Picking Up the Pieces (Pieces, #2)

He continued to thrust, but his pace slowed as he looked at me as though he were trying to memorize exactly how I looked in that moment. "Why do I belong to you?"

My answer came without the slightest hesitation. "Because I love you."

"Say it again," he demanded as he thrust deeper, harder, causing me to cry out.

"I love you," I ground out as my orgasm built within me. Max rocked his hips into me hard, and I welcomed him every time.

"I'm so close. You don’t know how much I’ve wanted to do this again, feel the warmth of being inside you.” His pace increased, causing me to shiver with pleasure as his breath tickled my ear. “Come with me, doll."

I put my hands on his shoulders for some leverage, and began to bear down on him, impaling myself on his thick shaft.

Max let out a guttural moan. "That's it. God, you feel so good. Just like that. I'm gonna come, Lily. You there with me?"

I mewled. "I'm there."

He found his release at my words. Then his head dropped to my chest as he pumped into me, filling the condom as his cock thrummed inside of me. I followed him over the edge, my body shaking with pleasure as I milked every drop of cum from him. “Max,” I sighed, knowing that there was probably nothing else he’d rather hear more. My body was limp in his arms, perfectly sated.

We stood there for a few moments, trying to catch our breaths and enjoying being wrapped in each other. Finally, Max lifted his head so he could look at me. "Say it again," he rasped.

I caressed his face. "I love you, Max," I said, hoping he could see the veracity of the words in my eyes.

“I know you do, doll,” he said with a wink. “It's about damn time you realized it.” He leaned in and kissed me. It was a soft, meaningful kiss–one meant to mark this moment as a time of firsts for us.

The first time we'd made love without all the bullshit in the way. The first time we were both completely honest with one another. The first time we accepted that this was what we had needed all along. This is what made us complete: each other.

"I thought I'd never see you again," Max whispered as he feathered kisses wherever his mouth could reach.

"What, after A.C.?"

He shook his head lightly. "After I left your apartment last April. After the fundraiser."

I pulled back, looking at him quizzically. Does he need to be cryptic right now? "I've seen you a bunch of times since then."

"I haven't seen you. Not the real you. Not the one I fell in love with in that airport." He sighed. "I thought I'd lost you forever. I missed ya, doll."

I felt my eyes water as I processed what he’d said. I finally got it. While I had needed to grow up over the past year, I also still needed that spark that made me who I was. Somewhere along the way I’d lost it. Max had made me realize that there was room for both. I could be this mature woman who made good decisions and still be that wild girl who let Max fuck her against a random wall here and there. In fact, being both was the only thing that would let me be truly happy. Well, that and getting Max somewhere more private so we could figure out where we went from there, and then see how many orgasms we could give each other in one weekend.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked as he lowered me to the ground.

I smiled. "About how similar this is to our airport escapade."

The smile he had been returning faltered. While that encounter had been mind-blowing, it hadn't exactly turned out the way Max had hoped.

I moved in closer to him. "And about how different the rest will be." His smile returned as I continued, "Take me home, Max."

And he did.





Chapter 41: Lily


Once blood began running to the top half of my body again, rational thought came back to me. I didn't want a whirlwind romance with Max. I wanted something that would still be there when the winds died down.

So instead of fulfilling the promise I made myself about the multi-orgasmic weekend that was ahead of me, I pumped the brakes. Max and I had needed to talk about so much, get on the same page, and sex would've been a hindrance to us.

But after two weeks of my denying him anything beyond a heated make out session on my couch, Max decided to play dirty. However, when even his expert fingers and roving tongue proved no match for my resolve, he tactfully reminded me that playing hard to get was usually reserved for those who hadn't already given up the goods. And after I'd leveled him with a lethal glare that was completely for show, I straddled him on my loveseat and made it clear that he'd yet to see the best of my goods.

From there, we were inseparable. I tried to retain some autonomy at first, pretending like I actually wanted to sleep by myself in my apartment. But after Max knocked on my door at two in the morning on a Wednesday, complaining that he couldn't sleep without me hogging all of the covers, we both decided spending time alone was overrated. My things slowly began taking over his house after that. I began taking over his house after that.

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