“What?” I gasped. I couldn’t have been more shocked if someone told me Grams had walked in and asked for me. I adored Mandy and Xander but I never would have thought they’d name their kid after me. I never thought anyone would.
“What’s her name?” Max asked, beaming at me.
“Elise Marie. Elise is Charlie’s middle name,” Lexi explained to Max, “and Marie is Xander’s mom’s middle name. Claire said they never could have gotten through Mandy’s pregnancy without you, Charles, so they wanted to honor you with Elise’s name.”
Tears sprung to my eyes at Lexi’s words. It felt like I had a family for the first time since Grams died. These friends, the seven women I’d come to call my closest friends, weren’t really friends. They were my sisters. Women I could trust and would be there for me, no matter what.
Mandy had a crazy sweet tooth during her pregnancy. She’d sent Xander to Bite Me! a lot at the beginning for a cupcake or two before she gave in and just started getting them by the dozen. I could tell Xander was helping her eat them when he starting putting on a few pounds, too.
Around four months into her pregnancy I decided to save Xander the trip and started delivering cupcakes to them. Kendall would drop off a box to Mandy at work and another to Xander so they could have some when they got home. Some nights Mandy said cupcakes were the only thing she’d eat for dinner. I knew the feeling!
Max wrapped his arm around my shoulders and smiled at Lexi. “That’s really sweet of them. Did everything go well?”
Lexi nodded and glanced at Max’s arm around me. At that moment I didn’t care what she thought. I was glowing and nothing could bring me down.
“Mandy is tired, but Xander said everything went well, even if it took longer than they expected. Oh, and Addi and Joey will be here soon.”
I nodded, still a bit in a daze, and let Max guide me over to our seats. I fell into my chair, immediately feeling the loss of his warmth around me. How was it possible I’d gotten so comfortable with him, and so used to him, in such a short time? It wasn’t that he was a customer, or even the way we’d met, it was something else. Something I couldn’t put my finger on. Like I’d known him forever even though it’d only been a week.
“That’s a pretty huge honor. It sounds like your friends are as in awe of you as I am. You’re a pretty amazing woman, Charlotte.”
I blushed at his compliment and tried to brush it off. I’d never been good at accepting praise, except for my baking. Being an extension of Grams, I knew it was good. I was copying her work with my own and no one could deny how talented she was. But for anything else… I struggled to accept that people were being truthful. It was hard to sit back and think what I was being told was true.
No one had ever said I was amazing though.
When Mandy was finally settled we all piled into her too small room to get a look at the baby. Everyone let me hold her first and she was the most perfect little person I’d ever seen. She looked up at me with a sleepy grin. I was vaguely aware of Max taking pictures of us, but I didn’t care. I was in love, completely head over heels in love, with Elise.
“If you ever need a babysitter, please call me,” I told Mandy as I handed Elise off to Claire.
Mandy grinned at me and Xander leaned down to kiss her forehead. “We definitely will.”
As Elise was passed around to everyone I caught more than one look of longing from my friends and just as many looks of desire from the men in their lives. Something told me there was going to be another baby in our midst before long. Maybe a few.
Mandy started yawning as the sky outside darkened. Elise was cuddled against Xander’s chest, sound asleep. The looks the two of them were giving each other said they were beyond happy, and would have a hard time keeping their hands to themselves until Mandy’s six weeks were up.
Most of us walked out together, piling into an elevator to head down to the garage. Max’s hand rested on the small of my back, the heat from him penetrating my jacket to warm me up. When we got out into the cold Lexi asked, “Charles, can we give you a ride home?”
“I’ve got her,” Max said before I had a chance. “I, mean, uh, I don’t mind. If Charlotte’s okay with that.”
“Thank you,” I said quietly to him, smiling to myself, and hugged Lexi.
She whispered, “Call me later,” then released me and headed off with Mike.
Max led me to his Expedition, holding the door as I climbed into the vehicle, then closing it behind me. I watched as he walked around the front and wondered why he felt the need to take care of me. All day he’d been doing everything from getting my friend to the hospital, closing up my shop, and buying food for everyone. He’d been by my side, supporting me like I’d always wanted someone to do.
And it was throwing me off in a big way.
The ride back to my place was quiet. I suddenly didn’t know what to say to Max. We’d spent so much time together, but most of it was with the rest of my friends. The only time we were alone was when we went for a walk and almost kissed.
All I could think about was the way he looked at me before I got slammed into the wall. My body heated all over again at the thought. I’d wanted to kiss him. Hell, I still did. But I’d be damned if I initiated something. Max was probably just lost in the moment or something. There was no way a man like him would want me.
Max pulled into a parking space in front of Bite Me! and turned off the engine. I felt like I owed him something for his help and found myself asking, “Do you want to come in? I can make a fresh pot of coffee and I’m sure there are muffins and cupcakes left since I closed so early.”
“I’d love to,” Max grinned, showing that adorable dimple.
Max followed me through the darkened storefront back to the kitchen after I locked the front door. I flipped on the lights and propped the door open so I could grab some muffins and cupcakes from the case. “What would you like?”
Max groaned and my gut clenched, realizing how my question sounded. I spun to look at him and was nearly bowled over by the feral, hungry look in his eyes. He wanted me. I could see it, almost smell it in the heavy, sugar-filled air around us.
His eyes locked on mine and he knew I saw it. He stalked toward me, slowly, like he was approaching his prey. In a way I guess he was, but it shocked the hell out of me. I couldn’t think though, not with that look in his eyes, with that demand… that need.
Without stopping, pausing, or giving me a chance to question him, Max walked toward me until our bodies touched, until we were aligned in the most intimate way possible, until his lips crashed into mine.
His kiss was softer than I expected given his approach. He looked at me as though he was going to devour me, but his kiss was light and gentle, a finger dipped in the icing bowl instead of a spoonful. Just enough that I knew I wanted more.
Max angled his head and cupped my cheek. His tongue brushed against my closed lips and they fell apart like they’d been waiting for a good reason, allowing him entry and letting him take whatever he wanted. When his tongue touched mine my internals ovens went from warming to broil in a second. I couldn’t get enough of him and he seemed to feel the same way.
Max’s hands were all over me at once, like he couldn’t touch enough of me. He shoved my jacket free of my shoulders and it trapped my hands in the sleeves. I struggled to get free, finally releasing my hands as his kisses assaulted my senses. His mouth moved from mine to my neck and collarbone, open-mouthed kisses leaving a blazing trail of desire on my skin.
When his hands joined the party and cupped my heavy breasts I nearly lost it. I moaned loudly, my body aching for his touch, and arched into his hands. He smiled against my skin as his thumbs teased my nipples to tight, hard peaks. “Can we take this upstairs? Put that big, pink bed of yours to good use?”
I nodded, unable to form words with how far gone I was. Max could have asked me just about anything and I would have agreed. Six months was entirely too long to go without sex, especially when one touch from a near stranger turned me into a puddle of goo on the floor.
Even if he was the sexiest man I’d ever seen. Maybe the sweetest too.
In my apartment Max wasted no time connecting with me again. He turned on the kitchen light which left the rest of the apartment in a faint glow. I would have preferred no lights, anything to hide my lumpy body, but I wanted to see him. If he was that good looking with clothes on, I knew he’d be a god without clothes.
Max guided me past the living room to the bedroom area of my studio apartment and stood in front of my bed rubbing his hands up and down my arms. I braced myself for the speech, you know the ‘I shouldn’t be doing this and I need to go’ speech. The one where he tried to let me down easy. The one that was going to both piss me off and hurt like hell.
“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered instead. Floored, I gave him a funny look. This was going to be a one-night thing, I knew that. A guy like Max wouldn’t be with someone like me, and that was okay. Compliments weren’t usually part of the one-night stand deal though. He was changing the rules. And I didn’t like it.
Without acknowledging his words, I leaned up to press my lips to his again. He let me lead the kiss for a few seconds before resuming his control. His tongue pressed into my mouth and stroked mine with long, firm movements. His hips ground against mine in the same rhythm and his hands cupped my ass, holding me against him.
With every movement, I got closer and closer to bursting. We still had all our clothes on and I was going to come apart before we’d even gotten to the good stuff.
I needed to see him, to feel him, before I lost it completely. My hands worked under his shirt and my fingers caressed the rippled muscles of his abs. His kissing slowed and his hips stopped while I touched him, drawing his focus away from anything else. When I pulled at his shirt he broke away from me to tug it over his head.
He was every bit as stunning as I’d expected. His abs led up to perfect moon shaped pecs with flat nipples hidden among a chest hairy enough to give him an outdoorsy kind of feel. His shoulders arced above his chest and led back down to biceps, triceps, and whatever other kind of -ceps there could be, all tense as I appraised him.
I wanted to run my tongue all over his body. My mouth was hanging open but there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. He was amazing and, for one night, he was mine.
Slowly my fingers ran over all his muscles, my eyes devouring the sight of his olive skin against my pale hands. As I outlined each muscle it jumped, like it was doing a mini-happy dance right there under his skin. God knew my body was doing a happy dance of it’s own, and the party seemed to have started between my legs.
When my hands went back to his abs I couldn’t stop, even if I tried, which I didn’t. I had to keep going, to find out what the rest of him felt like, looked like. I looked up into his lust-filled eyes and watched him as I unsnapped his jeans then guided his zipper down. He sucked in a breath and his eyes rolled closed when my fingers brushed against him through his boxer briefs, sending a thrill through me.
His jeans slid down his legs without any help and he kicked out of them, leaving him in his boxer briefs and socks. And an erection straining to get out. Meeting his eyes again I slipped my fingers into the edges of his boxer briefs and slid them down just a little, then reached inside and wrapped my hand around him.
Dear god, the man was huge. My panties dampened, anticipation spiraling through me as I imagined him filling me. I stroked him gently, gripping him just enough to drag the soft skin with my palm, and moaned at the feel of him trembling in my hand.
Max groaned again and crashed his mouth down on mine. His tongue plunged into my mouth, demanding and needy. His teeth clacked against mine as he tried to get our mouths closer together, his tongue deeper into me. My cheeks ached from spreading my lips so wide, but I didn’t care.
I stroked Max as we kissed and his hips joined in, moving against me and helping me set a pace he enjoyed. He pulsed in my hand and I waited, knowing it wouldn’t be long.
Then he was gone.
Max spun away from me and put his head in his hands. “Holy shit, I can’t do that. I’m sorry, Charlotte.”
Disappointment and anger welled up inside. He was standing in my bedroom, almost naked, and decided to get a fucking conscience? What the hell?
“I think you should go,” I said quietly, seething with so much anger I didn’t trust my full voice without showing it.
Max pivoted on his heel and faced me, his face clouded in confusion. “What?”
“If you can’t do it then you should go.”
He reached for me but I evaded him and moved back a few steps. “Charlotte, that’s not what I meant. I didn’t want to come that way. I wanted to make you feel good too. First. You should always come first.”
When I didn’t say anything he moved toward me again but this time I stood still, anxiously waiting for his touch. I could see in his eyes he was being honest and that he wanted me to enjoy it too. He pulled me into him and kissed me again, and like a drug addict, one hit and I was hooked.
Before I realized what he was doing Max had me naked. He spun us back toward the bed and kissed me until I was flat on my back. He hovered over me, the hair on his legs brushing the tops of my thighs. He trailed kisses down my body, over my neck, beyond my collarbone, to the humps of my breasts. He took one in his hand and brought it up to his lips, laving my skin with his tongue before pulling my peaked nipple into his mouth.
My back arched and a moan slipped from my lips. Max coaxed moan after moan out of me before turning his attention to my other breasts where he repeated the delicious torture. When he’d had his fill, he continued his downward path, kissing the undersides of my breasts, the bumps of my stomach, and my no-gap thighs.
When he tried to nudge my thighs apart I locked my knees tighter than Fort Knox. Max chuckled softly and said, “Please Charlotte. I’ve had your cupcakes, but I’m dying to taste your sweetness.”
“Max, I’ve never… I don’t know.”
His eyes met mine over my bumpy body and all I saw in his eyes was raw need. He wanted me. And he wanted me like that. No guy I’d been with had thought twice about going there with anything other than his cock. Having Max’s face down there was… fuck, who was I kidding? It was hotter than hell.
A slow smile spread over his lips as my legs eased apart and his gaze broke from mine to look at me. I’d never given much thought to how I looked down there. I kept up with shaving because I didn’t like how it felt not to, but would Max like it?
Did I care?
One swipe of his hot tongue against me and all my worries vanished. My body came alive under his touch. My head swam with the ecstasy he brought me to, the world spinning faster and faster until I felt the undeniable clench low in my gut that told me I was about to fall apart in the most glorious way.
Max held my legs and cupped his hands under my ass, drawing me closer to him. The edges of my brain darkened until Max slid a finger or two inside me. Everything exploded into a kaleidoscope of colors so bright I wondered where they came from. My body hummed as the colors danced in front of my eyes, the kaleidoscope spinning and changing over and over again until I collapsed against the bed.
Max shed his boxers and protected us both before I could see straight again. I was vaguely aware of the bed shifting with his movements and his mouth traveling back up my body. When he kissed me again it was a slow, soft kiss that matched the way I was feeling. Worn out but anxious for more.
Our kiss grew as Max aligned his body with mine. I felt him hard against my inner thigh and was more than ready for him. When his tongue danced in my mouth I wrapped a leg around his and encouraged his movement.
He chuckled against my lips. “A little anxious, are we?”
I couldn’t help laughing with him. “More than a little.”
Max lined himself up with me and thrust inside in one quick movement. My body stretched around him and welcomed the extra full feeling of having him there. I didn’t get a good look at how big he was, but judging by the more-than-a-handful and how he felt inside, he was of the extra-large variety. God, it felt so good.
Until he started to move.
Ooh, good lord, good didn’t even come close to how it felt. Delicious, spectacular, sensational, amazing, earth-shattering. That got a lot closer.
“All that?” Max whispered close to my ear. “Delicious, spectacular, sensational, amazing, and earth-shattering? That’s the best compliment I’ve ever gotten. And we’re not even done yet.”
Oh, shit. “Did I say that out loud?”
“Yeah,” Max said, his hot breath tickling my ear. His teeth sunk into my earlobe and sent a jolt of pleasure through my body. “And you’re right. It’s all that and more.”
Max sucked on my neck as his hips moved against mine. I clenched my legs tightly around him, wishing I could hook my ankles together. As his lips moved toward my breasts my heart beat faster and my body tightened. He held my breasts together with one hand and nipped at both together, sending me flying over the cliff yet again.
As I called out his name, Max pistoned into me deep and hard. My bed shook, the world quaked, and as I came again he was right there with me, grunting my name before he took my lips in a forceful kiss that would leave my lips bruised and wanting more.
Max collapsed on top of me, his weight pressing me deep into my worn mattress. His breath was warm against my neck and his heart pounded against my own accelerated rhythm.
I wanted to stay just like that forever, surrounded by his manly, intoxicating scent, the feel of his body on top of me.
After a few minutes he rolled off the bed and headed to the bathroom. I pulled a sheet over me, not sure how he was going to act when he came back and not willing to lie there, exposed and vulnerable if he was going to pull on his clothes and vanish.
When he came back to my bed he started collecting his clothes. His shirt, his pants, his boxer briefs, even his boots, all disappeared from my floor into a pile in his hands. If I wasn’t feeling a little hurt I would have laughed at how silly he looked in his black socks, one pulled up to his calf and the other slouched down around his ankle, holding a pile of clothes.
Then he started picking up my clothes. Mine went into the pile with his. He set the whole thing down on the edge of my couch then walked over to the bed, still in only his socks.
Without waiting for an invitation, Max pulled back the sheet on the other side of the bed and climbed in with me. He cuddled up against me and wrapped his big, strong arm around my waist and yanked me into the center of the bed with him. “I need to go get my plow before the snow gets too bad, but I’m not ready to leave just yet,” he whispered against my shoulder.
I nodded and felt my body relax against his, sleep pulling at me until I drifted away, warm and satisfied. And happier than I’d been in a long time.