You Dropped a Blonde on Me (40 page)
Len threw her head back and chuckled, throaty and deep, her mood changing in a flash. “I remember hearing that sage advice from someone not too long ago. Someone beautiful, who still has a great ass.”
Max held up her thumb and her pinky. “I have to go or I’ll be late, so I won’t push you. But you call me if you need me and you want to really talk about this. I’ve learned a lot from you, Oh Giver of Sage Advice and Rockin’ Hot Ass. I haz skills,” she joked, sticking her hand in the pocket of the light sweater she wore. “And look,” she held up an object with a smile. “I also haz a new cell phone, too. So you can call me anytime, and I bought it all on my own. I’m like a real grown-up now.” She reached out to give Len an affectionate hug.
“Hey, wait,” Len said, leaning back in their hug, her cloudy face lighter. “We didn’t talk about your little rendezvous. You had sex. Was it a well-thought-out venture or spur of the moment?”
“The first time was just sorta sex. This time involved thought, and
I
bought the condoms.” Max gave Len a cocky smile.
I
bought the condoms.” Max gave Len a cocky smile.
“Sorta sex? I don’t get it.”
“That’s because you have all-the-way sex, miss. That tête-à-tête happened a while ago. But last night was sex-sex. Well, after trying to talk Campbell out of having sex with me because I was petrified he was inevitably going to have to see me naked. I almost forgot I’d bought condoms. I bet smart, savvy women like you don’t forget important things like that, eh?”
The return smile Len shot Max was vague. “Was it okay for you? Good even? I mean, after the naked hurdle?”
It was so many things Maxine was afraid to list them all. Probably couldn’t if someone held a gun to her head. Most of all, it had been a discovery, a reawakening, and just recalling even a tiny bit of it made her blush and yearn for more. “I was my usual babbling wreck,” she admitted with a wry grin.
“But Campbell overcame, I’m guessing.”
“He did.”
“God, that man, he’s a rock,” she teased.
No kidding. Max’s heart warmed and her insides melted just remembering what a rock he was. “He was very patient, and yes, it was pretty spectacular. Now that I’ve admitted that out loud, I think I feel less freaked. So thank you. And I have to go or this trip to Atlantic City I have to plan with the committee is going to be me driving two hundred seniors in my mother’s Kia to gamble in a seedy environment after a buffet dinner. Thanks for lunch. I love you—call me.” Max flew out the door of Len’s office to avoid saying anything else out loud.
She was back in a good place about last night. If her fears could be kept at bay, and they could do again what they’d done last night, she was in.
All in.
Len thrust her chair back toward the window to gaze out at the mid-afternoon sun after Maxine left. Fall was only a couple of weeks away, putting her, if she was estimating correctly, at an April or May delivery.
Lovely. Spring babies were lovely.
Her hands went to her face to cover the tears she knew were determined to fall.
“Maxie?”
“Mom?”
“More mail,” her mother said, waving a manila envelope at her in the doorway of her bathroom.
One last spray of the body perfume she’d picked up at CVS with Campbell in mind, and she glanced at the envelope. Her stomach dipped. “Looks official.”
“Oh, you bet it is. It’s from the worm.”
Max snatched it from her mother’s hands and skirted around her to head to the kitchen, dropping the offensive envelope on the counter without looking back.
“You’re not going to open it?” Mona’s tone was appalled.
“Nope. Not tonight. It’ll only screw up a perfectly good mood.” She brushed her hands with finality before searching for her purse.
Her mother tightened her quilted bathrobe around her. “Always hidin’ under those covers,” she accused.
“Yep,” she agreed. Whatever Finley wanted, it could wait until tomorrow. Lord knew he’d spent plenty of time making her wait. She had a box of condoms to rip through, and by God, he wasn’t going to stop her.
“Don’t you at least want to know what he wants?”
“Not at this particular moment. Actually, not at any moment, but I promise I’ll look tomorrow. Tonight I have a date I don’t want spoiled by Finley and whatever he needs. I spent way too much time anticipating his needs. Tonight’s about me.”
And my needs.
And my needs.
Her mother harrumphed. “Look at you and the attitude. What brought this about?”
Sex. Lovely, delicious, Vulcan mind-melding sex. “No attitude, Mom. I just want to enjoy tonight. Whatever Fin wants, even if it’s nothing good, would have to wait until tomorrow anyway. It’s not like my dial-a-lawyer has a twenty-four-seven hotline.”
Mona’s eyes went from determined to amused. She gave Max a nudge. “You make sure whatever you enjoy, you enjoy with a condom. Got that?”
Max wrapped her arms around her mother, kissing the top of her head. “You giving me advice like that is just too creepy at my age, Mom. I’m going,” she stated, waving her fingers over her shoulder before slipping out the door.
The walk to Campbell’s, one she insisted upon rather than him picking her up, gave her stomach a chance to settle. Whatever those papers Fin sent said, it could damned well wait. Fin wasn’t going to spoil the excitement she was experiencing about seeing Campbell with what was more than likely more threats and demands.
Instead, she focused on Campbell, the completeness she couldn’t help but notice she’d felt when they’d made love. His insistence that she talk to him if she started getting cold feet. He’d been very expressive in his wishes. Almost intense, and Max wanted to understand why.
She wanted to know what happened to Campbell after high school. Where he’d been between then and now, and why he’d left everything to come help his father.
Her knock on his door held no hesitation this time. For the moment, the multitude of uncertainties she was always knee-deep in was quiet.
God save the poor man if there was a sudden uprising.
The grin Campbell greeted her with was mischievous. “I didn’t have to come drag you over here by your hair. I’m impressed,” he said, chuckling.
“Why would you have to drag me over here? You did say food was involved, didn’t you?” she teased, falling into his arms when he enveloped her in them.
“I did. But I thought for sure you’d be so wrapped up in the ‘Oh, my God, I had sex with Campbell last night’ post-coital freak, you’d forget there was pizza involved.”
Her laughter bubbled upward, unhindered and light. “Oh, trust me, pal. I never forget when Giuseppe’s with mushrooms and olives is involved. So where’s my pizza?”
“I’ll show you pizza,” he muttered against her mouth, making her melt when his tongue swiped hers before taking possession of her lips.
“Hey.” Maxine mock-fought against his effort to drag her toward the bedroom. “You said food. I came. I see no food.”
His hands went to her waist, lifting her up to carry her into the bedroom. “I’ll show you something way better than food.”
Arms wrapped around his neck, she snuggled against his neck and asked, “Is this something better going to provide nutrition, because I have to tell you, I didn’t get this ass starving myself. It must be maintained.”
“I love your ass,” he growled into her ear, sending an army of shivers along her arms and up her spine. “I promise there’ll be pizza if you shut up now and let me remind you why you’re a brave little soldier for not freaking out.”
Max’s head fell back on her shoulders, taking him in. “You swear there’ll be pizza? You’re not just saying that to get in my pants?”
Between small nips of the sensitive spot on her neck, he said, “I’d do pretty much anything to get in your pants. So, yeah, there’ll be pizza.”
Her giggle was so lighthearted, it almost didn’t sound like hers—it was unfettered by anything but the absolute thrill Campbell’s words brought. The thrill his desire for her gave her. “Aha. Well, then, commence with the pants thing.”
Campbell tipped her onto his bed, eyeing her with a smile. “I have condoms,” he stated, as though he deserved a pat on the back.
“And yet you forgot the pizza. Men,” she joked when he lay on top of her, fiddling with the buttons on her new blue blouse.
Taking her lips, he made her forget all about pizza when he pushed her shirt aside and cupped her breast, running his fingers over her nipples. She had no hesitation pulling his shirt up over his head, tossing it aside to sink her fingers into his flesh.
Everything about him was hard, planed, hot, and when he tugged at her jeans, she didn’t even consider the fact that they were tearing each other’s clothes off in broad daylight. It was enthralling, but brief, as her focus was drawn to his fingers parting her flesh and stroking her clit.
Max’s moan was low, from deep within, her need usurping everything else but Campbell’s hands and mouth on her. Frantic fingers tore at his jeans, shoving them down and away before encompassing his cock in her hands, guiding him to her, spreading her legs so he understood she couldn’t wait.
Somewhere between her giggles of delight that he’d forgotten where he put the condoms he’d boasted about and the sweet bliss he brought when he sank into her, she experienced another discovery.
Being with Campbell was more than just sexual. It was easy. Comfortable but exciting. Those notions left her sighing when he pulled her hips flush to his, scraping her clit with the crisp hairs at the base of his cock.
Reason left and only a primal need for fulfillment remained. Each thrust of his hot shaft, each hiss of his breath was so sensual it was all she could do not to scream her pleasure.
The tightening in her belly, the white-hot fissures of pleasure slicing through her, were only made more pleasurable by Campbell above her, his sinewy neck taut, his strong arms tense.
The visual of him, taking her, driving into her, stretching her, his desire for her, sent her tumbling over the edge in a crash of sharply sweet release.
God, he took her breath away.
And once more, she fought the knee-trembling fear she’d find herself consumed by someone again until she was just Maxine Cambridge.
Finley Cambridge’s pathetic ex-wife.
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