Falling for the Bully (Falling in Love 3)

“Ignore it,” Aria said, wrapping her legs around his waist, pulling him down.

He kissed her again, pulling out of her body and thrusting within her, when the doorbell rang again.

“Fuck!” He growled the word against her tits.

“I’m going to have to go and answer that, aren’t I?”

“Yes.”

He pulled out of her. His cock was long, hard, thick, and in desperate need of attention.

He watched her as she pulled on a robe before leaving the bedroom. She pulled the door closed a little, and winked at him.

He got to his feet, and sure as shit, June and Molly were in her apartment with hot chocolate and movies.

“Girls’ night,” June said.

“Girls’ night? I, erm … I mean, it’s the weekend. I just want to relax. Have a nice hot bath. I don’t … girls’ night?”

“Come on, Aria, you’ve been dodging us at every single turn, and we want to know everything that is going on in your life.”

Max wasn’t fooled not even a little bit.

“Could you just hold on a second?” Aria said. “Make yourself at home.”

He sat on the edge of the bed as she entered, closing the door and leaning back against it.

“Okay, I could handle my boys coming to watch the game,” Max said, “but this? Have you ever had something like this?”

“Not in a long time.”

“You know what this means?” Max asked.

Aria nodded. “They know something, and now they’re going to try and stop us until we admit the truth.”

“Bingo.”

Aria sighed. “When do you think they figured it out?”

“The night we were all out.”

“Did you tell them?” she asked.

“I didn’t breathe a word. Did you?”

“Not even a little bit. I don’t talk about my personal life.”

“I don’t either.” Wait, he used to talk about a lot of his personal life, but seeing as he wasn’t fucking random girls, he’d gone radio silent. Staring at Aria, he felt nervous as fuck. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. What do you think we should do?”

“We either tell them, or spend the next couple of months getting blue balls,” he said. “I’m pissed at them. They could have just asked us.”

Aria moved away from the door, stepping between his legs. She held his hands, and he wondered what she was thinking.

“We tell them,” she said. “It’s the only thing we can do. We do it together, and we let them know that in no way are they to interfere with what we have.”

“You really think our friends will take us seriously with the whole, ‘don’t interfere’.”

She shrugged. “They kind of don’t have a choice. They meddle, and we will have to make it an ultimatum. If they keep meddling, you and I won’t give this a chance. I don’t know. We can think of the particulars a little later. What do you think?”

She didn’t want to split up, and he considered this a mega win for him. They were able to fight another day, and he was pissed at his friends, but not surprised.

“I think you need to go out there and watch your chick flick of a movie. I’m going to catch up on some sleep.”

She giggled. “You could always sneak out of my window, and join us. Pretend to just hang out one last time.”

“Nah, I kept you waiting for hours. This is payback. Leave the door open a little bit so I can hear the television.”

“Well, Max, do you have a thing for romance?”

“It’s growing on me.” He gripped the back of her neck, kissing her hard.

When the time came to break from the kiss, he didn’t want to let her go. He sat in her bed, watching as she pulled on a pair of pajamas before heading out. She did leave the door slightly ajar for him to listen.

He had no interest in listening to the television. Molly and June were here to gossip, and he wanted to catch up in what was going on in their lives.

“So, Aria, you want to tell us how your dating thing is going?” June asked.

He would put money that it was June who’d figured it out. She was way too observant for her own good.

“I’m not doing the dating thing anymore.”

“What about finding the right guy? You know, the one that will complete you.”

“I won’t find that kind of guy on a dating website. What’s with you guys’ sudden interest in my dating?” Aria asked.

He loved her.

Max smiled as he listened to her. They already had figured out what was going on, and now Aria was turning the tide on them. He liked it, and it made a refreshing change.

You love her, and she might not love you.

The thought of her not loving him in some way killed him, but he also knew he would do anything for her. Aria had gotten under his skin, into his heart, and now there was no way out of it. He would do anything for her, even if it meant never being happy himself.

****

They both got the invitation to Trey’s garden party. It was a small event, one June and Trey had been planning for a couple of weeks. Aria wasn’t going to go originally as she didn’t think it was her place to be there. However, she and Max knew they had to come clean to their friends eventually, and the only way that was going to happen was if they told them.

Max came to pick her up from her place, and she waited for him, nervous about what was to come.

“You okay?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s not every day you tell people you’re together with someone and you tried to keep it a secret.” She shrugged. “You think we should tell them.”

“They know anyway, as otherwise they wouldn’t have tried to stop us being together.” He held his hand out for her to take.

Aria stared at his hand for only a split second before taking it. They were together in this. She was more than ready to tell their friends, just so they could have a night together without interruptions from them.

Closing her door and locking it, she still held Max’s hand as they made their way out of her yard, walking toward their friends’ place. It wasn’t too far, but it gave them the opportunity to talk.

Only, neither of them spoke. They passed friends, and she watched as several people noticed they were holding hands.