“That wouldn’t have mattered to me,” he said. “From the moment I met you, I wanted you. At first it was just for the night, and then eventually I knew I wanted to be with you forever. I’m happy I could be your first, but all I care about is being your last.”
“Oh wow,” she breathed. “That was really good.”
“Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t even have to practice.”
That made her laugh, and he caught the sound with his mouth, kissing her deeply. When they finally pulled apart, they were both grinning.
“So does this mean you’re my boyfriend now?” she asked. “I’ve been told we need to define the relationship.”
“Yes, it does,” he said, kissing her again. “Any other questions?”
Stella became more serious as she said, “Have you talked to Miles?”
Max probably should’ve expected the question, but inwardly he still groaned. He loved his brother, truly, but he didn’t want to think about him at the moment.
“No,” Max said. “I talked to my parents, though. He’ll figure it out, Stella, and once he’s calmed down, I’ll reach out to him. You were right, though. I don’t want to lose him, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to coddle him either.”
“Okay, that’s fair,” she said. “I asked because I heard from him, actually. Well, not him directly. Yellow Sparks. An HR person responded to my resignation email and asked if Iwould come in to speak about my experience on the whole thing. Apparently there’s some investigation happening about how Sparky was used and the contest Miles put together, which I guess he didn’t run by legal? It sounds like a mess.”
“Are you going to talk to them?” Max asked.
“Yeah, Effie’s going to go with me,” she said. “She said we can record the conversation just in case anything fishy goes down, but ultimately I’ve already quit. I’m not sure what else they can do to me because I don’t work there anymore.”
“Well, if you need a lawyer, I know a guy,” Max said, which made her smile.
“Thanks, I’ll keep you posted on that,” she said. “For now, though, I’ve surprisingly gotten a number of interview requests about what went down, and everyone has been sending me writing opportunities so I need to go through those. Who knows? Maybe I won’t be funemployed for long.”
“Funemployed?”
“Funplusunemployed,” she said like it was obvious. “Jeez, how old are you?”
“Not too old to do this.”
Before she could respond, he was flipping her, carrying her over his shoulder.
“Max, oh my God, put me down,” she said, laughing.
“I will in one second,” he said. And then he carried her to his bedroom and laid her down on the mattress. They didn’t get up again for a while after that.
Epilogue
One year later
Stella didn’t know what to wear.
It was Valentine’s Day, and for the first time ever, she had a date. A very hot date who was taking her to some fancy restaurant in the Village.
And she had absolutely nothing to wear.
Okay, she had options, but everything she’d thrown out of her closet and onto the bed she now shared with Max didn’t seem right. If she didn’t put on something soon, they were going to be late.
“Still can’t decide?”
Max wrapped his arms around her from behind and pulled her to him. The feel of his pressed shirt on her bare skin made her feel things they absolutely didn’t have time to explore. Max must’ve read her mind, though, because hesplayed his hand over her stomach, sliding it down into her lace panties.
Stella was wearing the most expensive lingerie she’d ever purchased in honor of tonight being not only Valentine’s Day but their one-year anniversary. Naturally she’d gone with red.
Now, as Max slipped two fingers between her folds, rubbing along the slickness that was already building there, she decided the underwear was worth every penny.
