Had it not been for the crazy shit he had to deal with on a daily basis, he might’ve actually taken the time to play her games. But there was another problem with that. He was fucking tired of playing, which was the only reason he’d allowed her to walk away then.
And that was the real reason he was there tonight. He wanted to know whether or not this was truly over. For him, it wasn’t. There wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d ever be able to get over her. Probably not in his lifetime. But that didn’t mean that moving forward wasn’t possible. With or without her.
If she didn’t want him, he’d move on. He had business arrangements dangling in the wind, one in particular that was entirely dependent on where he stood with Courtney.
“Tell me you want me to leave, Courtney. Tell me to go, and I’ll never darken your doorstep again. You’ll never have to see me.”
Max could see the surprise in Courtney’s eyes, in the way her throat worked when she swallowed hard. He’d never made her that promise, never told her that he’d willingly let her go, although he’d spent the last year staying away from her. He’d had eyes on her the entire time; he knew every single move she’d made during those months. He knew for a fact that Courtney had never brought another man home with her, nor had she ever gone home with a man. Had she made that choice, Max wasn’t sure how things would be at this moment, but more than likely, there’d be another dead asshole buried six feet under.
The point was, she hadn’t.
“Tell me that’s what you want, and I’ll do it, Courtney. But know this … if you send me away this time…” Max took a deep breath, exhaled. “I won’t come back. Whatever this is between us, it’ll never die, never go away completely, and we’ll both have to live out the rest of our lives with the decision that you make right here. Tonight.”
“I want…”
The pause that followed stole the air from the room.
“What? What do you want?” he implored quietly, his thumbs gently brushing her cheeks before he trailed his hands down her neck, over her shoulders. A tremor ran through her, and he paused, taking the glass from her hand and setting it on the table. “It’s all up to you.”
“I can’t do this,” she answered, her voice so faint he hardly heard her. “I can’t be with you.”
“I’ve heard that before, but you’re a grown woman, Courtney. There’s nothin’ stoppin’ you.”
Max noticed the instant the fire returned to her eyes, brightening them with a flame fueled by lust and need.
And denial.
“Are you fucking serious right now?” she exclaimed, her palms flattening on his chest as she tried to push him away.
He didn’t budge, refusing to give her any space. This decision had to be made tonight.
“Deadly,” he answered.
“Do you know who you are?” she asked, her voice pitched higher than before. “For that matter, do you know who I am?”
Max lifted one eyebrow. He figured the questions were rhetorical. That or she was more intoxicated than he thought.
“You killed a man tonight, Max. You didn’t even blink when you shot him. In. The. Head.”
He wasn’t going to deny her statement, but he wasn’t going to cop to it, either. She might be questioning who he was, but he knew exactly. He wasn’t a good man, a noble man. His conscience wasn’t ringed with worry or concern. He lived his life by one rule … live to see tomorrow. Sometimes, that was the only thing he could do.
“Do you love me, Max?”
Her question surprised him but only because Courtney had never brought up the subject of love before. Not in all the time they’d been together. Yes, he loved her. He loved her more than anyone or anything in the fucking world. He loved her enough to lay down his life for her. But he’d never told her that. There was only so much power he could relinquish, and admitting that he loved her was more than his quota allowed.
So rather than tell her as much, he said, “That seems irrelevant at the moment.”
“No! It’s not irrelevant, Max. It’s… Fuck.”
Courtney tried to maneuver past him, but Max held his ground, not budging an inch. “Don’t walk away from me,” he ground out. “Tell me what you want, Courtney. What. Do. You. Want?”
When she didn’t speak, Max gave in to his craving for her. He cupped her face in his hands again and crushed his mouth to hers, tasting her defiance. And then she was kissing him back as she’d always done. A brutal mating of tongues, lips, teeth. Her arms went around his waist, beneath his shirt, her fingernails digging into his back as she pulled him closer. There was nothing gentle about this, but there never usually was.
No, what he and Courtney had was combustible. Hot. Erotic. Intense. And no matter how long they were apart, that need, that desperate craving he had for her, and she for him, never seemed to abate. But as with anything, there was only so much pressure that could be contained before the lid was blown sky high, and that was the exact point they’d reached.
Max shifted, shoving her against the wall as he crushed his body to hers, grinding his cock at the juncture of her thighs as he desperately tried to touch every part of her with every part of him. They devoured one another, teeth clashing, tongues mating. When she forced her hands between their bodies, reaching for the button on his jeans, jerking it loose, Max sucked in a breath.
She wasn’t tender as she sucked on his tongue, bit his lip, roughly attempted to pull his cock free. Within seconds, she had his dick in her hands, her smooth fingers gripping him firmly.
Aww, fuck.
She was … heaven.
Her hands … fucking spectacular.
He’d missed her touch. He’d missed her. He needed to be inside her, to bury himself in the deepest parts of her.
Without hesitation, he lifted her dress, ripping her panties from her body as he thrust his hips forward, grinding his cock into her hand.
“Condom,” she groaned against his lips, biting him again, this time harder than before.
During their time together, they’d stopped using condoms, trusting one another implicitly, but now … a year later… He wasn’t going to argue because the only thing he could think about was fucking her against the wall, claiming her once again.
“Pocket,” he told her, sliding his hands into her hair and jerking her head back. “Put it on me, Courtney.”
Courtney’s eyes locked with his as she reached into his pocket with her free hand, retrieving the condom he’d placed there for this very reason. He released her head, wrapping his hand around hers, forcing her to jerk his cock more insistently. Within seconds, she’d ripped open the foil with her teeth, and together they rolled the latex over him, her touch making his cock pulse and throb.
Once he was sheathed, he adjusted their positions, lifting her leg as he guided himself to her entrance. Her eyes never left his as he pushed forward, forcing his cock past the tight muscles that instantly clenched around him.
“Fuck.” She felt so good. “Tight, Courtney. God, baby. So fucking…” Good. Hot and wet and … his.
Slamming his mouth over hers, Max kissed her, driving his tongue inside as she kissed him back. Her hands drifted up to his hair, pulling violently as he fucked her against her kitchen wall. His hips drove forward, forcing his cock deep into her slick pussy. Her body gripped him, pulled him deeper.
So goddamn tight.
“Max. Yes. God, yes!”
He loved when she said his name, crying out for him, begging him for more, just as she did now. He didn’t let up, relentlessly fucking her hard. Lifting her from the floor, using the wall to brace her, Max changed the angle, pumping his hips, burying himself deeper, deeper still.
He wasn’t going to last, but neither was she. The way her hands fisted in his hair, sending blinding shards of pain down his spine, her tongue dueling with his, he knew she was close.
Her mouth separated from his as she threw her head back, hitting the wall behind her as she cried out his name again and again and
again.
“Harder,” she pleaded. “Fuck me harder, Max!”
Max thrust his hips forward, burying himself deep, retreating and slamming into her over and over. She moved, her hands falling to his shoulders as she fought to hold on to him. Her body gripped him, her fingernails digging into his biceps.
“Come for me, Courtney. Aww, fuck,” he breathed against her ear. “Fucking come for me, love.”
Her body gripped him like a vice, wrapping him in mind-blowing pleasure as she cried out his name.
His release barreled down on him.
He slammed into her once, twice, and then he let go, coming deep inside her, holding her to him, his lips on the curve of her neck as he bit back the words he’d wanted to say to her for so long.
I love you.
Although true, he couldn’t break that part of himself open. It wasn’t safe.
She wasn’t safe. Not only because of who her family was, the hellfire that they could rain down on him and likely were planning in the future, but also because of his enemies. Courtney’s life would be in imminent danger if anyone found out what she meant to him. And he couldn’t allow that to happen. Not yet. Not with things still so volatile between them.
Neither of them moved, remaining right where they were until his limbs steadied, his breaths returned to normal. When he regained his composure, Max lowered her feet to the floor and pulled his semihard dick out of her. He removed the condom, then deposited it in the trash bin before tucking himself into his jeans and fixing his clothes, never taking his eyes off her. He could see her mind working, but for the life of him, he didn’t know what she was going to say.
When he tried to kiss her again, Courtney turned her head, avoiding his mouth.
And he knew.
He fucking knew.
Max cupped her head, forcing her to look up at him. “Tell me,” he growled. “Tell me to leave and never come back. That’s your only choice, because if you don’t, Courtney…” He took a deep breath. “If you don’t, I’m gonna carry you to your bedroom and fuck you again and again. All goddamned night.”
Another shiver raced through her, but Max didn’t see an ounce of trepidation.
He’d never detected any sort of fear from Courtney. She never backed down, and he loved that about her. She knew him, understood him. More so than anyone else. But in the same sense, she was as fucking stubborn as they came. Yet she never was able to give him a good excuse as to why she continued to push him away.
Other than they came from different worlds, and that was something Max couldn’t deny.
Courtney’s gaze locked with his, her teeth scraping over her bottom lip.
And the next thing she said nearly leveled him.
“I want you to leave, Max. I never want to see you again.”
Releasing her, Max took one step back, his heart slamming against his ribs. With a subtle nod, he backed up another step. His brain was trying to process the words, although his heart already had.
“I’ll leave,” he said, his voice rougher than he expected.
For a fraction of a second, Max was sure he saw indecision in Courtney’s eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly. He knew he hadn’t imagined it, but he had to force himself to believe he had. This was what she wanted. And he was too fucking tired to continue playing this game with her.
Retrieving his jacket, Max didn’t bother putting it on. He forced his feet to move as he made his way to the door. With his hand on the knob, he didn’t turn back to look at her when he spoke. “Things are about to change for me, Courtney. Major things. But I want you to know, no matter what happens, if you ever need me, I’ll be there. You just have to call.”
With that, Max took the shattered remains of his heart and walked out the door without looking back.
Chapter Eight
Glorified babysitter…
Seriously? Again?
The following day
March 4th
“Have a seat,” Casper stated when Courtney walked into her father’s office the following morning. “You look like hell.”
“Thanks,” she told him coarsely. She felt like hell. The hangover she was nursing did little to brighten her mood, and the fact that her father had summoned her into the office so early in the morning wasn’t helping, either.
“RT told me how things went down last night.”
Courtney nodded. She had no intention of getting into a conversation with Casper or anyone else regarding the details of the night before. She would fill out the required paperwork, as she always did, but other than that, she wasn’t in the mood to chat it up.
Casper retrieved a file folder from the drawer of his desk and set it in front of him.
“I’ve got an assignment for you.”
Courtney raised her eyebrows in question. This was good news. She would jump at the opportunity to do something other than spend the next few days or weeks or, hell, even months, thinking about everything that had transpired last night. And she wasn’t referring to the op, either.
“Wealthy hotel owner in California. Needs a bodyguard for his daughter.”
Courtney tilted her head and looked at her father in disbelief. “Are you serious? I’m gonna be a glorified babysitter?”
She could tell by the look in her father’s eyes that he couldn’t deny that statement. And when he couldn’t tell her what she wanted to hear, he usually kept quiet.
“Damn it, Dad. Why? Why can’t you send me anywhere else? Hell, I’ll be happy to volunteer to take on the cheating spouse cases. But shit, I don’t want to be some rich girl’s wet nurse.”
“He insisted on a female,” Casper stated. “You’re all we’ve got right now.”
“You need to work on that,” she told him frankly. “Hire some more women. This place is overrun with testosterone as it is.”
“Do you want the case or not?” His tone held a hint of frustration.
Fuck. Why not? It would get her out of Texas, away from the lure of Max. Since she knew his family rarely made national news, at least she could keep herself safeguarded from the goings-on in his world.
“I’ll take it,” she told him, pushing to her feet and snatching the file from the desk. “When do I leave?”
She briefly flipped through the papers, then abruptly closed it, staring back at him.
“Today. Let Kira know when you need the jet,” Casper told her. “She’ll make sure to have it ready.”
Realizing her father hadn’t mentioned Max one single time, Courtney figured it was time to high-tail it out of there before he remembered to.
“I’ll see you when I see you,” she told him, reaching for the knob on the door.
“Stop by and see your mother before you go,” Casper instructed, coming to stand at her side before she could get the door open.
“Will do,” she replied, leaning into him when he kissed her forehead. “Love you, Daddy.”
Opening the door, she turned back and smiled at him. Despite the fact she was being used as an overpaid, certainly overqualified babysitter, she still loved her father, still respected the hell out of him for all that he’d built for himself.
“Love you, too, baby girl.”
Closing the door behind her, she made a beeline for the front desk.
“Hey, Jay,” she greeted their receptionist. “Get someone to man the phones and I’ll buy you coffee.”
“Have I told you how much I love you?” Jayden Brooks replied, grabbing the phone and punching a button, her pixie-cut, strawberry-blonde hair—a recent change that Courtney adored—falling into place beautifully after she spun around. “I’m takin’ a break. You got the phones? You’re awesome. Thanks, Dom.”
Less than a minute later, Courtney and Jayden were riding down the elevator to the bottom floor of their office building.
Standing beside the tall, statuesque woman made Courtney feel short. Jayden was always put together, wearing heels that boosted her into the six-foot range. It was no secret that, besides
being otherworldly beautiful, Jayden was the glue that held their office together. Not to mention, she was also well loved by the entire staff. She was as much family as the rest of them, having been with the Sniper 1 team for the last seven years, ever since Jayden had strolled in off the street at the ripe young age of eighteen, looking for a job.
“Hey, Lee, where’s Ally?” Courtney asked the barista, referring to the shop’s owner.
“Writing,” he said with a smile. “You know how she gets. If the words flow, she doesn’t emerge for a while.”
“Right. Good for her.” Courtney passed the kid a twenty and told him to keep the change.
“Where’re you off to?” Jayden inquired after they got their coffee from the counter and took a seat in the nearly empty place.
Courtney glanced around, taking stock of the few customers who were there. An older man was on his cell phone, his eyes glued to his iPad, while a young woman sipped her coffee and stared at an open textbook on the table in front of her.
“Cali,” she said, meeting Jayden’s curious light green gaze. “Looks like I’ll be babysittin’ the rich and famous.”
Jayden frowned.
“No, it’s good, really,” Courtney said before her friend could get defensive on her behalf.
“Anyone we know?” she questioned.
Courtney smiled. “Think rich, snotty, reality show reject.”
Jayden’s smile widened.
“Someone’s gotta do it, right?” Courtney chuckled, spinning her cup in her hands.
“I guess. Not sure why it’s you, though.” Without missing a beat, Jayden moved right on to another subject. “How’s Marissa?”
Courtney remembered the events of the night before. “She’s…” She sighed heavily. “Free. Finally.”
It was hard to believe that after a year of being on the run, her best friend was finally free from the shit storm that had derailed her life. And to think it’d been as simple as RT going to Max, interrogating him a little for information, then garnering an invite to a party. Had Courtney sucked it up, gone to Max herself, it would’ve been over a long time ago.
Beautifully Brutal (Southern Boy Mafia #1) Page 7