Billionaire Romance: MAXIMILIAN (An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Mystery Romance) (Mysterious Billionaires Book 3, Anthologies & Collections) (3 page)

“Oh, that is where you are wrong,” he said. “It has everything to do with you. But yes, it gave me power. The question is, are you strong enough to use your own power?”

She blinked at him. “What do you mean?’

His voice was low and warm. His breath washed across her cheek and neck as he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “All you have to do is ask. But you have to be strong enough to ask, because I don’t like weak or indecisive women. I like women strong enough to decide what they want and go after it, women strong enough to ask for what they really want, way down deep.”

What was he saying? Did he expect her to ask him to spank her? She stared at him, unsure and wary. She said, “Maybe so.”

His smile got wider. “Do you want dinner?”

“With you?”

His grin became rueful. “Yes, that was sort of implied, I thought.”

“I don’t do implied.” Now the shoe was on the other foot.

Or so she thought. He neatly turned the tables by saying, “Good. Then would you like to go to dinner with me right now?”

She went hot. “I wasn’t fishing for an invitation.”

“No, you weren’t, and even if you were I’d already offered one up.”

Dammit! The man was entirely frustrating and irritating and… and hot. So hot. But it wasn’t just the sexual charisma pouring off of him that made her want to say yes. It was something in his face. He looked hopeful, something she never would have thought he could feel.

She said, “I’d love dinner.”

He nodded. “Good. I was hoping you’d say yes.”

“What if I had said no?”

He shrugged, “I would have ordered food and brought it in here and ate it, and hopefully you would have joined me. I would hate to think you are stubborn enough to go hungry.”

Her lips twitched. “It depends on what’s on offer. I would probably kill for good Thai and Indian food, but if you order pizza you better order a small because I hate it.”

He actually looked flabbergasted. “You hate pizza?”

“I do. I worked at a pizza place all through high school and college. I was broke through college so I ate at work, where I could get a discount. I hope to never see another slice of pizza as long as I live.”

“That makes sense. I worked as a dishwasher before I got a job at a lawn service. You won’t catch me washing dishes or pushing a lawnmower.”

It was her to turn to be astonished. “You were a dishwasher?”

“I was. I grew up the same as the other guys—over on the Westside. And not the Westside the way it is now. It’s been fixed up some since, and we had a big hand in that. We grew up dodging drug dealers shooting it out on the streets and people selling liquor out of the back doors of cars. Going to school meant running a gauntlet of hookers and johns and cops. Being a dishwasher was actually a step up from what I could have been.”

She hadn’t thought she could ever admire him. She’d known he came up hard, as had all the partners. She just hadn’t known about the Westside. She’d never been there, and she had no intention of going either. The partners might have had a hand in getting it pulled back from the brink of actual disaster, but it was still a highly unsafe area, one a woman on her own had no business going into.

“I see.”

“How about you?”

She said, “I grew up in a rough neighborhood in a small town. That means I grew up in the worst house on the worst street in a small town. I can’t say it was that bad, not as bad as you had it, but I get it.”

His full lips curved upward, “And yet, here you are.”

“And here you are.” She picked up her bag and asked, “Are we going to dinner?”

“We are.”

He took her arm and guided her out of the office and down to the express elevator. They stood still and quiet, but her emotions were anything but quiet. Max was turning her on just being near her, and what was more she wanted to know more about him. A lot more. She asked, “How did you get into real estate?”

He shrugged. “I saw a condo for sale. It was crap. I saw it because I was on the lawn crew that did their maintenance. I called, found out the bank had given up selling it, and I went to the bank and used every dime in my savings as a down payment and then financed the rest. I did a DIY fixup that was really an eye opener. I also got a real estate license because it was cheaper to get a license than hire a realtor. One thing led to another. I sold that condo, paid it off and used the cash to buy another place and do the same thing. Plus I started selling houses for other people, so I learned plenty, and that translated well to this.”

“You have a good eye. The things you added to my design were incredible.”

He asked, “Did it really bother you that I added to it the way I did?”

“Yes,” she said honestly.

“I see. I will be sure to be more cognizant of that in the future. You obviously work hard, and I didn’t mean to make you feel like I wasn’t respectful of your work, but I can see how what I did would come off that way.”

Again he had just flummoxed her. She murmured a thank you and they got into the elevator then off again. They headed through the lobby and outside. Max said, “There’s a great Italian place right around the corner.”

“I like Italian.”

They set off walking. His hip brushed against hers as they walked and she found herself moving slightly closer to him. He walked fast, but not at a pace she found it bothersome to keep up with. Their legs were almost perfectly matched and so were their strides, and she found herself wondering what else about them might match perfectly like that.

They had dinner, and to her surprise she enjoyed his company. All the anger she had felt toward him evaporated like dew. She finally got it. He had been waiting for her to tell him what she wanted, and she had been waiting for
him
to tell her what she wanted.

They left the restaurant and Max said, “Would you like to have a drink at my place? I live in the Towers there.”

The Towers. The soaring and terribly expensive condos right off the city’s most expensive shopping strip. She stared up at the lines of the building with some misgivings; misgivings not about him, but about herself. She was a girl from a poor neighborhood. Did she really belong up there?

He belonged up there, so why not?

Taking a deep breath she said, “Yes, I would.”

He took her hand. Little thrills shot through her body, making her nipples stiffen into hard taut peaks as they crossed the street at the light and headed into the lobby of the building. She said, “So you can walk to work every day.”

“Yes, it’s part of why I chose it.”

As soon as he opened the door to his apartment she knew the other reason he had bought that penthouse. The city lay beneath them, spread out like a glowing jewel. The lights flickered and danced against the mist rolling in from the river, and she gasped as she stared out at the stunning vista.

“It’s beautiful!”

“Not as beautiful as you.”

His hands rested on her shoulders for a moment. In the clear glass of the windows she could see his face, right above her slender shoulder. He gave her a pensive look that made her insides melt.

He turned her around and their mouths met. His hands slid down her shoulders and along her back, his fingertips pressing hard into the pressure points just below her shoulder blades.

Tension she hadn’t known she had released, leaving her limp. His hands slid downward, cupping her bottom. Her mouth met his, and the kiss was so ferocious it took her breath and left her senses reeling in all different directions.

He broke the kiss off and said, “Tell me what you want.”

She stared at him, trying to form words. She finally said, “What you did before but… but more.”

His eyes held hers. “What did I do?”

She swallowed hard. “You spanked me. But you didn’t make love to me.”

“
Fuck
you.”

Her face burned, but the words made her hotter than she had ever been before in her entire life. “You didn’t fuck me. And… and I want you to.”

Oh God. She’d never said that to a man before. Her body was humming with energy and penned-in need. She wanted him almost desperately, but what was wanting him going to do to her? She was already falling for him, no matter what she might tell herself to the contrary. She wanted him, and she wanted him badly enough to do exactly what he wanted her to do, and how. But it was how she wanted it too. She wanted to feel his strong hand on her bottom. She wanted to feel his hard thick cock inside her body, thrusting hard and fast.

She opened her mouth and said, “I want you to spank and fuck me.”

He was pleased, that was easy to deduce by the gleam in his eyes and the sudden bulge on his pants. He drew closer and then he took his tie off. She didn’t understand what he was doing at first. Then he knotted the tie loosely around her face, leaving her blinded. Fear shot through her, followed by a jolt of utter need.

His hands stripped her clothes away. She shivered as his hands ran over her body, exploring every curve and turn. Her breath came in fast panting gulps.

His body pressed against hers. The fabric of his shirt and slacks met her bare flesh, bringing fresh sensation. His hands slipped across her skin and then his mouth went to her breasts. His tongue moved across the tight peaks, licking and sucking until they stood up even higher. Her toes curled and she whimpered.

Her hands went to his body. Even blindfolded, she knew exactly how to find the button and zipper of his pants. His staff sprang free, filling her palm with thick meat and a heat that left her crying out. She made a loose fist and ran it along the throbbing silky flesh, relishing the feel of the thick and rigid muscle below.

His mouth met hers. His tongue darted in and out of her mouth, a slow but insistent thing that made her respond. Their tongues met and parted and she ground herself against him, feeling his erection, still in her palm, thicken and twitch with every slow rotation of her hips against his pelvis.

He flipped her around. She ended up facedown, ass up, on the sofa. Her arms went out over her head and she buried her face in the sofa’s expensive leather cushions as his hands kneaded and lifted her ass cheeks one by one. His thumbs pressed deep into that flesh, sending pain and pleasure streaking through her ass and up her spine.

His fingers continued to knead and massage her cheeks. Her ass swayed from side to side as she tried to entice him to do it, to spank her already.

His hands cracked down, both of them hitting each cheek with a  sharp report and leaving behind a deep and aching sting that worked its way past the muscle and right into the tissues below. Her eyes, behind the tie, widened and she let out a muffled swear word.

His hand came down again. That time he spanked her ass cheek on the right then swatted the left, making her flesh jiggle. Fluids leaked from her body and her mouth opened and closed as she fought to stay steady, to take that pleasurable torment that he was dishing out so well.

His fingers slipped between her legs. His fingertips ran up along the parted outer lips of her labia, dipped into her body so fast she barely had time to register their presence inside her before they were gone. She whimpered, her fingers clawing at the sofa as his fingers went further up, moving along her clit in swift and heavy circles that made her hips thrust up and down in a hard pumping motion.

She ground her pussy against the sofa, desperate for some relief. He chuckled and swung his free hand against her bottom again. Then he tweaked the flesh of her clit, pinching it just slightly. The response was immediate and intense pleasure that rolled through her body like a cresting ocean wave and left her clinging to what little bit of rationality she could find there in the darkness beneath his clever tempting fingers.

More smacks to her ass and then his fingers drove into her, two of them. He spilled her thick and sticky oils down her inner thighs every time he withdrew, and the smell of her own arousal came to her nose and made her wriggle with shame and need.

She’d never experienced anything like that in her entire life. She was dripping wet, soaked and opened, and so needy for the feel of his body his every touch made her jump and cry out and took her one inch closer to what she knew would be the strongest orgasm she had ever had.

Max’s cock pressed against the swollen entry to her inner folds. She thrust her ass upward and he entered her, just a bare inch. She cried out and he pumped his hips forward.

His long, hard cock filled her entire pussy, stretched open her walls and went deeper than anything she could have imagined. He filled her in a way that she had never been filled before. Her body hung suspended by the twin threads of pain and pleasure as he slapped her ass once more, then grabbed a thick chunk of her hair and yanked, hard, bringing her face off the sofa. She had to struggle for balance and she found it by pressing her upper body upward with her arms, putting herself into a vaguely yoga-like pose.

He continued to stroke in and out of her body. Her inner thighs shook. Juices ran from her body and covered his condom-encased dick. Her walls pulsed around him and she writhed, her hands sliding along the surface of the sofa.

She came. Thick and sticky fluids poured from her body, beaded up around her clit and then ran across the thick and swollen member inside her. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she managed to get her ass up one more time just as he gave one last and mighty thrust and then went rigid, the hand holding her hair clenching cruelly for a brief nanosecond before he released it.