Fall to You (Here and Now 2)

“Max. Look at me.”

He shifts his eyes to meet mine. “It was your dream. I knew you didn’t believe in yourself enough to do it on your own. But I believed in you. I’ve always believed in you. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met.”

Oh, God. How could I have been so wrong about him? “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t really intend for it to be a secret. I was in the middle of investigating the opportunity to buy this building when you broke up with me, and when it looked like it could work, I didn’t want you to think there were strings attached. I had to find a way to give this to you without you believing the gift was contingent on marrying me.” He shrugs awkwardly.

“Max,” I whisper. And then I can’t help it anymore. I cross to him, wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss him hard. Because Max gave me something more than a dream. He gave me the dream and put it in New Hope the way only someone who was raised here would understand to do. Any other investor would have wanted me to go to the city or take a bigger location off the historic New Hope square. Max didn’t just give me the dream. He gave me the dream wrapped up in home.

I make myself pull away and leave it at a chaste kiss, but as I lower back down to my heels, his hands come up to cup my face, and then he’s lowering his mouth to mine and kissing me back—sweetly, softly, and with a tender love I’m not sure I deserve.

His fingers slide into my hair and he releases the clip and lets it fall down around my shoulders. Then his hands are sliding down my body and under my ass and he’s hoisting me up on the counter and parting my thighs to step between them. When he returns his mouth to mine, his kiss is harder than before. Deeper. Stronger. It’s the kiss of a man who has found something he thought he lost. The kiss of a man who will do whatever it takes to hold on.

And I kiss him back in the same way, the love and the pain in my chest wrapping around and through each other until they are one and the same. They are the disease and the remedy. They are the poison and the antidote. They fill me and whisper to me until I know the only thing that can make the hurt go away is this man’s kiss.

“Come upstairs with me,” I whisper against his lips.

He releases his breath in a rush. “Hanna. That’s not why—”

“I know.” I want to kiss away the sadness in his eyes. I want to take away the pain I put there. “I know,” I repeat, taking his hand.

Carefully, he helps me off the counter. “Okay.”

He follows me up the stairs, and the minute the door closes behind him, my fingers start at the buttons on his shirt. I need Max. Naked. Against me. Now.

He stops my hands with one of his. “Can we just…” He closes his eyes like he’s not sure where to start. “I love you. I don’t want to rush this.” He brushes his knuckles over my cheek. “I don’t want to scare you away.”

“I’m right here,” I whisper. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

He tugs on my dress, and I lift my arms as he pulls it off and tosses it to the side. His smoky eyes drop to my breasts, skim over my belly. His fingers tighten on my hips. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fantasized about this. You. This body. The sounds you make when you’re about to come. The way you taste here.” He brushes the pad of his thumb over my nipple. “And here.” Grazes my navel. His voice drops deeper, and he slides his hand between my legs and cups me. “Imagined how you’d taste here.”

“Max,” I whimper, my hips rocking into the pressure of his hand.

“Don’t ever doubt my attraction to you. You are it for me, Hanna. I don’t need anyone else, and I don’t want anyone else.” He drops his head to my breast and sucks me through the lace of my bra. Pulling my nipple into his mouth, he sends a painful pulsing and vibrating between my legs, where his hand rubs me over my panties.

I fumble with the remaining buttons on his shirt, yanking it down his arms until he tosses it onto the floor. His skin is smooth and hot over thick muscle, and suddenly I need to memorize it. My mouth and hands are all over him, my fingers skimming across the flat plains of his abs as I take his shoulder into my mouth and bite softly. He groans as I nip, bite, and suck my way up to his neck and my fingertips slides under the waistband of his pants.

I unbutton his pants and draw his dick from his briefs, and he steps back.

His gaze roams over me, hungry and greedy, but he doesn’t step closer. He nods approvingly and eyes my bra and panties. “Let me see all of you.”

&n

bsp; I release the clasp on my bra first and let it fall to the floor. Then I hook my fingers at each side of my panties and wiggle them off my hips. I don’t turn off the lights and hurry into bed and under the covers. I stand exposed in the light, wanting him to see the softness in my belly and the stretch marks at the tops of my thighs. This is my body, for better or worse.

When I meet his gaze again, his eyes have gone darker, his pupils dilated, his nostrils flaring. He grunts and steps closer. “My attraction to you has never been pretend. You’re fucking beautiful, and you always have been. And when I imagine your belly round with these babies…” He brushes his fingers across my stomach, and my eyes fill.

“I want you,” I whisper, wrapping my fingers around that thick length of him again. “Here. Now.”

His eyes darken and his nostrils flare. “Don’t test me.”

“I’m not testing you. I’m asking you.” I stroke him, squeeze and releasing, squeezing and releasing. “I never wanted to wait until marriage to have sex.”

Hurt slashes across his face at my words.

“Max, I was scared that you’d see me naked and realize I wasn’t as beautiful as you’d convinced yourself I was, scared that I wouldn’t be able to make up for it with my seduction skills. I was terrified I’d disappoint you.”

“Jesus. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever touched. You would never disappoint me.”