Maxim (Carolina Reapers 10)

And I knew it in the depths of my soul, if I turned around—if I saw her posed there, her round ass in the air, her pussy wet and ready, I’d lose it. I’d take this somewhere we’d never return from.

I stared down at my hands.

The hands that fisted the fabric of the pajamas Mila had given me.

Mila.

Guilt slammed into me with the force of a freight train.

What the fuck is wrong with you?

I had to get away from Evie. Right. Fucking. Now.

“Maxim?” she asked, and I heard her shift, felt the graze of her fingers against the back of my neck.

And I fucking ran.

I bolted from the room before I could do something even more stupid, like fuck her. My thighs burned and my dick screamed in protest as I fled up the stairs and into my bedroom, my bathroom, my ice-cold shower.

This was madness.

And it had to stop.

8

EVIE

“Evie!” Fiona waved at me, ushering me over to where she sat at the bar.

I smiled at her, then glanced at Maxim who winked at me and headed toward a table in the corner where half his team sat.

He winked at me. That, paired with the fact that he’d talked me into coming to a Reapers party was sending my head into a spin I couldn’t stop. But let’s face it, he’d done that to me two weeks ago when he’d…

Sit. The memory of Maxim’s demand when he’d positioned his face beneath me, when he’d yanked me down to ride his face, flashed red hot through my mind.

God, it had been mind-blowing. Earth shattering. Every damn cliché in the book and then some because Maxim had shaken loose some internal burning desire I’d never felt before.

But then he’d ran.

Again.

And somehow—probably thanks to the ultimate bliss combo of brownies and orgasms—I hadn’t crumbled into a self-doubting pity puddle right there on his couch. Sure, I’d sat there for a hot minute contemplating stomping up those stairs after him and demanding he talk to me, but I’d stopped myself before I could make that mistake.

Maxim running away from me this many times meant that he didn’t want to stick around, and it wasn’t like I could force him to. But, then again, he kept kissing me, kept pushing those boundaries with me, and always solely for my benefit. He’d never once tried to take anything from me for himself—besides the luck I seemed to create for him. And I didn’t know if that meant he simply didn’t want anything from me in that way or…what?

Maxim was quickly becoming the king of mixed signals, and all I could do was hang on for the whirlwind of a ride.

His tongue, his burning blue eyes as he looked up at me from between my thighs right before he flipped me over and demanded I ride his face…

Warm shivers danced over my skin as I made my way over to where Fiona and Bristol—Briggs’s fiancé—sat. I forced the memory from my mind and focused solely on the present.

“You made it!” Fiona said, giving me a quick hug, which Bristol quickly mimicked before we all settled at the bar.

“I did,” I said, smiling at them. “Good to see you both.” And wasn’t that the truth? Between classes and working on everything we needed for the gallery, plus whatever was going on with Maxim and me, I’d had little time to just let loose with the girls. Especially since my best friend was currently living it up in Italy. “Who is watching Skye?” I asked.

“Axel and Langley,” Fiona answered, glancing over where Brogan sat with Maxim and McKittrick and Sterling and a couple other Reapers I didn’t recognize. “They weren’t in the mood to party tonight, and since Skye is almost the same age as Colin, they were happy to have a little playdate.”

“That’s wonderful,” I said, and truly meant it. I’d always seen the amazing found-family dynamics of the Reapers through my time spent with Mila, but ever since moving in with Maxim I’d been seeing it on a whole other level. They really were a giant family complete with unflinching loyalty, compassion, and support.

I glanced at Maxim, who was leaned back in his seat, nursing a water and looking more relaxed than he had in weeks. I was glad he had his Reaper family when his own family—aside from Mila and David—had been so damn hard on him his entire life. At least he was patching things up with his estranged brother Sterling, too.

Maxim suddenly looked over his shoulder, as if he could sense me staring at him. He caught my gaze, something dark flashing in his eyes before his lips quirked up at the corners. My breath caught like it always did, damn it, and I tried to look away as casually as I could. As if I hadn’t just been staring at him all love struck.