That’s what I should do with how I felt about Max.
That’s where it should end.
Instead, I laid there against his back and listened to his breathing slowly deepen, the shift of his body against the bed and the faint rumble of his stomach. He woke up and arched back into me with a little groan then laughed when he rubbed up against my erection. “Good morning to you, too,” he purred, and oh my god.
I let myself rub against his ass, keeping it light. It was still early, but I had to get him back to Hal’s, had to get to work, had to…uh-oh. “Where’s the puppy?” I jerked my head off the pillow to look for her.
“Relax,” Max said, “I let her out an hour ago in the backyard, got her some food and water, and now she’s in her crate chewing on one of her new toys. She’s fine.”
Oh. I settled back in against Max and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him in closer. He reached a hand back to my hip and held me still long enough to slot my dick firmly between his cheeks. I moaned and turned my face into his neck.
“I don’t know if we have time for anything,” I said, yet my body was sure as hell on board for trying.
“It doesn’t have to be anything elaborate,” Max offered. “We can stay like this, or I can roll over and blow you, or you can fuck me.”
I shivered against his back, and it had nothing to do with being cold.
His chuckle sounded slightly evil. “Yeah, I might have been awake a little longer than I let on earlier. It’s nice that you left some lube in the bathroom. I could prep myself without having to rummage around in your drawer.”
“You’re…” Joking, kidding, fucking with me. But Max took my hand, slid it into his shorts and down the crease of his ass, then he guided my finger inside. Yeah, he was ready.
“Mmm, fuck,” he murmured. “Fuck, yes.” He looked over his shoulder at me. “Do you want that? I’d love it, but like I said, we can do something else. Or nothing at all, if you’re not in the mood.”
If I wasn’t in the mood…I didn’t even know morning sex was a mood you could actually be in before this, but I was all the fuck about it. It wasn’t easy to scramble for a condom and lube while leaving my finger inside of him, but I managed it. I stripped off my clothes and pulled his boxers further down, spread him on one finger, then on two.
“Are you really ready?” I asked, and I knew I sounded like I’d just drunk a shot of whiskey.
“Yes,” he said, rolling a little more onto his front and lifting his top leg so that I could get my hips close enough to slide inside of him.
Oh god, he was so tight, oh, damn. Helpless sounds came from the back of my throat as I thrust into him until I couldn’t go any further.
“That’s it,” Max said, and he sounded a little punchy himself. “Goddamn, it’s been…way too long. Fuck me, Dominic.”
Damn, I loved the way he said my name. I loved the feel of his body around my dick, the sound of his breathing, the heat trapped and rising between us as I did as he asked. I fucked him, but this didn’t feel like any fuck I’d ever had before. Fucks were fast, something I did in a bathroom so late at night it was nearly morning, or in the back of a car, or maybe if I was lucky in a hotel room. They didn’t happen in my ramshackle house, in my comfortable bed, with a man I’d crushed on for years and had somehow inexplicably gotten together with.
How could this be a fuck, when a fuck had never felt this good before?
Max had his hand fisted around his cock, and every time I drove into him, he rubbed his thumb over the head of it, which was so slick I could hear the wetness of skin against skin. I wanted to go harder, longer, wanted to make it good for him, but it was already too good for me. “Max, mmm, Max, I’m gonna—”
“Yeah, do it,” he said, jerking his hips back and clenching down, and that was it for me.
I was done and gone. I came, and it felt so unbearably good that I had to bite my lip to hold in something I knew I’d regret popping out.
It took a minute of recovery for me to realize that Max was very patient and also very hard. “Oh, shit, I’m sorry—” I pulled out, but he immediately rolled over and pushed me down flat on my back.
“It’s fine, it’s—I’m so close,” he panted, straddling my hips. “Can I—”
“Yes, do it,” I said, and then he was sinking down on me again, angling himself so my dick hit just the right spot, even though it wasn’t as hard now as it had been a minute ago. I watched him work his cock then reached up and tugged on his balls—he did it to me, so I assumed he liked it—and a few seconds later, he came, fist clutching the head of his cock as he shook through his orgasm.
“Holy shit,” he said, finally opening his eyes and looking down at me with something between smugness and wonder on his face. “Tell me that wasn’t a great idea.”
“It was a great idea,” I said, completely honest. “But now we really have to clean up, or I’m going to be late to work. And we still need to sneak the puppy back to Hal so he can take her for the day while you watch the girls.”
“Good point.”
We raced through a shower, let the puppy out one last time—and damn, this dog was an angel, way too composed for her youthful age—and hightailed.
Hal was waiting in the driveway for us.
“Cutting it close,” he muttered as he took the crate out of the back of the Jeep. “How’s the baby?”
“The baby?” I asked, lifting one eyebrow mostly because I knew it bothered him that he couldn’t do it. “Is this dog for the girls or for you?”
“It’s a family dog, obviously,” Hal said a bit defensively. “It’s for all of us, and I figure I’m gonna be doing most of the walks and feeding and grooming and all that for a while, so I’d better damn well like the thing, right? Hey, baby,” he crooned into the front of the crate, where the dog was happily licking at his fingers. “You’re a good girl, aren’t you? Who’s my baby, huh? Who’s my sweet baby?”
“You’re such a sap,” Max said with a smile on his face. “Were you this ridiculous when your daughters were little? I don’t remember this level of small talk when you came to visit and Steph was still nursing.”
“He was worse,” I said. “He wore Marnie around in a sling for, like, three months straight. Ariel had to pry her out of there with a crowbar just to feed her.”
“It wasn’t that bad.”
“I came home on leave and I got to hold her all of, like, twice,” I told Max.
“He lightened up by the time Steph came around, right?”