Chapter 25
CHAPTER 25
D ecember 23 rd
I’m such a selfish lover! How did I fall asleep and not return the favor? I wondered the same thing when I read chapter eight of Sale, but now I know. It makes me smile, thinking about it. Okay, I might also have to change my panties again, but now I want to return the favor more than I want to breathe.
Max is in the shower as we get ready for the day. Should I? Do I dare? Hell yeah, I do. What heroine wouldn’t? Anything for my adventurous bookworm spirit, right? I can’t let my heroines down now.
Paige stripped off her clothes and entered the small bathroom. The shower was not built for two, but that wasn’t going to stop her. “Morning,” Paige said, causing Max to turn around from where he was rinsing his hair.
“This is the best good morning I’ve ever had,” Max said, taking in her naked body. “How did you sleep?” The way Max smirked at her made her glad she’d already undressed or she’d ruin another pair of panties.
“So well that I’m starving this morning.”
“Let me finish my shower and I’ll take you out for breakfast.”
Paige stepped into the shower and dropped to her knees. “That’s alright. I found what I was hungry for.”
“Paige,” Max said with a groan as she took him in hand and slid her mouth over his tip. Max groaned and she could tell he was fighting for control. He was trying to be careful, but she didn’t want careful. She wanted him to lose control just like she had last night.
Paige grabbed his ass, flexed her fingers, and then slid down his length.
“Oh shit,” Max hissed. Then she began to move. “That feels so good. Damn, Paige.”
His hips began to move of their own accord. Paige grinned as she got to work putting forth everything she’d learned from romance books into practice. She hollowed her cheeks and swirled her tongue. Max shoved his hips forward, muttering that he was going to come between clenched teeth.
Paige took every drop, then leaned back and smiled at him. “That was so much more fun to do than to read about.”
“Sweetheart, you can do anything to me you’ve ever read about any time you want. Or better yet, give me the book and let me do it to you.” Max was still breathing hard as he leaned back and helped her to her feet. He kissed her before smacking her bottom as he got out of the shower. “I can’t wait to read another book. What’s your book club reading this week?”
Paige laughed as he snagged a towel and went to get dressed.
Paige showered and dressed before drying her hair. When she came out of the bathroom, Max was nowhere to be found. However, her mother was sitting in one of the chairs drinking a cup of coffee. “Mom, geez, you scared me.”
“Sorry,” her mother said with a mischievous grin that told her she wasn’t sorry at all. “I know it must be a disappointment to see me instead of Max. He answered the door without his shirt on. I’m being totally serious when I say I understand your disappointment.”
Paige laughed and joined her mother in the other chair. “I’m sorry my time has been taken up by trying to save the bookstore. But I’ve really enjoyed baking with you every night.”
“Me too, honey. And I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Max. I love seeing you so in love.” Paige would normally have denied it, but she was in love and she was ridiculously happy. “Speaking of which. I stopped by because your father needed help at the tree lot and Max went to join him. We’re down a couple of people who took off to finish getting things ready for the ball tonight. Would you mind helping me with ringing up sales?”
“Sure!” Paige had loved doing that growing up. She loved seeing people happy. “Let me just put on my boots.”
Paige added another pair of socks, put on her boots, and dug out her scarf, gloves, and winter coat before they left the cottage.
“I got a call this morning,” her mother said ominously.
“Aunt Gretchen?” Paige asked of her mom’s sister. There had never been two completely opposite sisters before. Paige’s mom couldn’t care less about how much money a person had. She cared about what kind of person you were.
“Your cousin Ashley and her new husband are trying to have a baby. Eddie,” she said of Ashely’s brother, “is dating someone from the country club. Gretch called to brag and then to see how you were holding up being alone during the holidays . . . again.” Her mother rolled her eyes. The rest of the family was in their “very comfortable” hometown in Connecticut. Paige and her parents were the oddballs who’d moved away and worked at something other than a banking job. “I gleefully told her of how kind Max is and how much he loves you. Gretch thought I was making it up.”
Paige laughed and then they both came to a haltering stop as they entered the tree lot. “Oh honey, you’re so lucky. And I should know.”
Max was down to a tight long sleeve T-shirt that showed his muscles rippling under the tight fabric as he and her father competed in a tree chopping competition that had close to twenty women staring shamelessly. Paige’s mother took out her phone and snapped a picture.
“That’ll shut Gretchen up. Her husband could never do this. I’m pretty sure the heaviest thing her son-in-law ever picked up is a tennis racquet.” Her mother laughed as she sent off the photo.
Paige took out her phone, snapped a picture of Max with the axe raised and then did a slow-mo video. That was going to be her screen saver. “I’d say I’m very lucky indeed.”
“He’s not the mayor or a country club man, but he’s a damn good man who loves you, is kind to your father and me, and is trying to help save Holly’s bookstore. I’d say he’s a keeper.”
Paige smiled at that. “He is. Whoa, is that Stacy?” Paige watched in horror as the high school mean girl clapped and then went right over to Max. She put her hand on his arm, but Max took a step back. Stacy followed, trying to touch him again. Max hadn’t seen Paige yet as he bent, picked up the tree, and literally used it as a shield.
Her mother looked at her and they both smiled. Yep, he was a keeper alright. Paige walked over to him, ignored Stacy, and loved the way Max’s whole face lit up when he saw her.
“Hey, sweetheart.” Max bent and kissed her. Not the polite type of kiss. The down and dirty kind that left no doubt as to them being a couple. “Have you met Cindy?”
“Stacy,” Stacy snapped.
“We went to high school together,” Paige reminded him, but by the way he was smiling, he remembered.
“Nice. I’ll meet you at your car. I just have to kiss my girlfriend one more time.” Still holding the tree, Max kissed her more deeply than before. When he walked off whistling to Stacy’s car, she was pretty sure the snow all around her had melted from their heat.
The tree lot was packed all day long. Between learning that Max and her father were having wood chopping races and wanting to support Holly since a percentage of sales went to save her shop, it was a very long and busy day.
“That’s another fifteen thousand for Holly,” Paige said as she closed out the register. “Unfortunately, we’re not going to make it. I don’t see how we can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than twenty-four hours. Holly’s going to have one last Christmas reading and book handout tomorrow. Then she’ll have to close.”
“You did your best,” her mother said, giving her a hug.
“Who knows? Maybe there’s still a Christmas miracle that can help save her bookstore,” her father said, hanging up his axe next to the one Max had been using. “Thanks for the help, son.”
Seeing her father pat Max on the back as they joked around made Paige’s heart swell even more. “It was fun. I look forward to helping you next year.”
“Suck it, Gretchen,” her mother whispered as she and Paige broke out in a fit of giggles.
Her father just shook his head and said to Max, “You’ll get used to it. They do it all the time.”
“Come on,” Paige said, grabbing Max’s hand. “Let me take my lumberjack out for dinner so I can treat him like a prince he is.”
“I don’t know about a prince,” Max teased. “I’m more of a duke. But you . . . you’re definitely my princess of the books.”
Paige curtseyed. “If you’re a duke, then I’m your duchess.” She told him, expecting him to laugh. Instead, his eyes burned for her.
“I like that. Now come on, Duchess, I have a shower to repay you for.” Any teasing was forgotten as they went to get ready for dinner and Max bowed to her in the shower and worshiped her.