26. Maddox
MADDOX
“I ’ll never understand why you all call this football,” my beautiful wife bitches as every eye in the room stops and stares at her. “What? This is not football. They barely even kick the ball.”
“I swear if you keep this up, I may have to find a new sister-in-law,” Lucky moans from where he lies on the giant sectional Lennon bought for what she refers to as the game room. I mean, I guess it’s my own fault for building such a big house where we have a living room and a game room, but it still cracks me up that she has official names for all the rooms in the house. She did a killer job decorating it, either way, so I don’t complain... not too much. This room is a great mix of casual comfort and her airy, contemporary style. The giant couch can easily seat sixteen of us. All the furniture, including the ottoman she chose instead of a coffee table, have soft corners, so when the babies start walking, they won’t get hurt, according to her. Not that we’re looking at that any time soon.
Supporting her daddy in a pink Sinclair Philadelphia Kings jersey, Anastasia is sitting in the center of some kind of circular activity chair thing. I think my sister called it an exersaucer—not sure if she made that shit up or not—and Lennon loved it and ordered one when we got home that night. Cait and she have gotten really close, and I’m pretty sure I see Caitlin more now than I did when she actually lived with me.
Meanwhile, Rome is pacing around the room, trying to calm Brennan down since his screaming when the Kings missed the touchdown is what woke the baby in the first place.
You wake him, you take him.
That’s my motto.
“I can’t believe you’ve got him in Maverick’s jersey,” Cait bitches.
It’s just my brothers, Caitlin, and Lennon and me tonight, watching Callen and the team play Dallas. Probably a good thing since Lucky is still driving our parents nuts.
“Dude, our last name is Beneventi. A cousin on the team with our last name trumps a brother-in-law without it,” Rome throws back at her, and Lennon laughs.
“You...” Cait points at Lennon. “No input from the girl who thinks soccer is football.” Anastasia throws her pink stuffed football at Lennon, probably because her mother was just pointing that way, but the way the rest of us laugh so hard scares the shit out of Brennan and has Lennon glaring at all of us.
Brennan cries gigantic crocodile tears, and Lennon pulls her feet from my lap and kicks me. “Your turn. Uncle Rome isn’t cutting it.”
“I didn’t make him cry,” I laugh but jump up to take him anyway. I spent today at il leone, and man, I hate the days that keep me away from here for too long.
I reach out for Brennan, and Rome turns away from me. “Get your own. This one’s mine.”
“The fuck?” I laugh in his face. “Pretty sure he’s mine, shithead.”
“Have we actually tested that theory?” He winks at Lennon. “I mean?—”
“Finish that sentence and die, brother,” I threaten, and Rome moves closer to Lennon. “Save me, princess.”
Everyone has taken my nickname for my wife and started using it.
First Callen, now both my brothers.
And what does my wife do?
The little traitor smiles and pulls him down on the couch next to her.
“How is she going to protect you?” Lucky asks as he kicks Rome with the foot he just pretty much sat on. Did I say this couch holds sixteen? Maybe it would if my six-foot-four-inch brother wasn’t stretched out on it.
“She can withhold sex,” Rome tells him, and I growl.
“She can’t have sex for six weeks,” Cait corrects him, then looks at Lennon and smiles. “But I might have given it a try a little before five... Just saying, slow and steady got it done.”
“Fucking Christ, Caitlin.” Lucky throws a pillow over his head, while Rome covers Brennan’s ears.
I should probably be grossed-out, but I’m too busy lusting over the smile on my wife’s face.
“Maybe if he agrees this isn’t football, I’ll let him try slow and steady,” Lennon announces, and everyone groans.
Everyone but me.
I’ve officially become a soccer fan, and I’ll call that shit whatever the hell I have to if it means I get to taste my wife tonight.
* * *
Lennon
“I f you’re trying to seduce me, it’s working,” I whisper from what’s become my favorite spot, leaning against the open doorway of the nursery. I can’t help it. This spot always gives me the best views. Like tonight. Maddox has showered and not bothered to get dressed. Just threw on black boxer briefs. His hair is damp, and I can smell that sexy sandalwood bodywash that mixes perfectly with his DNA and makes my mouth water more than any sweet treat ever could. Muffins be damned. He’s shirtless and sitting on the rocking chair Nonna gifted us when Brennan was born, and our beautiful baby boy is sleeping soundly against his chest. His mop top of dark hair covering the Beneventi family crest inked on Maddox’s heart.
Yes... I’ve seen a lot of views in my life.
I’ve been to the top of the Eiffel Tower.
I’ve seen the northern lights from an igloo on a snow-covered mountain.
I stood awed in the center of what I think was King Tut’s tomb on a family vacation when I was little. Don’t quote me on that, it might have been a different ancient ruler. I wasn’t really paying attention.
But none of those views could hold a candle to this one.
Because this breathtaking view is mine.
Mine to cherish.
To protect with my life.
This view is my entire life.
Maddox’s crooked smile tugs up higher on one side than the other, and a little piece of me melts. God, I love this man. “I like the sound of that, principessa . You think we should give slow and steady a try tonight?”
I pad into the room and carefully lift Brennan from his chest and nuzzle my nose against my baby’s neck, inhaling his beautiful, sweet smell. “Let’s see if he goes down without fussing.”
It sounds like my husband holds his breath as I lie Brennan down and rest my hand on his back, scared to remove it. Scared the second he loses that connection, he’ll cry.
Slowly and carefully, I gently pull it away and stand frozen in place when Brennan wiggles, but he doesn’t cry. Doesn’t open his eyes. Just finds the spot he was looking for and gets comfy.
And when I turn around, the look in Maddox’s eyes is everything .
I walk as softly as I can and tug his hand as I pass, pulling him to follow me into our bedroom.
We walk into our bedroom, and Maddox’s eyes are absolutely feral as he locks the door behind us. “You sure about this?”
I lift my shoulder and lick my lips. “I mean, I’m not sure I’m capable of doing anything too... exciting at this point, but I’m willing to try.”
“You don’t have to do anything but lie there, tesoro .” My sexy husband lifts me from my feet and covers my mouth with his as he walks through our room. “I’ll do the rest. Just not sure how slow I can be. I’ve needed to fuck you for weeks.”
“Such a sweet talker,” I tease as he lies me down, and I grab his face. “Who says romance is dead?”
“I’ve got much better uses for my mouth tonight.” His hot breath skims my skin and sets my soul on fire as he leans down and kisses me so intensely, I forget where I end and he begins.
“Promise?” I whimper as he pulls away and nips at my lips before fingering the straps of my nightgown.
“I fucking love this thing on you, but it’s got to go.” He drags the straps down my arms, and for the first time in my life, I’m self-conscious of my body. “Why’d you just freeze up, Lennon? Did I hurt you?”
“No... I just...” I lean up and brush my lips over his. “I’m not back to my pre-baby body yet.”
His deep blue eyes darken, and his hand cups my face. “Do you think I care? Your body gave us our son. Your body is a goddamned miracle. And it’s fucking perfect because it’s yours. It’s you. You’re all I need.”
My heart melts, and my body relaxes. “Now those were beautiful words, husband.”
“Yeah well, I still have other plans for my mouth, wife.” He drags his tongue down my neck as his hands tug my nightgown off, and every single nerve in my body teeters on the edge of that familiar blade, begging to be thrown off-balance.
One spectacularly rough finger runs along the tip of my sensitive nipple before his mouth is on me. Sucking and licking and biting my breasts, and I see stars.
“Maddox...” I whimper and grab at his skin, desperate to get him closer. “I need you.”
“You’ve got me, wife.”
That single word has a life of its own.
Hearing those four letters falling from his lips will never get old.
I drag his mouth up to mine and lick into his mouth, pouring everything from the past few weeks into this kiss. Our tongues tangle in a way so easy and natural and so exquisitely us, I think I could come just from this kiss alone. “Mine,” I whisper against his lips, knowing what he wants to hear and smile. “Now fuck me. Let’s try soft and slow before we’re interrupted and have to give in to hard and fast.”
Maddox licks down my body, tracing every new dip and flare and curve. Worshipping me. Dragging out each sensation before he drops to his knees and pulls my ass to the edge of the bed with a wicked grin that does even more wicked things to my body. He throws both my legs over his shoulders, and my breath catches as he presses a warm, wet, soft, open-mouthed kiss against my pussy, and any doubt I had about my new body and how it would react fly out the window.
This man knows what I need better than I know it myself.
He always does.
I tangle my fingers in his dark hair and lock my eyes on his, lost in the moment.
The perfection.
The reality of having everything I want.
Of having him.
The way his fingers bite my skin and tear my panties from my hips.
His tongue inside my hot core before it circles my clit.
It’s too much and not nearly enough as I grind shamelessly against his sexy stubbled face.
“Fuck, Lennon. I missed your taste,” he growls and locks his eyes on mine. Dark lashes frame those brilliant blue eyes I love. They watch me as he flattens his tongue and licks a leisurely line up the length of my pussy, coaxing my first orgasm slowly from my body, just like he promised.
Warmth rushes through me, and I fall back to the bed, drunk on my first orgasm as Maddox slides my legs back onto the bed and slides in behind me. “I need your words tonight. I need to know it’s not too much, okay?”
I look over my shoulder and nip his lips, absolutely desperate for more. “I’m so fucking good.”
“That’s what I want to hear, my love.” His hands are everywhere, gripping and sliding and grasping and pinching. “I fucking love you like this. Sex drunk and desperate for more.” His fingers dip inside my soaked pussy, and I whimper, wanting more.
“Your pussy is perfect, principessa . Swollen and drenched and begging for my cock.” He licks lazy circles around my racing pulse, then scrapes his teeth along my sensitive skin, and I grind my ass back against his hard cock. Solid steel wrapped in velvet. And I want every inch. “You ready for me, amore ?”
His words... they’re a tease wrapped in a delicious turn-on. He knows what speaking Italian does to me.
“Yes,” I moan with my face buried in his arm.
My body desperate for what it hasn’t had in long weeks.
He runs the thick, blunt head of his cock through my wet sex. Teasing me with just the tip inside my pussy. Never more than that. Never giving me everything I hunger for.
“Maddox...” I beg. Plead . “Please... I need...”
Before my next words can leave my mouth, he finally... finally seats himself inside my swollen, needy, pulsing pussy in a slow, soft stroke of his cock and an even slower snap of his hips.
Soft. And. Slow.
God, yes.
He takes his time and fucks me so gently, it brings a tear to my eye. Murmuring tender words of love and adoration, mixed with filthy words of decadent depravity, and I swear to everything I’ve ever held holy, there’s never been anything hotter.
I lie tucked against his body, at his mercy.
Completely lost to him as he does all the work like he promised.
Maddox engulfs me. Fucking me. Loving me. Owning me. Saving me.
Giving me life over and over.
An eternal flame that will never burn out.
And as a white-hot heat tears through me, and flames lick at my skin, Maddox’s hold on me tightens, and his movements slow, dragging the euphoria out until it threatens to burn me alive. Only then does he take what he needs and follows me into the fire.
We lie, quiet and sated in each other’s arms for long moments before he climbs out of bed and comes back with a warm washcloth. “How do you feel, principessa ? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
This man.
I’m not sure he’s capable of hurting me.
“My love...” I run my finger along his chest. “I think I’m going to need you to put Brennan to sleep and fuck me like that every night. Think that could work?”
His still-semi-hard erection jumps, and I giggle. “Not sure I’m ready for round two just yet.”
“Fuck, Lennon... You can’t say things like that and not expect me to want more.”
I lick my lips and hold back my laughter. “I love you, Maddox.”
“It was always going to be you and me, Lennon. In this life. In every life. It’s always going to be us.”
In every lifetime.