who cuts the grass.”
I drop my eyes as my heart aches. “No one else?”
“No one else, Lex.” His hand moves over mine. “I wanted you to be there. It’s all I wished for the whole day. I called and texted and begged you to come, if only as a friend, but you ignored me.”
Tears well up in my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Max. I never thought I was hurting you.”
“Of course it hurt, Lexi.” His hand runs up my arm and around my shoulders as he pulls me to him. I lay my head on his broad chest. His lips touch the top of my head. “Why would you think your leaving without any reason why, wouldn’t hurt me?”
“I’m nobody. A nerdy girl with no real future. I’m not anywhere near good enough for you,” I say then find my hand on his tight stomach. “You’re rich, built like a steal cage, and gorgeous, not to mention brilliant.”
He tightens his arm, hugging me closer.
“You’re not a nerdy girl with no future. I think you’re courageous. It seems you’re quite the entrepreneur, doing the whole freelance accountant thing, which I still need if you care to help an old friend out, then starting your own pet thing.”
“How come you’re so nice to me?” I ask, as I run my hand over his abs.
“Why wouldn’t I be? I find you gorgeous and funny as well as interesting.” His hand runs through my hair. “I’m tired of being alone. I want to start a family. Ashely wants similar things in life. Unfortunately, she’s not ready to start a family. I think I might be able to talk her into it within a year or so though.”
“Do you love her?”
His silence answers my question. He finally says, “Love isn’t everything I suppose. The website I went to matched her and me up and we are kind of compatible. She won’t play in the swimming pool with me, or ride in my helicopter, but she likes to shop and I don’t mind that.”
With his words I pull away from him. “Really? You have got to be kidding me!” I take him by his shoulders, shaking him. “Wake up dude! She’s not the one for you. You can’t ask her to marry you. Gee whiz, she might say yes and make the rest of your life miserable.”
Slowly he moves closer until his face is inches from mine. “Give me a reason not to, Lexi.”
“What are you saying, Max?”
“It’s you I want. With the snap of your fingers she’ll be gone.”
“You don’t really want that, do you?”
He nods and takes a strand of my hair in his hand, twisting it around until my face tilts up to his. “I want you, Lexi. I only want you.”
The warmth of his breath so close to my lips makes mine part and breathe him in. “Max.”
“Say it, Lexi,” his tone stern. “Tell me what you want.” He pulls my hair hard and brings his lips even closer. My arms go around him, but he keeps his lips just out of reach.
“I want you, Max.” I breathe out and find his lips on mine, sending me to the place I’ve dreamt of going to again. In an instant my back is on the sofa as he crushes my body under his. His tongue thrusts through my parted lips and he searches every part of my mouth as I groan into his. His hands slip under my T-shirt and find my naked breasts which he cups in his hands, squeezing and pinching my nipples. His mouth is hard on mine, and I tangle my hands into his dark, wavy hair.
One hand he moves to my bottom, gripping it. He moves the other one down to grip the other cheek and picks me up as he stands, making me wrap my legs around him. He pulls his mouth from mine and says, “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this.”
His forehead rests on mine.
“Max, I have no protection, we can’t… uh, you know, ummm.”
“There you go with that sexy stammering again. You’re making me crazy with it. If we have to slow down, you’ll need to quit talking or I won’t be able to control myself.”
“I’ll shut up then ‘cause we have to slow way down.”
“Lexi, I’m clean. I always use a condom, and you’re a virgin so we can do this without protection, baby.” His hands grip my rear end as he takes a step towards my bedroom.
“I trust you, but there’s more than one reason to use protection, Max.”
“The other reason doesn’t matter to me. I want the other reason, Lexi.”
His words stop me, and I drop my legs to the floor.
“Stop!”
I push against his chest but he refuses to let me go.
“Why?”
With a low and stern voice I say, “Let me go, Max.”
He walks until my back touches the wall.
“No, you can say what you have to say while I hold you.” His lips touch my neck lightly. “Go ahead talk, baby, I’m listening.” Kisses down my cheek he trails to my neck as he runs his hands over my arms.
I shiver with his touch. “You’re going way too fast, Max.” He nips at my neck and my knees weaken. “Umm.
Like I was saying, uh, you need to slow. What’s that you’re doing? God, it feels so good. Anyway, like I was…”
Moving his mouth to the other side of my neck his face passes in front of mine where he stops for a second and looks at me. “You’re really beautiful, Lexi,” he says then leans down to kiss the other side of my neck. “Keep talking, baby, I can hear you. I understand what you’re saying. You want me to go slower right?”
“What?” I say as my hands flow over his tightly muscled back. “Dang it, you have a lot of muscles.”
His lips move over my skin as he says, “Yeah, I doubled up on my workouts after you left. It helped me when I thought about you too much. I never really stopped thinking about you, but it took my attention for a little while.” His hand takes mine, and he pushes it under his shirt which somehow has come untucked. “Handle that six pack, you made that happen with your stubborn ways.”
I run my hand over the muscles and sigh. “Sorry I did that to you, but it’s fantastic if that helps at all.”
“You want to really help?” he asks as his lips travel up my neck across my cheek and hover near mine.
I nod as I bite my lower lip and stare at his plump yet chiseled lips, which are the color of caramel and every bit as sweet.
“If you take me to your bed and strip all my clothes off and run your hands over every inch of my body. So you can see just what it is your leaving did to me.”
I giggle. “You are smooth. I’ll give you that, Max.” Pulling myself from his grip, I move back to the sofa and pick up the glass of wine, finishing it off.
“You do realize we have known each other not much over twenty-four hours, right?”
“It’s been six months, Lexi.” His fingers move to unbutton his shirt, and he takes it off, then unbuckles his belt and pops the button on his slacks. “I’m not letting you get away with that crap of barely knowing each other. I know you better than anyone I’ve ever met.”
“What’s my favorite color?”
He hesitates for a moment, then moves towards me. “I bet it’s blue. Mine’s an odd one, it’s a light tan color. Do you want to know why?”
I peek down at the shirt I have on and back up at him. “Cause you’re horny and it’s the color I’m currently wearing. By the way, blue is my favorite color, so that’s a lucky guess.”
His slacks drop to the floor, leaving him in a tight pair of boxer briefs and I find that he’s more endowed than I imagined when he was pressed against me moments earlier. He slips his socks and shoes off as he takes a seat next to me, then leans back and lays his arms over the back of the sofa. “What else do you think is important to know about each other?”
With raised eyebrows, I ask, “Comfortable? Because I’d hate it if you weren’t.”
“You’re in something comfortable and a little revealing so why can’t I be?” he asks then leans over me to get his glass of wine, making sure that his naked chest brushes against mine.
With an eye roll, I gesture to the lump in his underwear. “I do believe yours are revealing more than mine are.”
He points to my chest as he pulls his eyebrows together. “Those perky, plump, bouncy things you’re trying to hide under there are stretching that shirt to the limit, and when you walk the bottom of your lacey panties peek out from underneath. Anyway back to getting to know each other so then we can move on to other things. My birthday is May the ninth, and I Googled you so I found yours is September twenty-third. You’re a Virgo and I’m a Taurus. I found out our signs go well together, romantically.”
“You did what to me? Did you seriously see if our Zodiac signs went well together?”
A deep chuckle he makes as he leans in close and strokes my cheek. “I Googled you, and yes, I checked out if we were compatible. We are, so what else?”
“If we’re really going to do this thing, this dating thing, which I’ve never done before,” I say as I fill my wine glass up and take it as I sit back. “I want to know everything there is about you. Why were you sent to live in a children’s home?”
The sparkle in his eyes dims, and he looks away.
“You sure you want to hear about that? It’s not pretty.”
I take his chin in my hand and make him look at me. “Isn’t that what relationships are all about, knowing the bad along with the good? Pretty or not, it made you who you are, and I’m interested in how you came to be this man who came from nothing and made so much of himself.”
He takes my hand from his chin and places it on his chest.
“No one has ever asked me that before. Not one of the women I’ve dated wanted to know anything real about me. It’s painfully obvious they care more about how I make money and how I plan to keep making it.”
“I want to know everything about you. Your money terrifies me to be honest. It’s what makes me feel so inadequate. Well, that and your rocking bod.” A shy smile he gives me and I add, “And those devastating great looks.”
“I never want you to feel inadequate,” he says as he takes me by my shoulders and pulls me close to him. “Okay then let me tell you my life story so you can see how I’m no different than you are, except for the mountains of money. To say you don’t have a rocking bod is untrue and you’re gorgeous, my dear.”
Max
Bright sunshine fills my eyes as I open them. Lexi sleeps nestled in my arms, we must’ve fallen asleep as we talked last night. She’s the best thing to ever come into my life, even better than the money. If I had to choose her or money, it would be her without hesitation.
I expected her to find my childhood disgusting, but she looked at me with compassion. My mother was a drug addict who must’ve pissed her whole family off so bad that they wanted nothing to do with her. I lived a horrible life with her until I was ten years old.
No grandparents did I ever meet or hear much about. Every once in a while my mother would be on the phone with someone who refused to send her money and she would slam the phone down and rant about how nobody loved her and how her parents were pieces of shit.
No father was never talked about - my last name was the same as hers. I changed my name when I turned eighteen so hopefully I never have to deal with her again in my life. To call my life before the children’s home a nightmare is a bit of an understatement.
The angel that I hold in my arms is all I care about now. The months without her have been awful. I pray she thinks herself worthy of me though it’s really me who is unworthy of her. She’s as innocent as they come, and I love her already. I’ll wait to tell her, because I’ve rushed this thing from the very beginning. She’s as skittish as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs; one wrong word and boom, she’ll be gone.
A firm hold I’ll have to keep on her now I understand how she can be. Her insecurities run deep. While I told her all about my life, she hasn’t opened herself up to me yet, but I’m changing that tonight. I’m taking her back to my place and making her tell me all about herself.
She held me off physically last night, and to tell the truth I’m kinda glad she did. I want this to work with her, and I’ll have to be patient. But crap, it’s hard. Even now I’m experiencing a familiar sensation in my lower regions as I hold her. I have to get out of here before I do something to send her running from me again. Plus I have to send Ashley back to New York, and that should be handled delicately.
I kiss the top of her head and gently roll away. She rolls towards where I was and a slight smile curves her lips. Sleepy eyes open and she says, “Are you leaving me this time?”
I pull my slacks on and laugh. “Never, princess.”
She giggles and runs a hand through her long, blonde locks.
“Princess?” she asks as she stretches. “You are full of sweet words. When will I see you again, Romeo?”
I zip my slacks and lean over her. “Every, single day, I’m never letting you go, baby.”
Her arms extend and I move into them. “Max, you’re so sweet. So I’ll see you today then?”
A
kiss I leave on her cheek. “You’re so sweet. Are you doing some of your pet work today?”
“Yeah, I walk those three dogs every day. I have five appointments to groom dogs. I’ll be finished by six.”
“Are the dog walks the last thing you do?” I ask as I play with a strand of her gorgeous hair. She nods and I want to go right back to bed, but not to sleep. “Can I come help you?”
The smile she had blooms. “Be here by five, and you can.”
I kiss her cheek and stand to find my shirt. “I’ll be here, my sweet. After we walk the dogs, we can go to dinner, or would you rather eat at my place?”
She looks up at me as she rolls onto her stomach. Her blue eyes calling to me to stop buttoning my shirt and get back in that bed. “I like how you call that magnificent mansion, ‘your place’ it’s endearing. I’d love to go back there and eat one of Hilda’s creations, if the woman can make a good peanut butter and jelly sandwich she can probably make anything delicious. Tell her she doesn’t have to go all out and smancy or anything like that.”
“Yes mam. Any favorites?”
“Nope, I trust her choices. Oh, one more thing, Romeo.”
“Anything, baby,” I say then she turns back to me and her face is very serious.
Her fingers snap. “Did you see that?”
I know full well what she means. “I’ll deal with that first thing this afternoon. She doesn’t wake up until ten in the mornings and it takes her until noon to ready herself. So I’ll go to her hotel to pick her up and take her back to my place to let her down easy, okay?”
She chews at her bottom lip with a nervous expression. “Your place?”
“Why? You don’t think that’s a good idea?”
“There’s a lot of beds at your place, Max.”
The Billionaire Bad Boy Plan Page 92