Two Dates Max (3 page)

“I really needed that,” he whispered.

I opened my mouth to respond but he took it as an invitation to continue. My hands itched to feel his warm skin and the muscles I watched him hone daily. I slid my palms down his chest as he sucked on my lower lip. My whimper escaped unintentionally. He invaded my mouth again and I lowered my touch to his abdomen when voices suddenly echoed through the room. I dropped my legs and pushed at his chest, but he was already moving away from me. A sudden chill from the loss ran down my spine and I rubbed my arms.

“Yo, Nettle!”

I startled and leaned over to look past Sean’s broad shoulders. My coworker Ben, or
Smith
as his nametag said, was talking to a couple of members in swimsuits at the other end of the room. I waved and he motioned me over.

“I’m so sorry, Megan.”

Sean’s whispered apology pulled my attention back to him. He was standing about a foot away, head bent and eyes closed with his hands fisted at his sides. I stood and gently grabbed his shoulders.

“There’s no reason to be. I needed that as much as you.”

He opened his eyes and the lust in his gaze sped my pulse. Just knowing he wanted me was an instant aphrodisiac.

“Not here. If you get into trouble I’ll never forgive myself.”

I smiled and ran my hands back down his chest before dropping them at my sides. No reason to tempt fate further.

“It’s fine. Ben won’t say anything.”

“What about the other members?”

I just shrugged and stepped around him. “I’m off the clock and not in uniform.”

His shoulders relaxed and he turned to watch me leave the water. A glance back showed him sitting in my spot with his gaze on me. I felt it all the way across the room.

As I walked over to join Ben the urge to run back to Sean slowed my pace. What did those kisses mean, if anything, to him? For me it was the start of something I’d been craving for two months. We had gotten along so well on our dates, and I felt a connection to him every time we talked. There just had to be more.

Unfortunately, by the time I finished talking to the two new members Ben was showing around, at least twenty minutes had passed. I’d been glancing toward the hot tub every few minutes but never saw the moment Sean left. I don’t know how long he waited or if he was indeed waiting on me at all. But seeing the empty water slowed my stride. I headed straight for the locker room to change and leave.

* * * * *

That night as I readied for bed, the memory of Sean’s kisses burned through me. I was flushed from my shower but the moisture between my legs hadn’t come from the water. I dropped my towel to the floor beside my bed and crawled on top of the blankets. Sean’s image immediately filled my mind when I closed my eyes. His bronze skin and taut muscles, military-style hair and blue eyes all coalesced into a perfect male specimen. I sighed and ran my fingertips over my sensitive breasts. My nipples hardened and I grasped them between my fingers. Lightning streaked through my bloodstream at the slight pain and I moaned, wishing Sean was with me.

His house was two streets away, a mere two minutes at a brisk walk. For a heartbeat I contemplated arriving on his doorstep in nothing but my bathrobe. My hands stilled on my belly as I considered his possible reactions. Any red-blooded male would be thrilled to have a willing woman show up mostly naked on his doorstep. Right? But Sean had never fit my pattern of normal, red-blooded male. He might be mad and consider me pushy. Or, worse yet, he might think me desperate. Those possibilities kept me on my back, fingers inching toward the source of a deep, aching emptiness.

I’ve never been shy about taking care of my own needs, and Sean’s image had provided fantasies for just this purpose many times over the past few months. My favorite was him after a few laps in the pool. He would already be breathing hard, chest heaving and shoulders tight from exertion. Lucky water droplets would slide down his pecs, cutting a slow path through his light-blond curls to follow his happy trail. Sean’s well-defined six-pack would gleam beneath the soft fluorescents as he stripped out of his wet swim shorts. I imagined the cold tiles against my back as he pressed me to the floor with his hard body.

The fingers of one hand gripped my breast almost roughly as he would in his impatience, while my other fingers slid across the smooth skin of my mons. Would he like me bare? I imagined a surprised look of appreciation on his face as he explored all I had to offer. I could taste him in my mouth, feel his warm lips against mine and smell his masculine scent still lingering in my lungs from earlier. My thighs became slick from my heightened arousal and I found the epicenter with one clever fingertip. A few slow circles, hips pumping in urgent rhythm, nipples tight and aching, I came shouting his name into my empty room.

A shiver ran along my spine as I relaxed against the mattress and slowed my breathing. Sated, I was ready to fall asleep on top of the covers without a care in the world. Then a knock sounded on my front door. Sean immediately sprang to mind but my luck had never been that good. Really, what were the odds he would show up at my house now as if mysteriously called by my masturbatory fantasy?

I rolled off the bed, nearly falling on my face as I scrambled into my robe and ran for the door. If he had gone through the trouble of coming over I didn’t want to make him wait any longer than necessary. By the time I reached the front hall the knocking sounded again, harder and more persistent. I made sure the robe was tightly belted, everything covered, and unlocked the door without asking who was there.

Unfortunately it wasn’t my fantasy come to life, it was a nightmare. Elle nearly knocked me over as she fell into my house. I caught her and barely kept us both on our feet. Her eyes were swollen almost shut and there was blood in her hair. That was all I noticed before she started sobbing uncontrollably.

It took almost an hour to calm Elle down. I took pictures as she sobbed. Aside from her two black eyes, she had a busted lip, the earrings had been ripped from both ears and one of her fingers appeared to be broken. I was livid. She wouldn’t let me call the police. I called the bank instead to confirm my savings balance and wondered if hit men posted online. Never in my life had I wished to be a man, but right then I would’ve paid every penny I had for the strength to kick Declan’s ass in a really spectacular way.

She took a shower and I angrily paced across my living room. There was no doubt she would stay the night, I just wasn’t sure how long I could keep her. I had a spare bedroom and wouldn’t mind her using it, but history showed she would return to Declan before her wounds had time to heal. There were times I didn’t even want to help her anymore, but I’m her friend and this was the kind of shit true friends put up with.

A hard knock on my door kicked my pulse into overdrive and I ran to my fireplace for the wrought iron poker I kept there. Unfortunately, Declan had been to my house many times and there was no doubt where Elle would run to. With the mood I was currently in, only one thought raced through my mind.

Bring it on, motherfucker.

This time I had the sense to look through the peephole. The poker nearly fell from my hand as surprise knocked me back a step. It wasn’t asshole Declan on my doorstep this time. It was Sean. I opened the door and looked up at him with a question on my face. He eyed me up and down, a quick glance hitting the poker in my still raised hand before returning to my face.

“Hey, is this a bad time?”

I closed my gaping mouth and stepped back to let him in as I shook my head. “Uh, no. What’s up?”

He walked in and looked around. My front hallway was just a short path to my open living room. I had a large sofa with end tables on either side of it facing the front windows. A lamp burning on each table gave the only light in the room.

“I couldn’t sleep, decided to run. When I passed by I could see your shadow pacing around in here. You seemed…agitated.”

I shut the door with a sigh and followed him as he walked farther into the room. Elle’s shoes were in front of the sofa with blood splattered all over them. Her wounds had actually looked better than I’d expected considering all the blood. Sean walked right up to them and nudged them with one foot before turning a questioning gaze my way.

“Elle’s here.”

Maybe it was in my voice, or the fact I’d opened my door in a relatively safe and quiet neighborhood with a weapon. Perhaps he was just perceptive enough to realize Elle always looked a bit battered at work. Whatever it was, my saying her name initiated an immediate response from him. He stood straighter and scowled at the front door as if he expected Declan at any moment.

“How bad is she?” he asked.

I shrugged and walked over to the fireplace to return the poker, suddenly exhausted.

“She’ll live but I wish she would let me take her to the hospital. She won’t even let me call the cops.”

He ran a hand down his face. “Where is she now?”

“In the shower.”

“I can call them. I don’t give a shit if she gets mad at me.”

He looked around again as if searching for a phone and I quickly grabbed his arm. There was pure anger and determination in his tone.

“No. Please, don’t. She won’t be willing to press charges and then Declan will just hurt her again. It’s happened before.”

He frowned at me but didn’t try to remove my hand from his arm. His warm skin beneath my palm felt so good I was reluctant to let go. I stepped closer and slid my fingers up to his shoulder. His body thrummed with tension and it was suddenly very important to me to calm him down.

“I can’t believe you run around the neighborhood in the middle of the night.”

His frown slowly melted into a slight grin and he looked me over again. I was suddenly very aware of how little I had on.

“Are you naked under that robe?” he whispered.

I nodded and the naughty side of me decided to come out to play. “She interrupted me.”

One brow shot up and his jaw tightened. “What exactly did she interrupt?”

I bit my lip and closed the tiny space between us so I was pressed against his chest. He placed his hands on my hips as if it was the most natural thing in the world to him.

“Well, I’d just finished my shower and I was thinking about you in the hot tub. So, I dried off and lay on my bed naked…”

His grip on my hips tightened but he didn’t seem aware of it. I slid both hands over his shoulders to his chest and rubbed the hard muscles beneath his shirt.

“And what did you do then?”

I grinned and moved my hands south to his waistband. “First, I played with my nipples.”

I heard his breath catch and his baby-blue eyes darkened the slightest bit. One of his hands was kneading me through my robe.

“Then?” he asked.

“Then I imagined you on top of me,” I whispered.

I was trying to decide how much to say when a door shut somewhere in the back of the house. We jumped away from each other and I laughed guiltily as Elle walked into the room.

“Max?”

Sean sighed and turned to look at her with a sympathetic frown in place.

“Hey, Elle. Damn, girl. Are you sure you shouldn’t go to the ER?”

I looked at her freshly scrubbed face to see the very prominent bruises and swelling. It was so bad I could barely stand to look at her, but it wasn’t the first time I’d seen her like that. She nodded at Sean before taking a seat on my sofa.

“I just need to stay here a couple of days, that’s all.”

Sean walked over to sit on my wooden coffee table, directly in front of her. Their knees were almost touching and he was watching her with a very determined expression.

I followed but remained standing, nervously shifting from foot to foot. I had no clue what he was going to say but didn’t really expect it to make much difference. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“Elle, I’m not going to give you the spiel about how beautiful and intelligent you are. I’m not going to remind you there are plenty of other guys who would be willing to treat you as you deserve without ever lifting a finger to hurt you.”

I stood beside the sofa watching them. Elle’s shoulders sagged in defeat as she kept her gaze on Sean’s hands clasped between his knees. She remained silent as he continued in a low, even voice.

“I’m not even going to remind you that no matter how many times you defend him, Declan is a grown man who should know better, and if he truly loves you he wouldn’t do this shit.”

A tear slipped down her cheek but we all ignored it.

“All I’m going to say is, if you happen to get pregnant Declan isn’t going to stop with just hitting
you
. And that would be really unfair to your baby.”

Then he stood and walked into the front hallway. I squeezed Elle’s shoulder as she quietly sobbed. For a moment I was torn between comforting her and going to see Sean before he left, but she waved me away with one hand. Sean waited until I joined him before opening the front door and nudging me out to the porch. He flipped off my porch light and shut the door, leaving us in almost complete darkness.

“Hey,” I said.