More to Love

by Alison Bliss

  If he was waiting for her to say something to make this moment any less awkward, then he would be waiting a long damn time. Her mind was a complete blank, and her brain had stopped functioning properly the moment he’d bent her over the table.

  Finally, he broke the silence. “We need to talk.”

  Oh, hell no. Anytime a guy wanted to talk about something right after sex, it was rarely a good thing. Usually, it meant that he was going to explain that it was a one-night stand, that it didn’t mean anything, and how it couldn’t possibly happen again. Or something to that effect.

  Well, fuck that. She didn’t want to unlock his innermost thoughts and hear that kind of bullshit from him. He could just keep that stuff to himself. “No, we don’t.”

  “Jess, we need to talk about what just happened here.” His shoulders sagged as if something was weighing heavily upon them. “It’s important.”

  She shook her head furiously. “Seriously, Max. We don’t have to talk about anything at all,” she said, starting past him. “I’m good.”

  Max grasped both of her shoulders, turned her to face him, and then held her in place with a gentle grip. “You’re good? What the hell does that mean?” He glared at her.

  She spoke fast, nervously waving her hand through the air as if it didn’t matter. “Oh, come on. Don’t make me spell it all out for you.” When he lifted one curious brow, she sighed. It’s just a little adult conversation, Jessa. Get a hold of yourself already. “Fine, here’s the deal. You’re a single guy who isn’t looking for a relationship. I understand that. I knew what this was from the beginning. There’s no reason for us to talk it out.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to brush me off?”

  “No. I’m just saying I get it.”

  He frowned, and his brows lowered over his eyes. “No. I really don’t think you do.”

  She sighed heavily. “Max, listen. I didn’t ask you for anything more than coming inside…and we both knew exactly what that would entail. If you’re thinking I’m now waiting for rose petals on the bed, cute little notes by the coffeemaker, or sweet nothings whispered in my ear, then you don’t have anything to worry about.” She smiled lightly to show him there were no hard feelings. “There. Are we clear now?”

  “About as clear as a brick wall.”

  Jessa shook her head. “Well, then I don’t know what you want me to say.”

  “Why do you feel the need to say anything? I needed to tell you the truth about something, which is why I wanted to talk to you. I wasn’t expecting you to say a word.”

  She shrugged. “Oh, I’m sorry. I’m not an expert at one-night stands. I just thought this was how they worked. Sex and then an awkward conversation afterward.”

  Max dropped his hands and fisted them at his sides. “Okay, hold on one goddamn second. Who the hell ever said this was a one-night stand?”

  She blinked rapidly. “I just thought—”

  “What? Were you really expecting me to up and leave after what we just did?”

  “I…I don’t know. I guess.” Her cheeks heated, and she turned away from him.

  He grasped her arm gently and turned her back around. His eyes softened. “Did someone do that to you, Jess?”

  Oh God. That was the last thing she wanted to talk about right now. Max was already looking at her as if she were some kind of wounded animal. She wasn’t, damn it. But unfortunately, she wasn’t a liar either. “Yes. Once. It happened years ago.” The whole thing had been so embarrassing that she hadn’t told anyone about the incident…up until now. She waved her hand dismissively through the air. “It doesn’t matter anymore though. I got over that a long time ago.”

  “It still matters,” he said with a terse nod. “Look at me, Jess. Do I look like the kind of guy who would do something like that?”

  She gazed at the sexy, good-looking man standing in front of her. He’d been stripping her naked with his eyes for a solid week and shooting her all kinds of mixed signals, and then he’d practically pounced on her at the door after she let him in. It hadn’t stopped her from having sex with him anyway, but yeah, he did seem like the kind of guy who would do such a thing.

  Her eyes lifted to his. “You don’t want me to answer that.”

  He released a hard breath. “Okay, fine. Fair enough. But now that you’ve gotten to know me on a more personal level, do you really think I would do that to you?”

  Well, when he put it that way…“No. Probably not.”

  He sighed with relief. “Thank goodness for that. For a second there, my opinion of myself was really going downhill fast.”

  “I apologize. I wasn’t trying to offend you. Maybe I’m still a bit jaded.” She lowered her eyes. “I guess what that jerk did to me all those years ago still affects me in some way after all. It was just that…well, he made me believe that there was more to us than what there actually was, got what he wanted from me, and then walked out and left me standing there alone like a fool. I hate feeling foolish.”

  Max lifted her chin and leaned his forehead into hers. “I’m not going to do that to you, Jess.”

  “Promise?”

  He nodded. “I promise.”

  Relief washed over her, and she managed to smile. “Okay, then. So what did you want to tell me?”

  “Huh?”

  “You said you needed to tell me the truth about something.”

  “Oh, um. Yeah,” Max said, running his hand over the back of his neck. “I, uh…need to confess something. I…don’t know how you’re going to take it though.”

  Jessa stared at him warily. She didn’t know what the hell he was going to say, but she didn’t like the sound of it already. The suspense alone made her palms sweat. “Just say it already. I’m a big girl. I can take it.”

  He sighed and lowered his head. There was a long pause before he finally said, “I’m using you for your bathtub.”

  She froze mid-breath. Had she heard him right? “My…um, bathtub?”

  “Yeah. I know it’s a horrible thing to do, but I don’t have a garden tub at home. Yours is so much bigger than mine,” he said, his eyes crinkling with mirth. “So I thought that by sleeping with you, I’d have access to yours. I’m sorry if I led you on.”

  Her lips twitched with amusement. “I see,” she said, knowing Max hadn’t been in her bathroom until after they’d had sex. “Well, do you feel any remorse for your actions?”

  He shrugged lightly. “Not really. I mean, the sex was pretty fucking hot and definitely something I’d like to do again. So I was thinking maybe we could just share the bathtub.”

  She crossed her arms and raised one brow. “I don’t know. I mean, it’s a pretty awesome tub meant for only me.”

  “I’m betting we’d both fit.”

  She smirked. “Maybe we should find out for sure.”

  * * *

  Max had made a mistake. A big one.

  He hadn’t meant to have sex with Jessa, nor did he think calling it an “accident” made for a very good excuse. After all, it wasn’t like he’d tripped and fallen dick-first in between her legs.

  But it was true. It had been an accident.

  His plan to proposition her for one night in her bed in exchange for him leaving her food truck alone had been a good one. He knew Jessa would never have gone along with it in a million years. She would’ve thrown his ass out onto the street faster than he could’ve gotten the words out, which was exactly why it had been such a perfect plan.

  Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to follow through with it.

  Well, part of it anyway.

  All of his hopes of her leaving town had relied on the indecent proposal coming out of his mouth. It was despicable and downright unethical for a health inspector to proposition a food vendor like that. She would recognize that. And once she had turned him down, he had hoped she would have moved on. Because no one in their right mind who owned a food business would stay in a town where the health inspector had it out for them.

>   But he’d never even gotten that far. Not before he’d found himself bending her over the table and pumping in and out of her with slow, sensual movements.

  God. The sounds she’d made when she came around him.

  Max couldn’t stop thinking about it. Which made it real damn hard to feel guilty about any of it. Maybe he never had intentionally meant to go through with getting her into bed. But hands down, it was the best sex he’d ever had.

  He’d never meant for things between him and Jessa to go this far. He never would’ve lied to her or deceived her in any way if he had known it would lead to this.

  And he definitely hadn’t done any of this just to get her into bed. Or on the table.

  He doubted she would look at it quite the same way now that the situation had drastically changed between them.

  Max needed to tell her the truth. But how could he?

  The fact was that he had not only lied to her about who he was, but he’d also now slept with her while under the pretense of being the health inspector. No matter what he said, nothing was going to change any of that.

  All Max knew was that he was screwed. In more ways than one.

  Now he just needed to figure out what in the hell he was supposed to do about it. And at the moment, he had no clue. He just knew he couldn’t keep sitting there obsessing over how the tactical error had occurred. It wasn’t helping.

  “Would you mind unzipping me?” Jessa asked, turning her back to him in the bathroom.

  “Sure.” He grasped the zipper and ran it slowly down her back. The dress parted, baring more of her velvety smooth skin that Max couldn’t wait to get his hands on.

  “Can you turn the water off for me? If it gets any higher, it’s going to overflow the sides of the tub when we both get in.”

  Max did as she asked. Then he unbuckled his pants and shoved them down his legs and kicked them off, along with his underwear. He stepped into the large bathtub and sank down into the warm water, letting his elbows rest on the sides of the tub.

  His gaze fell on Jessa, who had just finished clipping her wavy red hair up onto the back of her head, though short wispy tendrils still framed her gorgeous face. She turned toward him as she pulled her arms from the sleeves of her dress and skimmed the tight pink material past her hips to puddle on the tile at her feet.

  Standing there in only a white strapless bra and matching panties, her eyes lifted to his. He waited for a blush to color her cheeks, but it didn’t happen. Instead, her mouth curved with a genuine smile as she wiggled out of her undergarments and dropped them to the floor as well.

  Damn, her body was stunning. Her beautiful breasts were perfectly shaped with large nipples that tightened into peaks under his gaze. Full hips and a curvy waist accentuated her hour-glass figure. Soft womanly thighs led downward to muscular calves. At the apex of her thighs was a little slice of heaven.

  He knew that for a fact since he’d been there only fifteen minutes before.

  Jessa held on to the tub with one hand as she stepped over the side and began to lower her foot into the water.

  “Careful where you step,” Max warned, reaching down with his hand to protect himself from permanent damage.

  “Oops. Sorry,” Jessa said with a giggle. “I can’t see through the bubbles. Where do you want me?”

  Well, hell. If that wasn’t a loaded question, he didn’t know what was.

  His heated eyes trailed up her body, not stopping until they reached her sweet face. Because she was so much shorter than he was, he always felt like he was looking down at her. This was different, and he rather liked the new angle. “On my face.”

  “Max,” she said, her reluctance evident in the pitch of her voice.

  “I’m not kidding, Jess. On my face. Now.”

  He grasped her lush hips and helped her put both legs into the tub, positioning her feet on either side of him. Then he ran his wet hands around to her magnificent rear, gathering her closer to him before pressing his mouth against her. Her knees shook against his shoulders, threatening to buckle, as a loud feminine moan echoed through the bathroom.

  After she’d nearly taken out his manhood with her foot, his manhood had shriveled to semi-erect. There was just something about a threat to a guy’s junk—even an accidental one—that dulled a man’s desire. But the moment he tasted the sweet, succulent flavor of her flesh against his tongue, his cock instantly roared back to life.

  Feasting on her, Max used his tongue, teeth, lips, and even his fingers to bring her pleasure. He was like a cat with a new wind-up toy, one he couldn’t stop playing with. The more he wound his little mouse up, the more she rocked against his face and the louder and longer she squeaked.

  When the persistent clamping of her inner muscles around his fingers signaled her impending release, he tugged her more firmly onto his face and buried himself there. She shuddered, her body twitching against his mouth as he licked faster, tasting every bit of her orgasm on his tongue.

  A vein throbbed in his temple, and he reached down to fist himself beneath the surface of the water to keep from letting himself go. He’d never come just by tasting a woman before, but he was damn close to doing so now. Once her convulsions died out, she levered herself up and off his mouth before drifting downward to straddle him.

  His cock pressed unerringly against her entrance, and he sucked in a deep breath. “Condoms. Please tell me you have some, baby. I only had one with me.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t, but…well, I’m on the pill.”

  One eyebrow rose. “You sure?”

  “Well, since I take them every day, I’m pretty damn sure.”

  He grinned. “Um, that’s not quite what I mean. I was asking if you’re sure you want to do this without a condom? We don’t have to go bare. We can always do a rain check.”

  “Are you responsible?”

  “Yes, I’m responsible. I’ve never actually gone bare with a woman before, and I get tested regularly. It’s the only smart thing to do nowadays. But I don’t expect you to take my word for it. Why don’t we put this off for another day? I’m okay with that, if that’s what you want.”

  “It’s okay.” She smiled. “I trust you, Max.”

  Damn it, that stung. If she had any idea that he’d been lying to her, she wouldn’t trust him one bit. “Maybe you shouldn’t.”

  “The fact that you’re saying we can put it off and that I shouldn’t trust you only makes me trust you more. So you lose.”

  Max chuckled. “I wasn’t aware this was a contest.”

  “It’s not anymore. I won, remember?” She tilted her hips forward, rubbing herself against the length of his hard cock.

  His hands automatically reached for her, and he grunted. “Somehow I’m thinking we both just won.”

  She reached into the water and wrapped her fingers around him. Lifting up slightly, she positioned the head of his cock at her entrance and sank down enough to take the crown. Inch by inch, she slowly accepted more of him. Max sucked in a sizzling breath through his teeth as if she were slowly torturing him to death. Which she was definitely doing, even if it was unintentional.

  “Too slow?”

  He shook his head and closed his eyes. “No, you’re doing fine.”

  But she obviously didn’t agree. With the last few inches to go, Jessa dropped her weight onto him, impaling herself and making his penetration abrupt and almost forceful.

  His eyes shot open. Fireworks exploded in his groin in an array of sensation. Colorful words blasted from his mouth. Water splashed over the edge of the tub and onto the tile floor.

  Sonofabitch. What was the woman trying to do—kill him? He locked his large hands on her thighs. “Christ. Don’t move.”

  An innocent smile touched her lips. “Too much, too fast?”

  His voice was guttural. “Jess, I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “You didn’t,” she said, wiggling her hips as much as his hands would allow. Which wasn’t really much at all.
/>   He tightened his grip even more and shook his head. “That couldn’t have been very pleasant for you.”

  “Mmm. Wanna bet? If you hadn’t been blindly cursing, you would’ve noticed just how much I enjoyed it.” She ground herself against him, and his body tensed. “The feeling of being filled by you so fast is amazingly erotic.”

  Max blew out a hard breath. “Be careful what you say to me or I’ll stop being gentle.”

  “Who asked you to be gent—”

  Before she could finish the word, he wrapped his arms around her, hoisted her up a little without coming out of her, and sucked one hard pink bud into his mouth.

  She gasped. “Oh.”

  Fascinated by her large nipples, Max traced his tongue first around one, then the other. Then he pressed her breasts together so that he could nibble on both without having to choose between them. Some lovemaking positions were more convenient for this than others. This was one of them.

  She moaned and started to move, rising and falling on his length. Rotating her hips in a circular motion and then working her body back and forth. Her inner muscles quivered around him, causing warm sensuous vibrations to wrap around his balls. God, she was driving him wild.

  Grasping her neck, he pulled her forward until her mouth fused to his. His tongue stabbed into her mouth, rolling against hers. She strained against him, feminine softness pressing into masculine hardness. His hand slid down into the sloshing water, finding and touching her where the two of them were joined.

  The press of his fingers against her must’ve electrified something in her. Because she arched her back, lifted her arms over her head, and rode him hard and long.

  He hadn’t expected it. Not from her. Everything he thought he knew about this woman pointed at her being a giver, not a taker. But this beautiful, full-figured woman was taking charge of her own pleasure—as well as his. Fearless. Uninhibited. Unrestrained. And it was totally fucking hot.

  His fever spiked higher, and his eyes clouded over. Desire pooled in his gut, and his balls rioted for release. His heart pounded against his ribs. Breaths panted out of him at a fast rate. More water splashed out onto the tile floor. Fuck.