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My mom came back and sat down before Max could reply. “So you don’t touch alcohol as a rule, Max?”

My face blanched. “Mom! You don’t know that.”

“I guessed, Payton. He clearly didn’t want wine, and you were obviously protecting him.”

Max intervened. “It’s OK. I had a rough year in my early twenties. It caught up to me. Since then I’m careful.” He reached for the tea in front of him, lifting the cup up to inspect it before setting it back down again, untouched.

“Life does have a way of humbling us.” My mother’s unlined face smiled faintly.

“Payton told me you were sick.”

A hazel gaze identical to mine flicked between me and Max, but if she was surprised, she didn’t let on. “I was. It wasn’t easy, but it helps to have family close. I’m so grateful Payton was here through everything, even though I’d never have wished it on her.” I could feel the tears welling up behind my eyes and pushed them down. “Is your family in Boston, Max?”

“My parents are in Florida. I grew up in Virginia but we moved here when I was twelve.”

She tskd disapprovingly. “They left you here?”

Max let out a half-laugh. “I’m twenty-eight.”

“Still.”

“Technically I bought them a house. I wanted them to be able to retire in comfort.”

“Then you must visit often.”

My mom was impossible. I could feel the sofa move as Max shifted beside me. “Not really. I’ve seen the place once since I got it for them. But their thirtieth wedding anniversary is coming up.”

“Max. Can I give you some advice?”

“Do I have a choice, Mrs. Blake?”

“Call me Tina. And no.” I groaned internally but my mom just smiled. “People come and go in our lives, but some people in life are precious to us. Hold them close and don’t let them out of your sight. Because you never know how long you have.”

Max’s gaze flicked to mine, unreadable before going back to my mother.

“Maybe we can stop grilling Max now?”

My mom leaned forward and took Max’s hand. I don’t know if he or I was more surprised. “Max. You need to understand, my daughter doesn’t bring people around. When she does, those people usually have vaginas—”

“Mom!”

“—and no visible piercings. So, when she brings an attractive and intelligent man into my home? An explanation is warranted.”

My best death glare bounced off her. “He doesn’t need to explain himself. Max is a client. He builds games.”

My mom tilted her head at Max, a knowing expression crossing her face. “Ohhh. You’re
that
client. You had my daughter tied up for weeks.” I could feel Max’s attention on me but I faced forward. “You know, Payton’s never been much for playing games. Maybe she needs someone like you to change her mind.”

I started to say that my relationship with Max wasn’t like that, but he interrupted before I could finish. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Hoping to cut off another even more awkward train of conversation—maybe about Jorge—I got up to take our teacups to the kitchen. I was shocked to glance at the clock and realize we’d spent an hour talking with my mom.

“We have to go,” I said when I returned to the living room.

“What are you kids doing this afternoon?”

My mom walked us to the hall where Max and I exchanged a look. “I was going to take Payton out on my boat.”

She frowned. “Paybear, are you sure that’s a good idea? Remember that time you went on the Ferris wheel and—”

“Mom, I told you I’m over it.”

“We’re good.” Max reached into his pocket and produced a blister packet of motion sickness tablets.

My mom patted his shoulder. “I’m so glad you kids are using protection.”

She didn’t just say that.

I was red when we walked down the steps. Max’s face was straight but his shoulders were shaking with silent laughter.

Chapter 21

I bet you can’t keep them there

“How did you have my mom eating out of your hand?” I demanded as we walked side by side to Max’s car. The sun beat down on us, soaking into my bare arms like a caress.

“I don’t know,
Paybear
.”

I slid into the passenger seat next to him. “Watch it, or you’ll get a worse nickname than Roadrunner. How about…Maxie?”

“It’s cute,” he bluffed, putting the car in gear.

“It’s a feminine hygiene product.”

The air between us was lighter than it’d been this morning. No matter what had happened yesterday, the time at my mom’s took the edge off.

What I’d said to Riley was true. Max and I were adults. We’d hooked up. It didn’t suddenly shift the axis of the world, and me obsessing over it like a teenager wouldn’t help.

What mattered more than a few sweaty moments was that the friendship we’d been carefully building. That was real and intact, and I wanted to keep it that way.

The marina was bustling when we arrived. With the sun at just past its highest point, we crossed paths with a handful of other people—a family on summer vacation, an older couple with a dog, and preppy-looking guy in shorts and dock shoes—as we went down the pier to where
Real Fantasy
bobbed.

“When was the last time you were here?” I asked.

Max stepped off the dock, easily bridging the three-foot stretch of water without looking down when the boat dipped under his weight.

He turned to face me and held out a hand. “The time you and I came together.”

I frowned. “That was weeks ago.”

“Then I guess I’m due.”

I glanced down at the gap between the dock and the boat. “Back up,” I said. He raised an eyebrow but complied. I took a run at it and leapt, landing almost on the other side of the boat. A grin split my face and I pumped my fist in the air as I realized I was in one piece.

Max quirked an eyebrow.

“You don’t understand. I’m a monumental klutz. I can’t go near ladders. On roofs. The first time I wore heels, I fell down half a staircase.” I settled into one of the smooth white seats, sighing at the feel of the sun on my face.

Max sat next to me, crossing one ankle over his denim-clad knee and leaning back.

“So did you want to drive the boat or are you going to let me?” I lifted my sunglasses to perch on my head.

“I’m not insured for klutzes.” He squinted again the sun. “Besides, we could just stay here.”

“I thought you needed to get out? Taste freedom?” I mimicked his posture, stretching my arms along the back of the seat and turning to look out toward the channel as sailboats, motorboats, and the odd fishing boat passed.

“This is freedom. Being here, in the middle of the afternoon, with you.” He shot me a sidelong look.

He couldn’t know how my stomach flipped when he said those words, and maybe that was the problem. “Max, I think we need to get on the same page. I’m not naïve. I get that sometimes sex changes things. Sometimes it doesn’t. For all your…quirks, you’ve been upfront with me. I need you to keep doing that.”

“I have no idea what you’re saying,” he replied calmly.

“I’m saying that when people are attracted to each other, are working closely together, things are bound to happen.”

Max’s expression cooled. “So yesterday was what—an inevitability?”

“Maybe. But whatever caused it, I don’t want you pretending to be things you’re not. Or saying you want things you don’t.”

Don’t say you’re going to call, then blow me off.

He turned to watch a man and a woman stroll down the dock, hand in hand. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking but he glowered at the couple.

“Payton,” he said finally, turning back to me, “I don’t know what I want to be to you, but it’s sure as hell not your friend. Being with you makes me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. I just don’t know what that means yet.” Max reached for my hands and pulled me to standing, a sudden intensity in his expression. “I worked until midnight last night.”

“Really?” I tried for casual but Max shot me a knowing look.

“That’s why I didn’t call you, or text you. I was annoyed it took me so damn long, and the only reason it did was because I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”

He turned me, backing me across the deck. I stumbled but he steadied me as we took one step down.

“You, in my bed, under me.”

Another step. I almost missed it because my blood was pumping twice as fast in my veins just to keep me upright.

“The sounds you made when I fucked you.”

Oh my
—

“The look on your face when you came.” I felt for the next step only to find there wasn’t one, so I stepped backward instead.

“So even if we don’t know where this leads?” he said roughly. I flinched, bumping into a hard edge, but Max just redirected me. “The way I figure it, you owe me about three hours.”

“Three hours of what?” I hit something soft.
The bed
.

“Anything I want.”

His hot mouth fused to my jaw. My body arched into him and he accepted the invitation, scraping his teeth along my neck.

“If you think for a second I regret what happened,” he grunted against my ear, “or that I didn’t wake up hard thinking about you this morning? You can let that delusion go right now.”

The past twenty-four hours melted away and my hands stripped my shirt over my head without my brain ever giving permission.

Max followed, the sweater looking just as good on the floor as it had on him. My skirt was next, then his pants. In record time we stood in front of each other, nothing but wanting between us.

Max pushed my shoulders and I bounced down on the bed. He followed me down, straddling my body and effectively pinning me in place. “Before we do this again—because we’re damn well going to do this again—I need to ask you something. Why’d you run out on me yesterday when Riley called, Payton?”

I blinked, struggling to catch up. “What? I didn’t.”

“Yeah, you did. You took off like the bed was on fire. Want to know what I think?” he murmured.

“No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” I replied.

“I think you don’t trust yourself.”

I put a hand on his chest, not pushing him away, but holding him there. “What does that even mean?”

“It means you’ve gotten so comfortable following the rules, you’re afraid what will happen if you don’t. That you won’t be able to put yourself back in that box of yours if you step out of it. The one where you’re a good employee and a good daughter and a good every other thing you’ve decided you should be to make up for who you really are.”

“Which is?”

“Someone who doesn’t belong in a box.” Max took my hand from his chest, the other one too, and pressed them over my head, bending my fingers to hold the top of the mattress. My pulse thudded against his hands, my body revving in anticipation at the feel of his skin on mine. “I bet you can’t keep them there,” Max murmured against my ear.

“That’s just another kind of box,” I breathed.

“No. It’s what’s beyond, and you won’t be able to do it. Because it means you’d have to lie there, and take, and feel. It means you can’t run from me. But more than that, you can’t run from you.”

He was wrong, but there was something dangerous and hot about the idea of letting him do whatever he wanted. I’d never been tied up and I knew that it wouldn’t have worked. There’s no challenge in being bound. It’s giving up willpower, not taking it.

This was a game. Mind over matter. I resolved in that moment not to move my hands, no matter what.

“Watch me,” I murmured.

Max’s body was hard, his chest inches above my face, and I would’ve buried my mouth in him if I could have reached. The cool air tickled my body, making my nipples tighten. I wanted to put my fingers between my thighs. Wanted to feel how drenched I was.

His gaze flicked between my eyes and my hands, and I swore I felt him shake as he leaned back to take it all in. He ran his finger up my foot to my ankle, the inside of my leg. My breath hitched. “That tickles.”

“It’s going to do more than that.” His expression should have been a warning. Still, I was caught off guard when Max dropped his head between my legs.

His mouth whispered up the inside of my thigh and I bit down on my cheek. He teased me like that for what felt like a lifetime before finally licking a long stroke that ended at my clit.

My body and voice cried out as once, my fingers clenching the mattress when he repeated the move. But there was no way in hell I was letting go.

His hands pushed my legs apart, holding one knee down on the bed while his fingers joined his mouth. They stroked just inside me, the sexiest tease, taunting me with the promise of more. Reawakening the memory of what it felt like to have him, all of him, fill me like no one had.

Oh, shit.

Bringing me to a shattering climax yesterday with his hands took zero effort.

Now, the combination of his tongue and lips did wicked things I’d never imagined. Especially when two of his fingers slid deeper inside me, forcing my hips off the bed.

Max’s tongue was better than any vibe ever invented, and he wrenched one wave of feeling after another from my body. His fingers dug into my thighs, hard enough to leave marks as he held me down.

“Fuck, you’re delicious,” he murmured against my skin, and I gasped at the vibration his voice caused. “I could eat you all day.”

I flexed my fingers, wanting to touch him or stop him or encourage him.
Anything
.

Max had never looked hotter than he did right now, bent over me, his arms flexing as he sucked on my skin. Yesterday was a race, but today he slowed down when he realized I wouldn’t stop him. Wouldn’t haul him closer. Wouldn’t do anything but lie there and take the waves of sensation he was forcing on me.

“Max, I’m going to come,” I panted.

He murmured his agreement against my skin, and I felt my muscles start to shake when he pulled back, shifting up my body to kiss me hard.

“How close were you?” he muttered against my mouth. I could taste myself on his tongue.

“Too close.”

“Good.” Max’s voice was full of satisfaction. His eyes were hot and hungry and I knew he was getting off on this game as much as I was.

“You’re evil,” I panted.

A wicked grin spread across his face. “You’re welcome.”

The realization that he’d simply wanted to torture me set something burning inside me, a spark of challenge. I knew just how to turn this around.

My gaze dropped to his cock, hard and straining and just beyond reach.

“What’s going on in that head, Coyote?” Curiosity invaded his expression.

I flirted up at him from under my lashes. “I want to know how
you
taste, Max,” I murmured. “I want to take you in my mouth and suck on you until you’re shaking.” I arched under him, pressing my hips up to his. “Until the only thing you want in the world is for
me
to let
you
come.”

Max made a strangled noise low in his throat. “Jesus, Payton. I didn’t know you had such a dirty mouth.”

“What’re you going to do about it?” I taunted, my attention dropping to his cock again.

“I’m going to wait.”

“Huh?”

He straightened up to give me a better look at exactly what I’d been coveting as a smug expression claimed his face.

“I’m waiting for you to beg me for it.”