Courage in the Kiss (13 page)

Maxx had to drag himself away from Hadley, the moment he felt his hand surrounded by her soft thighs. He was getting dangerously close to undressing her again, and he didn’t want that. Well, he did, but that wasn’t all he wanted.

He wanted…no,
needed…
to
know this girl. He’d spent so long avoiding her, for the sake of her innocent nature, that he’d missed out on incredible opportunities to get to know her. Even if they could only ever be friends or
this
to each other, it was better than not having her in his life at all.

He had to understand her and find some way of keeping her around. He hadn’t forgotten her threat to leave, because his dad was a blind fool who wanted to adopt her. Not to forget the other reason – that he couldn’t love or marry her.

He’d only had a brief taste over the last few days and already felt like an addict, who could never get by if she got up and left. If this girl walked away, Maxx knew that he would spend his whole life craving her, but never able to satisfy that craving in anyone else.

Just as he’d spent his entire adolescence and adult life longing to touch her.

Only Hadley would do now, and he hated it. He hated that he had no control over himself; that just looking at her made him want to spend days with his mouth locked on hers and his hard cock buried deep inside her.

No one else would ever taste so sweet.

Forcing himself away, he licked the taste of her from his lips and sat back, to give them some space from each other.

Hadley’s brown eyes stared at him, with such need and raw emotion that he wanted to dive back in and finish what he’d started. But he didn’t; he had more control than that.

But it seemed that Hadley didn’t. She kissed away from his lips and down his jawline, gradually moving down his neck. He could feel a strange tension in her that hadn’t been there since they first kissed in the downstairs hallway, after the party. He decided to take it from her. Tension didn’t belong in anything they did together.

Maxx looked over the clothes she’d put on this morning, never having noticed until now that she’d put on a knee length summer skirt and a smart shirt. Probably trying to impress his father when he got home, to remove his frustration with her.

He pushed her skirt up her thighs and explored beneath the taut fabric of even more lace panties. He found her already wet for him, as he touched her, just briefly, and heard the gasp of surprise by his ear.

“Had...” he whispered, shifting his body beneath hers until he only had to undo his zip to get inside her again. “Give me what I need, baby. No one does it like you,” he asked, too caught up in how she felt to recognise what he was saying.

Hadley moaned in his ear and nipped his earlobe, eradicating all thought of holding back. She was a little vixen, underneath all the innocence and naïvety. A vixen with claws and teeth, who wasn’t afraid to go after what she wanted.

Maxx moaned as he lowered his head to her neck and inhaled that flowery perfume she loved so much. It was an intoxicating scent that had haunted his wet dreams for years. Only, now, it was his to savour and cherish.

“How many other girls have you been with?” she asked in that low, husky voice he loved to hear. It only appeared during sex, but it was so damned sexy that he couldn’t even get angry about her question. Then she pulled back, to hover her mouth over his, in the promise of a kiss that would never come.

He knew then that she was the most interesting girl he’d ever met. No one else confounded him the way this teasing, sensual, seductress did.

“Hard to tell,” Maxx replied, thoughtfully. “Probably more than a few and less than a dozen. Why?” he asked, not sure why it mattered.

Hadley pulled back in the most enticing way; she pushed forward, away from his hand that was slowly tracing over her backside, only to push her ample breasts into his face. Then she sat back on her heels, her tight little ass settled on his lap. “Because you said that no one else does it better. I’d like to know what I’m competing with,” she confessed with a teasing smile.

Maxx smiled, looking forward to the game of cat and mouse he’d unwittingly begun to play with her. He caught her thick brown hair in his hand and pulled her down, until he could kiss those pink lips.

It was the first he’d noticed that she wasn’t wearing any make-up. Yet, she was still, easily, the most attractive woman he’d ever known. He kissed her with desperation and need, devouring whatever he could of her.

Hadley responded just as eagerly, her hands coming down to rest on his chest, while a lone finger slid beneath the fold of his shirt to brush against his bare chest.

Maxx was a suspicious person by nature, not easily taken in by a pretty face or kissable lips. He was always complemented on being shrewd and careful in business. But when it came to Hadley, that girl brought out the wild side. She made him want things that he’d never even imagined in his teenage years, until the dreams came along.

They were almost as hot as Hadley was. She’d been a firecracker of a teenager; feisty, flirty, and stunning. But all of that amplified, somehow, when she turned twenty. That was when it became impossible to be around her without drawing down that cold, calculated business mask.

If he didn’t -
when
he didn’t - he became a lapdog, ready to beg and plead for a taste. That was the truth of those first two kisses, alone in her bedroom. The truth of his weakness for this one, incredible girl.

She was gorgeous and when they came together, it was like an explosion of hot, heady sexual satisfaction—the likes of which he’d never known before. Hadley was the most perfect, sweetest thing he had seen in a long time. How could he say no?

So she was in love with him. That was a small price to pay for the roaring heat between them.

He broke the kiss, only so that he could breathe again, watching the flush of pink rise from her neck to her cheeks. Maxx figured he’d tormented her enough; he cupped her face in his hand and let the other slip over the top of her skirt. “Baby, please...” he begged, letting his hot mouth trail down her neck, to the collar of her shirt.

He was so breathless and aching hard. He wanted her almost as badly as he had the night of the party. It was the perfect time; Micah and Rowan were gone and his dad wasn’t home. How often would they get this time alone together?

When Hadley only sighed in reply, he grasped her pert little ass in both hands and rose from the seat, lifting her into his arms.

Hadley squealed in laughter, bringing a smile to his own lips as he carried her over to the sofa and lay her down. He wasn’t going any further, now that she’d teased him to desperation. His cock was hard and his balls ached with a need to release inside of her, so he wasn’t going anywhere until she’d kept her promise.

Maxx’s hands worked on autopilot, pushing her skirt up to her hips and pulling down her panties on the way back down. The whole time, Hadley just lay there watching him, breathing hard.

“Shirt,” he said, nodding toward her top as he began undoing his trousers.

Hadley complied quickly, beginning to unbutton her shirt, slowly exposing her bare skin and a black lacy bra that matched her panties. When she sat up on her elbows to remove the shirt, he helped her off with it and tossed it aside.

Then her hands appeared on his chest, undoing his shirt and sliding it off his shoulders. She seemed in as much of a rush as he was.

Maxx watched her brown eyes travelling over the exposed skin, eating up every inch of him.
This
was the heat and passion he’d longed for, all these years. This was what no one else could give him.

He didn’t care how hot a woman was; if she couldn’t look at him like he was the only man on earth who could possibly satisfy her, he wanted nothing to do with her. And, so far, Hadley was the only girl who had managed it.

That’s because she’s in love with you, you bastard,
he scolded himself.

Exactly
, his libido replied.
She loves you and that’s the real turn on
.

Maxx ignored his internal struggles, as they rushed to get naked. All that really mattered was that they were in this together. They knew the stakes; they knew what it meant and they were still here.

He was about to kiss Hadley, when soft lips enclosed around a small mole beneath his right shoulder. When she sucked on it, a whole host of pleasant sensations walked up his spine. Then she set about mapping an intricate pattern of kisses across his chest.

He closed his eyes and savoured the contact, while running his fingers through her hair. God, that felt so good. Then she sucked on his nipple and it sent a zing of electricity shooting straight through his cock.

He groaned, loud enough to get them caught if Micah and Rowan came back early.

“What if,” Hadley asked, as she broke away for a second, “we get caught?” she continued, obviously thinking the same thing he was.

“Fuck it,” Maxx decided, watching the light dance in her eyes from the fireplace. “They’re seventeen. They might learn something.”

Hadley opened her mouth against Maxx’s hungrily, begging him to continue. His hands ran up her body and pinned hers beside her head. His grip tightening against her wrists, he kissed her, his mouth over powering hers.

“I want you so much,” Maxx sighed into her neck.

Shivers trickled through the nerves of her body, as he clasped her wrists in one hand and led a trail of tender kisses down her neck, trying to control the urgency of his need for her.

His breath was heavy on her skin; a heavenly weight that reminded her he was real.

“I want you,” he panted, as he slid his hand between her legs and touched that part of her that only throbbed when he was near. The part she’d been so naïvely unaware of, until he took her into his arms for the first time. “And I intend to have you. I’m going to take every last inch of you.” He groaned as she kissed his earlobe playfully.

“You already have me,” she reminded him, her voice husky even to her own ears. “But the question is…what are you going to do about it?”

Maxx’s hot mouth lingered above hers for a moment before capturing her with his passion. They allowed their need for each other to take priority, as all other thoughts were discarded.

“I’m going to do whatever I want to you,” he answered, finally gathering his breath. “And you’ll let me, won’t you?” he questioned breathlessly. He watched her, as she shook her head defiantly and bit her lower lip.

“No,” she whispered.

Maxx’s eyes glistened in the firelight as he gave up the teasing and gently pushed the tip of his finger inside her. His smile grew as he caught the brief intake of breath that always came when he did that. “Admit it,” he demanded gruffly.

“No.” She smiled, turning her head and taking his thumb in her mouth, caressing it with her tongue.

He groaned with pleasure and brought his mouth down to meet hers in an adoring, sensual kiss. As he did that, he withdrew his finger and pushed in two, sending shots of indescribable pleasure coursing through her body.

“Stop...teasing me,” Hadley begged, giving in to his demands.

Maxx grinned and kept up that tormenting touch for so long that her eyes closed and her head tilted back into the cushion. She wasn’t sure she could take much more, but even if she did, she wasn’t giving in until Maxx gave her what she really wanted. Him.

It was their progression into something real, something deep and meaningful, into that something that had always been grasping at them but was never able to take hold, that made her breathless. She loved knowing that he was hers and that other women had never satisfied him the way that she could. Despite all of her insecurities, her innocence, and lack of experience,
she
was the one he really wanted.

Suddenly, Maxx let go of her wrist and gently guided the head of his cock into her as he removed his fingers. It was slow and torturous, but wonderful, too. He groaned, encouraging Hadley to open her eyes.

When she did, she found him watching them become one, connecting in the most intimate way she could imagine.

Then he kissed her and drove home.

Hadley moaned against his mouth, her fingers gripping at his hair as he pulled her legs around his waist. “I love you,” she whispered, parting from their kiss as she tried to ignore the blissful feeling of Maxx’s body sinking into hers.

She placed a kiss on his jaw line, smiling at the heartfelt groan Maxx gave the gentle graze of teeth she left on his skin. Either that or he really loved it when she admitted she loved him.

The very thought made her smile grow, until she wanted to laugh. All these years, she’d been so terrified of confessing her love and of Maxx freaking out so much that he was never in the same room as her again. Now, instead of freaking out, confessions of her love turned him on.

She’d been so stupid. She could barely imagine all that she’d been missing out on.

“Baby, please…” Maxx begged, sounding lost to his emotions, as his mouth sought hers out once more and captured hers in an intense kiss.

Hadley felt a little light headed, but hoped that feeling only continued. She pulled back from their kiss reluctantly. “Yes,” she whispered her permission, grasping his back to hold him close.

Nothing had ever felt more moving, more erotic, more important than his moment. It was as if everything they had ever said or done, in the whole time they had known each other, had been leading up to this.

Maxx nipped her chin as he began to move in that same excruciatingly slow, tender, and wonderful way that he had on their first night together. How he could say he didn’t love her, yet made love to her the way he did, had her baffled. But she’d abide by his insistence and believe him; for now.

The next few moments were lost in the joys of touching, exploring, and waiting for the right moment. They made love this time, with the anticipation building an electric charge in the entire room.

Hadley put her head back and revelled in the intimacy of the moment. There was something different about him these last few days that she couldn’t put his finger on. Some playful, sexy side she had never seen before.

As Maxx thrust steadily into her, nibbling on her neck and holding her leg around his waist, Hadley felt like she was ready to faint out of sheer adrenaline overload. The only thing keeping her grounded was Maxx.

They were finally together, so completely one person in every way. Every inch of them was connected and neither of them felt able to breathe for the complete unexpectedness; the complete and utter rush of adrenaline that was carrying them through, without having to think about anything other than each other.

“Maxx,” she cried out, arching against him.

“I’ve got you, baby,” he whispered, increasing the speed of his hips and the swiftness of his thrust. “Stay with me...we’re in this together,” he promised.

She’d never heard anything more intoxicating.