Chapter 15 #2
After he dealt the cards, I put my ante in and waited for him to do the same.
He folded. “You win.”
His low, gruff voice curled around me like smoke, and before I saw it coming, he tore his shirt over his head.
My mouth watered at the sight of his bare chest, his golden bronze skin begging to be touched. I traced over every curve and plane of muscle, trailing down his abs as far as I could go from my seat.
Gripping the edge of my chair, I forced myself to sit still.
He pushed the cards toward me, jerking a nod. “Your deal.”
Gathering the pile, I shuffled the cards and dealt again, and while I could’ve stolen his move and ditched my bra, I flipped the first three cards instead. His sudden change had caught me off guard, and I wanted to let it play out.
I needed to see what he’d do next.
He set his cards down.
My breathing hitched, and when he rose from the table, a tumult of emotions played across his features. But once he stood at full height, he shuttered his expression.
He gripped the waistband of his sweatpants, and my mind and my heart raced. I wanted to be smart about this. But Max Dread was about to take off his pants in front of me.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen it before.
Hell, that was part of the problem.
I knew exactly what came next.
But trying to process what this meant, why he was doing it, utterly distracted me. I’d wanted him from the minute I laid eyes on him in the Round Tableau, and even when I’d tried to deny it, that need had only grown.
I searched his face, my eyes jumping between his gaze, his exposed skin, and the outline of his cock in his sweatpants.
Blood flooded my cheeks. It rushed past my ears as he tugged his pants down.
His black boxer briefs hugged every inch of him, the bands gripping tight around his thighs. I sent prayers up that, this time, the straining threads finally snapped.
Without bothering to sit, he dealt the next hand.
As soon as I put my chips in the pot, he folded and reached for his boxers.
I blurted his name before I shut my foolish, foolish mouth.
“Max?” Staring up at him, anticipation and anxiety swirled in my belly. “What are you doing?”
Instead of removing the barrier, he palmed his cock over the fabric. His voice lowered, growing huskier as he stared down at me. “You tell me.”
“W-what?”
His soft chuckle pulsed a wave of desire through my body. “You heard me.”
I darted my gaze around the room, as if that might help me figure out his intentions. My eyes raced back and forth as my mind flew through the possibilities.
He was reacting. That was what I’d wanted.
But his tone made me suspicious.
“I don’t understand.”
“Then, I’ll tell you.” He stared me down. “Come here.”
I blinked, struggling to process what he’d said. “What?”
Pointing at the ground in front of him, he repeated, “Come. Here.”
With a deep swallow, I accepted my fate. I’d started this, and I planned to see it through. As I stood up slowly, I scrutinized him before I walked over.
He patted a spot on the surface. Right in front of him.
I squeezed into the open space between him and the table, my belly clenching as his erection brushed my exposed skin. Gripping the edge, I drew in a shaky breath and lifted my head.
He met my gaze, his eyes like charcoal pulled straight from a fire. They burned with heat and an intensity I’d never witnessed from him. Hooded with barely restrained lust, his stare grew heavier in the breaths shared between us.
“Lie back.” His deep timbre pulsed straight to my clit. “Then spread your legs.”
Alarm bells blared in my head.
Everything I’d been telling myself played on a loop.
How the engagement wasn’t real. How he was trying to communicate with me. How he was protecting me…
What happened to all that if he went through with this? If he tried to have sex with me for the first time here?
Like this—like it meant nothing.
Despite the war inside my brain, I refused to believe he’d do it.
Max eyed me carefully, his stare penetrating. “Are you in, or are you out?”
After sitting down, I scooted my butt so I could lie back. My elbows braced my upper body, and I didn’t break his stare as I did what he said.
He ran his gaze over me, his eyes molten.
They flared with heat as they reached my legs, and when I pressed my thighs together, he smirked, like keeping them closed revealed everything. “I could give you what you want, but I don’t think I’m the one talking a big game.”
My core clenched at his taunt, the way he threw my words from our first session back at me. It shouldn’t have made me want to spread my legs for him.
But fuck me, it did.
Still, I refused to give him the upper hand, and I sassed back instead. “Maybe I just want you to take it.”
His eyes blazed, searing through me as he grabbed my knees. He gripped them, holding on for dear life before running his palms up and down my outer thighs.
Goosebumps rippled over my skin everywhere he touched.
He clamped down on my knees with one hand as he shoved his boxers past his hips with the other.
With his cock freed, he wrenched my thighs apart. He leaned in, flashing me a wolfish grin.
My breath came out in tight, quick pants, grasping for air I desperately needed but didn’t risk taking.
I flicked my gaze down his body as he stepped between my legs, and my lips parted.
He dug his fingers into my flesh, seconds from either driving forward or snapping my legs shut. “You want me to do it? Take you right here, right now? Drive my cock home so hard and deep that you scream for me?”
I shuddered beneath him, the effort of restraining my confession threatening to break me.
“Or maybe you want it slow?” he purred, his voice sinful as he stared, and my eyelids grew heavy. “Maybe you want to feel every fucking inch as I slide inside you. So deep you’ll feel me in your throat.”
“Chest,” I argued breathlessly. “But you have the right idea.”
“Yeah, see. That’s why I won’t do it. Because something like that…? It has to be earned. And a brat like you?”
A lick of fear skittered up my spine.
He huffed a laugh. “No, what I should do is drag you into a closet and put you on your knees.”
“Do it, then.” I panted, giving away how much I wanted it.
Wanted him.
That pointed comment about the closet gave me pause. It should’ve had me pulling back, but arousal clouded my judgment. Overpowering my senses, it halted rational thought to a grinding halt.
A needy, desperate sound came from the back of my throat, but before he called me on it, I shot back. “I’m not scared of you, Max.”
His lips curled wickedly. “You should be. So, maybe I’m not getting the point across. Maybe I should flip you over, fuck your throat, and then, take your ass like it’s fucking mine.”
I gulped. Dizzy with conflicting desires, I forced out. “I don’t want to do that. Not yet.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Why should I care, Quinn Everly?”
My body froze as my mind raced. Ever since my big libido reawakening, I’d opened up to the idea of going there eventually. But that was not on my sexual bingo card for The Quest.
And right now? Like this?
His cock grazed my core, still acting as if he didn’t care one way or the other, and his first stroke against my clit had me wondering why I cared.
Unraveling beneath him, there was nothing—no one—I wanted right now more than him.
But I wouldn’t give him that.
Not like this.
He pulled back, his eyes fixed on where our bodies aligned before trailing lower. When his hips rocked forward, I trusted he wouldn’t do what he wanted me to believe he would do, but when his cock brushed against my ass, I panicked.
My ability to speak returned, and I blurted, “I yield!”
Max jolted back as if I’d slapped him.
His hands came up, his touch disappearing from my skin like it had never been there.
As he stepped away from the table, he yanked up his sweatpants. Grabbing his T-shirt off the floor, he didn’t pause to put it on.
He just bolted from the room.
Panting, aroused, and confused as hell, I collapsed backward. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to control my breathing.
I needed to get up, but I couldn’t.
Lying there, for however long I did, I replayed everything he said. I hunted for hidden meaning in his actions and words, but I couldn’t make sense of it. If he’d been trying to tell me something, I couldn’t see it.
My thoughts entangled, my mind stuck with no answers.
When I finally collected myself enough to climb off the table, I redressed on shaking limbs.
I spent the whole night hunting for answers in his words.
They didn’t come.