Loving the Bastard

by Marteeka Karland

  She approached Max carefully, not wanting him to bolt from her again. Funny that. Today had been the first day he’d sought her out since that incredible moment they’d shared together. In fact, Max had avoided her like the plague since he’d left her rooms. Zeta had wanted out of this stupid situation, and she’d actually been pleased he’d fled. At first. Then she remembered the look of stark possession and raw need and hunger on his face. Now she wasn’t sure how she felt about it being over. Fortunately, he was too busy grinning after Debra and the kids to notice her approach.

  “That’s a good thing you did with Trevor,” she said, putting a tentative hand on his arm, unexpectedly needing that closeness, that…connection she’d had with him in the moments they’d kissed. “He really responded to well to you. And you did it in such a way that he could easily do it himself from now on.”

  Max looked startled at first, then scowled. “What? Did you think I’d try to stick the kid in a three-piece suit?”

  Yeah. So much for not wanting out of this situation. Every time she thought she might be able to get along with the man he went and opened his damned mouth. “No… I simply meant showing him how to use what he has available to clean himself really helped. The apartment they rent doesn’t have a bathroom. They have to go down the hall. The whole floor shares a bathroom, and the entire building shares a laundry room. He can’t always shower and wash his clothes when he needs to.”

  With every word, Max’s expression grew harder and harder until the muscles in his cheeks stood out while he clenched and unclenched his teeth. “Madness,” he finally hissed. “This is the fucking United States of America! Not some third-world backward country!”

  “Hey,” Zeta said, raising her hands in surrender. “I’m just telling you the way it is. Debra tries to keep them clean and presentable, but with her work schedule and trying to work odd jobs in between her cleaning gigs just to keep them in that crappy apartment and together, she doesn’t always have time to wait on an open shower or available washer. Shani does what she can, but her going to the laundry room by herself isn’t really a good idea.”

  All of a sudden, Max looked weary, glancing back at the door where the three had departed. Taking out his cell phone, he tapped out a rhythm on the touch screen, obviously sending a message to someone.

  “Everything okay?” Zeta asked, raising an eyebrow.

  “Not really,” he muttered. When he tucked his phone into his pocket, he turned the full force of his amazingly blue eyes on her. “This is all your fault,” he said accusingly.

  “That they live in bad conditions?” Zeta’s heart sped up. She knew what he was referring to, could see it in his eyes when he looked at Trevor and now Shani. That part of him he tried never to feel, much less show, was cracking through his icy exterior.

  Without another word, Max snagged her upper arm, dragging her away from the main gym area down a deserted hallway and into an alcove. Not giving her a chance to question him further, he shoved her against the wall, caging her in with his powerful arms and mashing that hard body against her.

  “You made me care!” he growled. Then took her mouth with his.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Max took her lips in a brutal kiss, his need to punish her for something he couldn’t control undeniable. There had never in his life been a time when he had worried about someone other than himself. Everything he’d done for anyone—even his own family—had been a means to an end.

  Then along came Zeta. She’d crashed into his heart with that slap she’d so expertly delivered, and Max hadn’t been able to get her out. She’d brought him to this place, introduced him to a world he didn’t understand, then sat back to see how he’d fare. The little bitch had been expecting him to connect with the kids! Had she intended for him to connect with her as well?

  With a savage thrust of his tongue, Max took her mouth. Zeta was trapped between his body and the wall, unable to deny him what he needed to take. Max caged her in, mashing his body against hers so there was no way she could escape him. The thick length of his cock pressed against her belly, and he ground it against her, thrusting much like his tongue thrust into her mouth. Never had he needed to bury himself inside a woman the way he did now. And it wasn’t just any woman he wanted. He wanted Zeta with a passion bordering on insanity.

  On some level Max knew there was nothing he could do because they weren’t in an acceptable environment. The hallway was well away from everyone, but there was no guarantee they wouldn’t be spotted. As much as he could really not give a fuck what anyone saw or thought, he knew it would matter a great deal to Zeta. And goddammit, it mattered to him that it mattered to her. Which just angered him all the more.

  “What the fuck have you done to me?” His harsh question was delivered in a whisper against her lips as he took her mouth again.

  * * *

  A fine shiver ran through Zeta at his question. She knew she’d been making an impact, but after he’d avoided her for the past few days she thought Max might have been pulling away. The fiery passion with which he kissed her said otherwise. There was little time to process the fact that he’d admitted to caring about…something. Likely little Trevor and his family. Once Max put all that anger inside him into that kiss, Zeta rapidly lost the battle to keep her wits about her.

  Somewhere in the back of her mind, Zeta knew she needed to stop this, stop the lustful way she kissed Max back, but there didn’t seem to be a way for her to deny him. She wasn’t a fool. Zeta knew Max was punishing her as much as he was releasing some of the pent-up anger inside him. Maybe he was even punishing himself as much as anything else. All she knew for certain was that he needed her as much as anyone had ever needed her—or more.

  She made a weak effort to break away from him, but Max simply wrapped a hand around her throat to hold her steady. He didn’t hurt her, but the restraint was impossible to break. So much anger and hurt was in his kiss that it made Zeta’s heart ache for him even as her body went up in flames.

  Just when Zeta was sure she’d gone past the point of keeping her sanity, Max ended the kiss. His hand still circled her throat, but he no longer seemed like he might hurt her at any moment. In fact, Max pressed his forehead to hers, his eyes closed as he caught his breath. Zeta was in no better shape. It was only now that she realized she’d been clutching his shirt in a death grip. Worse, she realized she might not have stopped him if he’d tried to take more from her than that kiss.

  “Come on,” he said, though he made no move to leave. “We’re going home.”

  “I think it’s best,” she managed, not sure what she meant. She needed away from him, but Zeta had the feeling Max wasn’t going to let her out of his sight any time soon. He’d passed the point where he’d be able to let her go willingly, and Zeta was woman enough to recognize it. She just wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it.

  “Damned straight,” he growled.

  Finally, Max started down the hall back to the gym and the front entrance. Only he snagged her hand, not letting go until he helped her into the car. Then he only let go long enough to climb in beside her and put the car in drive. Once on the road back to the house, he snagged her hand once more. Zeta wasn’t even sure he realized what he’d done but he clutched her hand like a lifeline. His jaw clenched, the muscles there bulging each time he ground his teeth together. The fierce look on his face mirrored the look at the Y and didn’t alter all the way home. By the time they pulled into the garage, Zeta was a mass of nerves and unfulfilled desire.

  The only question was, did she dare act on those feelings? Even more, did she dare let him act on them? She had the feeling she might not have much choice. One thing she’d learned since this whole thing started was that Maximilian Roth always got what he wanted.

  Chapter Fourteen

  If he didn’t get Zeta into his bed, Maximilian thought he might go stark raving mad. There were a hundred reasons why this was a bad idea, but he couldn’t think of a single one of them right n
ow. He’d wanted to sleep with her, intended on her having his baby. Hell, he was going to marry her! Sex would be a big fat necessary part of all those things. But he was too close now. Too…goddamned emotional. In his gut, Max knew sex with Zeta now would form a bond with her he wasn’t certain he could break in the aftermath.

  It wasn’t only that either. He wanted—needed—Zeta in his bed. Taking her in the guest suite where she currently resided wasn’t what he wanted. Max needed to stake his claim with her, show her he meant business even though he would never admit it to her. Somehow, he had to resist the urge to lock her away in his rooms and never let her out. As far as she was concerned, this would be just sex between two adults who had an intense lust for one another. But taking her in his suite, in his bed, would be giving too much of himself. Would cement all these unfamiliar feelings so that he might not be able to hold himself back. With a force of will he hadn’t known he possessed, Max detoured to her suite. He’d take her there and be satisfied. Completely.

  Zeta pushed at his chest, wiggling to try to get down, but Max was having none of it. Like a man possessed, he stalked to her bedroom, only setting her on her feet to loop one arm around her back while his other hand tightened around her nape to hold her steady for his kiss. For several moments, she was stiff in his arms, her mouth stubbornly closed, but little by little, she relaxed, her lips parting on a whimper. Max took advantage, sweeping his tongue inside. Tasting her. And God, she was sweet!

  Max urged her onto the bed, covering her body with his own. The need he had to possess her completely was nearly overwhelming, taking his good sense and tossing it to the wind. But had anything ever felt so…right? It was as if, knowing he was about to make Zeta his, something inside him clicked into place. This was where he was supposed to be. This was what he needed so desperately he’d searched his entire life for it.

  Ridding her of her clothing proved an easy task. At least, he thought so. His focus had been so great he hadn’t really registered the actual process, but somehow she was naked, standing before him, all that chocolate skin gleaming in the sunlight that poured through the skylight above her bed. Looking up at him with a kind of helpless lust, Zeta reached for him, pulling his shirt over his head even as she reached for the waist of his jeans. Their breaths were ragged. His growls and her needy whimpers filled the space of her bedroom.

  With a desperate shout, Max lifted Zeta by the waist and tossed her to the bed, following her down. His lips latched on to one beaded nipple and he sucked strongly, greedily. One hand found her other breast and he squeezed, rolling the nipple between his fingers before squeezing her tender flesh again. Zeta arched into his touch with a sharp cry, spreading her legs and rolling her hips before he even touched her there.

  “God! That’s it, Zeta,” he growled. “You’re mine, and your body knows it.” Max stroked a rough caress down her torso to her sex, his whole hand covering her neatly trimmed cunt. All that smooth skin there for him to taste, her lush little body there for him to stroke and take pleasure from.

  “It’s just sex,” she said on a breath, her voice ragged, the intensity of her own desires matching his own. Her sex was weeping with need, moisture leaking to wet her inner thighs. There was no faking that. Same as there was no faking the aching erection he was now sporting. “Just sex between two people who need to blow off some steam.”

  With a maddening roar, Max pushed himself off her, shoving her back on the bed and forcing her legs farther apart and over his shoulders. “NO! You’re mine, Zeta! After tonight, you’ll never deny it! Never forget it!” The thought that she could compartmentalize intimacy with him suddenly infuriated him. Hadn’t he just said much the same thing to himself only a few minutes ago? Hadn’t he expected she’d feel this way? Counted on it, even? So why did hearing her it fill him with a fury such as he’d never known?

  Before she could reply, Max covered her cunt with his mouth, stabbing his tongue deep. Her cries were all the encouragement he needed. Licking and flicking her clit, Max threw himself into her pleasure, needing to prove he could make her feel more than simply lust. He wanted everything with her. Everything he’d always longed for but never had. Even now, he wasn’t certain he could bring himself to admit what that was. All he could concentrate on was how sweetly her body responded to him. So he blocked out everything but that. Everything but Zeta and her body’s responses to him.

  In all her adult life, Zeta had never experienced anything quite like the pleasure coursing through her now. Max certainly knew his way around a woman’s body. His rough touches fueled her desires, her baser lusts. She needed to deny him, to at the very least reiterate the fact that this was no more than a release of pent-up lust for both of them. He didn’t really want her any more than she wanted him. Not for more than a few pleasurable moments.

  Then she lost the ability to think about it anymore. Pleasure washed over her in an unrelenting wave like she’d never experienced. Max’s fingers were deep inside her, his mouth fastened securely around her clit. He flicked and sucked the little bud as she came in a rush. Unable to suppress her cries, Zeta screamed, her back bowing, her head thrashing. Nothing mattered but the man whose face was currently between her thighs pleasuring her like no one ever had.

  Before she could float back to earth, Max covered her with his large, muscular frame. The head of his cock probed her entrance once before he plunged into her with a hoarse shout. Just that fast, he started a hard, driving rhythm that threatened to push her over the edge again. When his gaze locked with hers, Zeta’s breath caught. In the depths of those arresting blue eyes was a man desperate for not only her body, but her heart. She could see it as clearly as if he’d actually voiced it. And maybe he had, just not in the way most men would. But this was Max. He wasn’t the type of man to give her heartfelt words of passion. This was a man who took what he wanted. In her case, he did it by making her cede herself willingly.

  “Say it, Zeta,” he grated. “You’re mine! There will never be another man for you. Say it!”

  “You know I won’t,” she whimpered, though she was damned close to giving even that much of herself. “This is an arrangement of convenience.” How she managed to deny him, to even form a coherent thought while he took her so passionately, Zeta had no idea. All she knew was that her future happiness depended on her being strong. Max wasn’t nearly ready for this. If she gave in to his demands now, he’d hold her to them while doing exactly as he wished himself. True, he needed her more than any other person in her life had ever needed her, but he didn’t recognize it and wouldn’t acknowledge it even if he did.

  “You will!” He rode her harder, faster, wrapping his arms so tightly around her Zeta could hardly breathe. But she loved it! Craved it! In response, she wrapped her legs around him, digging her heels into his ass, urging him on. “Deny it all you want, but you are mine! Mine to take! Mine to fuck! Just…mine!”

  “Ah, God! Max!” As his possessive words washed over her, so did her orgasm once again. It was a hard, crashing torrent that nearly knocked her down in the bliss of the moment. Zeta felt the pull to Max as surely as he felt it. He had to or he wouldn’t be saying all those things. The pull toward each other had been instantaneous and consistent. No matter how much she disliked him as a person on the outside, inside Max was everything she’d longed for in a partner. She knew it in the very pit of her soul. He just needed to find that part of himself. Zeta knew it would be something for her alone, that he’d never show it to the outside world, and that was fine with her. But before she could give him what he demanded, he had to give a little part of himself too.

  With that last thought, Zeta succumbed to the pleasure. Her screams echoed all around them, accompanied by his growls and snarls as he found his own release as well as the sharp staccato rhythm of flesh meeting flesh. With a harsh, ragged cry, Max arched his back, his hips jerked convulsively as he emptied himself into her. Zeta only tightened her hold on him, wanting everything he had to give her even as she knew it w
as a bad idea. Unfortunately, some primitive part of her needed to receive everything this man had to give her. Welcomed it, even.

  When it was over, when he collapsed on top of her, his body as slick with sweat as her own, Zeta had a moment to wonder what the hell had just happened. The sex had been explosive, heartfelt, and pleasurable to the extreme. More importantly, Zeta had to wonder if she had been able to keep her heart distanced from such an intensely emotional act. Just before she relaxed into an exhausted sleep with Max still draped over her, she realized she was terribly afraid she hadn’t. Zeta knew she was falling hard for Maximilian Roth.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “Wake for me, sweet.” Max’s gruff rumble floated through the haze of sleep around Zeta, rousing her to an erotic reality that felt more like a dream. How could one man be so insatiable? Or so fiercely demanding yet still gentle? After their first frenzied mating, Max had slowed his pace considerably, taking time to learn her body from top to bottom. Every time she whimpered in need or squealed in delight, he’d stopped to explore that area further.

  Before she’d fully awakened, Max had hooked her leg over his arm and entered her from behind. His other arm cradled her head while his fingers tugged and rolled one of her nipples between them. There was no way Zeta could contain her cries of pleasure as he began a slow but insistent rhythm. This was the man she’d hoped to find when she’d talked herself into this craziness. The only problem was, she liked it too much. He still held himself away from her while demanding everything she had to give. Any hope of keeping her heart uninvolved until Max showed some sign he actually cared for her went up in flames along with her body.

  “There’s a good girl,” he praised. And, God help her, Zeta’s whole body responded. She could almost pretend there was more between them than the physical attraction when he said things like that in that particular tone of voice. He sounded like a lover intent on pleasing his woman, when in reality she knew it was only one more weapon he used to try to control her. “I love how responsive you are. How you love what I’m doing to this beautiful body of yours.” His words seduced her just as much as his body. Probably more so. Had she even realized how much she wanted a man to say things like that to her? Hell, Max probably studied and prepared for seducing a woman just as hard as he worked at making money, at his precious business. Deep down, Zeta knew he was executing a plan that had likely been carefully laid out and plotted to the extreme, but, God help her, she was stepping into that trap willingly.