CHAPTER 36 MAX
T he next morning, I’ve packed my small collection of belongings and have arrived at Mili’s door to escort her to the front of the volcano. Port and Cory are waiting for us there, then we’re all going into town together. I try not to think about how crazy that is. Cory asked Port for a private conversation, which I would consider quite ominous if it wasn’t for the growing bond between our pack.
I knock on Mili’s door after taking a moment to compose myself. The smell of her, cinnamon and chocolate, wafts through the door into the hallway, and I clench my fists at my side. After a quick exhale, my pitiful attempt at pushing away her scent, I knock.
It’s still a challenge to keep my desire in check around her, especially now that I know she’s been intimate with both Cory and even with Port. To be honest, I really did not expect Cory to willingly share Mili, so to speak. As much as he wants to be a real pack with Port and me, he has the strongest Alpha instincts of us all, so I assumed that would make it a bit of a challenge to restrain his possessiveness. Still, he literally saw Mili kiss Port yesterday and hardly flinched. I suppose we’re all full of surprises –Cory’s no exception.
Really, I’m probably projecting; seeing Port kiss Mili lit up something strange inside me. Not jealousy, exactly, but something close. It’s not that I don’t want Port and Mili to enjoy each other, not at all. There’s just a nagging feeling I have that I’m not ... deserving of the two of them. I feel unworthy of them as separate people, and I certainly feel that I don’t deserve their combined affections.
I haven’t even let myself think of Cory in that way; then again, I think if he were added to the mix with me and Port, the four of us would never leave the bedroom. Besides, he’s too concerned with big-brotherly affection towards me and Port to feel any romance towards us. Honestly, the thought makes me shudder.
Mili’s door swings open suddenly, and she stands behind it with a bright smile. Without realizing it, I smile back, and she reaches up to rumple my hair. I raise an eyebrow at the casually intimate gesture, but she just shrugs with a grin.
“You looked too tidy,” she smirks.
I roll my eyes and hold out a hand for her satchel. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise as she hands the small bag over to me. Is it so surprising I’d be a gentleman? I think with a scowl.
“Oh, don’t be grumpy,” Mili groans. “It’s too early.”
I guffaw and retort, “I would’ve thought you’d enjoy being up early, little faery.”
She laughs her bright, tinkling laugh, and I bite back a smile. As she starts down the hall, she calls back to me, “I just said that to make you feel better. You look terribly exhausted.”
“You sure know how to flatter a guy,” I grumble. I walk in long strides to keep up with her as she hurries down the hall, shaking my head at her breakneck pace. “Easy, tiger. No rush, is there?”
At my comment Mili shoots back a vicious glare at me, then turns and walks even faster . I bark out a disbelieving laugh and pick up my pace, easily passing her. She scowls at me, and I wink back.
“Not my fault you’re so short,” I grin, walking backwards as I step in front of her.
This time, it’s Mili who rolls her eyes. “You’re just obscenely tall,” she replies, chin in the air. She sidesteps to move around me, but I slide in front of her again. “Oh, will you quit?” she asks, genuinely exasperated.
“Hmm, I don’t think I will.”
She growls and starts walking faster, still trying to get around me. I’m too tempted not to tease her a little bit, so I stop directly in front of her. She crashes into me, and I grin down at her.
“You wanna play nice now?” I whisper to her, voice low.
Her face is flushed with irritation, but I can hear her heart pounding from our sudden closeness. She scowls at me and crosses her arms, slowly shaking her head. I cock my head to the side, ignoring the sight of her breasts pressed together. Apparently, this foils her plan, and she growls again and tries to bolt around me.
I catch her easily, laughing as I wrap my hands around her waist. I expect a bit of playful resistance, so my heart leaps into my throat when she practically turns to quicksand in my hands.
She whirls around to face me, her livid expression at complete odds with her reaching hands. We stand there a second, Mili’s heart pounding in time with mine, my smirk causing her scowl to grow even wider.
“Sorry, baby,” I murmur. “You’re just too fun to tease.”
“Well stop teasing!” she cries out.
Without another thought, I crash my lips into hers before I can overthink and stop myself. She immediately groans and pulls me in tighter to her, and I let one of my hands fall to her ass and squeeze, hard . She cries out, a hungry, guttural sound, and I swallow the sound by covering her mouth with mine.
She pushes her tongue into my mouth before I have the chance to, kissing me like a woman starved, and the urgency of her motion fans the flame in my lower abdomen into a raging wildfire.
I growl into her, stepping forward until she’s pressed into the wall. She hitches a leg over my hip, and I press my hardness into her until she gasps from the pressure.
“You see what you do to me?” I hiss.
She whispers back in a mixture of fury and passion, “What I do? You drive me crazy!”
“Well, the feeling’s mutual,” I growl, giving in further to my carnal lust as I feast on her lips again.
She moans loudly into my mouth and scratches her nails down my back. I shiver and hold back a groan, feeling my arousal spread from my core through my arms and legs. She tightens her leg around me and my groin presses further into the apex between her legs.
The friction causes her to whimper, and I start to grind slowly onto her, quickly feeling myself building up to what will be a messy, poorly-timed orgasm. She sucks on my bottom lip and it’s almost enough to send me over the edge, right then and there.
I pull back from her, panting heavily, eyes wild. She looks suddenly concerned, and drops her leg quickly. She places her hands on my cheeks as I try –and fail –to catch my breath.
I realize I might be having a panic attack.
“Max, Max,” she whispers, leaning in close to me. She touches her hand to my chest and presses mine to hers, forcing me to feel her breathing. “Shh, it’s okay. Feel my breathing. Focus on it. Good. Now, focus on yours, okay? In and out, nice and easy. Good. Good.”
How in the Realm she accomplished that, I don’t know, but I manage to find my breath again. I don’t remember getting into this position, but I’ve ended up slumped on the floor, my back to the wall and legs pulled into my chest. Mili’s hand is still over my heart.
“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” I whisper, still a little breathless.
Mili, gods bless her, actually laughs a little. “Oh, Realm’s Mother,” she says. “That was a memorable way to end our first kiss.”
Her words catch me so off guard that I laugh too, and peer up to see her grinning at me. “I’m sorry if I scared you,” I exhale, grin fading.
“Don’t,” she murmurs. “It was intense. That’s not your fault.”
“I’m not normally such a mess. Well, at least not that much of a mess.”
Mili smiles and stands, then holds her hands out for me to grab. I latch on and she helps me up before slinging an arm sideways around my waist.
“Come on,” she says softly. “Let’s get out of here.”
I smile and shake my head again, but start off with her down the hall all the same. She really is too sweet for me. I hope I don’t blow it.