“A couple more kisses, please…” another reporter called out, instructing the shots for his blog.
“Kisses…” Drew whispered. “Never a problem…”
The affection radiating between them was infectious to party-goers and press alike. Everyone wanted to talk to Mr. and Mrs. Drew McKenzie, and eventually Jeffrey had to step into the circus and wrangle the crowd. He wanted Drew and Maxine to savor every second of the glory of his win that night.
They both worked so very diligently, albeit in different capacities, to share their love of theater with the world. They deserved a good party—so long as Drew got up in time for his interview call at eight. Unfortunately, with Jillian’s morning sickness continuing to linger, it was up to Jeffrey to get Drew to the studio on time.
“Thanks, everyone!” Jeffrey said. “Let the Macks enjoy their champagne…”
Somehow, Drew shuffled Maxine off to a quieter corner to share one quick, semi-private moment. “Have we had two seconds alone?” he wondered out loud.
“Oh, Drew…this is so much better than watching on television!” she squealed.
“Catch me during a year when I don’t win, little one,” he said. “Let’s see if we can still resume this joy.”
“Bet we will,” she insisted. “Betcha…a blowjob…in some dark alley in London.”
“I’ll raise you some Jack the Ripper role play—without the ripping, of course.”
“I fucked a serial killer…and I liked it!”
Fingers molding into her back and drifting downward, he stopped just short of her ass. “That’s the spirit, Miss Merryweather.”
“How about some Tony Sex first?”
“Oh, I truly like the way you—”
“Oh. Em. Gee!” Ben clapped his hands together as he jumped up and down. “The Countess is here!”
“The who?” Drew asked.
“The Countess! From Real Housewives,” Ben explained, his irritation rising. “Fuckballs. Think she’ll dance with me?”
“Think Jeffrey will get pissed?” Drew challenged.
Maxine folded her arms across her chest and sulked playfully. “Thought I was your only girl, Benjamin?”
“You know that I always come home to your bed, Cap.”
“There’s no space to dance in here, Ben,” Drew pointed out. “Hell, the room only seats a hundred people.”
“I’ll make room, Tony Boy,” Ben insisted. “I’m off to mingle. Tell Jeffrey where to find me…”
As Ben skipped away, Drew skimmed his fingers over Maxine’s face. “Well, little one, considering I’ve got a television segment in about five hours…and we both need a little tension relief before then…”
“Shall we get this party rolling back to the penthouse?” she suggested, her eyes teasing.
“You always read my mind,” he kissed her forehead. “Let me go get your jacket, and we’ll be on our merry way.”
“I’ll start bidding good-night to the parents…”
His eyes never left her as he made his way toward the doors. Drew couldn’t help but to chuckle as Maxine stepped into his parents’ conversation with theater icon Tommy Tune. That man did everything—from performing to choreography to staging—and his lifetime achievement award was so very well deserved that night. However, seeing his tiny wife standing next to the six-foot-six Broadway legend left Drew laughing.
Usually, Maxine was the one to drift into a state of melancholy, but Drew found himself saddened as their night grew shorter. He wanted nothing more than to allow this high point to linger for just a few hours more, but he had responsibilities—to himself and to the show.
Apparently, they were the only couple readying to leave, as he caught the coat check attendant nearly asleep in her booth. After retrieving Maxine’s jacket, he tipped the young woman well, but as he moved to return to the party, he felt the grip of a hand closing around his upper arm.
Everyone had been touching him all night in their congratulatory efforts, but this clutch felt different—if not desperate and perhaps even a bit angry. However, Drew’s security agent stepped in to release him.
“Have something to say to Mr. McKenzie this evening, Mr. Mansfield?” the well-suited and well-defined bodyguard asked, maneuvering himself in between the two men.
“Just wanted to congratulate old Mack here one last time tonight,” Randy said, his lips curling with a sinister snarl. “It’s a huge event when you win a Tony. Couldn’t allow this opportunity to slip without a personal note of my acknowledgment.”
“Oh, you’ve already congratulated me, Randy…” Drew said, refusing to allow Randy to shatter his cool. “And nothing—nothing—can hurt me. Good press, bad press. Doesn’t matter. Everything eventually comes out in the wash. Doesn’t it?”
“Sure will, Mack,” Randy smiled. “It all will come to light…”
Without further regard, Drew turned sharply and continued on with his night. Randy was up to something for sure, and it was only a matter of time before he reared his ugly head. He just hoped he wasn’t planning to release those photos in the morning.
Swiping his mother’s cheek with a kiss, he gave her a quick squeeze.
“There you are, darling,” Maggie said, pulling at his bowtie. “I hear you’re cutting the party short?”
No one was more regretful than Drew, but duty called—as did his cock.
His brother and Jillian had disappeared around midnight from the first party at Adam’s insistence. While he joked around about his pending fatherhood, he took Jillian’s pregnancy so very seriously, following her to every doctor’s appointment and making sure that she got her rest. In fact, Adam seemed more anxious about her changing body than Jillian.
“Live television segment in just a short time here…”
“Yeah, we all better get home and get some nooky before the alarm rings,” Ben whispered in Maxine’s ear.
“Bad…bad Benjamin…” Maxine swatted him on the arm. “Bad. Where’s your housewife?”
“Jeffrey’s bidding good-night to a couple of clients.”
“No, the Countess,” Maxine corrected him.
“Oh, I said hello,” Ben assured her and whipped out his phone. “Not nearly as impressive as my photo with Lady Gaga, but it’s Facebook-worthy.”
Sneaking up behind him, Jeffrey stealthy slipped his hands under Ben’s jacket and gave a quick tickle to his ribs.
“You two are both such star fuckers!” Jeffrey teased, then stopped himself. “Oops! Sorry, Max…”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing, Jeffrey…” Drew had to chime in.
“Well, you are a star now, Mack,” Jeffrey said. “And how about you, cute boy? Ready to head back to the townhouse and wake your mother up?”
“She can’t hear shit from my room,” Ben said without a trace of doubt.
“Uh…I wouldn’t bank on that, Uncle Benjy,” Drew said, just riveted as he watched Ben’s eyes widen and his face turn ruby red. “Don’t forget—I used to spend the night with your old roommate upon occasion. You should just…tone it down a bit.”
“You bang my roommate, I’ll bang yours…” Ben grinned. Luckily, Maggie and Declan were bidding farewell to one of Drew’s producers and remained none the wiser.
“I fucking hate you, Mack,” Jeffrey said.
“Zip your fly…”
“It’s…” Glancing below to his trousers, Jeffrey grunted. “It’s not even open.”
“Got ya to look, though, didn’t I?”
Oddly, Maggie and Declan were the only two in their group who wanted to stick around, but they followed the couples out the front door anyway. Drew was in his usual rush to get Maxine home, and after one final round of kisses, they pulled off with their security guards in tow into the quiet New York City Night.
“Did you have fun tonight?” Jeffrey asked Ben.
“I always have fun with you…” Ben carefully reached for Jeffrey’s bowtie to give it a loosening. “And the night doesn’t have to be over…”
>
Right in front of the Carlyle Hotel, Jeffrey took Ben in his arms for a kiss he’d been waiting on all evening. And just behind them, Maggie and Declan stood, grinning all the while, like the two proud parents they were.
“I’m so glad that Jeffrey’s finally opened himself up to finding a good guy,” Maggie said.
“Me, too,” Declan agreed. “That Ben’s a handful, but they make a nice couple.”
“You know…” Jeffrey whispered to Ben, breathless, “there’s a hotel right behind us…”
“Let’s be sleazy and get a room…” Ben said.
“A five hundred dollar room…” Jeffrey noted.
“Then let’s be sleazy nouveau-riche trash and get a room…”
“You’re on…”
# # #
“So, Mack…wanna tell me what happened between the coat check and now?” Maxine asked as Lou sped through the 79th street transverse through Central Park on their drive home.
“You know, I can’t even table something until later with you around, Mrs. Mack,” he said. “You see it all.”
“Straight through to your soul,” she said and took his hand. “Talk to me.”
Now that she’d guessed that something was amiss, Drew had to soften the rough edges a bit. “Just ran into Randy while I was getting your coat.”
“So he’s stalking us, then?”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that he’s—”
“He’s the one,” Maxine said. “He broke into the dungeon. And he’s on to us. What if he tries to publish those photos tomorrow, Drew? Just to rain on your parade?”
“Well, Jeffrey’s got his spies out,” Drew assured her. “I don’t have to tell you that he knows a lot of people in the media.”
“So they all know that we have a kink room, too?” Maxine charged.
“No, little one,” he whispered. “They’re just on the watch for anything from Randy. I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Maxine trusted in Jeffrey’s experience and contacts implicitly. However, Randy seemed to hold all of the power on his stupid little phone. One click and they could be dragged over the hot coals by the same reporters who cheered them on that night.
“I guess we need to amp up security,” she began, “yet again…”
“Hopefully, this will only last a bit longer—until we get to the bottom of what he wants,” Drew said. “And then we’ll send him packing.”
Incredulous, Maxine sat back in her seat. “You’re not going to allow him to blackmail us, are you?”
“Fuck no. But we’ll get rid of him.”
As Maxine hopped out of the car in front of their building, Lou offered his congratulations again to Drew, while the guards minded their collective moves. A sweep of the penthouse had already been completed, as happened every time both of them left the house these days. At the door, the bodyguards simply switched off, handing Drew and Maxine over to the next crew.
“I need some air,” Drew said as he ran his fingers through his hair once the great room cleared and the night shift took their spots in the hallway.
“Meet you outside in five…”
Hair blowing in the slight summer breeze, Drew took a seat on the terrace, minding the neon skyline on that early Monday morning. All was so quiet—almost eerie, he'd realized—prompting him suddenly to fear his own attempt at relaxation.
Treading as quietly as she could, tapping her bare feet so gently over the concrete terrace, Maxine snuck up behind Drew and wrapped her arms around him, presenting him with a dozen red roses.
“Oh, little one…when did you get these?”
“This afternoon,” she answered as he pulled her around to sit on his lap. “I figured that either way, flowers would be a lovely gesture.”
“I love you, Maxine...” he whispered. “I so very dearly, truly love you...”
“And I love you, Drew...”
Tenderly, his fingers traced her chin and over the line of her jaw, played over her cheek, then wove into her messy, party-ruffled hair. “You make me crazy...”
“And you...” Maxine grinned, leaning in to steal a kiss as she placed the flowers on the table beside them, “...you make me everything...crazy...happy...delirious...”
“You know what I’d really like right now, little one?”
“I do know…”
With such ease and grace, Maxine pulled very slowly away from his embrace. Scooting backward from his lap and slithering down to the concrete beneath them, she folded herself into position, kneeling before him, head bowed in reverence—and still wearing her evening gown.
“May I please, Kind Sir?” she murmured, her voice rattling with desire. “May I suck your cock?”
“Oh, Maxine, my love,” he breathed. “What you're doing to me...sit for me...look at me...”
Obediently, she pulled herself up from her angle of deference and looked into his beautiful blue eyes. Her lips slackened in passion, she squirmed in anticipation.
Rendered speechless by his own desire, he gripped himself through his tuxedo pants and watched her hungry lips all the while.
There was something about watching Drew touching himself, even through his clothes, that simply struck Maxine to her tingling core. Those hands, so huge and strong and tender, pulled and tugged, yet remained in absolute control of himself and of his needs.
“Yes, you may suck me, Maxine...” he finally whispered.
“Thank you, Kind Sir.”
Drew opened his legs further to accommodate her. Crawling on her knees, she inched closer and tugged his shirt upward to run her lips over the taut muscles of his belly before closing her fingers around the button on his trousers. Once open, she tugged at the zipper pull, dragging with a sinful slowness over the teeth.
He was so hard, straining against his boxer briefs, and she couldn't resist kissing him with her own pent up passion, just as if she were kissing his mouth. His hands ripped at her hair then forced her head closer, while his hips continued to grind against her efforts.
As always, though, she needed more and caught the waist of his boxers and pulled them away to free him at last. Reaching out, she held him, stroking every last long, smooth inch of him.
“Fuck me, Maxine,” he ordered. “Just fuck me with those pouty little lips of yours.”
Taking him into her eager mouth, swirling and flicking her tongue so steadily, she exulted in the notes of pure passion that resounded from his lips.
Pleasuring Drew aroused her like nothing else—even his own seductive torture of her. As her mouth coaxed him deeper, over her tongue, inching toward the back of her throat, her body contorted.
Tossing his head against the back of the chair, he roared, and his groan reverberated through her to her core. “Come for me, Maxine...” he moaned. “Just come while I'm fucking your mouth...”
The stress of the last few months had carved an edge into Drew’s façade. While the good triumphed over the bad, he couldn’t shake his anxiety until Randy was stopped. For this one night, he wanted to just pretend that no one else existed but for Maxine…and he luxuriated in every delicate maneuver of her manipulative mouth.
The sounds of her own pleasure hummed against him while she sucked his pulsing cock. She couldn't fight the tides that rolled from between her legs, splaying her pleasure throughout her entire trembling body and sweeping her off to that plane of exquisite delight that she knew only with him.
She rubbed her thighs together, faster and faster, riding out her own orgasm as she brought him ever closer toward his.
“Maxine...” he growled. “Oh, such a good girl...”
Enthralled by her rapture, Drew came so suddenly and almost violently, trickling copiously down her throat while Maxine clenched her fingers around his waist. Never enough...
Never. Enough.
It was then that her lips swept so calmly over him, her quiet moans sating them both. Easing her up and into his lap, he held her so very closely against his chest.
Delicate
ly, his lips stroked her hair. “Want to take a little nap and I’ll wake you when it’s time to get ready for the interview?”
Maxine shook her head and folded her fingers around his. “Nope. We’re a team. If you stay awake, then so do I.”
“Speaking of teamwork, I would have never won tonight without you.”
“You would have won, Drew,” she assured him. “The icing on the cake is having someone to share this night with.”
“And I can’t think of anyone else that I’d rather spend this night with than you, little one,” he said. “You took this memory and made every second absolutely unforgettable.”
As she snuggled against him, Drew pulled Maxine into the fold of his arms. The glittering skyline sat before them, open wide with possibilities, just like the rest of their lives.
Chapter Thirty-One
Another journey awaits you tonight.
Meet me in my dressing room before the end of the show.
You’ll find further instructions in your toy drawer.
I’ll ask Trevor to let you in while I’m on stage.
Your devoted husband,
Drew
Maxine had actually just arrived home from work, changed into her yoga pants and prepared to snuggle up with the cats on the couch for an evening of Dance Moms. However, when her phone vibrated with Drew’s latest request, she jumped into action immediately.
It was never just another weeknight in the McKenzie house.
I shall be waiting for you in your dressing room
after your curtain call.
Can’t wait to see what’s in store this evening.
Hopelessly devoted,
Your little one
In truth, Maxine was still exhausted from Tony weekend. Drew had the advantage of sleeping in that morning since he only had an evening performance, but Maxine had to return to work. Refreshed, he felt like playing, but Maxine had to muster up her mojo—and fast.
After rushing her shower, she left her hair wet as she hurried from the penthouse. Kind Sir did not appreciate tardiness, and she couldn’t trust the evening traffic in Manhattan. He simply refused to entertain her excuses.
However, as Maxine arrived at the theater, she realized she had one pesky problem—that husky hulk of a bodyguard trailing her that night.
KNOTTED: The Manhattan Bound Series, Book Three Page 49