Chapter 20
Twenty
Flynn
My eyes blink open slowly, and I push my arms upward in a long stretch. Dropping my arms I roll onto my side, noticing a head-sized indention in the pillow next to mine.
Memories from last night come rushing back, and I close my eyes to let them sweep me away. Max’s lips on mine. Her body, naked and writhing beneath me. The mind-blowing sex. The cuddling afterward.
It was everything I’d dreamed of and everything I never dreamed I could have in reality.
And now she’s gone.
Rolling back onto my back, I look at the clock on my nightstand. It’s seven a.m. I have no idea what time it was when I fell asleep last night, but it couldn’t have been later than nine or nine-thirty. Jesus, I don’t remember the last time I slept that long without waking up.
Sitting up, I look around the room. Max is definitely not in here. And my bathroom door is open and the lights are off, so she’s not in there, either. I look at the doors connecting our rooms, and they’re both wide open.
A relieved smile curves my lips. Max may have left me sleeping in my bed, but she’s not shutting me out. Rolling out of bed, I tug my boxers free of my wadded up jeans and pull them on. After making a pit stop in my bathroom to use the toilet, wash my hands and face, and brush my teeth, I head to the connecting doors and poke my head inside.
Max isn’t in here, either, but her bathroom door is open, and I can hear running water coming from inside. She’s in the shower.
God, how I’d love to just waltz in there and join her, but I don’t want to assume anything. Sure, we had sex, but I don’t know if she’s ready for that level of intimacy, yet, where I can just join her in her shower without invitation.
Moving toward the bathroom, I stand beside the door and lean back against the wall, calling out, “Good morning.”
“Flynn?” she calls back, the question evident in her voice.
“Who else would be in your room?” I call back in a teasing tone.
“Come in here. I can’t hear you over the water,” she yells, so I push off the wall and step inside the bathroom.
I can see her silhouette through the frosted glass, her hand holding something puffy as she drags it over her torso.
And…my dick is awake, now.
“I said, who else would be in your room,” I say, loud enough that I’m sure she’s heard me this time.
“Nope. Still can’t hear you,” she says, and I hear the devilish edge in her voice. The shower door pops open an inch as she adds, “Maybe you should just join me in here.”
You don’t have to ask me twice.
Shedding my boxers in a single, smooth motion, I step out of them and pull the door open. I just stand there for a moment, taking in Max in all her naked glory. She watches me with unabashed eyes as she drags that soapy shower poof down between her breasts to the notch between her thighs.
“Fuck me,” I mutter under my breath, and she proves she can hear me just fine by shooting me a wicked smile.
Stepping into the stall, I pull the door closed behind me and hold out my hand. Sensing my intention, she hands over the poof and spins to give me her back before pulling her damp red hair over her shoulder. I press the poof to the center of her back, swirling it around in slow circles as I marvel at the way her skin pebbles with goosebumps after each pass.
A quiet moan slips out of her, and I drop the poof to use both hands, spreading the bubbles around her sides to her stomach. She steps back, pressing against my chest as her fingers circle each of my wrists. She pulls my left hand up to her breast while pushing my right down between her thighs. Her head falls back against my shoulder as I tweak her nipple and her clit in an alternating rhythm.
Reaching back as she moans and writhes, she slips her hand between us to grip my erection and stroke it gently. I groan into her ear, and she releases me so suddenly, my head spins. But before I can even think to complain, she’s bending at the waist and bracing her palms against the opposite wall of the shower and pushing up on her toes. The move opens her up to me, and I groan as I push a finger inside to find her warm, wet, and ready.
“Maxine,” I groan, and she pushes back against my hand, driving my finger deeper with a groan of her own.
“Flynn,” she begs, and I yank my finger out, bend my knees, and line my cock up, driving myself balls-deep without a moment’s hesitation.
I curl my arms around her to hold her in place as I slam into her, and she chants my name like it’s something holy to be revered and worshipped. Angling my hand downward, I find her clit with the pad of my finger. Rubbing tight circles around it, I continue to drive into her until her chants turn to moans and her pussy grips my cock like a vise.
“Jesus,” I grunt as my own orgasm chases hers, leaving me spent and gasping as my knees start to wobble.
Straightening as my dick slips from her, Max twists in my arms so she can drive her hands into my hair and kiss me with a ferocity that drives me wild. Then she pulls back and meets my eyes with an impish grin.
“You feel so much better than I imagined. ”
“You imagined this?” I say, unable to hide the cocky smirk twisting my lips.
“Since the day we met,” she says, and my heart thumps in my chest.
“You’re just saying that because of my confession last night,” I whisper, my voice just loud enough to be heard over the rush of water.
I told Max I’d been dreaming of making love to her for seven years. A confession I didn’t mean to make, yet it had tumbled from my lips, anyway.
“No, Flynn,” Max says, shaking her head with a smile. “I’m not just saying it. It’s the truth. It took me almost four years to find the courage to make a move, and that’s why I was so devastated when you pulled away. And when Milo told me you said it was the worst mistake you’d ever made…”
Her words trail off as her smile drops, and fuck, I feel like the world’s biggest asshole. Even though it was Milo who freaked out and lied about the reason, I did, in fact say the words. I lied to him, he knew I was lying, and he told Max about it for his own selfish reasons.
Pulling her against me, I hug her as tightly as I can, saying, “I’m sorry, baby. I never should’ve said what I said. I should’ve stood up to Milo and fought for you.”
I feel her shaking her head against my chest before she tilts her head back to look up at me. “It was Milo’s fault, and it’s in the past. We have a second chance here, and I just want to enjoy it.”
I tip my head down to brush my lips against hers, and she indulges the kiss for just a moment before pulling back and disentangling herself from my arms. Grabbing the poof from the shower floor where I dropped it, she holds it out toward me.
“But first, we need to clean up and get down to breakfast so we can win this murder mystery competition.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I say with a grin, taking the poof in one hand and pumping some of her sweet-smelling body wash onto it with the other.
We talk and laugh as we wash each other down, then Max lets me wash her hair for her, and damn, the little noises she makes while I massage her scalp are nearly the cause of my undoing. I somehow manage to keep it together until we’re done, but that doesn’t stop me from kissing her thoroughly before I let her out of the shower stall to dry off.
How is this my life now? I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but I’d do it over and over again just hold onto a sliver of this perfection.
Max swats me on the ass with a laugh and an order to go get dressed, so I grab her for one last, quick kiss before picking up my dirty boxers and sauntering back to my room in nothing but a towel. I can hear her blow dryer running as I grab some fresh underwear, a pair of khaki shorts, and a button down from my closet.
As I get dressed, the world beyond these two bedrooms creeps in through the cracks, and my good mood wanes. What will happen when one of us gets eliminated and has to leave? And worse, what if the other one gets the job ?
Not that I’d begrudge Max scoring the gig. Lord knows, she deserves it. But if either of us does win this little competition, we’d be forced apart for weeks. Possibly months.
And even though we’ve known each other for years, this thing between us is brand new. Could it survive an immediate separation? Could Max and I beat the odds and make long distance work?
I’d like to be confident we would, but the odds would definitely be stacked against us.
I head into my bathroom to brush and style my hair, but I just stand there, staring at my reflection as a new thought hits. I’m thinking of our future in terms of us being in a relationship . And as much as I want that to be the case, I can’t just assume Max is on the same page.
She could be thinking of this thing between us as a fun, short-term fling where we’re banging each other out of our systems.
“Fuck,” I mutter, bracing my hands against the counter and letting my head droop.
“Flynn? You ready?”
“Just a minute,” I call back, quickly running a comb through my hair before calling it good.
I stride from the bathroom, then freeze in my tracks the second my eyes land on Max. She’s a vision in an emerald green sundress with her bright red locks flowing over her shoulders and down her back. My palm finds my chest, feeling my heart thump as I take her in.
“You okay?” she asks, a secret smile curving her gorgeous lips .
“I’ve never been better,” I reply, and it’s probably the most honest thing I’ve ever said.
“Grab your shoes. We’ve got to get to breakfast, stat. I’m starving this morning for some reason,” she says, punctuating the words with a saucy wink.
God, I love you.
I don’t say the words aloud, but they echo over and over in my head so loudly, I’m sure she can hear them. And even if she could, I wouldn’t take the words back regardless of how premature they may seem to an outsider.
I was in love with this woman in college. If I hadn’t been, the lies Milo told me wouldn’t have hurt as badly as they did. And even though we’ve been apart for five years, seeing her again was like no time had passed at all. And getting to know her again over the last couple of days just proved I didn’t imagine those feelings I had for her back in the day.
They were real then, and they’re real now.
“Flynn?”
“Oh, sorry,” I say, moving quickly to the closet to grab my shoes and a pair of socks.
I pull them on in a flash, and Max skips toward me to give me a quick kiss before scurrying back to her own room, closing and locking the connecting door behind her. Right. We have to keep up appearances, and if anyone saw us exiting my bedroom together, well, the jig would be up.
I hear her bedroom door close, then wait for a count of ten before leaving my own room. I see her down the hall at the top of the stairs, and she pauses to shoot me another wink before heading down.
Taking a deep breath and blowing it out to calm my racing heart, I slowly head for the stairs. Keeping a professional distance from her is going to be impossible today, but I’ll have to find a way.
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?