Chapter 28
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
Sia
The next few days were kind of a blur. Actually, the next few weeks were. Maxim spent more time at home than he did away.
He spent the time exploring me.
Really, we explored each other. Maxim had some interesting kinks, and well, I was open. I made sure he knew that when he had me sign a formal contract. I had to detail exactly what I wanted. Maxim said this was necessary so no boundaries were crossed. He had his own limits too but not many. The main one was contraceptives. He swiftly got me on birth control after finding out I wasn’t on one. We also got tested since we failed to use a condom at least once when we’d been together. I wasn’t pregnant, and we both got tested for everything else too.
He’d apologized profusely that we hadn’t used a condom. He said that was outside of character for him, but that just made me more wild that he couldn’t hold back. We certainly had some fun sexually the weeks following our initial hook ups, but we didn’t do any more stuff in his vineyard. This wasn’t because I didn’t want to though.
Maxim had people everywhere on his property, and though I didn’t want to keep what we were doing a secret he had concerns about our relationship getting back to Lettie. When he said that, I worried I might be his shameful secret, but he said that wasn’t the case at all and surprised me.
He wanted to tell her about us himself.
He wanted to do this in person during her next break, and I wanted Lettie to know too. I didn’t like lying to her, but the thought of doing so worried me. Maxim and I were fucking. It was fun, but I didn’t know what we were. Did I want it to be more? Sure, but I wasn’t quite sure how that would work. I mean, Lettie was my friend and what would that make me being involved with her dad? I also didn’t know what her reaction would be to me being with her dad.
The whole situation was just weird and complicated but what wasn’t was my connection with Maxim. It was hot, and it was exciting. I looked forward to being with him every day.
I was addicted.
I felt like he might be addicted to me too. Like stated, he spent more time at home than away. It’d been so much in fact that he did start working more at the office. He was trying to spend more time doing that so I’d been surprised after I returned from a walk with Polly one day and found him in his office. He usually didn’t come home until late, but it was mid-afternoon.
He wasn’t alone.
A man sat in the corner of his office. Maxim had the door open so I could see him well. The man had a hand on his knee, his skin pale and his hair long and dusky. Honestly, he looked kind of like Professor Snape from Harry Potter. He was a rather thin man with a serious disposition.
And the tattoos…
He had a ton of them just like Maxim. They crept out of the neck of his dress shirt, his legs crossed. He was chatting with Maxim, who was sitting on the edge of his desk. He nodded as the man spoke, but both men stopped talking when the thin man noticed me at the door.
I gripped Polly’s lead, the man’s stare so intense. His head cocked, he stared at me curiously, and once his attention was on me, Maxim’s pivoted in my direction too. His gray eyes honed in on me just like they had that day he’d been in his office with those other people. The difference was he smiled at me this time. A noticeable glimmer of warmth also crinkled his eyes, and that made my stomach flip.
God, he was too good at that.
I turned to butter in front of him, and it took Polly fussing beside me to break me out of the Maxim trance I was in. Even still, I might have stayed longer, but suddenly, my vision was cut off from the two men.
Val.
She was in the room too. She eased in front of the doorframe, and I gathered she must have been standing beside the door.
She smiled too before nodding at me. She closed the door after, and I felt kind of silly for staring into what was obviously supposed to be a private meeting.
Me: Sorry. Wasn’t trying to be nosy.
I shot the text off to Maxim after returning to my room. I still only had a few contacts so I had to double check I sent the text to the right person. I was paranoid about sending something to Lettie by mistake and almost had a couple times.
Maxim’s text message bubble surfaced quickly after I texted and that surprised me. I hadn’t expected a response right away since he had company.
Maxim: It’s fine. No big deal.
Maxim: And I don’t recall giving you permission to expose your neck.
I could almost hear the grit in his voice, the arousal. Maxim tended to like my neck. He liked biting it and pressing a blade to it. I think it got him off seeing his knife touching the vein beneath my skin, but he never did more than that.
Well, he didn’t unless I made him.
I may or may not have leaned into his knife a few times. I couldn’t help it seeing his reaction to the blood. His pupils always dilated, and he licked me clean every time. That got me off and led to some of the most awesome sex we had.
I was turning into someone really interesting since we’d gotten together, and every time we played, I found out more and more about myself. I discovered my own limits and loved that I got to test Maxim’s power. I wasn’t used to having that a lot in my past.
Me: I don’t recall saying I care. *tongue out emoji*
So I liked being a brat, which was something else I found out about myself. This wasn’t surprising. It had always been fun to test Maxim, tease him. He liked so much control.
Maxim: It’s nice to know how brave you are with some distance between us.
I could almost hear that in his voice too, and my face warmed, my thighs clenched.
Me: What are you going to do about it?
Maxim: You’ll see once I’m done with this meeting. Now be a good girl until then, or I’ll take it out on your ass.
I hoped he would.
Snickering, I tossed my phone on the bed. It flashed again, and I immediately picked it up.
Lettie: Hey, friend! How are you?
The smile fell from my face, but I responded quickly. I always did.
Me: Good. How are you?
Lettie’s text bubble popped up, and I waited. She would probably want to chat for a little while and always did. God, I hated lying to her.
But what choice did I currently have?