Chapter 14
14
I do try to jump out of the car before it’s come to a stop, but Max holds me back firmly. His mouth is grim and his eyes look almost feral. Javier parks silently, only sighing as he opens the door and prepares to step out. Max finally releases his protective hold on me and I bail, shouting, “Kiki!” at the top of my lungs.
Javier and Max head into the house stealthily, as if they think someone is inside. But if they were, why would they have left the door wide open?
A blur of fur explodes past me, and I chase after it. Flat on my stomach under a bush, I manage to grab hold. Lifting the screeching yowling cat aloft, I pause only to confirm it’s my girl and not some flea-infested miscreant. Usually elegant, Kiki’s fur is going in all directions and her eyes are wild. Glancing down as I hold her firmly against my chest, I realize that I’ve completely ruined my beautiful dress. There’s a small twinge of sorrow and guilt, but nothing compared to the relief after thinking I’d lost Kiki forever.
We head back to the house with me trying to remember where I left Kiki’s carrier. That’s the only safe place for her until whatever this latest development is gets sorted. Max and Javier are at the front door, examining the lock.
Max glances up as I approach. “I see you found her,” he remarks dryly. He almost sounds sorry about that. I give him a glare just in case he meant it that way and brush past both of them.
“See? Here, it was forced,” Javier comments without looking up. Feeling mildly on the periphery of their guy sleuthing, I head upstairs. Kiki isn’t yowling quite as bad, but she’s made it clear she’d rather I put her down. Thankfully, I find her plastic carrier in the hall closet. Once she’s inside and I’ve secured the door, I stand and survey the damage. Grass stains cover the front of the dress and the parts of me that are bare, like my lower arms, are decorated with red scratches from Kiki’s claws. Sighing, I head into the master bedroom to change and wash up. Never would I have imagined that I’d be wearing jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt on my wedding day, but then nothing about anything with Max is conventional.
I take Kiki with me back downstairs. She’s settled into a sullen lump at the back of the carrier like I’m about to take her to the vet. The front door is still wide open. Max is talking to a police officer in the drive who is standing next to his cruiser. There’s someone in the back of the vehicle, but with the lightly tinted glass I can’t quite make out whether it’s a man or a woman.
Javier reappears around the bend in the driveway. He’s holding a sheaf of papers, similar to the ones in Max’s left hand. What on earth is going on? I head down the stairs to find out, but of course that’s when the officer shakes Max’s hand and gets back in his patrol car. Javier circles wide of the driveway so as not to get hit, but the officer executes a neat three-point turn and departs sedately.
“What was all that about?” I inquire, generally hoping one of them will answer me.
“No big surprise that it was Diana who broke in,” Max responds, not lifting his eyes from the papers he’s examining.
“That was Diana in the back?” I squeak, really wishing I’d known that earlier so I could bask in the moment.
Max nods, still not looking up.
“Well, what did she break in for?” Not waiting for an answer, I scooch closer to Max so I can look over his arm at whatever it is he’s holding.
“Secrets,” he murmurs.
“Did she find any?”
He shakes his head. “Not that I can see. Anything deeply confidential isn’t in paper format. But that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to piece things together from innocuous items like an address or phone number. However, whatever she made away with was confiscated by the cops when they found her hitchhiking on the side of the road.”
“Why on earth would she hitchhike? She had a car.” It almost seems silly to ask when the event in question is equally ridiculous.
Javier speaks up this time. “Most likely she was worried cameras would pick up the license plate. She was wearing a wig and heavy makeup. But it’s definitely your friend Diana.”
“She’s no friend of mine,” I retort, wondering if this is the end of the problems or the beginning of an entirely new phase.
“So now what?”
“Now I’ll leave you two alone and go babysit the evil queen,” Javier smiles sweetly and head to his car. I raise an eyebrow at Max, who sighs.
“He’s going to tap into the police jail surveillance and keep an eye on her, see if she makes bail, and then he’ll ensure she understands not to come back here.”
“He’s allowed to do that?”
Max quirks an eyebrow at me. Oh. I see.
In this one instance, I find my moral compass swaying. I’ve got no problem with Diana being told to stay away.
“What about us?” I ask, feeling slightly confused about everything.
Max finally really looks at me. “Now, my sweet little editor, you and I are going to go inside. You can settle Kiki down while I fix us dinner and then I’m going to ravish you.”
He says it all so matter-of-factly, I almost miss the last part. “You are?”
He nods, only the very tips of his mouth giving away the hint of a smirk. “I am. You might want to hydrate,” he adds thoughtfully, the twinkle in his eyes growing more pronounced.
I don’t know why tonight feels different. It just does. It’s not like Max and I haven’t already fucked. But that was an impromptu quick conversation, as it were. This is… normal? It’s not quite that. Not yet, anyway.
All these thoughts are buzzing in my head while Max takes charge in the kitchen. His movements are efficient and purposeful. So I’m somehow surprised when a gourmet plate is set before me. And a smaller dish of cut up chicken is placed on the floor for Kiki. Her purrs are enthusiastic and unsophisticated as she quickly finishes the treat before it can be stolen away.
Max sits down, reaching for his fork. “You’re not eating?”
“I’m just surprised, I guess. You like to cook?” I’d assumed he’d bought all the fancy little quiches and things in town for our picnic earlier. But now I’m beginning to wonder. I take a bite and practically moan in bliss.
His pleased expression tells me he loves to cook but rarely has an audience. “Don’t make me fat,” I warn, envisioning three meals a day where each one has enough calories to sustain me for a week.
“You’ll be working it off shortly,” he responds with a small smirk.
A shiver of anticipation shoots down my spine. “Why does this suddenly feel slightly awkward? Like we didn’t already…”
Max tilts his head to one side. “Maybe because there are no deadlines. Nobody waiting. Or maybe your body recognizes that your mate is going to thoroughly claim you. Make no mistake about it, Jenna, I’m not completely human. And there’s a part of me that is now permanently bonded to you. It changes things, makes it more intense.”
The truth of his words hits me in my core. I do know it. And it’s why I could take the leap of faith to stay, to marry him, all of it. I nod. “Okay.”
His laugh fills the room. “And do you doubt why I love you, little Jenna? Such easy acceptance of something so out of the ordinary. And yet, such disdain for those that eschew the semicolon,” he muses, trying to get a rise out of me.
I sniff. “That’s been discussed to death. I will put them in where I see fit and you will like it.”
The smirk on his face says otherwise, but even semicolons aren’t enough to distract me right this minute.
We finish dinner and Max piles all the dishes into the dishwasher. With no warning whatsoever, he picks me up and sets me on the now empty counter. My arms naturally curve around his neck.
“Show me this is what you want, little one.” His voice is husky, full of need. I tilt my head to the side slightly so I can study him. Does he mean sex? Or me being here at all? I suppose, in a way, it’s one and the same. Because I do want him, all of him. Even the side of him that refuses to use semicolons.
Tightening my arms around his neck, I pull his head down to where I can lean up and reach his mouth with mine. Lining the edge of his lower lip with my tongue, I have to resort to tugging on his earlobe to get him to open to me. Slowly, his lips part and I stroke in, deepening the kiss. Echoing the one he gave me earlier, even if less commanding. He groans and uses both hands to slide my hips forward on the counter until his stiffening cock is nestled against my pussy. I suck lightly on his tongue, and that’s his undoing.
In a flash, he takes over. Tangling his tongue with mine, he wins that battle and withdraws to claim new territory. In one swift movement, my shirt is up and over my head. His mouth lowers to torture one breast and then the other, pushing my bra aside to leave them bare to his ravishment.
The slightly bristly texture of his jaw has my back arching in need. “Max!”
His head lifts briefly. “Cum for me now, Jenna, and I’ll take you upstairs to the nice soft bed. Otherwise, I’m flipping you over and stuffing you full of my cock right here in the kitchen.”
I wish that was an actual choice because it sounds absolutely delicious. But the dirty words coming from a mostly proper Max has me gasping with surprise as my pussy convulses, grasping aimlessly at nothing.
“Good girl,” he murmurs, sounding pleased with himself. I want to argue, but he’s already swept me up and over his shoulder. He takes the stairs two at a time, but I’m the one that’s breathless when he lays me down on his big bed upstairs.
“Fucking gorgeous,” he mutters to himself, staring down at me, my breasts unconstrained by the bra still scrunched beneath them.
I reach for the zip on my jeans, eager to be rid of them, but Max stays my hand. “My present to unwrap, little one. Why don’t you tell me what you liked about last time?”
“What? In the kitchen? I was hoping you’d bend me over the counter like you promised.”
His chuckle is raspy. “That was a threat, not a promise, little Jenna. But maybe that’s what you like? Do you want to hear how I’m going to spread your legs high and wide so you can take all of me? That I’ll use my hand to stretch your pussy until you’re stuffed full? I see that you do like that,” he adds wryly. My nipples have frozen into diamond-hard points that have a pulsing ache.
“Please, Max,” I whine.
“And begging for it too?” he teases me. Despite his words, his hands are gentle as he strips me of my jeans and underwear. When he steps back to undress himself, his stiff cock springs free, dripping with precum. Licking my lips, I meet Max’s eyes.
Max’s heated gaze travels down the length of my body. I can literally feel the warmth of it moving along my skin.
“I don’t think you can even use the word conceived for my beginning,” he muses idly, trailing his index finger around and around my left breast. “I was manipulated into being. Splicing and dicing DNA from God only knows what. Somewhere in a lab between Asia and Russia. Most of their experiments failed completely and were never viable. Some lived but didn’t meet the stated protocols. Those infants were adopted out to foreign countries. These men are my brothers. I was one of the last. That woman I mentioned, Niva, she was one of many surrogates housed and fed to bring their work to life. I do not know if I would have been deemed satisfactory or not.”
His hand moves to my other breast, and I dare not breathe. This is important. He needs to say it as awful as it is. When he stays quiet and his hand stops moving as if lost in thought, I tug gently on his fingers, moving them to my mouth for a light kiss. “What happened?” I whisper.
He startles as if he’d forgotten I was even in the room. His eyes warm again as he smiles down at me. “The authorities became aware. Exactly whose authorities is unclear, but the news of a raid was leaked. The pregnant women were chased away, and the records destroyed. The brains of the operation escaped to South America.”
Max settles on the bed next to me and I seize the opportunity to finally really embrace all of him. If he’s aware of my touch, he doesn’t show it.
“Is that your big, dark secret, or is there more?”
Bemused, he peers down at me. “That’s not enough?”
I shrug. “Well, it’s an unusual family tree, but it doesn’t really change my opinion of you. What were they trying to do with all this manipulation? Make a super race?”
Max laughs. “I doubt it. There’s no evidence of any females being created, just males. The only thing that makes sense is some kind of warrior bodyguard to order. Maybe a small army if they’d ever really figured it out. But even they couldn’t speed up gestation, so every experiment took nine months or more to complete. Some of the children were housed there until they were toddlers. Presumably to assess traits or skills.”
Nestling my head on his heart, I murmur, “How sad. Have you met any of the others?”
“A few. Javier is the link between us.”
“Javier! What does he have to do with it?”
Max quirks an eyebrow. “He’s good at information gathering. The rest is his story to tell. And if you don’t mind, I’d rather not include him in our wedding night.”
I beam up at him. “Me neither. Do I get ravished now?” I ask, a bit too eagerly.
Max’s snort of amusement has me turning away in embarrassment, except he won’t let me. “Yes. You get ravished now, little Jenna. And loved. And adored. And treasured.” Each phrase is punctuated with kisses until I’m breathless.
Then he does indeed spread my legs and notch his cock at my entrance. He enters me in one firm stroke, filling me to bursting. Max pauses to let me adjust to him, and I can’t help but run my hand down his back. “You’re mine now, too, Max. All mine. Whenever I want.”
His cock seems to swell even larger at my words. Nostrils flaring, he pulls partially out and plows into me. Over and over, pushing me up the bed until only a pillow is between my hair and the headboard. He growls low and deep, almost feral, before grinding me down into the mattress. Just as I feel the first spurt of cum, he reaches between us and pinches my clit. Hard. I scream his name and cum simultaneously. My legs instinctively curve around his hips to hold him in place. He’s mine. And I may never let him go from my body.
Eventually, of course, I reconsider that. After he rolls us over, cradling me against his broad chest, fingers idly playing with my hair. I blink and yawn, realizing there’s no point in having my eyes open in the utter darkness.
That’s when the realization hits me. “You’re not glowing,” I state rather matter-of-factly. Max stills, his fingers tangled in my hair. “Huh.”
My euphoric state dims a little. “Will it change things? If you can go out into the world when and wherever you want?” I ask quietly, a little afraid to ask my real question which is will he leave me behind?