Rush

by Gina Gordon

  She returned to the living room with a huge smile on her face. Usually the only thing that put a smile that big on her face was my mouth on her pussy, but not today.

  “You seem pretty happy to be doing this.”

  She pushed the roller through the paint. “I don’t know what it is, but I love redecorating. Maybe the possibility of starting fresh.”

  “If decorating is your passion, then what’s law school?”

  Her roller stopped abruptly. “I’ve been asking myself that same question.”

  We painted in silence for a few minutes as we found our rhythm with the rollers. When two of the four walls were complete, my phone buzzed in my pocket. “Sorry, I have to get this.”

  My father had already called three times and I’d ignored him. Our meeting with a new distributor was tomorrow and I knew he was freaking out and wanted to powwow. However, this time, when I looked at the caller display, it wasn’t my father’s face staring back at me.

  “Hello?”

  “Max!” Chloe Daniels, our biggest seller and brightest star, squealed on the other end. “Max, we have a problem.”

  “What can I do for you, Chloe?” I turned and looked at Everly, mouthing “I’m sorry.” I knew how much this meant to her and I didn’t want anything to stand in her way, but I knew she understood I had responsibilities, obligations. Taking this call was the price I had to pay for taking the day off.

  “I just got the prototypes for the sex toy line.”

  Chloe was a natural when it came to sex, so it didn’t take long to establish her brand. Three months ago, we’d commissioned a sex toy line, complete with male masturbator.

  “That’s great. I’m excited to see it.”

  You’re excited to see a replica of Chloe’s vagina? Your life is so weird.

  “So was I.”

  My stomach dropped. Nothing good was going to come out of this conversation. I could feel it. I paced between the living room and the foyer. I felt Everly’s stare on me, even though—judging from the sound of the roller on the wall—she was still painting.

  “I don’t know who’s second-rate vagina this is, Max, but it’s not mine.”

  I stopped short. “What are you talking about the vagina isn’t yours?” I looked up and locked eyes with Everly. She was now watching me with wide eyes, the roller in the paint tray instead of on the wall.

  “I think I know my own vagina,” Chloe said. “And what I’m looking at is not mine. They must have mixed up the molds.”

  I rubbed the back of my neck. “All right, let’s not freak.”

  I could fix this. I had to fix this. It was my job. For the rest of my life. Arguing with porn stars about vagina molds.

  “I’ll get on the phone and find out what happened.”

  “Thank you, Max. It would be a nightmare if this was released with my name on it.”

  I suppressed my laugh. How bad could the mold be? I wasn’t naive enough to think that all vaginas were the same, but at the end of the day, a hole was a hole, wasn’t it?

  I shoved my phone back in my pocket and returned to Everly.

  Without turning her head, she whispered, “I hate it when I get the wrong vagina mold.”

  I laughed. Hard. Loud. She had no idea how much I needed to laugh at this situation. How much I needed someone else to realize how ridiculous this all was. I returned to my task, shaking my head.

  “You work just as hard as I do, you know.”

  I didn’t bother to face her. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I do have a lot of things I’m responsible for.”

  And it was only going to get worse.

  She let out an exasperated breath and crossed her arms over her chest. “Why does your side of the wall look better than mine?”

  I looked up, trying to figure out the difference. There was only one explanation. “You’re not rolling hard enough. That’s why you’re missing spots.”

  She cocked her hip and pointed the roller at me. “Are you good at everything you do?”

  “What?” I returned to rolling. “No, I’m not.”

  “You can do everything. Lead a company. Run. Paint. Work with vagina molds.” I laughed at that one. “Please a woman…” She left that last sentence hanging.

  I stepped toward her and slipped my arm around her back, pulling her close, nuzzling her neck. “You would know all about that.”

  She tensed in my arms.

  When I pulled back and our eyes locked, it wasn’t desire staring back at me, it was sadness.

  “Hey…what’s wrong?” I set down my roller and wrapped both arms around her. Tipping her chin up with my finger, I forced her to look at me. “Are…are you not pleased?”

  My worst nightmare. For all of the time I’d spent trying to be the man who knew about nothing other than sex, had I failed? Was I a joke?

  “Of course I’m pleased.” She gave me a weak smile. “I just…I only know some of your skills. You refuse to show me all of them.”

  “I’m not refusing…” I cupped her cheek. Obviously I wasn’t good at everything. I had no idea how to work this relationship with Everly. “I just want to take things slow with you.”

  With the saddest, most confused look I’d ever seen, she whispered, “Why?”

  Because I’m afraid. Afraid I’ll taint you. Afraid I’ll break you. Afraid you’ll break me.

  I hadn’t expected those thoughts to come to the surface. I hadn’t planned on this getting emotional, not one bit. But I found it impossible to keep things hidden, to keep the veneer up when I was with Everly, because she saw through it anyway. There was no one left to be but myself.

  I had made a promise to help her finish the bucket list, and that’s what I was going to do. No more emotions. No more heart-to-hearts. So I did what I thought was the smartest thing to do—I avoided her question.

  “I’ll be around for as long as it takes to finish your list. There’s no need to rush into anything.”

  “The list, huh?” Suddenly, the frown that had stared back at me only a moment ago had faded. “Do you have the list?”

  I nodded. Unwrapping myself from her body, I reached for my wallet in my back pocket, where I kept my own copy. I pulled out the small piece of paper and handed it over.

  Without a second thought, she walked away into the kitchen. Her scent still lingered around me, despite the strong fumes of paint that seeped from the walls and open paint cans.

  When she returned, she slapped the list into my hand. It wasn’t only the eleven items I had memorized. There was a twelfth item.

  Have sex with the guy you wouldn’t give the time of day.

  My eyes almost bugged out of my head. If she was putting this on the list, then she was in. All in. Sneaky devil.

  “I don’t think Grandma intended for you to get slutty.”

  She knew I was joking; I could tell by the curve at the side of her lips.

  “I have no idea what Gram wanted me to get from this list.” Her arms flew out to her sides and came down hard on her thighs. “But I know she wanted me to experience…something.”

  I envied that there were so many things in this world she hadn’t yet experienced. There were so many firsts ahead for her. Helping her was a chance to relive some of my own, even have a second chance at experiencing them. I barely remembered the last four years of my life, not because I had partied too hard, but because I was unhappy. I had floated through my life on autopilot, understimulated and unsatisfied.

  The night I’d met Everly had opened my eyes.

  When she stepped closer, she knocked into the roller and it fell to the floor. My throat contracted. My lips went dry. She had an effect on my every nerve ending. They all reacted when she was near. The closer she got, the more intense the burn inside my chest.

  “And right now…” she whispered in my ear, “…I want that something to be you.”

  My entire body ignited when she pressed a kiss to my neck. Citrus enveloping me, pulling me under her spell, a spell she did
n’t know she had over me. Which made me even more spellbound. But instead of taking the kiss further, she backed away, walking toward the foyer.

  When she got to the stairs, she looked over her shoulder. Without a word, I knew what she wanted. What she needed. It was all staring back at me in the blue depths of her eyes, hypnotizing me with her need.

  I wanted this woman. More than any other woman I’d ever encountered. I didn’t know if it was her determination to follow through with law school. Or her disinterest in me when we’d first met. Or the fact that she had the ability to see me, see past the porn guy and peer right into my soul. But it didn’t matter why.

  She’d put sex on the list.

  And I was helpless to deny her wishes.

  Chapter 20

  Everly

  “Are you going to deny a horny girl her wish?”

  I was sitting on my bed now. Max stood in the doorway. I was afraid he wouldn’t follow me, but I had done as Grace had suggested and told him exactly what I wanted.

  I crooked my finger, inviting him to join me. He made a growling sound and stalked toward me.

  He placed one knee on the bed and reached out, wrapping one arm around my waist. With ease, he pulled me toward him and plundered my mouth. I tasted the spicy cinnamon from the mint he’d eaten earlier in the car.

  “Max…” I panted, my hands fisting his shirt. “I want you.”

  He pulled at my button-down shirt, baring my cotton-covered breasts. The buttons snapped and I heard them ping against the furniture and floor.

  The growl formed in his throat again. It was hot as hell and ramped up my need for him even higher. Max had always been intense, but this Max was intimidating. Maybe even a little bit scary.

  I’d had sex before. It wasn’t a mystery to me, but this felt new. I felt like a virgin again, waiting to experience something life-changing, and I knew my life would change the moment he slid inside me.

  I captured his lips again, just as he wrapped his arms around my torso and pulled me against him. This kiss was harder than our previous lip locks, deeper, more intimate. But just as quickly as he gave in to my coaxing, he pulled away.

  Pressing his forehead against mine, he whispered, “You know this isn’t why I’m here, right?”

  I did. I thought he had offered to help me with the list in a weird desire to atone for being selfish, but that theory had been burned once he’d brought me to the gala. Selfishness wasn’t in his blood. But right now his reasons didn’t matter—this is what I wanted.

  I grabbed his shirt and pulled him toward me, smashing my mouth to his. That was the only answer he was getting. My mind was a blurred mess of desire and I had no room for forming coherent sentences.

  He moved on top of me and I moaned, his weight exactly what I wanted, what I needed. With his hand fisted in my hair, he slipped his tongue between my lips. With every movement of it, I remembered what he’d done with it between my legs, how he’d brought me to such an intense orgasm.

  I pushed up, wanting to participate, wanting not to miss a moment of this experience, but he kept me down.

  With his face against my neck he whispered, “I love how you smell. Citrus.” He inhaled against my neck. “Always citrus.”

  Max Levin didn’t seem like the type to take this slow and steady. He was a wham, bam, thank-you-ma’am type of guy—I just knew it.

  “I want to have sex.” And I wanted it to be good. As good as any of the sex he’d had with other women. “I have condoms.” I pointed to my nightstand.

  He laughed. Actually laughed at me.

  I grunted my distaste. “If you don’t want to, that’s fine.” I tried to wiggle out from under him, but he held me down with his hips.

  Damn you, Grace. I voice my sexual desires and I get laughed at.

  I thought I had read him right. I was convinced he wanted me. He’d told me as much. Knowing jacked up my libido, made me want things that I’d never wanted with another person. Made me want to do things, made me want him to do things to me…dirty things. Fun things. All. The. Things.

  I squealed when I was whipped off the mattress and I somehow straddled his body. He ground his pelvis against my core and the strength of his erection elicited a gasp.

  “I want to.” He pulled me down, resting my forehead against his. “Sweetheart, you have no idea how much I want to fuck you.”

  I wasn’t sexy. I didn’t pretend to be. I was me. Everly Parker. All 34B, with no curves, and cotton underwear. He wanted me anyway, and because of that, I felt like the sexiest woman in the world.

  I reached into the nightstand and pulled out the box that was still brand new.

  Please don’t be expired. Please don’t be expired.

  I checked the date. I couldn’t stop the exclamation that escaped my lips. “Yes!” I looked down at him. “It’s been a while.”

  He placed his fingers on the box and tilted it toward him. “The box is brand new.”

  “A really long while.”

  “In that case, Ms. Parker…” He opened it, ripping a purple packet from its strip. “Allow me.”

  With the open box on the nightstand and the packet in one hand, he gripped the back of my neck and pulled me down. Without hesitation, he took my mouth. Possessed it. Owned it. And I let him.

  His hands found their way to my shoulders and pushed my shirt down my arms. Immediately gooseflesh broke out across my skin, and my nipples hardened. Over the cotton, he traced the outline of the hard beads, but only for a moment, preferring to release the clasp at the back.

  He sat up, taking one pert nipple into his mouth. The simple touch of his tongue sent a shiver through my body and I responded with a gasp as my head fell back. I arched into him, his big hands kneading my hips, his lips and tongue sucking and licking, hitting every pleasurable spot on my chest. Although I had a feeling every pore on my body was a pleasure spot where Max was concerned.

  I gripped his hair and pulled him closer. That only intensified his actions, each pull on my nipple zinging straight to my clit.

  “I don’t know what’s happening…” My head spun, like it always did when I was with him, but right now, I couldn’t get my bearings. I was spinning out of control and I needed something to ground me. “The minute you walk into proximity, my body responds. And I just want to…” Right now sex trumped everything. All I wanted was for Max to make me feel good. “God, I just want you to devour me.”

  Our eyes locked and in that moment, there was nothing else. No overbearing parents. No expectations. No papers or exams. No porn. It was just him and me, and the overwhelming need that coiled inside my stomach wanting desperately to break free.

  “As you wish.” He kissed me. It was a sneak peek at what was to come. Pleasure. Excitement. Wild desire. “Take these off.” He pulled at the waist of my track pants.

  I did as he’d asked, scrambling to my feet at the side of the bed and pushing them off my body. At the same time he shrugged out of his shirt and pulled off his track pants, kicking them to the end of the bed.

  When he was naked, he examined me, every inch of my body. From my head to my toes, his eyes danced lazily over my skin. My nipples hardened with every jerk of his eyes to a new spot, and I couldn’t stop doing the same to him.

  He slid to the edge of the bed and rubbed his palm in a circle over the comforter, inviting me beside him.

  I took one step, and he held up his hand. “The panties, too.” He smirked, a damn sexy smile that almost melted them off. I stopped to bare my skin, letting the cotton, polka-dot thong fall to the floor.

  I took my place beside him. The excitement in my stomach was so tangible, I found it hard to catch my breath. His hands immediately roamed over my limbs, then my stomach. It jerked when his warm hand made contact.

  “Please…” The single word, a breathless croak that had escaped my lips.

  He responded by planting his mouth over mine. His tongue slid between my lips and I welcomed the warm glide inside my mouth as he twist
ed and tangled his lips and tongue with mine. His thumb stroked the side of my neck and I felt his erection against my thigh, but I was helpless to reach out and touch him. He’d rendered me helpless with one, smooth kiss.

  His hand swept from the top of my head down my hair, then cupped the side of my face. I turned into his touch, kissing his palm, and he smiled.

  He grabbed the condom packet and ripped it open. I watched as he slid it down his length, with every light touch of his finger, it bobbed against his stomach.

  When he was sheathed, he kneeled over me. He was perfect. Hard. Male. A girl would be crazy to pass up an opportunity to have this man between her thighs. And in mere moments, he was going to be between mine.

  Like a dream. Like a vivid, graphic sex dream, it was finally coming true.

  He pressed his tip against my opening, but he hesitated. He didn’t enter. His neck corded. Who would have thought tendons could be so sexy? His were. He breathed deeply, but his eyes, they didn’t meet mine.

  So I helped him along.

  I reached between us. I rubbed his cock along my folds. When he slid against them with ease, I knew I was ready to take him. Foreplay not required.

  With two fingers against his shaft, I lifted my pelvis and pushed down, slipping him inside.

  I moaned as he slid deeper, his length filling me, pressing against my sensitive walls.

  “Christ.” He tumbled forward, his palms hitting the bed on both sides of my head and his face knitted up like he was in pain. “You’re so tight.”

  I felt the tip of his cock nudge inside me. He was buried to the hilt and his body wasn’t even flush against mine.

  My eyes rolled back in my head at the mere idea of him being too big to fit. So I did what I thought needed to be done. I squeezed him tighter, lifting my pelvis, making more room for him to slip inside. I wanted to feel him, pelvis to pelvis, feel him flush against my body.

  “Everly…” He groaned my name. A guttural sound that caused my core to tighten.

  He was a god above me—strong and ethereal. His biceps flexed from the weight of his body on either side of me. I lifted my legs and rocked, doing whatever I could to feel him move inside me.