“Max,” I whispered as the climax he gave me continued to engulf me.

“Right here, honey.” He kept driving deep, hard and fast but his breath was ragged.

My arms and legs locked around him because he was right there, as close as he could get and I wanted him there forever.

I came down, holding him close, kissing him deep as he kept thrusting until he planted himself to the root, stayed there and growled in my mouth.

Yes, I wanted this forever.

I kept Max locked in my limbs as he started drifting in and out of me, he kissed my mouth, my jaw, my neck then rolled to his back, taking me with him and keeping us connected.

His hands glided along the skin of my back, over my bottom, aimless and soothing and I lay on top of him, my face pressed into his neck. I gave him all my weight not because my recent decision weighed on me. No, that made me feel weirdly free. I gave it to him because I couldn’t hold it and I knew he was strong enough to take it.

I liked that about him too.

“Duchess?” he called.

“Mm…” I answered and his fingers tensed into my skin then they started gliding again.

“When you were sick, saw birth control pills in your bag.”

“Yes?”

“You on the pill?”

“Yes.”

His hands stopped gliding and his arms wrapped around me. “Next time, baby, don’t want anything between us. Yeah?”

I had missed two pills while I was sick so I doubled up for two days after. I had no idea if this strategy would work and I didn’t care. Max didn’t want anything between us, I didn’t either.

“Yes.”

His arms gave me a squeeze.

I raised my head and looked down at his content, amazingly handsome face that, if this worked between us, could be mine.

This thought washed over me in a way that was so gorgeous, so warm, I automatically lifted up further and put a hand to his face, using my fingertips to memorize the contours of one side, his cheekbone, his temple, his hairline, his lips. It didn’t feel as good as it looked but it was close.

I was sliding the backs of my fingers along his stubbled jaw when he spoke.

“You okay?”

My eyes went to his and I saw his were searching.

“Mm hmm,” I answered.

His mouth twitched and he muttered, “I got morning but naked Nina Zombie sittin’ on my cock.”

I shoved my face in his neck again.

“Mm,” was my response.

I felt his body move with silent laughter then he said, “I’m gonna shift you off me, darlin’. While I’m gone, you move from this bed, I’ll –”

“I won’t move,” I murmured my assurance.

He was silent a moment before his arms gave me a squeeze and he called my name. “Nina?”

“Yes?”

“You sure you’re okay?”

I nodded. “I’m good,” I cuddled closer, “very good.”

I felt his body grow still under mine then his arms got tighter.

“How good are you?”

I snuggled even closer and answered, “Max, I’m very, very good.”

He was silent again then his hand slid up my spine and sifted into my hair, cupping the back of my head and holding my face close.

“Thank, fuckin, Christ,” he muttered, keeping me close for awhile before he rolled me to my good side, pulling out at the same time. He got up on an elbow but leaned down, kissed my temple and then he left the bed.

I was curled on my side, parallel to the pillows and I crawled back under the sheets and curled again with a pillow held to me.

I watched Max walk out of the bathroom naked and I decided I liked that too.

He pulled the covers up a bit, yanked the pillow out of my arms, tossed it to the head then replaced it with his body.

This was much better.

He gathered me in his arms, sliding a thigh between my legs so I hooked one on his hip and pressed close, my hands at his chest.

“What happened?” he asked.

“What?” I asked back.

“You’re different,” he observed.

I was. And maybe he wouldn’t like me different. Maybe, when the thrill went out of the chase because there was no chase, he’d lose interest.

All my contentment vanished and I felt my body get stiff.

“Shit, there she goes,” he muttered.

I stuffed my face in his throat and lied in order to cover my sudden fear. “I just remembered what’s on this morning’s agenda.”

He was quiet a moment then his arms gave me a squeeze. “Fuck. Yeah. Jesus, I forgot all about that.”

I tipped my head back to look at him and he dipped his chin down to catch my eyes.

“Maybe we can go on the lam, head to Mexico,” I suggested.

He grinned at me but replied, “Nothin’s chasin’ me off my mountain, Duchess, not even your dick of a Dad.”

I sighed and then pressed my face in his throat again. “It was just an idea.”

Has fingers slid through my hair before he told me, “You say what you gotta say and then we’ll get the fuck outta there.”

I nodded. “Okay.” Then tipped my head back and noted, “Since what I have to say will take approximately five seconds, we should eat breakfast here. Do you know what time we’re supposed to be there?”

He rolled, taking me with him and twisting his head to look at the clock then he rolled us back into place and said, “Eight o’clock.”

I didn’t catch a glimpse at the time so I asked, “What time is it now?”

“Six thirty.”

I felt my eyes get wide and my body jerked. “Oh no! I have to start getting ready!”

I tried to pull out of his arms but this not only didn’t work, he rolled again, this time into me so he was mostly on me.

Then he shoved his face in my neck and announced, “They don’t get fancy Nina.”

Then I felt his tongue where his gravel-voiced words just sounded and goose bumps came up on my skin.

“Max, everyone gets fancy Nina,” I informed him, ignoring the goose bumps. “I am fancy Nina.”

His hands started moving on my body and his lips slid up to my ear. “They can get wet-haired, makeup free Nina.”

I gasped, not in shock at his words, in something else when his fingers curled around my breast.

“Max –”

His mouth came to mine. “Shut up, baby, and kiss me.”

“Max –”

His thumb swiped my nipple and he repeated his demand, “Kiss me.”

His thumb swiped back and I did what I was told.

***

“Nina, Jesus, babe, get a move on!” Max shouted from downstairs.

“Be right down!” I shouted back and I looked at myself in the mirror above the bathroom basin.

Getting ready, I noticed that bruises had risen around the scrapes on my leg and it ached in a dull way. That was the bad news.

But the good news was, no one could see that with my jeans on and the bruise on my cheekbone was mostly faded and light makeup covered it completely. This was good because I didn’t want Niles to see the bruise and jump to the same conclusions Dad did.

I grabbed my empty coffee mug which had been filled and brought up to me by Max. This was after Max had made love to me (again), slower this time and with nothing between us which, even for me, felt better. Then Max went downstairs, made coffee, came back, we had a shower (together again), he’d gone back downstairs, brought up two full mugs and shaved, wearing nothing but a pair of jeans while I stood at his side putting on my makeup. I found, although it was single basin sink, the counter was wide as was the mirror so dual occupancy was quite comfortable. Not to mention nice.

Especially when I could see Max’s chest in the mirror and right beside me.

Ready well before me, he’d left to do Max things which I discovered, when I’d left the bathroom to go get my clothes, didn’t include making the bed. But on the way back to the bathroom when I looked out the windows, I noted it did include shoveling the steps to the house. So I made the bed, got dressed and did my hair.

Max could be dictatorial or, I should say, just plain was but I was ignoring his wet-hair, makeup-free edict. As ever, “fancy Nina” would be in attendance at the breakfast meeting that day. This was habit but it was also the fact that I was confronting my Dad and I needed fancy Nina. Fancy Nina didn’t take anything from anyone (anymore). I’d never tried out wet hair, makeup free Nina. There was no telling what she’d do. She might be a wimp, who knew?

So I’d put on a designer sweater I’d bought at Harvey Nichols. Full price, it was a small fortune but it had a snag so it had been marked down and then put on sale (and I had a friend who was a dab hand at knitting so she fixed it and you couldn’t even tell). It was a soft taupe with a hint of rose, loose-weave and a bit see-through. It had long, wide sleeves, a deep vee neck that showed serious cleavage and a fair amount of chest thus it necessitated a camisole. Therefore I wore a fitted white one under it which only seemed to pronounce the cleavage. I also wore my Colorado adventure jeans, my high-heeled tan boots and the silver earrings and matching ring Max bought me. In fact, I’d never taken Max’s ring off.

I walked into the bedroom and saw it was two after eight. It took fifteen minutes at least to get to town. We were going to be late.

Normally this would put me in a panic. I didn’t like to be late nor did I like it when others were late, late was the worst, unforgivably rude. But since this was my Dad and he was a jerk, I didn’t much care. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t nice to make Niles wait however, to be unfair, I wondered if he’d even notice.

I scurried to my suitcase and gathered some clothes for the laundry, lights but I didn’t have enough so I opened the walk-in closet and found a massive pile of Max’s dirty clothes strewn all over the closet floor.