Page 126 of In Your Wake

Like a seductive song, her voice knocks at my restraints. My body’s torment, the war between what it craves and what is right, rages on.

“Look at me, Mitchell,” she orders.

I open my eyes, blinking back the emotions verging on escaping.

“After all the bad we’ve done to each other, let me give you something good.”

I think back to our last summer together before our fight. To the weeks leading up to the end of us. To that night in the tent and what almost happened. We opened doors, seeing each other as physical, sexual beings instead of just friends. We might not have followed through, but we didn’t exactly stop considering it either.

And here we are.

Even over the last few weeks, without realizing it, I’ve sensed what makes her tick, read her thoughts, her emotions. She seems to understand my body and responds to it better than anyone else has. I’m convinced that what’s been building between us was a precursor to what I need today. What we both need. An escape from it all. From Bill’s ghost, still wandering these halls. From my mother’s aching pain. From the empty house that’s filled with regrets and unspoken words. From my failure as a player, as a friend, and as a son.

Comfort, that’s what I need. A chance to lose myself in something separate from all of that. And who better to find that comfort with than the one person who sees me and accepts me for who I am?

The person who knew me before I became someone.

I search her blue eyes for any reason not to move forward, but come up empty. What I do see is the same dark urge for pleasure brought through pain. The openness and understanding without judgment.

“When we’re together, you make me forget all the bad,” she says, weaving her arms around me. “I’m safe when I’m with you. Like I’m falling out of a plane and you’re the parachute that saves me.”

“I’ve caused you pain, too.”

“But you’ve always been the one who made me feel better.”

It could be because she’s naked and vulnerable, but her words sink in deep.

She presses her lips to my neck, and licks up to my ear, sucking on my earlobe.

“This time, let me be the one to help you feel better,” she whispers.

Lightheaded, lulled by her sensual voice, with her naked body pressed to mine, caught and helpless under Maxine’s spell, it’s like I’m sinking. My repressed feelings smolder, taking in power like an explosion about to go off. This is dangerous, us avoiding the truths that are twisting around us like a tornado. My father just died. His body isn’t even cold yet. And somehow, all I want to do is hide within Maxine’s arms and lose myself deep inside her.

A long, accepting groan crawls up from my belly and out of my mouth as I grip her hips much harder than I need to, tugging her against me, but she doesn’t flinch. She keeps her pleading eyes locked on mine, burning with a darkness that reflects my own.

I grip the back of her thighs, hoisting her up and carry her the few feet to the bed, where I throw her down hard. She lands on her back, letting her legs fall apart, opening herself. She seems so tiny and fragile, her skin pale and creamy, her red hair fanned out behind her, but Maxine is anything but breakable.

Kneeling on the mattress between her legs, I grip her hair again and tug her head to the right, then devour her exposed neck like a starving vampire would. She writhes beneath me, digging her nails into my back as I roughly knead her breasts, then move my mouth down to lash her nipple with my tongue.

I don’t hold back, biting down, sucking, twisting her beautiful pink buds with my mouth, and when she claws at my back, fisting my shirt as if she’s trying to rip it off, it’s like a cattle prod urging me to go harder.

Holding her left ankle, I bring her leg up, kissing and nipping the arch of her foot, her calf, then lay her foot on my shoulder.

An indescribable expression crosses her face—need combined with curiosity.

“Are you sure about this?” I ask.

“About what?” She arches an eyebrow and nonchalantly laces her hands behind her head.

“Me. Fucking you.” I loosen my buckle with my free hand. “I won’t take it easy on you.”

She tucks her lower lip into her mouth, but then a slow, seductive smile spreads across her face. “Promise?”

Astonished by this new side of her I’ve never seen, I shake my head, but not wanting to waste a single second overthinking it, I unzip my pants, reach in and pull out my cock.

Hard as steel, I swipe the tip along her core, prodding at her entrance, waiting for her to stop me. Waiting for this all to prove too much and for reality to bring her back to her senses.

Only that doesn’t happen.