by Jolie Day
“Max,” she gasped, nearly swallowing her tongue. “Oh god, Max!”
He felt her hips pick up speed, felt her clench around him as she fell over the edge for a second time and he grinned against her warm flesh, moving his body so that they flipped over, with him poised above her for the third time that night. Max left her breasts in favor of attacking her neck, his hands raising to link fingers with hers, pressing them down on the bed. He continued to move in and out of her, pressing her firmly into the mattress with his hardened thrusts.
Max could feel himself quickly approaching the edge, but he wanted to prolong Regina’s pleasure a little more before he did. He let go of one of her hands, stroking it down her body, allowing her to feel the calluses on his fingers over his sensitized skin until he reached the apex of her thighs, where their bodies were joining, over and over again. He found her clit and pressed his thumb against it, stroking it in time with his thrusts, making Regina cry out in ecstasy as she fell over the edge for a third time.
Max joined soon after, before collapsing atop her body.
It took a few moments for them to come back to themselves, but soon enough Max was moving to slide off of Regina, but she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, tugging him back.
“Don’t go,” she whispered in his ear. “Not yet. Just a little longer.”
Max didn’t have the energy to resist her, so he just nodded, allowing his body to blanket hers for just a little while longer. It wasn’t long until he fell into a deep slumber.
*****
Regina
When she awoke, the sun was just starting to peek in through the window and Max was fast asleep, next to her. Regina turned to look at him, saw the scratches on his back, mixed with the tattoos and scars. She longed to turn and press her body against his back, but thought better of it. Instead, she got up.
It didn’t take long to locate her clothes. The room wasn’t that big and Max hadn’t thrown them that far, anyway. She quickly changed, tugging her shirt over her head and slipping into her jeans. Her panties were all but ruined, so she just slipped them into her pocket and her boots would have made too much noise, so she settled for putting on her socks and carrying the shoes.
Regina was halfway to the door when she heard rustling coming from the bed. She turned to see Max staring, blearily, up at her, sleep rumpled and adorable. He gave her a small grin.
“Hey,” he said, “where are you going?”
“Um, to get breakfast,” she said, forcing a grin of her own. “I’ll be right back.”
Max nodded and laid his head back down. “Okay,” he murmured. After a couple of seconds, Regina could tell that he was sleeping again. She sighed, deeply, and opened the door, slipping out into the hallway and making her way down the stairs. She felt guilt gnaw at her stomach as the lie played over and over in her mind.
I’ll be right back.
Regina shook her head, shook away the guilt. She shouldn’t feel guilty for sneaking out. She shouldn’t. It would never work between them, anyway. He was running from something and she wasn’t willing to run with him or let herself get hurt. She was saving both of them a lot of trouble.
Wasn’t she?
Chapter Six
Max
When he awoke, the other side of the bed was cold.
Max sighed, sat up and ran his hands through his hair. He couldn’t really say that he was surprised. Starting a relationship with somebody like Regina Carlisle would be complicated. On both ends. She had a bar to run and he had business to take care of. Then he would be out of this town; for good this time.
He honestly didn’t know where he was going to go next. He couldn’t go home. Not while his mother was still…damaged. He couldn’t stand to confuse her any longer, no matter how painful it was to be away from his family for this long. His sister could take care of that. And he could take care of this.
Max grunted as he rose from the bed and quickly located his clothes, changing and slipping his boots and leather jacket on. He didn’t have time to dwell on his family or romantic troubles. He had to be out there, searching for the asshole that killed his father and severely damaged his mother’s mind. Anything else was unimportant.
Checking the time, Max found that it was afternoon already. In no time at all, he suspected that Regina would be back to change out the sheets and he had no desire to be here for that. It was awkward enough waking up without her. He wondered if she would even acknowledge the previous night or if they were just supposed to forget that it ever happened at all.
Either way, this—whatever it was between them—could not happen. He just hoped that Regina knew that.
*****
Regina
She was doing everything she could to avoid going upstairs.
She’d mopped the floors, then swept them, then mopped them again “just in case”, then took down all the chairs and set them up to their respective tables. Then she wiped down the bar—three times—and took stock of all the liquor, beer, and wine she had available for the night. There was plenty for a Tuesday night—which was about as dead as a Monday night usually was—which left her with nothing else to do in the bar.
Regina swallowed thickly as she turned to look at the stairs leading up to the boarding rooms. There was only one guest staying there for the time being and she wondered if he was awake yet. Wondered if he’d turned over, reaching for her, only to find an empty pillow in the spot that her body should have occupied. She wondered if he was angry or upset. If he would come down to demand an explanation or if he would just act like everything was normal.
Like she didn’t spend half the night screaming his name as he entered her from every imaginable angle. Like her teeth didn’t dig into his shoulder, probably leaving bite marks in their wake. Like he didn’t leave bruises on her hips from how hard his fingers had been holding them. Like she hadn’t fallen asleep to the slow, steady beat of his heart beneath her cheek.
Like it had meant absolutely nothing to him.
It didn’t, a voice in the back of Regina’s mind reminded her. It meant nothing. Just sex. He’s leaving soon. You don’t need the complication. It would never work between you two, anyway; you’re too different. Don’t fall for him.
It was like a mantra in the back of Regina’s mind as she finally worked up the courage to ascend the steps to the second floor of the building. It was getting late and she would have to open the bar soon, anyway. She took a deep breath and steadfastly ignored Max’s door for as long as she could, grabbing the extra sheets and pillowcases from the linen closet and fumbling with them for far longer than absolutely necessary.
When she finally turned toward Max’s room, she found the door gaping open and the bed visibly empty. Regina tilted her head in confusion as she walked forward, entering the room and placing the sheets on the bed, before walking around the room. The attached bathroom was as empty as the bedroom and all of Max’s clothes were gone, except for the few bags filled with new things he bought for dinner last night.
Regina wondered how she might have missed him leaving, but then remembered the staircase that led outside, instead of through the bar. It was technically only supposed to be used for emergencies, as a Fire Escape, but she couldn’t really blame Max for sneaking out the way that he did.
She sighed and began to strip the old sheets from the bed, her face flushing as memories from the night before flashed through her mind. The bed was more of a mess than when she’d left earlier that morning, but she could easily imagine herself tangled up with Max between her legs, pressing his mouth to her neck and making her moan in ecstasy. She imagined herself riding him, her hands clutching the sheets on either side of his head, her hips rocking wildly against him, feeling him enter her over and over again.
She wondered, idly, if he thought of her, too, when he woke up. He probably did, though not necessarily in a positive light. She felt bad about leaving him alone that morning, but she wasn’t good at that kind of thing. Relationships. She’d al
ways been lousy at them. She could never hold onto a guy for longer than a month or two. Still, she definitely owed him an explanation.
If he even returned to the hotel, that was.
Regina found herself wondering if she had irreparably screwed up everything between them—including their semi-professional relationship—just by leaving. He might have decided to leave without paying, screwing her twice over. Regina couldn’t really blame him for that, either. She would probably have done the same thing in his position.
But now was not the time to worry about it.
She finished changing the sheets quickly and balled up the soiled ones, tucking them under her arm and making her way back down through the bar, to the laundry room in the basement. Once there, she went through the motions. Doing laundry was an automatic task—she’d been doing her own since she was a teenager—and she almost didn’t even process pressing the button for the washer to turn on until it was vibrating in front of her.
Regina sighed and pulled herself up to sit on the washer, taking a deep breath as the vibrations rocked her body. She swallowed thickly, her mind once again flashing back to the previous night. The emotions that Max had invoked in her were like nothing she’d ever felt before, with any of her previous lovers. She hadn’t had many, but her relationships had been fair, for the most part.
Some had been locals, while others had been drifters whose beds she shared for a night or two before they left with little more than a goodbye as they handed her what they owed her for their rooms. A few added a couple more bills and it always made Regina feel cheap. Typically, she shoved those bills into Brandy’s tip jar and went on with her life. She wasn’t some hooker that would spread her legs for just anybody; Regina had standards and that meant she wasn’t for hire.
Still, she felt drawn to some of the men who came through town.
Perhaps it was the knowledge that they wouldn’t be staying for long, that she wouldn’t have to tie herself to them. Perhaps she just liked the mystery. They could be anybody, have any job, be traveling anywhere at all. She liked to sometimes hear about their lives. She would spend all day in bed listening to them talk about their careers and their travels and what business they had in this town. Some were there for one night, just stopping by to catch rest on their long drives. Some stayed for a couple of days, scheduling meetings and running errands in town. Regina would meet them for lunch or give them a free shot at the bar, but before long they’d be back on the road and she’d focus on keeping the bar up and running.
These relationships were the most beneficial for her. She didn’t have long enough to develop feelings for drifters. The sex was free of strings and commitment and Regina was just fine with that. Brandy often teased her, accusing her of acting “just like a man” would in her position.
“So what?” Regina would shoot back. “If men can have meaningless sex, then why can’t I? Besides, those men are using me just as much as I’m using them. Feelings just make things messy.”
In her life, Regina could count the number of local lovers on one hand. From her senior year of high school, to just before her father had passed and she’d had to start carrying the load he left behind. She didn’t have time for “real” relationships and they just left her heartbroken, anyway. She had other matters to focus on.
Like laundry.
Regina felt as the washer switched cycles and she calculated that the sheets would take another twenty minutes.
Last night, she had felt something with Max. She’d tried to ignore it and focus on the way he filled her, the way he brushed against her clit just right, the way his eyes bore into hers, making her hair stand on end as she wrapped her legs around his waist, deepening the angle, and held on for dear life.
She’d felt something as he slowed down, prolonging her orgasm with deep, slow thrusts that shook her to her very core. She’d felt something as he spilled inside her, husking her name into her ear with a deep sigh as the warmth of his body covered hers like a heavy blanket. She’d felt something as he rolled over and pulled her to rest against his chest, the beat of his heart lulling her into a daze. She’d felt something as they woke up not even an hour later and dove headfirst into another round.
She didn’t want to feel anything for him, but there was a flutter in her chest that she couldn’t deny, at just the thought of Max. Her stomach was in knots at the phantom feel of his hips between her legs and she felt herself press her thighs together as her center throbbed. Regina bit her lip and shook her head, trying to shake thoughts of him away, but to no avail.
She couldn’t feel anything for Max Stormwell. That wasn’t how this worked. It was just supposed to be dirty, sexy, uncomplicated fun. Not this. Not the flutter in her chest or the knot in her stomach or the throb between her legs. She wasn’t supposed to be craving more with Max Stormwell after just one night together. Just twenty-four hours ago, she was insistent that he not even touch her, but now she felt like she would burn up from the inside out if he didn’t put his hands on her. Soon.
It wasn’t something she was familiar with and it terrified her like nothing else.
The washer changed cycles again and Regina hopped down from the washer, taking a deep breath as she shook her head and ran her hands through her hair. It was down today, free and loose and falling around her shoulders. She hadn’t felt like weaving it into a braid this morning after her shower. She would most certainly have to later, when she was working at the bar, but that was later and this was now.
And now her hair looked…healthy. Healthier than she had ever noticed before. It seemed to shine, even in the low lighting of the laundry room. She wanted to believe that it had nothing to do with her night in Max’s arms and in his bed, but she couldn’t be completely sure of that.
She did feel lighter than she had the day before and her body was pleasantly sore, in all the right places. Her skin was practically glowing and despite the butterflies, her heart felt fuller somehow. Her stomach, while still in knots, felt lighter. Her hands felt tingly and her lips felt smooth, like his kiss had been some kind of balm. She felt like a brand-new person.
But, mostly, she felt like this was all wrong.
The timer on the washer went off.
*****
Max
This town was bigger than he remembered.
When he’d taken that walk to the café a couple of days ago, it had seemed small and quaint. When he’d lived here as a teenager, he was always bored because there was never anything to do. Maybe that’s why he’d joined the gang so easily as a kid. Maybe if he’d just joined band like his mother wanted, he wouldn’t be who he was today.
Max chuckled at the thought as he drove through the town, his eyes peeled for anybody wearing the familiar and infamous Hell’s Seven insignia. He had no doubt that there were still some left in this godforsaken place, and that they would lead him straight towards that son of a bitch, Caesar. He was going to pay for what he did to Max’s father. To what he did to his mother, as well.
Max was going to make sure of that.
But there were no Hell’s Sevens in sight. Max thought, for a terrifying moment, that perhaps they’d vacated the town after Caesar’s arrest. He hadn’t had much time to talk to Ray about it and he doubted that Ray would be upfront with him even if he had spoken to the man. Since leaving the gang, Ray was all about resolving conflicts as peacefully as possible and he’d urged Max and Mary to do the same.
“There’s no point in risking your life for something as unimportant and ridiculous as vengeance, kids,” he’d said, just after the accident, when Max was vowing to end Caesar’s life with his bare hands. Mary was right behind him, more than willing to help, but Ray had subdued them, for the most part. Mary had been irate, but Max pretended to agree and tried to talk her down.
They’d broken up less than a week after that and he left town, never seeing her again until the other night. He’d kept tabs on her while he was away. He’d heard about her engagement to Gabe, a guy they’
d gone to high school with. He was trash, Max knew, but as long as Mary was happy, so was he. He had stopped asking about her after that. Anything else would have been too painful.
Max would never admit it, but he still loved Mary a little bit. She’d been the woman he was certain he’d spend the rest of his life with; the only one that ever truly held his heart and made him feel like he was invincible. He’d been planning to propose just before tragedy struck.
After, he realized he couldn’t drag her down with him. She had so much potential. She was smart and beautiful and ambitious as hell. Max found himself wondering what had happened to her after he left. Had she pined for him? Had she cried? How quickly had she gotten over him? Her son was less than a year old, but he would have been born just over two years after Max left.
He wasn’t sure if he was over her yet.
And then there was Regina Carlisle, who’d spent the night in his bed, plastered against his side, making his heart beat nearly out of his chest. Regina Carlisle, whose eyes were like crystals and whose dark hair fell around her face like a curtain sometimes and a halo at others. Regina Carlisle, whose hips were wide and filled his palms almost as perfectly as her breasts. Regina Carlisle, who somehow looked more beautiful behind the bar—her face almost completely devoid of makeup, save for her lip gloss and dark eyeliner—than she did the previous night with her face completely made up. Regina Carlisle, who stirred feelings inside him that he thought were long dead.
Max had thought that he would be incapable of love after what happened to his father. His feelings for Mary had all but diminished, leaving just the memory of his affection for her—which felt almost as strong as it had actually been once—and while it was true that he still had feelings for her, he knew that a relationship wasn’t something he could ever handle again. Not when your loved ones could be taken away so quickly and so violently. Max didn’t think he could go through that again.