by Max Monroe
He didn’t have to tell me twice.
With the bright pink bikini he’d managed to pack for me in my bag, we’d made our way down to the private beach of our resort, and he’d pulled two lounge chairs away from the crowd and down the sand, until he’d set them down a few feet from the water.
From behind my sunglasses, I looked at Matt, sitting beside me with his long legs stretched out and his arms resting behind his head, a pair of swim trunks and aviators the only thing covering his dominating body.
I moved my gaze down his body, taking in the lines of his slightly crested mouth, the toned muscles of his biceps and chest and stomach, and the tanned color of his skin.
God, he was sexy.
His skin resembled that of smooth caramel, the tone so warm it almost shimmered, and I longed to touch it, run a hand over one of his big biceps and squeeze.
I honestly didn’t know what we were or what we were even doing, but I knew I still wanted more. More smirks. More teasing. More soft chuckles. More time to stare into those intense amber eyes. More Matt.
Despite the risks and the possibility of danger, and even overlooking the fact that on paper most would consider Matt to be a hardened criminal, I wanted to know him. Really know him. The bad, the good, and everything in between. And more than that, I wanted him to know me.
Ever since I’d met Matt Hadder, he’d taken me on an unexpected path, and although it was confusing and a touch scary at times, he’d changed my view of the world. What was once a mind that saw things in black and white had been turned on its axis and made aware that life didn’t always make sense.
Nothing was black and white. Not wealth, success, money, love.
It was all relative, falling directly into the gray.
Most times, as much as humanity strived for solutions and logic and sense, life was a meaningless puzzle. And a lot of times, life only frustrated our expectations.
Ironically, through Matt, I found beauty in that. There was a certain splendor in living life without the shade of rose-tinted glasses and finally understanding there would always be good and bad in the world, just like I’d learned. But a lot of times, those things were connected.
I moved my gaze to the far-off horizon, the flaring hues of the sun melting into the sky and ocean like a divine painting. The forever stretching sea was masked with a hue of orange, that beautiful ember flowing into turquoise.
And it was that gorgeous view that made me realize, in the very short time I’d known him, Matt had taught me to live by my own set of rules.
I quite liked the idea of living without the hindrance of societal norms and expectations. I think I’d always known that about myself. I’d always understood that I didn’t think the same as most people. I wanted to experience. Live. Take risks. I didn’t want to fall into the mediocre and mundane like I’d seen most of my friends do.
That was why I’d moved to LA.
Now, I’d found even more than I bargained for; the word predictable wasn’t even in Matt’s vocabulary.
Together, it felt like we were our own version of Bonnie and Clyde. Two souls who played the game of life by their own rules.
I reached down and picked up the strawberry daiquiri I’d ordered from the resort bar off the sand and took a sip from the pink straw, only to be faced with the annoying, obnoxious sounds of emptiness.
Matt chuckled at my visible frown.
“It’s not funny,” I retorted, and his grin grew wider.
“Poor Alex.”
I rolled my eyes and playfully slapped at his chest as I stood to my feet. “Thirsty?” I asked. “I’m going to grab another drink from the bar.”
“Just a bottle of water, little one,” he said and then wrapped his hand around my wrist and tugged me into his lap. “But first, I want a kiss,” he whispered and waggled his brows.
I giggled and placed a soft peck to his lips.
“Nope.” He shook his head. “That’s not cutting it,” he said and adjusted me in his lap so that my legs straddled his thighs. He slid his fingers into my hair and took my mouth in a deep, mind-altering kiss.
His tongue past my lips and dancing with mine, I moaned softly.
He ran his fingers up and down the bare skin of my back, and his lips melded with mine. Soft and slow, he worked his way from one side of my mouth to the other and back again and obliterated every thought from my brain. He tasted delicious, like November, like hot chocolate on stormy evenings and crisp autumn air.
Before I could wrap my arms around his thick neck and lose myself to his lips, he pulled away and set me on my feet. I stared down at him with another little pout I couldn’t hide.
His smirk was sexy as he looked up at me from the comfort of his lounge chair. The hot rays of the sun made his tanned skin glisten. And with a playful smack to my ass, he nodded in the direction of the resort. “Now, go grab me a water and another whipped cream monstrosity of a drink for yourself.”
“You’re bossy.” I poked his bicep with my index finger, and he just chuckled.
“I’m decisive. I know what I want, and I know when I want it,” he responded. “And I also know you love being on the receiving end of my decisiveness.”
When it came to the bedroom, he had a point.
I quite enjoyed letting that big, bad man boss me around.
“Put the drinks on our tab,” he added as I slipped on my flip-flops and sheer white cover-up.
“Oh, do you mean Mr. Wonder’s tab?” I asked with a cheeky grin.
He laughed. “Mr. and Mrs. Wonder, remember?”
With a little giggle and a wave, I picked up our empty glasses and walked up the beach. Once I reached the resort bar, the sounds of Bob Marley filled the background, and a young, twentysomething bartender with mocha skin, gorgeous green eyes, and a name tag that read Eduardo greeted me with a friendly smile. “What can I get you, miss?” he asked and took the empty glasses from my hands.
“Hmmm…” I scanned the menu above the bar, and once I caught sight of another fruity, tropical, whipped cream drink, I smiled. “I’ll take a piña colada and a bottle of water.”
“Nice choice,” he said with a wink and pulled a cold glass out of the bar-side freezer. He slid a fresh bottle of water toward my hands and set to work on making my drink. “Am I putting this on a tab?”
I nodded. “Mr. Wonder’s tab.”
Eduardo finished off my drink with a hearty dollop of whipped cream, a few maraschino cherries, and a straw. He set the glass on the bar and moved over to his computer to put in our orders. After a few taps to the screen, he glanced back at me. “Mr. Wonder, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“I don’t think the staff realized you were on the beach,” he stated. “I’ll make sure that your personal server checks in on you two frequently so that you don’t have to come to the bar to get drinks.”
“Oh, it’s no big deal.” I waved him off. “I don’t mind walking up here to put in an order.”
“With all due respect, Mrs. Wonder, it’s resort policy for anyone staying in the presidential suite,” he said with a soft grin. “It’s our goal to make sure you and Mr. Wonder enjoy your stay with us to the fullest.”
Presidential suite? Personal server?
It seemed a bit ridiculous. I had two working legs. I could manage the short walk to the bar to get drinks, for cripes’ sake.
“Seriously. It’s no big deal. I prefer to get the drinks,” I said and picked up our drinks from the bar. “But I do appreciate your generosity.”
As I headed back toward our spot on the beach, my eyes grew wide when I spotted the familiar design of red and white. A playing card stuck into the sand.
What were the odds? I thought and juggled the drinks into one hand so I could snag it between my fingertips. I flipped it over and found the King of Diamonds.
Per my aunt’s kooky friend, Ms. Gypsy, this was a good fortune card. The King of Diamonds was apparently very generous with joy. And that’s exactly what the car
d predicted: Happiness.
I grinned as slipped the card into the top of my bikini and headed toward the one man who brought truth to that prediction.
With my toes flexing into the sand with each step, I spotted Matt still relaxing on his lounger—but he wasn’t alone anymore. A young, curvaceous woman with bright blond hair and the teeniest, tiniest white bikini I’d ever seen stood beside him. From a distance, I could see that she was talking to him, occasionally flipping her long, blond locks over her shoulder.
Once I reached hearing distance, I heard Matt say, “That’s a generous offer, Melissa, but I’m not interested.”
“It’s Maria,” she responded with a giggle and tapped his bicep flirtatiously. “I promise, it’ll be a good time.”
Her gaze moved toward me as I got closer, and Matt’s eyes followed it. He smiled. And the instant I stopped in front of our loungers and set our drinks on the sand, he pulled me into his lap.
“Sweetheart, this woman would like us to join her in her hotel room for sex. Is that something that interests you?”
Us, huh? I’d figured him for sure. But I was a surprising development.
He nuzzled my neck, and I couldn’t stop myself from giggling.
“No. I don’t think I’m interested.”
“Me either,” Matt answered, and his tongue snuck past his lips to taste my skin. “But I am interested in taking my wife to our hotel room and eating her sweet cunt until she screams my name,” he whispered into my ear, and I shivered.
Hot damn. Now that, I was definitely interested in.
He wrapped his big arms around my body and leaned his chin on my shoulder as he looked back at the presumptuous woman standing before us. “Thanks for the offer, but we’re not interested, Melissa.”
“It’s Maria,” she spat, but Matt didn’t pay her any attention.
As she stormed away from us, he moved his lips up my neck, across my jaw, until they paused at the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got twenty minutes to finish that drink, little one. After that, that sweet cunt of yours is mine.”
Drink? What drink?
“What’s this?” he asked, fingering the playing card sticking out of my bikini top.
“The King of Diamonds,” I answered with a shrug. “It’s just a little game I used to play with my aunt.”
“You used to play cards with your aunt?”
“Not exactly,” I answered. “When I was a kid, we made a game out of collecting playing cards we found lying around on the street, the sidewalk, pretty much anywhere we could find in the city. The goal of the game is to find a whole deck in a year’s time.”
“You still play it?” he asked, and his mouth crested up at the corners.
“I just started playing it again, actually,” I explained and felt my cheeks heat from insecurity. “It’s just a stupid little sentimental thing, I guess.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid.” He kissed my nose. “It sounds meaningful and reminds me of my mother. That sounds like something she would’ve done.”
Would’ve done. Past tense. I frowned.
“She died when I was just a little boy. Six years old, in fact,” he answered my silent question.
“Who raised you?”
“My father,” he answered. “He was the only living relative I had left.”
“My aunt, my aunt Delores, actually. She’s the one who raised me.”
“And your parents?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know a lot about them, but from what I understand, they weren’t fit to be parents.”
He pulled me closer to his chest. “We have similar beginnings, don’t we, little one?”
“Yeah,” I whispered and rested my head on his chest. “We really do.”
As I stared out on to the vast sea, I sighed, contentment apparent in the pattern of my breathing. I felt like every time I learned something new about Matt, it only made me like him more. It was getting to the point that my like for him was growing into something deeper. Something that was much, much more.
SEVERAL HOURS OF WATCHING ALEX prance, lounge, and frolic in the tiny bikini I’d packed for her and my dick was starting to speak louder than my mind.
I had things to think about, moves to execute, and more than a dozen calls to return, but all I could think about was having the sweet tang of her pussy on my lips.
The plane hummed its ascent, and Alex sat casually beside me, one tanned leg crossed over the other, her angry eyes scanning the entire space—except for me.
Apparently, she’d liked my promise to put my mouth on her pussy just as much as I had, but she hadn’t liked my having to renege.
I couldn’t say I blamed her, but I’d spotted a boat in the distance, and knowing the possibilities of what an enemy of mine could house inside—a telephoto lens, or worse, a rifle—I’d felt immediately paranoid for Alex’s safety.
Nearly an hour of rushing to gather ourselves and make our way back to the plane, and she’d been left unsatisfied. I also hadn’t felt it prudent to offer a detailed explanation. She didn’t need to know all the things that could have been on that boat that she couldn’t come up with herself. I rather liked her innocence. I didn’t want to ruin it with fear.
But now I’d have to work to ease her aggravation with me. I can’t wait.
“What’s the matter, little one?” I asked innocently. No need to give her unneeded ammunition.
“Nothing,” she answered obstinately. My little fighter. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to the complicated swirl of virtue and audacity she somehow managed to embody.
“So, you aren’t mad that I didn’t lick your pussy when I said I was going to?”
“Uh, no,” she scoffed, the liar. “That’d be a ridiculous thing to be upset about.”
I smiled, turning her head with a gentle finger at her chin until her eyes met mine. “Is it?” I shrugged. “I’m quite upset about it myself.”
Her cheeks dimpled as she attempted to smile and frown at once. “No, you’re not.”
“I am,” I affirmed. “I thought about sending someone out to kill the people on that boat just so I could do it.”
She coughed a startled giggle. “No, you didn’t.”
I made my most serious face. Cool, menacing, straightforward. “Didn’t I?”
“Well…” she muttered, unsure if I was joking or not, and quite frankly, that made two of us. I didn’t shy away from blood on my hands normally. When it came to Alex, I couldn’t even imagine the things I would do. “I guess I’m glad you didn’t, then.”
I let my face relax into a smile and winked. “No bodies today.”
The corners of her lips turned up. I shifted in my seat as we steadied at our cruising altitude and unbuckled. Her eyebrows pinched together, but I didn’t slow my movements. I sank to my knees in front of her, reaching up to unbuckle her own seat belt and then spread her legs with gentle pressure on the insides of her knees. “But even though I’m a little late, I will be enjoying your pussy.”
“Matt…”
“Alex,” I murmured, sliding both hands up the smooth skin on the inside of her thighs.
She gasped as my fingertips scooted under the hem of her shorts and met bare flesh.
“No panties?” I asked with a cocky curl of my lip.
She blushed and then moaned when I pressed one finger deeper. “You forgot clean ones when you repacked my bag.” Her voice, meant to be critical, broke in the middle as I pushed one thick finger inside. It slid oh so easily through her warm arousal.
“Overbearing, huh?” I asked teasingly, curling my finger to graze against her G-spot.
She smiled. “Just a little.”
I leaned forward and touched my mouth to the inside of her thigh. “But you like it.”
“I guess, sometimes, it has its perks.”
“Sometimes, huh?” I asked, still rubbing at the most sensitive spot inside of her. She squirmed in her seat, gripping the armrests so tightly her fingers turned a shade whiter.
>
“Yeah, sometimes,” she said on a slight whimper.
“Like now?”
“Like having an apartment and a job and being on a private plane on our way back from Mexico,” she replied.
I smiled. “But not now?”
She rolled her eyes. I wasn’t sure, though, if it was in annoyance or pleasure. The dichotomy was enthralling. “Ah,” she gasped, rolling her head back into the seat and admitting, “Now too.”
Working my finger out of her wetness slowly, I pulled it from her shorts and brought it to my mouth to smear on my lips before licking it off. “Mmm. You taste special, little one.” Her eyelids fluttered. “Take those shorts off so I can have some more.”
“Special?” she asked while doing so. I helped as soon as she got the material past her ass.
I didn’t wait to answer, instead, grabbing her by the hips and dragging her until it met the edge of the seat and put my mouth to her. “Special,” I affirmed there, pulling back slightly after eating for a few seconds. “Enough to taunt me. Enough to tease me. Enough to lure me in a way nothing has for forty years.”
Her eyes were unnaturally wide when I looked up to her face. “And I’m not just talking about this perfect pussy, little one.”
I WOKE TO THE SOUNDS of sizzling bacon and Stealers Wheel filling my ears with “Stuck in the Middle with You.” I grinned at the idea of Matt standing around in his sleek, far too big for one human being kitchen, and cooking breakfast.
We’d been back from our little trip for three days, and every single night was spent in his bed. Topsy-turvy, my life appeared to be revolving around Matt’s axis ever since we’d stepped on the plane to Mexico.
And the craziest thing of all? I didn’t mind. If anything, I wanted it that way. I liked the comfort of his protective—and insanely sexy—presence, not to mention being in the know on most of the good, bad, and dirty Wonderland details.
But keeping me in the know on business wasn’t what affected me the most. It was his willingness to share little tidbits of his life. Things about his mom, his father, and even the finer details and nuances that made him the man that he was. It was those things that were my favorite.