Broken (16 page)

“
Somebody help me. Oh God, the baby
!”

Swallowing the lump in his throat and ignoring the knot in his chest, he sat on the side of the bed and shook Cassidy gently. “Sweetheart, wake up. You’re dreaming.”

“
My baby. I can’t lose my baby
,” she cried. “
Oh God, please somebody help me!
” Big fat tears dampened her face. In her voice Max could hear the terror of the moment, the realization of all being lost.

Shaken to his core and desperate to pull her out of the flashback, he barked sharply, “Cassidy, wake the hell up!” and shook her roughly.

Cassidy jerked awake on a gasp, bolting upright in bed with her hands clutching her flat belly. “Zoe!”

Max snatched her close and held her tight, all the while crooning, “It’s all right. It’s all right. She’s safe. You’re fine.” He was shaking, fine tremors running throughout his body. His heart pounded in his chest.

“Max?”

“I’m here, sweetheart, I’m here.”
And I’m never leaving you again
, he swore inwardly.

Cassidy wrapped her arms around his waist and clutched him hard, her blunt nails digging into his skin as she shuddered and gasped for breath. She buried her face against his neck. Her hot tears washed over his skin, a startling contrast to her cold, clammy skin. Max stroked her back, her hair—any part of Cassidy he could reach—hoping to soothe her while murmuring low, heartfelt phrases meant to reassure.

Gradually she calmed. The tenseness left her body and she sagged against him, limp as a noodle, though her grip on his torso never lessened.

Max kissed her temple. “Better?”

After one last, deep, shuddering breath, she nodded. “I’m sorry I woke you.”

“Don’t be.” He ran his fingers through her hair. “Do you have them often?”

“Not as often as I used to. I think talking about it today brought it all back,” she said quietly.

“You think you can sleep now?” Now that the crisis was over, Max was very aware of his nudity and the half-dressed bundle of temptation in his arms.

“Maybe.”

She didn’t sound too certain, so he continued to hold her, firmly ordering his body to stand down. The last thing Cassidy needed right now was his lustful attentions. But it was damned hard ignoring their proximity, the bed, and the chemistry that always flared to life whenever they were within touching distance of each other.

Before the lure of her flesh became too great and he did something terminally stupid, Max began to ease away. “I’ll let you get some rest now. You have to work tomorrow.”

She seized him and pulled him back, her round mounds flushed tight against his hard chest. “Don’t leave.”

He groaned. “Cassidy, honey, you don’t know what you’re asking. I’m trying to be good here.”

“Stay.” Moving swiftly, she rose and straddled his lap. The hot silken skin of her bare pussy nestled up to his rigid cock.

“Baby, please.” Max honestly didn’t know why he was begging. For her to continue and put him out of his misery? Or for Cassidy to stop and let him escape with his good intentions intact.

“Max, I need you.”

At the magic words he capitulated, his defenses crumbling like dried out, broken clay. He ground into her, showing her what he wanted as his mouth captured hers in a kiss that demanded her full surrender. She met his demand and issued her own challenge.

Before he knew it, he’d tumbled her onto her back on the mattress and moved into position between her thighs, sliding his erection up and down the now-slick folds of her sex. He snatched his mouth away to gasp in a breath of air and groaned when she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Swear to God, woman, you go to my head faster than hundred-and-sixty proof liquor.”

Cassidy arched her hips and used her leg muscles to pull him closer. With her hands fisted in his hair, she looked him dead in the eye and demanded, “Fuck me, Max.”

Instantly, Max was embedded almost to balls, his cock bypassing his short-circuiting brain to obey her command. He had a second to think, “Condom! Shit!” But Cassidy flexed her inner muscles, her sheath contracting and releasing around his shaft, and the thought was gone.

Max pumped helplessly into her, barely holding onto his control. He had to see to her pleasure first. It was a litany inside him:
Please Cassidy. Make her come first
.

 Cassidy slid her hands down his back, gripped his butt, and tugged. “Harder, Max. Fuck me harder.”

The one synapse in his brain still firing correctly gave up the ghost. Max slid his hands under her, and getting a good hold on her shoulders, began powering into his woman in long, deep strokes. When she was gasping his name and clawing his back, he pulled out of her, flipped her over onto her belly and dragged her to her knees.

Bracing one hand by her head, he clasped the other around her waist and fucked her deep and hard. Cassidy buried her face in the mattress to muffle her cries and her hands scrunched the sheets. Angling his hand so it covered her clit, he pounded into her, bottoming out. His eyes were closed and his teeth gritted as he fought to hold off his orgasm until Cassidy came first.

She climaxed on a muffled scream, her spine bowed as her pussy clamped down in a stranglehold on his cock.

“Again!” he demanded. He pinched her clit and powered into her, giving her all he had.

She came again, taking Max with her. Behind his closed lids, his eyes crossed, his heart stopped, and for a moment, he saw stars. The pulse began deep in his balls and his semen jettisoned out to flood Cassidy with its life-giving essence. Max couldn’t move, couldn’t think. Damn near couldn’t breathe.

Finally, just when he was beginning to think Cassidy would have to call Rescue for his poor, abused heart, it ended. He collapsed on top of her, a dead weight, still buried firmly inside her sex. Cassidy’s sheath rippled spasmodically around him in what he knew were aftershocks.

It took him a long time to gather enough strength to roll them to the side. Cassidy, he suddenly realized, was too quiet. He nudged her. “You okay?”

“Mmph?”

Smiling, Max gathered her into his arms and curled his body securely around hers. “Go back to sleep, sweetheart. I’ll keep you safe.”

She sighed, rested her arm on top of his to keep him close, and drifted into sleep.

Hoping to avoid a repeat of yesterday morning’s fiasco, as soon as Cassidy stirred, Max rolled out of bed and returned to his room. Last night had been a weak moment on her part. He wouldn’t let himself make the mistake of assuming anything had changed between them in the dawning of this new day. Grabbing a change of clothing, Max ignored his erection and went into the second bathroom to shower and dress for the day.

Keeping to his part of the bargain they’d made last night, he went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. Not knowing how much time Cassidy had before she had to report to work or what her new morning routine was, he cautiously set about cooking a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast. The meal was done by the time she came into the kitchen with a yawning Zoe on her hip.

“Good morning,” he said politely. “I don’t know what you eat in the mornings normally, but breakfast is ready.”

“Thank you. I usually eat a yogurt and some fruit, but this smells good.” She sat Zoe in her seat and went to the pantry, pulling out a box of Cheerios. She poured some into a small bowl and set it before Zoe, who immediately set to the important task of choosing which ring to pick up first.

Max fixed two plates of food and brought them to the table. He returned to the cabinet to pull down mugs. After pouring them both a cup of coffee, he put cream and sugar in Cassidy’s and brought his black to the table. “How’s Zoe this morning?”

Cassidy gave their daughter a warm glance. “She’s doing a lot better. Definitely well enough to go to daycare.”

Max didn’t dare offer to keep Zoe home with him. Instead, he very politely asked,   “Do you mind if I follow you this morning when you drop off Zoe, so I can see where her daycare is?”

Cassidy searched his gaze, her manner uncertain. “No, that will be fine. I need to add you to her pick up list. If you like, you can come inside with me and I’ll introduce you to the staff.”

“If it won’t make you late for work, I’d like that,” he said carefully.

She gave him another look before turning her attention to her food.

Max finished eating before rising to clean the kitchen. He washed the frying pan and placed it in the dish drain and rinsed the plates and cups before stacking them in the dishwasher.

“You don’t have to do that,” Cassidy protested. “You cooked.”

“And you cooked last night,” he said.

“Yes, but you cleaned the kitchen,” she argued.

“But I don’t have a job to go to this morning. You do.”

She had nothing to say to that. He simply brought her dishes to the sink and returned to the table to tend to Zoe.

Other than a brief penetrating, “You again?” look, Zoe had ignored him. Max, who was rapidly learning from his mistakes, didn’t push. Other than a simple, “Good morning, Zoe” to acknowledge her presence, he hadn’t said anything to her. He definitely hadn’t scooped her up and given her the big hug and kiss as he ached to do. Just as he hadn’t kissed her mother, held her close in his arms and asked, “Are you all right?” the way his heart long to do. His ladies had taught him to be cautious.

“I’ll be ready in a minute,” Cassidy said as she took Zoe out of her high chair and headed down the hall.

As Max passed Zoe’s room on the way to his to retrieve his wallet and keys, he saw Cassidy giving Zoe’s diaper bag a last check. He was in the kitchen waiting when she arrived with her purse and the diaper bag on one arm, and Zoe’s hand clasped in her free one.

“I’ll carry the bag,” he offered, reaching for it.

She surrendered it without protest. Before going to bed last night, she’d given him her spare key with the request that he make extra copies since she hadn’t had time, and the code to the security system. Max opened the side door entrance, hit the lever to open the garage, and keyed in the code to set the alarm.

While Cassidy placed Zoe in her car seat, Max went to his car and entered it. Last night he’d emptied everything out of it in preparation for trading it in. He did one last check to make sure he hadn’t missed anything and that his registration and insurance card were still in the glove compartment. Then he reversed out onto the street and waited for Cassidy to join him.

The trip to the daycare took only a few minutes. There were some curious glances as Cassidy introduced him to the administrator and added his name to the emergency contact and permission-to-pick-up card in Zoe’s file. Max greeted the woman politely but otherwise remained quiet. When they left, he quietly thanked Cassidy, earning another one of her puzzled looks, and after escorting her to her car, headed for Philly.

The meeting with his lawyers took hours, but when he left, he had all the necessary paperwork signed. The discussion concerning changing his daughter’s legal paternity hadn’t gone as planned, but upon reflection, Max realized the option his attorney’s proposed would actually work in his favor. Now, he simply needed to reason out how to sell Cassidy on the idea.

Next, he went to a Toyota dealership and negotiated a trade for his sports car. When he finished bargaining the poor sales’ manager as high as Max figured he’d get, he negotiated the price of a hybrid Highlander with all the bells and whistles to a figure that had the guy sweating. He didn’t perk up much when Max paid cash for the transaction, having his bank wire over the funds once the price was agreed upon and the contracts signed. Max, however, walked away from the transaction feeling like, for once in a very long time, things were going his way.

It took time to get all the details handled. His insurance had to drop one vehicle and add the other, and his tag had to be transferred. Max spent the time in the manager’s office on his cell phone, handling business. In the last two years since he’d quit practicing law, he hadn’t been the complete wastrel his family assumed him to be.

He and Bill, his contractor friend, had spent the last two years buying houses that were structurally sound and only needed a bit of judicious tender loving care to make them shine. Then they’d flipped them. With his business real estate expertise and Bill’s connections, they’d made a killing and in the process, managed to gentrify an entire block. Unlike most developers, they hadn’t targeted the upper middle class, and their purpose hadn’t been to drive up property values. Instead, they’d concentrated on building communities.

They’d gone after the low income, first-time homebuyer community. Those who’d take pride in their home ownership and keep up the property. Even though he and Bill had made a profit, money hadn’t been their primary goal. Helping people had. As a result, they’d sold five units, had two more in the process of closing, and three being shown to potential buyers.

To make the homes even more economical and appealing, they’d stocked them with all the necessary appliances, including a washer and dryer. For those who needed it, they’d paid all closing costs. As a result, they now had a list of buyers waiting for an opportunity to purchase their homes, and the demand was higher than the supply. More importantly, Max gained more satisfaction out of what he was doing than he’d ever gained practicing law, though he still took the occasional pro bono or pro-rated case for the local Legal Aid to keep his skills sharp.

After leaving the dealership, Max went by a few properties to check on their progress. Noting the time, he went by Maggio’s and picked up tonight’s dinner. Considering what he was going to propose to Cassidy, he figured a little buttering up wouldn’t be amiss.

When she arrived home with Zoe, he already had the food on the table. “Since the contractor’s coming tonight, I stopped by Maggio’s and picked up dinner. I hope you don’t mind.”

Cassidy’s face lit with pleasure. “Maggio’s? I haven’t had them since…” Her voice trailed off and she lost her smile.

We were together
, Max finished silently for her. “Hi, Zoe,” he said. “How was daycare?”