Chapter 32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
BAIRD
If Maia consumed most of my thoughts before she admitted she loved me, the woman was now my full-blown obsession. We were only three weeks out from the wedding, and I was the happiest I’d ever been in my life.
She loved me back.
I’d convinced myself I’d be happy with Maia’s love, even if she never quite loved me as much as I loved her, but I would have been wrong.
Because knowing Maia was as crazy about me as I was about her was the most euphoric fucking feeling in the world, and I couldn’t have settled for less in the end.
If I’d done anything right in this life, it was being loved by Maia.
What bloke wouldn’t feel like a champion if Maia MacLeod fell in love with him?
We had more photoshoots to do for Pennington’s and then it would be the wedding.
I was itching to marry Maia. To be able to call her my wife.
Fuck, it made me hard just thinking about it.
Since I thought about it regularly, we seemed to spend most of our free time having sex.
Since my fiancée felt safe with me, she also felt safe to experiment, and I was having a lot of fun trying out different positions with her.
It was Sunday morning. Maia had no work, I had no training, and there was no Pennington’s video shoot to do.
We’d gone out with our friends last night, but our evening abruptly ended when the paps showed up to follow us from dinner to the nightclub.
I was looking forward to that bullshit being over with.
We’d gotten in a taxi and asked it to drive around to shake them off before we returned to my flat where our friends were waiting for us.
It was a chill night, and Maia ended up falling asleep before Callan and Beth had even left.
That morning, I’d woken her so she could help me with my Sunday morning glory.
An hour later we were still at it, both of us dripping with sweat, skin flushed, while I had Maia positioned on her back, legs straight up and then crossed at the ankles, resting on my shoulders.
As I sunk my cock into her tight, wet heat, the angle meant I hit her G-spot every time.
Maia’s face was screwed up in pleasure, her lips parting on cries that grew louder and louder as her fingers clenched the pillow behind her head.
“That’s it, gorgeous,” I encouraged roughly, holding tight to my own orgasm because I wanted her to come first. I grunted loudly because Maia liked it loud.
She cried out hoarsely as I pushed her toward climax.
“That better be Maia, wee bro, or I am going to kill you!” my sister’s voice screeched like a banshee. It was worse than a cold fucking shower.
Maia’s eyes flew wide, and she promptly slapped her hands over her face in mortification.
It took me a second to process what the bloody hell was happening.
“Ains?” I barked.
“Aye! Maia texted me yesterday and told me she was going to be at her dad’s this morning!” I could hear my sister’s voice trembling with anger. “So, who is up there with you?”
The fucking mezzanine. I glared over my shoulder where my bedroom balustrade was. Thankfully, Ainsley couldn’t see us. But she’d heard us!
“Are you serious?” I yelled. “You barge into my flat and then accuse me of cheating on My!”
“Well, excuse me for letting myself in with the key you gave me! I thought we could go for breakfast!” There was real emotion in her voice, and despite my frustration I turned back to Maia who was peeking at me between her fingers.
“Will you tell her it’s you, please?”
Maia groaned in embarrassment but removed her hands from her face. Squeezing her eyes closed, she yelled out, “It’s me, Ainsley! Sorry for the confusion!”
“I’ve lost my fucking hard-on,” I muttered grumpily, pulling out of Maia.
Maia giggled. At least she was amused.
Ainsley called back up, “Thank God!”
Right. That was it.
“Where are you going?” Maia sat up, her breasts trembling with the movement.
I stared at her forlornly, cursing my sister to hell for interrupting what was about to be a spectacular orgasm for us both. I’d already pulled on my joggers and was reaching for a tee.
“To kill my sister.”
“Bear!” Maia tried to reach for me, but I was gone, taking the spiral staircase down to the main floor.
Ainsley stood at the kitchen island and gave me a sheepish grimace. “Sorry.”
“I don’t know what I’m more pissed off about—that you interrupted a private moment between me and my fiancée or that you thought I’d cheat on My. In fact, I do know. I can’t believe you thought I’d cheat on Maia!”
My sister winced. “I’m sorry. It’s just she told me she was going to be at her dad’s this morning, so I thought I’d hang out with you. And then I heard sex noises …” Her gaze turned uncharacteristically pleading. “I’m sorry. It was shitty to think that. I know you never would.”
“Bugger.” We heard Maia say from above us. Fuck, you really could hear everything up there.
“What’s up, gorgeous?” I called out.
“I forgot I am supposed to be at Dad’s. I’m jumping in the shower.”
I slumped, disappointed she was leaving.
Ainsley snorted. “You’ve got it bad. Can’t be without her for a day, huh?”
“No.” I stuck my tongue out at her like I was five. “Jealous?”
“Uh, no. I do not want to be so obsessed with someone I can’t function without them.”
“I can function.” I moved into the kitchen. “Coffee?”
“Sure. I brought bagels.” Ainsley pushed a carrier bag along my island. “Sorry for interrupting.”
It occurred to me that since I’d started seeing Maia, I really hadn’t seen as much of my big sister. Guilt made my cheeks hot. “Sorry for being … MIA.”
“Don’t you mean MIM?” she teased.
“Eh?”
“Missing in Maia.” She snorted at her joke.
I laughed but shrugged because who gave a fuck if it was true.
We were halfway through our coffees and bagels when Maia rushed downstairs, wet hair in a messy bun, glasses on, cheeks flushed, wearing a pair of sports leggings and a cropped T-shirt. She was at my place so much, she’d started leaving clean clothes so she had something to change into.
“Coffee?” I asked.
She hurried over, shaking her head. “I have to go. I’m already late for brunch.” She kissed me quick and hard and then squeezed Ainsley’s shoulder as she passed. “Enjoy your bagels!”
“Okay.” I jumped off the stool, following quickly as she moved toward the front door. I reached for her, drawing her back against me.
“I’m late.” Maia laughed as I hauled her close for a cuddle.
“We need to get a place with a bit more privacy,” I murmured as I nuzzled her neck.
She tensed.
I pulled back, eyebrows drawn together. “What?”
Maia’s violet eyes searched mine from behind her glasses. “We … we’re getting a place together?”
I grinned. “Aye. We are getting married, My.”
“Right.” She tried to hold back a cheesy smile but failed. She was so fucking adorable.
I cupped the nape of her neck, holding her to me for a proper goodbye kiss. When I had her panting and flushed and looking at me regretfully, like she hated she had to leave for brunch, I finally released her. “We’ll start looking for a place.”
“Okay.” She bounced on her feet to give me another quick kiss and then flashed me a happy smile. “Love you.”
“Love you,” I replied gruffly, my heart in my throat as I watched her walk out.
I missed her already.
This was crazy.
I turned with a big sigh to find my sister grinning in absolute delight.
Not because she was happy for me (though I knew she was that too), but because I was giving her enough material to rip the piss out of me for years to come.
“Did you hear that?” She cocked her head, eyes wide.
I narrowed mine. “Hear what?”
“I think … I think … it sounded like a whip lashing.”
“Fuck off.”
“Or was it your independence dying?”
“Fuck the fuck off.”
“It could have been Maia tugging on your leash.”
“You know, just because we’re blood related doesn’t mean we have to be friends.”
“Maybe it was your balls being crushed by the vise of impending marriage.”
“I officially hate you.”
Ainsley cackled. “Ach, you know I’m secretly happy for you, wee bro.” She crossed her arms on the countertop and leaned into me. “She loves you back.”
I waggled my eyebrows. “I know.”
Ainsley pursed her lips.
“What? Just say it.”
“Okay, so when you started this thing with Maia, I was more worried about her hurting you than you hurting her. But now—”
“Ains—”
“I know I came in this morning and accused you of something you would never do, and I’m sorry. But that doesn’t mean that down the line you might not hurt her. Unintentionally.”
I was irritated by the turn in conversation but tried to be patient with my sister. “People in even the best relationships are going to unintentionally hurt each other. That’s life.”
“The thing is … I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Maia’s like a totally different person around you.
I, honestly, used to wonder what you saw in her.
Like, I know she’s gorgeous, but I always thought she was kind of aloof.
But now I get it. You open her up. She’s warm and sweet and she can be silly with you.
You make her feel safe to be herself. And that’s amazing.
But she hasn’t completely changed. She’s still the same person who was willing to fake a marriage for her career.
And she’s thirty. Doesn’t she want kids soon?
Like … be sure you both are on the same page here. ”
“Ains, I really appreciate where you’re coming from, but I’m not fifteen anymore. Maia and I have talked about all this, and it’s between us. Just me and her. Okay?”
“So … I don’t get to have a say at all? I tell you everything about my relationships.”
“Aye, too much. There are some things a brother doesn’t want to hear. Or have be heard by his sister,” I said pointedly, glancing up at my bedroom.
“Oh, please, I’ve walked in on you doing worse.”
“Not the point. I love you, Ains. But my relationship with Maia is between me and Maia. No one else.”
My sister searched my face and then weirdly, she smiled. Not the reaction I was expecting.
“What?”
“I’ve just realized that lately … you’re different too. But in a good way. You’re more … mature. More settled in yourself.”
I nodded because she was right. I was.
It was all Maia. She made me want to be a better man. The kind of man she could count on. And part of that meant growing the fuck up.
“You’re both handling the campaign madness well,” Ainsley offered.
“Aye. We’re ignoring it. Seems like the best way to handle it.”
“Well, people are obsessed with you as a couple.”
“Of course they are. We’re the shit.”
“Cocky arsehole.”
I shrugged, grinning unabashedly.
“For your sakes, I hope it dies down after the campaign,” Ainsley said.
“It would be a nightmare trying to navigate a marriage with people constantly filming you when you’re out in public.
And you being in the Professional League isn’t going to help the publicity go away.
It might affect your marriage eventually, if that’s the case. ”
“Gee, Ains, did you come over to be a big ray of fucking sunshine or what?” My tone was teasing but worry flickered through me at my sister’s words. However, I couldn’t let those worries sink in too deeply.
I had to believe that the public would grow bored with us and move on to something else because there was no way I wanted either of us to have to deal with that level of scrutiny for too long. I had a feeling Ainsley was right and that eventually, it could impact my and Maia’s relationship.
The thought filled me with so much trepidation, I immediately chucked it away.
If only I’d prepared myself better … because I had no idea the campaign was about to throw us a devastating curveball.