Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
M ax
"Marie, I would like to introduce you to Lila. And Lila, I would like to introduce you to my sister, Marie."
My sister looks up from the couch and stares at Lila. Her eyes widen as she jumps up, and there's a huge smile on her face.
"Lila? Who is Lila exactly?"
Marie looks at me and I glare at her. I look over at Lila and hope she's not upset.
"It's okay, Max. I don't expect you to have told your sister about me with everything that's going on."
"Is this your girlfriend?" Marie gushes. "Oh my gosh, you have a girlfriend and you didn't tell me? And she's so pretty!"
"Oh my gosh, you're so sweet," Lila says, stepping forward. "You're absolutely gorgeous. You must have got your looks from your mom, because you're way better looking than Max."
"I love you already," Marie says, giggling as she leans over and gives Lila a hug. "What are you doing with my doofus of a big brother?"
"Oh, just making his life the best it's ever been," Lila says in response as she looks over at me.
My heart races as I stare at them. I love both of these women. The thought hits me, and all of a sudden, I feel stiff. Do I love Lila? How on Earth have I fallen in love with her already? But then it strikes me that maybe my spirit had known who she was from the very moment it had seen her walking in the street. I dismiss the thoughts of love from my mind, because I'm not a believer in love at first sight, and I certainly don't believe in true love, and I certainly don't want to turn Lila's already too-romantic brain into a whirlwind.
"Max, are you ignoring me?" Marie says, swatting me on the shoulder.
"Sorry, I was just thinking about something. What's going on?"
"I was saying that we should all go to dinner, and then maybe we could watch a movie, and?—"
I stare at Marie and shake my head. "Darling, I love you, but I want to spend some alone time with Lila."
"It's okay," Lila says quickly. "I'd love to get to know Marie, especially because you're going to be moving to The City, right?"
"Yeah," Marie says, nodding slowly. "Did Max tell you he bought me the apartment next door?"
"He did?" Lila's eyes are wide as she shakes her head. "No. Wow, you've certainly been busy."
"Well, if Marie's going to be going to college and having a baby and staying in The City, she needs to have someone to look after her. And while I love her, I certainly don't want to live in the same apartment as her forever."
"Thank you, big bro. That makes me feel great." Marie giggles.
"I mean, you know that I love you, and if you really want to stay here, if it makes you safer, you can, but?—"
"I'm joking. Of course I want my own place. Plus, he said he's going to give me an unlimited budget to furnish. How awesome is that?"
"I want an unlimited budget to furnish something," Lila says.
I stare at her for a couple of seconds, at her laughing blue eyes, and I want to tell her that I would give her an unlimited budget for anything she wanted. She's joking, and I know that she wouldn't accept a penny from me, but I want to make her life easier, I want to make her life more comfortable, and I'm going to have to figure out a way to do that without making her upset. I know that she won't move in with me, not right away, and that's probably for the best because we really don't know each other that well, and even though I would love for her to move in, I understand how much she is enjoying her independence, even if she is living in an unfurnished shithole.
"Hey, Marie, do you mind if I take Lila to the bedroom for a second?"
"Are you about to make my baby a cousin already?"
"No." I glare at her. "I just want to talk to her about something."
"Fine," she says. "I was just about to watch 27 Dresses anyway." She grins at Lila. "I'm so glad you're dating my brother. He is already a better person for knowing you."
"What are you talking about, Marie?"
"Don't think I haven't noticed how different you've been," she says, laughing. "Normally, you don't have that much time for me, and you certainly wouldn't have taken a week off of work. You're much more chill and cool, and I've noticed that you just seem happier."
I stare at her for a couple of seconds.
"What are you trying to say, that I wasn't happy before?"
"No, but I feel like you're really enjoying life now." She looks over at Lila. "And I see the way you look at her, I see the way she looks at you, she's your lobster."
I stare at her for a couple of seconds.
"What?"
"It's a term…oh my gosh, are you too old to understand what that means?"
"She’s saying that I'm your person," Lila giggles. "You're so sweet, Marie, but I don't want you to scare Max. I don't know if he?—"
"You are my lobster," I say softly. "Maybe I've waited my entire life for this moment, or maybe not. Maybe this is absolutely ridiculous and there's way too much estrogen in this house and it's making me go crazy."
"Tell yourself whatever you want." Marie says as she heads back over to the couch. "See you later, Lila."
"Sounds good." Lila turns to me. "So what did you want to discuss with me?"
"Come, I'll tell you in the bedroom."
We head down to my room, and I close the door.
"Is this your way of trying to make love to me again?"
I growl as I pick her up and carry her over to the bed and drop her down onto the mattress. She giggles as I get down beside her and kiss her, my fingers running over her breasts.
"Max, you shouldn't," she says, laughing as she reaches up and grabs my crotch.
"Actually, that's not why I brought you in here." I kiss the side of her face. "But maybe later."
"Are you telling me no to sex right now?"
"I'm telling you that there's something I want to talk about with you."
"Okay." She rolls onto her side. "What is it?"
I look into her eyes.
"So I have a proposition for you."
"Yeah, what is it?"
"You have no furniture."
"Yeah, I have no furniture, we've already established that."
"You need furniture."
"And I told you, once I get a couple of paychecks?—"
"You need furniture now," I say, staring at her.
"Well, I don't have the money, and I'm not taking the money from you." She glares at me and pokes me in the chest. "Don't even think about buying me furniture and having it shipped to my place. I will kill you. I will literally pull your heart out and eat it if you do that."
"That sounds kind of disgusting," I say, wrinkling my nose. "I know I'm sweet, but am I that sweet?"
She just stares at me.
"That's not the proposition I had for you."
"Okay. Well then, what is?"
"I was thinking, what about if…" I pause slightly.
"What?" she says.
I grab her waist and pull her closer to me, then wrap my leg around her hip.
"Max, what are you saying?"
"What if you want to have a little contract with me?"
"Huh?" she says, as I reach my hand up under her shirt.
"What if we have a deal?"
"What deal?" she asks.
"I don't know. Maybe that you're my sex slave for the next month and I give you $25,000."
"Are you freaking kidding me?" she says, pushing me away. "I am so offended. I cannot believe that you think I will sell my body for twenty-five grand."
"Fifty grand then?"
"No, Max," she says, glaring at me. "I'm not going to sleep with you for money. That's absolutely ridiculous. That's not romantic."
"What? You're the one that said that?—"
"Max," she says. "If we're getting into a relationship, and you like me and I like you, I'm not accepting money for sex. I don't want there to ever be a time in our relationship where you question me."
"Okay. Well, I was just joking."
"No, you weren't."
"Okay, maybe I wasn't, but it was just for fun."
"What do you mean for fun?"
"I don't know, like role-playing. Come on, let's be real, we both know I wouldn't have to pay you one cent for sex."
"Haha, very funny, Max."
"I just don't want you to be in that place with nothing. It's not comfortable, and when you…" I pause. I was about to say when you love someone, you want them to be comfortable. "Well, when you care about someone," I say quickly instead. "You want them to be comfortable, and I have plenty of money."
"I know you have money, and I'm very appreciative of you offering it to me, but I'm not going to accept your money to buy me furniture. I have to do this myself."
"You are so stubborn, Lila Haversham."
"And that's why you like me, Max Spector." She grins, and I just shake my head.
"Maybe," I say. "So you're not willing to take this proposition?"
"No, I'm not. But thank you very much for offering."
"Well then, I'll just have to speak to HR on Monday.
She frowns slightly. "About what?"
"About the fact that you've been given a pay raise to $300,000 a year." I grin.
"Max!" She shakes her head. "you cannot pay me $300,000 just to be your assistant."
"Oh, yeah? You wanna bet? I am a named partner at the firm. I think my assistant deserves to make $300,000, especially seeing as I text her and email her at all hours of the night and day, and she wakes up extra early to get me my coffee and bagel."
"You're really going to do that, aren't you…" She groans.
"Yes. Now, come closer to me."
She shifts so that she's up against me. I run my fingers down her back and touch her lips lightly.
"You're so beautiful. Maybe even the most beautiful woman in the world."
"Maybe because you haven't seen many women in the world?"
"No. I could see every single woman in the world, and none of them would shine any brighter than you."
I know just as surely as there is a sun in the sky that she's much more than my lobster; she is my soulmate. She is the woman that I've been waiting for my entire life and I didn't even know it. Maybe, just maybe, she and I have known each other in another life and we've come back together. My heart and my soul feels attached to her. I grab her hands and clasp them. There's an energy that's buzzing between us.
"Do you feel that?" I ask, and she nods slightly.
"It's like electricity," she says.
"We've got this connection." I stare at her like I’m seeing her for the first and last time. I could be blind and I would still know it was her. She has imprinted on my very soul. "I'm not crazy for feeling it, right?"
"No," she says, shaking her head. "I feel it as well."
"This is really special, Lila."
"You think so, Max?"
"I think so." I kiss her knuckles. "It's about more than the hot, crazy sex that we have."
"I know," she says. "You know what I was reading?"
I shake my head.
"What?"
"Did you know that cock warming is actually part of the dom-sub relationship?"
"Maybe when I first learned about what it was. Why?"
"Well, you know that cock warming is not just in the vagina?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, some women just warm their man's cock in their mouth for hours. They just lie there like it's a lollipop."
"Are you telling me you want to suck my cock for hours?" I ask, grinning at her.
"I think we both know that if I were to suck your cock for hours, you would come multiple times, and the point of cock warming is not to cum, it's just to…"
"To what?" I say, growling as I press my lips against her. "You know I'm fucking hard right now. I don't even want to talk about this anymore."
"Why? What do you want to do instead?" she asks, grinning as she rolls on top of me and sways her hips back and forth.
I close my eyes as I feel her moist panties against my fingers.
"You know exactly what I want to do, sweetheart," I say, and I reach up and bring her down toward me and kiss her hard.
We both know that we're meant for each other, and now I'm going to show her just how much.