Chapter 18 #2
“Annie—yes, oh-fuck yes-yes-yes—” Her words synchronized with the movements of her hips as again and again, she brought herself down on top of Annie until she couldn’t take anymore. “I’m close. I’m so fucking close, Annie. Come with me. Please. I want you—I need you to come with me.”
She gasped as Annie’s fingers found her clit, rubbing frantic circles over her. She couldn’t help but notice Annie’s greedy smile at the high-pitched whine that left at the contact.
“Fuck, Max, watching you like this—watching you writhe for me. I’m the luckiest girl in the world.”
Max pressed her forehead to Annie’s sweat-slicked skin, sticky against each other, but Max didn’t care. She wanted, no, needed to be as close to her as possible.
“Annie, please,” she begged quietly, wanting so badly to claim her release.
“I’m almost there. Do you think you can hold on for me for ten more seconds? I’ll count for you.”
Fuck. Was she serious?
“You can do that for me, can’t you?” Annie cooed, rolling her hips up to meet every single one of Max’s movements, driving the dildo deeper inside of her.
“Ten…” Annie’s breath was hot in her ear, one hand on her hip, the other palming her breast. “Nine…” Annie pinched her nipple hard, and Max loved the way her own sharp inhale followed the unexpected pain.
“Eight…” Her lips followed, soothing any lingering pain.
“An—ahh.”
“Seven… You’re being so good for me.”
She couldn’t take it. This was too much. She was too sensitive.
“Six.” Annie slid a hand up her thighs, holding her tightly.
“I can’t. I can’t. I want to—let me come,” Max begged again, desperate for the release that dangled in front of her, so close she could almost taste it.
“You can take it.” Annie’s voice dripped with assurance, and God, Max had never heard anything hotter in her life. “Five.”
“Please,” Max whispered, heat building low in her belly as her body began to splinter from the sheer ecstasy of it all.
“Four.” Annie’s fingers were back on her clit.
“Not fair,” Max moaned in her ear, lips finding Annie’s, their tongues dueling for control. “Oh-hmm-uh”
It was embarrassing how, with each passing second, Max was losing more and more of her ability to stay present.
“Three. You’re almost there.”
“I-I-”
“Two. Don’t you dare stop moving. Are you ready to come for me?” Annie panted, her grip on Max’s hip tightening as she guided her body up and down.
Max nodded feverishly, unable to form words; the only thought in her mind was to keep moving, keep chasing her prize.
“Say it,” Annie whispered, the heat of her breath tickling her ear.
“Fuck, Annie. Make me fucking come.”
Annie grinned. “One.”
Whatever deep-seated strength Max had been holding onto to get her through Annie’s countdown was gone in a swirl of greedy hands and frantic hips as soon as that syllable left her mouth.
“I’m coming. Fuck, Annie. Oh-oh-oh-oh-ohh.” She came on a strangled cry, hips thrusting one final time against Annie, who held her through it all.
“Max, fuck, phone. Turn the vibrator off,” Annie pleaded, her voice straining uncomfortably as Max fumbled her phone. Annie breathed a sigh of relief before giggling. “That was hot as hell.”
“Yeah. Hot,” she murmured, still in the post-orgasm haze.
Annie’s eyes sparkled as Max finally found the strength to move, the two of them extracting themselves from each other.
Max’s back hit the mattress. Annie shifted beside her, a thunk following—no doubt the sound of the dildo hitting the floor.
She rolled onto her side. Annie did the same so they were face to face, the tips of their noses touching as their breathing evened out.
“I’m sorry,” Max said after a few long moments. “I’m usually a much better conversationalist, but you seemed to have fucked all the words right out of me.” She laughed, Annie’s fingers tracing comforting patterns up her side.
“Lucky for you”—Annie smiled sweetly—“I have a few to spare.” She leaned forward, capturing Max’s lips with hers, languidly moving together, but it was the words she said as she came up for air that stopped Max in her tracks. “I want to move to Michigan with you.”
“Y-you do?” she stammered, caught off guard by the topic she knew each of them had been avoiding. Apparently they weren’t avoiding it anymore.
“I do.” Annie shifted, reaching for the blanket, covering their naked bodies as they settled into the topic. “I know it’s crazy—and incredibly U-Haul-y of us. But I don’t want to stay here in Wellington Point while you’re out there chasing your dream. I want to chase it with you.”
Max’s smile widened with each word because, yes. This was exactly what she wanted, but had been too afraid to ask. “Is it really U-Hauling if we’ve been dating for four months?”
Annie’s face scrunched in confusion. “Four months? Try five months.”
“Wait. What are you counting as our anniversary?” Max asked, mid-laugh.
“Our trip to Michigan,” Annie said simply, as though it were obvious. “You?”
“Your birthday.” She grinned, her mind remembering in vivid detail the way Annie had come over that night with a purpose, the way she revealed the sexy lingerie, and how she had Max bent over begging for more.
“Seems we’re at an impasse here. What’s our actual dating anniversary? Because if I’m being honest, I could probably walk it all the way back to the Christmas party. I don’t give my pickle winnings to just any girl.”
“Should we pick a random date between Christmas and your birthday?” Max suggested.
Annie considered for a moment, nuzzling herself closer under the blanket. “How about February fifth?”
“Our first kiss?”
Annie shoved her playfully. “See, I knew you were a romantic.”
Max leaned forward, bringing a hand to Annie’s cheek, the pad of her thumb tracing gently over the contour of her bone structure. “When it comes to you, I one hundred percent am.”
“Good, that’s how I like it.”
They shared a long quiet moment, Max searching Annie’s eyes for any sign of hesitation regarding her proposed step.
“Are you sure you want to move with me? That’s a big step. Like a huge step. I’d totally understand if you didn’t—”
Annie cut her off, a hand resting on her bicep. “What part of me saying I want to move to Michigan with you makes you think I don’t want to?”
Heat rose in Max’s cheeks. “No, I wasn’t—it’s just I hate the idea of you feeling pressured to make this decision quickly because things in my life happen to be ramping up.”
“You’re right. It is a big step. I think it’s fair that we recognize that. What would make you feel more confident in this decision?”
Max sighed, loving that Annie was always asking questions like that. She chewed on her bottom lip, thinking for a moment before she answered. “We’ve never really talked about us. Like, what do we want out of this relationship? I think I’d like to do that before making any decisions about moving.”
“I can get behind that. Do you want me to go first? Or do you want to?”
Max blinked. Of course Annie was ready to have this conversation right this moment without even needing a minute to think. “You can go first,” she said, curious to hear what Annie had to say.
Annie’s tongue darted out, running along her bottom lip in a brief moment of thought.
“After everything that happened with Caroline, I told myself I wasn’t going to date for the sake of dating.
I’m not interested in that. I want it all, Max.
I want the marriage, and the kids, and a life so big and full of adventure and memories that I drive everyone in the nursing home crazy with my stories when I’m ninety. ” She giggled.
Max glowed with the confirmation of something she had quietly felt while standing on the porch of the old farmhouse in Michigan, the thrill of the possibility of a life with Annie that included everything she had ever dreamed of.
“Feelings about cats?” she asked, arching her brow. “You didn’t mention anything about pets, and that’s the only difference between what you want and what I want.” Max smirked, fully ready for Annie’s playful push against her chest.
“How many are we talking?”
“Is there a limit?”
Annie rolled her eyes. “I’m open to varying quantities of cats, but I will not let us become crazy cat ladies. That’s one lesbian stereotype I refuse to embrace.”
“Yeah, no one who’s held a kitten has ever said that. Give it time,” Max joked, wrapping her arms around Annie, kissing the tip of her nose.
“What about you? What do you want out of this?”
She inhaled deeply, looking inward to the deepest desires of her life that she had never shared with anyone. “I don’t really do the girlfriend thing,” she said slowly, already hating the way her feelings sounded. “I mean, like, I’ve never really been serious about someone.”
She chewed the inside of her cheek anxiously, but as she looked into Annie’s patient gaze, every ounce of nervousness faded, replaced by a vivid picture. It was the two of them, standing hip to hip on the front porch of the farmhouse, looking out over her land together, planting their roots.
“I want it all, Annie.” Her voice cracked, her unexpected feelings creeping their way into her words as she continued.
“I want the house, I want marriage, I want kids, I want taking on the world with someone.” Her heart hammered as she cautiously put her dream out there—something she had never said out loud before.
Annie was close again, impossibly so, her hot breath spreading across Max as she pressed against her.
“Glad we’re on the same page about a few things,” Annie said, the sincerity in her tone wrapping around Max’s ears.
“You know—with the wife and kids and the life plans thing.” She scrunched her nose, leaning forward, placing another delicate kiss on her lips.