“No, I’m not.”
“If you’re not then why, an hour ago, did you let me in, practically begged me to come in and locked me tight when I got there and now you’re doin’ everything you can to shove me right back out?”
This time I ignored him and suggested, “Let’s talk about your mother.”
I saw his jaw flex in irritation at my change of subject before he asked, “What do you wanna know?”
“How about you explaining why you’ve had breakfast and dinner with my mother and she lives in Arizona and your mother lives fifteen miles away and I haven’t met her?”
“This might have escaped you, Duchess, but we’ve been kinda busy.”
I found it tremendously annoying when he was right.
Max went on, “There’s also the fact your Mom showed up on the doorstep and then stayed.”
Yes, totally annoying when he was right.
Max continued, “Not to mention, you already met Kami twice and I figured that was enough of my family for awhile. I’m tryin’ to find ways to make you want to stay, not give you reasons to run away.”
This, too, was a good point.
“Perhaps we should stop talking and go back to relaxing,” I suggested the impossible. I was never going to relax for the rest of my life.
“Explain somethin’ to me, babe, why is it you always wanna stop talking when I’m winnin’ the fuckin’ argument?”
I decided to be honest. “Because you’re more annoying when you’re right than you are just normally.”
Max stared at me a minute, visibly astonished by my honesty then he threw his head back and laughed while gathering me close to his amazing, sweat-slicked chest.
“Jesus, you’re cute,” he murmured when he quit laughing and my face was stuffed into his throat.
“For the last time, Max, stop telling me I’m cute when I’m angry at you,” I demanded and he laughed yet again.
I shoved at his chest.
Max let me push back but unexpectedly I found myself suspended then maneuvered then I was straddling Max’s lap and my towel was whipped off.
I covered my breasts with my arms and snapped, “Max!”
One of Max’s hands was at my hip, anchoring me to his lap, the other one was gliding up into my hair.
“Been wantin’ to try this since you told me that first night your sinuses hurt,” he muttered, his hand in my hair pulling my face to his.
“What?” I asked on a whisper, all of a sudden enthralled with watching his mouth get closer.
“Try and see how creative I can get, helpin’ you work out that attitude of yours.”
Even in the sauna, a shiver slid along my skin.
“Max –” I started but didn’t say more.
His head slanted and his hand tilted mine the other way. Then he kissed me.
Then he got creative, helping me work out my attitude, an endeavor at which he was staggeringly successful for, after we were done, the only attitude I had the energy to adopt was calm and serene.
*
Max and I made love in the sauna then he took me to the shower to rinse off then he toweled me off then he took me to bed.
He didn’t like it when I put on my undies under the towel and tugged his t-shirt on over it before I pulled it free but when I explained I had never been comfortable sleeping nude, he didn’t say another word.
Then as I lay on my side in bed, he soothed ointment on my scrapes again while I tried with only small success to stay awake.
After he was done, he threw the ointment on the nightstand, turned out the light, tossed the covers over us and pulled me into his arms.
As sleep started its invasion, I snuggled closer and whispered, “I’m sorry your Dad was sick for so much of your life.”
“Sleepy Nina,” he murmured strangely, his hand had gone up the t-shirt and his fingers were drifting along my back. If I wasn’t so sleepy, I would have keenly registered how incredibly nice his hand felt, drifting restfully along my back. Instead, I vaguely registered how incredibly nice his hand felt, drifting restfully along my back.
“What?” I asked.
“Sleepy Nina is Sweet Nina,” he said quietly. “I see I got Sleepy Nina.”
“No,” I told him. “I’m Three Orgasms One in a Sauna Nina. That Nina is always sweet.”
His hand stopped drifting, his arm wrapped around me and he gave me a squeeze.
“I’ll be sure to remember that,” he muttered while he did and his mutter sounded like it came through a smile.
Sleep kept encroaching and I didn’t have the strength, or will, to fight it.
But, for some reason, my mouth kept talking. “Max?”
“Yeah, honey?”
“You scare me.”
I felt his fingers tighten against my skin before he said, “I know I do.”
“Every day it gets better which makes it worse.”
I felt him give me another squeeze as I pressed closer and wrapped my arm around his belly.
“Quit fightin’ it, it’ll just get better,” Max advised.
I felt my weight settle into him as slumber slid over me.