Chapter 10 Max
MAX
Yesterday was a rough day. I knew it was going to be, but it was even worse than I imagined.
Lily wouldn’t get out of bed, not that I expected her to, but seeing her like that fucking killed me.
I just wanted to drag her from between her sheets and show her that her life still needs living.
It took everything in me to not force her up, and to leave and go about my day, but I knew staying would be useless.
If we haven’t been able to help her in the last year, then we aren’t going to be able to now.
We’ve all spent the last twelve months tip-toeing around her and catering to her every need, but that needs to stop, because clearly it isn’t working.
It’s still early when I let myself into her apartment, but Zack wasn’t home for our usual workout, so I decided to come and kick his sister’s ass instead.
Zack probably decided to stay at the main house after dinner last night, because despite how nice I’m sure the dinner was, the mood would have been pretty dire.
I’m sure they weren’t just feeling Logan’s absence, but Lily’s too, and I know her parents are starting to get more worried.
I told them my true opinion the other day, about how we all need to stop coddling her, but I’m not sure how well it went over.
They are still mourning the loss of their son, so keeping their daughter safe is a top priority.
There is no way Lily is going to be awake yet, but still I plan on dragging her out of bed and getting her out of the house.
She didn’t answer the door when I came by a second time yesterday, and I’m not even sure why I bothered knocking.
I knew she didn’t want to see anyone. I could have let myself in like I normally do, but something inside of me told me to give her space.
Today though, today I am getting her out of this damn apartment.
I don’t care if it’s just down the street to the coffee shop, we’ve got to start somewhere, and as I slip into her dark room, I feel determined.
“Rise and shine, princess,” I sing-song, ripping open the curtains and spilling the early morning bright light into the room, anticipating her feminine groan.
Which I get, but that’s not what has me snapping around, no, that would be the masculine groan that joins her. And not just because she unexpectedly has a man in her bed, but because I know exactly who that groan belongs to.
“What the fuck?” The outraged question leaves my mouth before I can stop it, as I come face to face with both Lily and Zack.
My heart starts to hammer in my chest, as I stare between them trying to blink away what I am seeing, because there is just no way. My best friend and my girl, except she isn’t my girl, I had to let her go, she told me I had to, except, now here she is with him.
“It’s too early for your shit, Max,” Lily grunts, turning over and scrunching her eyes at me, but then she freezes when her stare lands on Zack, as if she forgot he was even there.
My eyes are already on him, a rage inside of me like I have never felt, especially toward my best friend. “Zack?” His name leaves my mouth in nothing but a question, my brain still not fully comprehending his semi-naked form in bed beside his sister.
Fuck. Are they naked?
There is only one reason two people are ever naked in bed together, but that can’t be the case here?
Can it? I mean, how many nights did I fuck her in this very bed, how many times did she call out my name until it was bouncing off these very walls?
Memories fight for my attention, begging me to forget what I am seeing right now, but it’s no use.
Did they fuck? Have they been fucking? Are they seeing one another?
Is that why he was so pissed when he saw me leaving here late last week?
Is that why I haven’t seen him with anyone else in over a year?
So many fucking questions, and he looks as if he doesn’t know how to answer a single one of them.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” he rushes out, snapping upright, making the sheet pool around his waist and confirming he is indeed naked, and my stomach flips at the sight of him.
I look between him and Lily, his panic-stricken eyes nowhere near as bad as her guilt-filled ones.
She pushes up in the bed, holding the sheet to her chest, and I can see from the angle of her body that she is indeed also naked, and my cock twitches in my sweats.
Fuck. She really fucked him. I’m not sure if it’s jealousy or something more burning inside of me, but either way I fucking hate it.
“What does it look like?” I can’t help but snap, clearing my throat, as thoughts of the two of them naked go to war inside my mind. The thought has my cock thickening even more and I shake my head, trying to rid the thoughts from my mind.
Only a few seconds pass before Zack dives out of bed, his morning erection a secret to no one, as he bends down and grabs his pants from the floor at the end of the bed.
He pulls them on so fast that I’m surprised he doesn’t knock himself over, and he doesn’t meet my stare again until his dick is safely tucked away.
I keep my face neutral, waiting for him to say something that explains any part of this, but he remains quiet.
“Zack,” Lily starts, his name sounding like a plea, but he cuts her off with a glare.
“I have to go.” That’s the only explanation he offers, as he grabs his shirt and darts from the room without looking back.
Lily and I both watch him leave, hearing the front door slamming a moment later, and when I focus back on her, I see the disappointment in her eyes before she quickly masks it.
She looks back at me with a resigned smile, pushing up in bed and shuffling to the side with the sheet wrapped around her, like I haven’t seen her in the very throws of pleasure I’m sure she experienced last night.
“Max,” she whispers, and that’s all it takes for me to know it really is true.
They had sex.
Zack fucked her, and she finally got the man she truly always wanted.
“I’ll go and run you a bath.” Is the only thing I can think to say, remembering how much she always enjoyed a soak in the tub after being fucked.
I make my way into her bathroom and start filling the tub, adding in her favorite lavender bubble bath that used to make her scent addictive, swirling it until it’s the perfect temperature I know she prefers.
A part of me wishes I could forget such things, forget her, but she’s not the type of woman you ever forget.
It’s why I’m here, it’s why even after finding her in bed with my fucking best friend it won’t deter me, because nothing can, not when you’re in as deep as I am.
I stay in the bathroom for way longer than necessary, trying to gather my thoughts, but when I return to the bedroom, Lily is still sitting in the same spot waiting for me. “It’s ready,” I tell her, keeping my stare firmly on hers, and she scoffs in response when I don’t add anything else.
“Are you going to say anything?” she snaps, her defenses up and firmly in place, like she is preparing for battle, but I only shrug.
“What would you like me to say, princess?” I ask her honestly, because right now my mind is still reeling from this whole fucking thing.
“Something, anything, just tell me how you feel,” she pleads, fresh tears pooling in her dark and stormy eyes, and I sigh.
“You already know what I feel, Lils, you’re just not ready to hear it.”
My words have a tear escaping onto one of her cheeks, but she dashes it away quickly, before tossing aside the sheets and rising from the bed, completely naked.
Lily Royton is one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen, and her naked body is no exception.
She’s fucking perfect, because of course she is, your biggest temptation always is.
It’s like she was molded by the Devil himself, to guarantee you would commit sins in his honor.
The image of her is already imprinted in my brain, but still I swallow thickly as I let my gaze trail slowly over her body.
My tongue has tasted every inch of her, my cock filling all her holes, but still it’s like the first time I’ve ever seen her.
I take my time appraising her, noting the way her chest starts to rise and fall a little more deeply.
No doubt her brother has awoken the side of her I came to know intimately last year.
Her skin is marred with the evidence of their night together, letting me know just how much they enjoyed themselves.
There is a trail of small hickeys down her throat, and fingertip-shaped bruises around her hips and thighs.
He marked her, she probably moaned for him and begged for more, just like she used to do with me, and I can’t decide whether I’m jealous he left them instead of me, or mad I wasn’t here to watch him do it.
When I meet her stare again, she is holding her head high, no shame in sight, but still there is an essence of regret. But is it for me or him?
“Are you trying to seduce me now too?” I ask, swiping my thumb across my lips, swallowing the groan that rises up the back of my throat at the sight of her.
The sight of her naked has always had the power to bring me to my knees, but with her thighs still stained with Zack’s cum, she has never looked more enticing.
It takes every ounce of self control I have, not to slam her back onto her bed and feast on her swollen cunt, especially when I know how good it tastes.
“Are you saying I seduced my brother?”
“Didn’t you? Isn’t that what you always wanted?
” I arch a brow in question, more desperate for her answer than I care to admit, but she remains silent.
“I’ve known Zack a long time, he’s the most loyal guy I know, he wouldn’t break his moral code for just anyone,” I explain, and she huffs a laugh, before she erases the space between us.
“Maybe he doesn’t have a moral code when it comes to me,” she replies softly, and clearly she’s right considering what they did last night.
“Maybe no man has a moral code when it comes to me,” she adds, pressing a little closer to me, pushing my limits more than she even realizes, but still I smile, as I lean toward her.
“Or maybe you used this perfect body to seduce him,” I reply gruffly, so close now that I can smell her sweet scent, and I note the way her nipples harden at my tone.
“Go and get in the bath, princess, before I remind you what it really means to be fucked.” I shove her in the direction of the bathroom, spanking her ass roughly, before stalking from the room and gripping my hard cock through my pants, rearranging it with a grunt.
I pull out my phone and fire off a text to Zack, telling him we need to talk, before tossing my phone on the counter and gripping the edge of it tightly between my fingers.
Fuck. The image of their naked bodies together is now burned into my brain, and any control I thought I had on my feelings is nowhere to be seen.
Months, I’ve waited fucking months for her to get better, willing the light to return to her eyes so I could approach her about the subject of us, and now I walk in here and find her freshly fucked by another man?
Honestly, any other man I could have dealt with, I mean, I’d still have burned with anger, but I know it would have been her acting out, trying to find ways to fuel her grief, but Zack?
With him it’s different, not just because of their relationship, but because I know her feelings run far deeper than he even realizes.
Then there are his feelings. He fucked her. He hasn’t fucked anyone in over a year, and now he decides to break his dry spell with her of all people. Was it his grief? Was he drunk? Or like her, has he been harboring secret feelings I never saw coming?
Too many questions, all of them making me too angry to even consider the answers, so I busy myself with tidying up the kitchen and making breakfast to take my mind off it.
By the time Lily appears I have whipped up some bacon and eggs, made a fresh pot of coffee, and freshly squeezed some orange juice.
“I didn’t think you’d still be here,” she says in surprise, walking toward me in a pair of fitted jeans and an off the shoulder sweater, and I nod my head to her place sitting at the counter.
“There’s some painkillers for you there.” She opens her mouth but I cut her off. “They aren’t for your head,” I confirm, before she tries to sass me, and when my meaning washes over her she blushes slightly, before sliding into the stool and tossing them back.
I know Zack better than most people, which means I know his reputation. He likes to fuck, and like me, he likes to fuck hard.
“Were you safe?” I add in question, pulling her confused stare to mine.
“Did you use protection, or do we need to go to a pharmacy?” I know I’m overstepping a little, that it’s probably fucked up for her ex-fling to be asking such things, but we’ve got enough shit to deal with without adding an unwanted pregnancy.
She swallows the pills, drinking more of her juice than necessary before she clears her throat. “We didn’t use protection, but I still have an IUD, and I haven’t been with anyone since,” she trails off, not needing to confirm the last time, not when I know exactly when it was.
I crack my neck as my blood heats. “I haven’t seen Zack with anyone since Rosie.” I don’t know why I feel the need to tell her that, but I can’t bear the look on her face right now.
“He’s single, he can fuck whoever he wants, I don’t care,” she snaps, her defenses once again rising, but I hear the bullshit for what it is.
“You don’t need to lie, Lils, not to me,” I tell her softly, and her eyes once again turn glossy.
“Aren’t you pissed at me?”
“For what? Finally getting the man you always truly wanted?” My question has her shoulders dropping, but I push on. “I feel a lot of things right now, but anger isn’t one of them. Jealousy? Sure. Need? Absolutely. But I can’t be mad at you for finally going after what you want.”
She’s already shaking her head. “It’s not like that,” she starts, but I cut her off.
“We both know you love him, princess, and like you said, you and I were never really anything.”