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“But didn’t you ever want to—”
“The only thing I wanted was my wife. So I got myself off thinking of you, because there was no one else I wanted.” Max figured if they were starting again, he might as well get honest. He and Mia had never discussed sexual things this bluntly, but maybe they should have. “Does that surprise you?”
She was silent for a moment, so quiet that Max thought she had fallen asleep before she answered. “Actually, the thought of you doing that is pretty hot.” Her voice was low, husky, with a fuck-me-right-now vibe running through her words that he’d never heard before and nearly made him groan with frustrated lust. “I wish I could have watched,” she added quietly, almost as though she was talking to herself.
Her comment was candid, straightforward, and as blunt as his had been. Max didn’t think it was possible for his cock to get any stiffer, but it did. It was doing some major expansion underneath the denim of his jeans, straining the seams. They had never really flirted or engaged in sexual banter quite this blunt, and doing so now was making his whole body burn. “Go to sleep and behave yourself,” he ordered, his cock twitching in disagreement with that idea.
“Okay. Promise you’ll stay?”
It nearly killed him that she even had to ask again, but considering how he had handled things in the past, he shouldn’t be surprised. “I promise.”
Max lay awake in the dark, listening to Mia’s breathing as it evened out and got deeper. Her body went completely pliant in his arms, and he willed himself to relax.
He thought he’d never fall asleep in his uncomfortable, cramped position, but he did. And it ended up being the most restful and peaceful slumber he’d had in a very long time.
“Aren’t you ever going to stop looking and buy something?” Max commented with a smile in his voice, matching his stride to hers as they walked hand in hand around the mall. “You’ve been looking for over an hour.”
Mia had been out of the hospital for two days, wandering around their enormous home feeling lost and wondering what she reallyshouldbe doing. She was a jewelry designer and she had a workshop at home, but Max had insisted she relax and not try to push herself to start working right away. Going into her workshop felt somehow “off” to her, uncomfortable, so she wasn’t feeling creative anyway. There was very little for her to do except try to figure out exactly why she felt so differently, what had happened to cause the enormous black hole she felt stretching into a huge void in her past. Everything was the same, yetshewas so very different. One moment it seemed as if her married life with Max had never been interrupted, but at other times, it seemed as if there was a huge gulf between the two of them, and she could truly feel how much time had passed, how much they had both changed.
She glanced up at Max and smiled back at him, her breath hitching as she looked at him, dressed casually in a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, so masculine and so damn perfect that she wanted to just stand still and drink him in.
That’s one thing that hasn’t changed. I can still hardly breathe whenever I’m near him.
“Everything’s so expensive here,” she answered, wondering when she’d begun worrying about prices.
“I think I can afford it,” Max replied with a bark of laughter.
Mia sighed as she absorbed the sound of his laughter, something that had always made her heart skitter. Except now it seemed to make her pulse pound like a jackhammer. Somehow, every moment with Max was so much more intense now, more important. Not that her feelings for him hadn’t always been powerful, and she’d always known that her love for him was much fiercer than the way he felt about her. Oh, she knew he loved her, but Max was almost an obsession for her, a crazy love that she knew she’d never get over. Max was…well…he was Max, and he did nothing to extremes.
She shrugged as she answered him. “It just seems ridiculous to pay hundreds for a pair of jeans. Why?”
“Why, why, why? You’re still the most inquisitive female I’ve ever known and I think that’s still your favorite word.” His eyes were covetous and adoring as they swept over her, amusement in their depths.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” she said defensively, wondering if he disliked the changes in her personality. She didn’t know where some of them were coming from; she just felt…peculiar, like two different women in the same body.
Max stopped and nudged her to the side of the mall traffic. Her ass hit the wall gently as he asked curiously, “What happened to the woman who bought her clothing without even checking the price tag?” He put one palm against the wall beside her head and tipped her chin up to look at him. “I’m wealthy, Mia. Incredibly wealthy. And for that matter, so are you. Your grandmother’s trust has done nothing but grow since you’ve been gone. You never touched a penny of it.”
Mia shook her head, confused. “I know that. I don’t know why I feel the way I do. I know how I used to feel, and it was me; it was who I was. Now I don’t know who I am anymore.” She had to blink to keep the tears from falling, feeling hopeless, like she’d never find the woman who Max loved again. “I feel like I should pretend to be the way I was before because you loved me that way.”
“I. Still. Love. You,” Max answered gruffly, the muscles in his jaw twitching and his eyes growing stormy. “Do you think I give a fuck about your shopping habits?”
Mia stared up at him, unable to tear her eyes away from his volatile expression. He looked raw and hungry, feral and dangerous. Fascinated, she watched his beautiful hazel eyes radiate with a fiery intensity she’d never seen before on the face of the man she loved. She might not feel like the woman Max had fallen in love with, but Max had changed too. She’d noticed the difference. Problem was, he was even hotter than he’d ever been.
“You dropped the f-bomb again,” she babbled, unable to think of anything else to say. Her core flooded with heat. All she wanted was for him to touch her, the need almost unbearable. Max had always been an incredible, unselfish, tender lover, always bringing her to climax before he satisfied himself. But she’d never seen him like this: he was starving and she was the only prey he wanted to devour.
He leaned in closer, so close she could feel his heated breath on her cheek. “Does my cursing bother you?” he asked in a low, husky voice against her ear, making her shiver.
“No,” she answered honestly. Really, the way he said it made her whole body catch fire, and her mind wander to images of him not only saying the word, but doing it to her. He hadn’t touched her in a sexual way in the two days she’d been home, and she had been starting to think he didn’t desire her anymore, that her slimmer body, short hair, rougher appearance, and different personality turned him off.
“Good. Then I don’t give a fuck,” he whispered against her lips before his mouth closed over hers with a force that made her gasp into his mouth as he took it.
Max didn’t kiss—he ravaged—and Mia moaned as his mouth conquered hers, winding her arms around his neck to stay on her feet as her knees turned to water and her whole body quivered. She speared her fingers through his short hair, engulfed in a passion so fierce that she wanted to wrap her legs around his waist and let him take her right here, right now. He was all barely-leashed masculine power and dominance, and she was more than willing to submit, to experience more of this raw and uninhibited Max.
One hand cradled the back of her head to keep it from slamming against the wall, while the other cupped her ass, yanking her core closer to his groin. His tongue was relentless, entering and retreating, mimicking the act that she so desperately wanted.
She whimpered as Max jerked his mouth from hers, his breath harsh and audible against her ear. “Shit. We’re in the middle of a goddamn mall and I’m ready to tear your clothes off and fuck you blind.” And he didn’t sound happy about it.
“I didn’t think you wanted to anymore,” Mia admitted softly, still stunned.