Her eyelids drooped and she nestled her head against the arm of the sofa. Her heart ached, but it went even deeper. Soul deep.
Now that she’d actually hurt Max, she realized she didn’t have the stomach for revenge. Unintentional or not, she knew that she’d suffer just as much as he would.
She wanted him back. Wanted his hands on her. His mouth. She wanted him to smile at her. She wanted him to love her.
When Callie awoke, she lay still a moment and stared dully toward the fireplace. The hearth looked cold and empty. Pretty symbolic.
She stirred and twisted the kink from her neck. When she stared down the couch, she saw Max sitting at the end, his gaze fixed on her.
“Max.”
She hastily sat up and the blanket fell to her waist.
He cocked his head to the side as his stare slid down her body. “Why didn’t you dress?”
She glanced down, frowned and then looked back up at him. “You told me to stay naked.”
“Hmmm.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Okay, she sounded defensive. Hell, she was defensive. She was seriously teetering here and definitely working without a safety net.
“Just that on some level you trust me. I haven’t completely lost it.”
She sighed. “I’m so sorry, Max. I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
He scooted forward on the couch and put a finger to her mouth. “Shhh. You won’t apologize for the way you feel. It’s my fault. I pushed too hard, too fast. It’s easy to forget that we’ve been apart for so many months. I’d love nothing more than to forget it and go back to the way things were before… Before I hurt you. That’s on me, though. I can’t expect to gain back everything we lost in a day. So it’s me who is sorry, Callie. Your hesitation hurt me more than I expected. I can’t bear the thought that you’d worry I’d in some way hurt you.”
She leaned forward until her forehead rested on his mouth. “I don’t think you’d hurt me, Max. I don’t. I want this to work.”
He laid his hand on the back of her head and then gently stroked over her hair as he kissed her forehead.
“I want this to work too, Callie. I shouldn’t have reacted as I did. You have the right to question me. You have the right to stop me at any time if you don’t feel comfortable. I don’t want you to feel like you ever have to suck it up and deal when you’re frightened or unsure just because you don’t want to hurt my feelings.”
She closed her eyes and smiled as she circled his neck with her arms. “I really didn’t mean to hurt you, Max. I guess you’re right. I’m just a little unsure. I’m still unbalanced by it all. A few days ago I was alone and unhappy. Now such a short time later, I’m with you in Denver and we’re flying into the wind again.”
He cupped her face and brushed his lips across her cheek and then pulled her against him to cradle her in his arms.
“I’m sorry, dolcezza,” he murmured against her hair. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I’m sorry I overreacted earlier.”
She snuggled against his chest. “Think we could take up where we left off?”
He chuckled softly. “I can arrange that.”
She slid off his lap and went to her knees in front of him. She eased her thighs apart and slowly turned her hands palms up on top of her thighs.
His nostrils flared with his quick intake of breath. “How beautiful you are, Callie. There on your knees, your eyes and mouth so sweet you take my breath away.”
She stared back at him, her heart squeezing so hard in her chest she became light-headed. She put all her conviction into her gaze, her expression, the position of her body. She wanted there to be no doubt. She was his. This time… This time would be right. This time would be different.
For the first time since Max had stormed back into her life she didn’t feel foolish for thinking that things could be worked out between them. She was able to look at him with love, and in time she knew that her trust would be complete and whole again.
Maybe not overnight, but it would come.
She had faith.
She had love.
She had…hope. Sweet, healing hope.
Chapter Sixteen
Max absorbed the love in Callie’s eyes like a man dying of thirst. She was a balm to every ache in his soul. He wanted to possess her. He wanted to own her. He wanted her to light up for him—only him.But he also wanted her to be free. He never wanted to crush her spirit and the zest with which she embraced life.
She was special.
She was his.
He rose to stand before her and stared down as she looked up into his eyes. They burned with trust where before there had been a subtle wariness to her gaze. He knew he wasn’t completely there yet, but she wanted to trust him and that was a huge step forward.
Slowly he undid the fly of his pants and pushed them over his hips until his c**k jutted free of confinement. He wrapped his hand around the base and gave a short pull but then squeezed the tip when he found just how precariously close he was to coming undone under the caress of her gaze.
Holding his cock, he guided it toward her mouth.
“Open.”
Her mouth slowly opened, and she licked over her lips before opening wider with a breathy little sigh that had him itching to bury himself as fast and as deep as he could.
His hand shook and the head of his dick bumped clumsily against her lips as he guided it into the hot velvet of her mouth.
Pleasure exploded over his body. His muscles jerked and his knees nearly buckled as she sucked wetly while he pushed further inside. She was a craving like he’d never experienced. Edgy. Nearly painful. His skin was uncomfortable, like he needed to shed it. Itchy. Alive. Hot.
Need. It burned through his veins like feathers tinged with acid. It was soft but sharp. Pleasure mixed with pain. Satisfaction mixed with mounting impatience.
“Hands behind your back.”
He wanted to see her up on her knees, her br**sts pushed forward.
She readily complied, pushing herself upward as she looped her arms behind her.
“Now tilt your head back. Just a little. Perfect, dolcezza. Just like that.”
Now he could see her throat bulge and work up and down as the angle sent him deeper into her mouth. It was an erotic sight, such a sweet mouth and eyes.
He reached down and stroked the sides of her neck, marveling at the baby-soft skin. The muscles jumped and quivered as he stroked to the back of her throat. He held himself there for a long moment, liking how her neck and shoulders tensed.
Through it all she never protested. Never asked him to stop. Calm acceptance blanketed them both. It was like a beautiful classical piece played to perfection.
He eased back, allowing her to breathe and relax for a moment. He was tuned in to her body. Knew the exact moment she needed a reprieve. Knew when she wanted more and when he should back off.
It had always been like this. He’d been able to read her mind and body from the start. They’d been in perfect harmony. A perfect match.
Until he’d walked away.
Until he’d had doubts that he could go through with the reason he’d sought her out.
He pulled back quickly as he realized he’d pushed too far as darker thoughts intruded into the moment. She breathed hard through her nose, and he pulled all the way out of her mouth, pissed that he’d allowed himself to become distracted even for a moment.
“Will you allow me to put your present back on you?” he asked as he stroked his erection with one hand.
She nodded without hesitation and he smiled his approval.
He extended his hand down to her, and she slid her slender fingers over his palm as he pulled her to stand before him.
He retrieved the waist restraint from the end of the couch and wrapped it around her, securing it in the back. Then he pulled her arms back and cuffed her wrists.
“Come over to the chair,” he said as he directed her toward the large ottoman situated in front of the overstuffed leather chair catty-corner to the couch.
“On the ottoman. On your knees.”
When she positioned herself according to his wishes, he gently lowered her head until her cheek rested on the edge of the chair. He then spread her knees so that she was open to him and he got a prime view of the soft pink flesh of her pu**y and the puckered rosette of her anal opening.
“Beautiful. So pretty and so feminine.”
He ran a finger through the silken, damp flesh and teased her opening before going lower to dance over the taut bud of her clitoris. Her entire body tensed and her knees shook.
He smiled. So responsive. So f**king beautiful she made his teeth ache.
“Be right back, dolcezza. Don’t move that pretty ass. I’m going to f**k it.”
He grinned again when a violent shudder rolled through her body. He slid his fingers through her pu**y once more before he backed away, delighted that she’d grown even wetter at his husky promise.
He strode from the room but took his time locating the lubricant from his bathroom. He wanted her to kneel there and anticipate the moment when he’d come back. When he’d fight her resisting opening to push inside her gorgeous ass and the indescribable sensation when her body surrendered and allowed him entry.
Christ but he was hard as a rock at the image—from the memory—of how it felt.
There was nothing better than a slow, sensual f**k inside her ass. Drawing out both their pleasure. Opening her, then pulling out before pushing back in to reopen her all over again.
He closed his eyes and palmed his aching c**k as he walked back into the living room. When he opened them and saw her where he’d left her, ass perched delectably in the air, it was all he could do to breathe.
When he went back to her, the sight of her soft pink folds was more than he could take. Holding the lubricant in one hand, he guided his c**k into her pu**y with the other.
She sighed and tightened around him, her pu**y gripping his dick like a fist. For a moment he simply closed his eyes and slid back and forth through her velvet heat.
Buried to the hilt, he uncapped the lubricant and used his fingers to spread her cheeks so that her opening was bared. He squeezed a generous amount of the gel over the seam of her ass and then ran his thumb over the puckered rosette.
He was patient, sliding one finger through the tight opening. She clenched around him and he heard her breath hiss from her lips. Back and forth, slowly, he tucked his finger into her before finally adding a second.
He curled his other hand around the base of his c**k and slowly withdrew from her pu**y and positioned the head at her lubricated entrance.
She posed an erotic picture, ass stuck in the air, her hands secured helplessly around her back and her cheek pressed into the cushion of the chair. There wasn’t a part of her body that wasn’t open and accessible to him.
Carefully he pushed forward, forcing the broad crown of his penis into her tiny opening. The sensation of the tight ring squeezing his erection nearly sent him over the edge. She sheathed him with unbearable tightness.
She opened around him, but her body fought his invasion. He pressed forward relentlessly, not giving an inch as he forced more of his length into her ass.
With a slight plop, the head pushed through, and she gasped and wiggled beneath him.
“Too much?”
“No,” she whispered hoarsely. “Not enough. Never enough.”
In response, he pushed hard, forcing another inch inside her.
He was lodged halfway in her. The sight of him piercing the opening between her cheeks sent his pulse skyrocketing. It didn’t seem possible that he could fit into her body this way, but he knew not only was it possible, but that she had accommodated him easily. Many, many times.
He withdrew a few centimeters and then gripped her hips, holding her steady, and thrust hard.
He sank into her body, his c**k sliding through the tight opening until his hips met the curve of her bu**ocks. His balls pressed against her pu**y and he rotated, rubbing his sac over the softness of her entrance.
“You feel so damn good, dolcezza,” he groaned. “I’ve dreamed of reclaiming your body. Of reclaiming what’s mine.”
He remained still a moment longer and then gently withdrew, watching his c**k reappear as her opening stretched and widened around him.
When only the tip remained inside her entrance, he pushed forward again, watching once more as her body gave him access.
He pressed into her ass, rocking his hips against her lush bottom. He closed his eyes and rubbed up and down and then side to side, relearning her body, straining to go deeper, to the very heart of her.
He took his time, making love to her as sweetly as if he were sliding into her warm pu**y. His fingers dug into her hips, holding her tightly so that he could push into her each time he withdrew.
Finally he reached underneath and slid his hands down the tops of her thighs until he pushed at her knees to cause her to go down on her belly.
No longer supported by her legs, she lay flat over the ottoman with him pressed to her body as his hips worked against her ass.
He kissed her shoulder then nipped at the flesh with his teeth. He loved marking her. Loved leaving little reminders of his possession. He sucked sharply at the curve of her neck until he left a light red welt that faded slightly when he pulled away.
“My dolcezza.”
He arched off her and carefully withdrew. He spread her bu**ocks so that he could see the enlarged and slightly reddened opening that his c**k had just come from. Keeping her wide, he flexed his hips so that his c**k lodged inside her opening again and he pushed forward.
Then he withdrew, holding her open again as he stared down, watching as her body slowly closed. He positioned himself again and then thrust hard, eliciting a gasp from her as she wiggled under his forceful lunge.
He kept her pinned to the ottoman, satisfaction tightening every muscle in his body. His. She belonged to him. She was his to do with as he wished.