His skin was scratched and sweaty, droplets of perspiration rolling down his face as he pinned her with a hungry look. “I need you to need me,” he said huskily, one hand gripping both her wrists as the other caressed one of her br**sts, circling the nipple with his thumb.
Mia whimpered, both ni**les hard and incredibly sensitive, the slightest touch jarring her nerve endings. “I already do. Fuck me, Max. Please.”
“Do you know how I felt when you went over that cliff, sweetheart?” he asked gruffly as his fingers moved to the other breast, pinching it lightly before soothing it with his fingers.
“Yes,” Mia cried out. “The same way I felt when I saw you hanging there.”
“I felt like you were dying all over again.” Max’s hand moved slowly between her br**sts and down her quivering belly. “And I died for a moment too.”
His voice was harsh, but his touch was gentle as it moved between her thighs, tenderly parting her folds and stroking lightly.
It wasn’t enough, and Mia’s body started to protest, her hips moving forward, needing more pressure, more Max. “I need you,” she said longingly, moaning as his fingers brushed her clit, teasing her.
“You’re wet for me, sweetheart. But I want you needier,” he said quietly against her ear, nipping at the lobe and running his tongue along her flesh. “I want you to come for me. Because I know that once I’m inside you, I won’t last. Not this time.”
Mia moaned, needing his touch more than she needed anything else on earth. Max wanted her to be satisfied, and he was putting her needs first. But she wanted him inside her, needed to be connected to him. “Then make me come. Because I have to have you inside me now,” she shouted at him, not caring who heard her.
Max shuddered, as though he had lost control, and took her mouth, his fingers playing between her thighs like he played the piano: strong, confident, and absolutely perfect. He searched and found the engorged bud that needed his attention, sliding over it with powerful strokes as his tongue plundered her mouth, never letting up on the pressure until she detonated, her whole body shuddering as her climax hit her with an explosive intensity that shattered her completely.
Pulling his mouth from hers, Max unshackled her wrists and cupped her ass. “Put your arms and legs around me,” he ordered, not even letting her take a breath before he buried himself inside her with a masculine groan. “Nothing between us this time. You feel incredible. So damn good.”
Mia obediently wrapped her legs around his waist and put her arms around his neck, gasping as he plunged inside her, burying himself to the balls. She knew he was trying to keep her back off the tree to keep from hurting her back, but she couldn’t have cared less if she got a few scrapes. The feeling of having him deeply embedded inside her was all-consuming and she was too impassioned to care. “Yes,” she encouraged him, running her tongue over his neck and nipping his skin, glorying in his savage growl of approval as he pulled back and entered her again. Harder. Stronger. Deeper.
Mia gasped with every powerful stroke of his cock, his groin pumping against her sensitive clit as he hammered her with thrust after thrust, every forward movement more frantic and furious. She felt her orgasm rushing up to meet her, raw and forceful, so overwhelming that she screamed, “I love you.”
Max groaned and shuddered as he pumped his hips desperately inside her, the walls of her channel clenching his cock, milking him as she came helplessly.
Mia grasped his head and kissed him, moaning into his mouth as her body exploded in a blast of heat that felt like she was combusting. She was delirious and drunk with pleasure as Max’s tongue met hers, entwining and joining them together in every possible way, their bodies rocking as they stayed locked together in a world that belonged only to the two of them.
Max lowered them to a patch of grass, keeping her on top of him, their lips still touching and tasting as he speared a hand into her hair and kept the other possessively on her ass, absently stroking over her tattoo.
Completely spent, Mia rested her head on Max’s shoulder, murmuring softly, “You scared the hell out of me. Don’t do it again.” She tried to put some kind of conviction in her voice, but she was too tired.
“Sweetheart, if it sends you into that kind of passionate rage, I think I’ll do it every day,” he said with a masculine chuckle.
“I’ll divorce you,” she claimed weakly.
“No you won’t,” he answered in a cocky tone, stroking her hair gently.
“How do you know?” she answered cheekily.
“Because you love me,” he reminded her confidently.
“Yeah. I do.” Mia was so satiated that she didn’t even want to argue. He was right. No matter what happened, they’d always be together. She kind of thought it had been fated from the moment she had ruined his expensive suit, looked up at Max, and saw her destiny in his gorgeous hazel eyes. “Do you realize we’re actually outside and naked? This really isn’t good for your image, you know.”
“You shot my famous Hamilton control all to hell the moment I met you,” Max grumbled. “No more Mr. Perfect for me.”
“Do you care?” Mia asked him curiously, wondering if he resented losing a little of his old image—the reasonable, calm, respectable Max that he used to be.
She pulled back to look at his face. He had a happy, silly grin on his face that made her heart skitter.
“Hell no. I’m starting to learn that being a little bit wicked is a lot more fun.” He kissed her gently and brought them both to their feet.
They dressed quickly, laughing as they brushed grass and leaves from each other. Max took her hand as they descended the rest of the hill and helped her into his new car.
He drove the speed limit all the way home. Mia teased him about being a grandpa, but when he answered that there was only so much a man like him could take in one day, she smiled.
Max wasn’t perfect, but he was damn close. And he was hers. A woman couldn’t get much luckier than that.
Leaning back in the plush leather seat with a sigh, Mia realized that after all the pain and heartache of the last few years, she was finally joined with Max the way they were always meant to be together. And if she was with Max, wherever they happened to be geographically, she would always be home.
Epilogue
One Month Later In Tampa
Max looked at the file on his desk with a frown, wondering if what he saw in the information it contained was even feasible. Was it really possible that he and Maddie had another sibling? He’d been digging, trying to make sure he didn’t have more family out there somewhere in the world. Although he was completely satisfied with his life now, he didn’t want to have another sibling out there who he didn’t know about. If he hadn’t checked every possibility, he’d always wonder. So he’d let investigators continue to dig for answers. His natural mother had been married two more times after his father had died. It had been entirely possible that she’d had other children. The information was sketchy, but he needed to investigate this possibility, check out the information his agents had recently uncovered.