My back hits a corkboard with printouts of swim class schedules and instructors. He grinds his pelvis against mine, and veins throb in my cock.
Arousal clenches around me. I fight past that carnal haze so I can obtain the fucking lead and spatial awareness. I’m still his bodyguard, and we’re in a public area.
I flex and use my strength to rotate us. His back thumps against the corkboard, and my lips rise while we kiss.
When our mouths break apart, Maximoff bangs his head back in sexual frustration. I keep a hand on the wall. Breaths hot and heavy.
Our eyes can’t unearth each other fast enough.
Sex has been extremely intense with Maximoff lately. He hasn’t topped in over a month, and as he’s let go completely with me, we’re in an ocean of vulnerability. Where he allows me to bring him to the surface.
He clutches the back of my neck and draws my mouth closer. “Farrow.” His deep voice is encased in love and need.
Fuck. I restrain myself from touching his chest or even palming his dick.
I’d love to take Maximoff in my mouth and see his cum-face, but we’ve only ever kissed at the aquatic center. Per his rules.
I brush my lips over his lips. Teasingly close.
He breathes, “Blow me.”
My mouth quirks, then flat lines. As entertaining as loosening his tight laces is, I’d rather not pull too hard on these ones. I have a feeling he’d regret hooking up at his workplace, and I’d hate that I tempted him there.
I step back from him. “Okay, Bossy. You can blow me tonight.”
He growls in heavy frustration and annoyance.
I know.
He licks his reddened lips. “I said blow me.”
“I heard you, wolf scout.” I fix my earpiece. “And you can’t have everything you want.”
He smiles, liking that I’m not easy on him, and then he checks the clock on the wall. “Fuck.”
I’ve already seen the time. “We have an hour. Relax, we’ll make it.” We have a cake tasting appointment, and neither of us likes the idea of standing up Jane.
He’s fast to put on clothes in the back of the center, and after we leave the locker room, he zips up his gray motorcycle jacket, and I pass him his helmet.
“Wait, for a second.” I stop him near the bleachers.
He’s impatient, but his gaze cements to my fingers as I dig into my jacket pocket.
I smile. “Hold out your wrist.”
Maximoff extends his arm. “What’d you…?” He watches me buckle a gray paracord bracelet around his wrist. The same exact one I gave him a long time ago, after we watched Mad Max: Fury Road.
The first bracelet burned in the fire.
His eyes redden like he’s remembering the moment.
I thought replacing the gift would help heal what the fire tore through, but now I’m not sure. “What we shared together isn’t lost, Maximoff.”
He nods, his cheekbones sharpening. “I’m just…in my head. Thanks, seriously.” He touches the bracelet on his wrist. “It means a ton.”
I smile with my brows raised. “I know.”
He rolls his head back in exasperation. “It’s like you want me to push you in the pool.” He tries to shove me into the water with a firm hand on my chest, but I seize his waist and step into his build. Our hands shift and boots squeak on the tile, playing around. We’re both smiling.
“We know who’s stronger,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Me.” He almost has me at the edge of the pool, each of us still holding our helmets.
“If I go in, wolf scout, I’m taking you with me.”
“Yeah?” His chest rises. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.” Before we can test this, his phone buzzes loudly and incessantly. Cutting into the moment.
“Raincheck?” I tell him.
Maximoff nods, and we back away from the pool and head towards the exit. He’s rigid as he pulls out his cell, and he stops in place. “It’s Charlie.”
Charlie Cobalt.
I’m not feeling very kind or warm towards Maximoff’s twenty-one-year-old cousin. Not after Scotland. He sandpapered my patience.
Putting up with Charlie constantly attacking Maximoff—and not being able to intervene—has already been a root canal for me. What he did in Scotland to Maximoff and to Jane and Thatcher was too fucking far.
They deserve apologies, but they forgave him without one. The last thing I want is to re-fracture the relationship between Charlie and Maximoff. But I can’t spend the rest of my life standing idly by and watching Charlie beat Maximoff down. Just for Maximoff to sit there and take it.
I’m going to protect him. Even if it means protecting him from his cousin.
I comb a hand through my hair. “Bad or good news?”
“He’s sending me links to apartment rentals in New York.” Maximoff clicks into one. “Four bedroom, four bath, community pool.” He pauses. “He texted, please come.”
I scan his toughened features. “You’re thinking about New York?” He’s been in the Team Philly camp with Sulli and Jane. The only one waving an NYC flag is Luna.