Goldie Locks: Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance

“Maybe I don’t need your help,” she huffs, looking hurt and angry. “Maybe I just wish everyone would just leave me alone!”

I feel my mouth hanging open. I don’t know what to say, except I know now she’s damn fine when she’s mad. Although I also know maybe now isn’t the best time to tell her that.

“Creepy stalker. Even creepier boss and now I’ve got some locksmith trying to tell me how to live my life,” she continues, far from being done just yet.

I should feel hurt, but the way her chin gets a dimple in it, the way she tosses her golden mane when she’s really pissed.

I can’t help but smile.

“It’s not funny,” she growls, pounding my chest until I close my hands over hers, calming her down instantly.

“I’m not making fun of you,” I promise her. “You’re just too cute when you’re mad.

There. I said it. Had to because it’s so true.

“Who are you?” she asks, holding back tears I know she wants to let fall. “Why would you of all people even give a crap about someone like me?”

I squeeze her hands in mine and lean closer to tell her softly.

“If you give me a chance, we might both find out.”

Chapter Nine

Phoebe

Damn Maxwell Bear.

Damn him for being so freaking perfect.

I just want to scream and shout, to finally howl out all the emotions I’ve bottled up for so long, and what does he do?

He holds my hands against his rock hard chest, looking down at me with puppy dog eyes, asking me to let him show me just how much he cares.

How much we might just care about each other if I’ll only just let it all happen.

“You called me sweetie just now,” I challenge him, still sniffing back tears. “Almost kissed me too, yesterday,” I hear myself say.

“Your boss thought I was your dad,” he explains. “Just playing along,” he adds, creasing a smile but keeping his hands over mine.

“And almost kissing me?”

I have to ask. I need to know.

“Almost,” Max says absently.

“But you never would have, not really,” I tell him, feeling like he never will now that I’ve acted like such a lunatic.

“I think when I do, if you ever want me to, I know I won’t be able to stop,” he tells me, taking my breath away with the last thing I thought I’d ever hear anyone say, least of all a man like Maxwell Bear.

Trembling under his touch, I wish I could muster the courage to stand on tippy toes and kiss him myself.

Wish I could believe any of this was real. Everything feels like some weird dream, but a good one I know I don’t have to wake up from ever again if I don’t want to.

Especially when it’s Max who leans in to kiss me.

To really kiss me this time.

I don’t try to stop him, wouldn’t dare. This is my chance and I’m determined not to let it pass me by a second time.

I feel like I’m floating as his lips press firmly over mine and it’s not until his grip around my body registers that I realize he’s picked me up as if I weigh nothing.

It’s a tender, slow kiss. Lips only.

He’s the perfect gentleman but I have to know, I’ve never had anyone kiss me like this or at all so I go for broke in case it never happens again.

Okay, so I discover I’m not much of a kisser as it turns out but Max is so patient, letting me find my own way as he returns my kiss once our mouths lock and our tongues start to explore.

I hear myself mewing, making strange sounds I can’t help. My whole body flushed with a sudden urge to do a whole lot more than just kiss and run my hands over Max.

His own low sounds, plus the sensation of his hardness pressing against me tell me I’m doing okay.

It feels so right, so natural. Like we’ve wasted enough time with talking already.

This is what we both should have been doing since the moment he laid eyes on me.

He was right too, once he starts he doesn’t want to stop and I have to press gently on his chest to signal I need to come up for air.

“Told you,” he groans gently in my ear, squeezing me tight before he sets me down.

“I could hold and kiss you all day, Phoebe. And all night too,” he says, which makes me flush harder than I already have.

His huge fingers curl around my hands as I look up at him, shivering a breath as I try to think of what to say. Try to even remember what we were even talking about.

It feels like the whole world has melted, along with all my troubles, and Max is like the rising sun behind us. The dawn of a new day. The start of the rest of my life for the better from now on.