Page 29 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

But I let her go and just admire her from afar.

That’s as far as I should go. But with every look, every touch... I’m starting to care less about what Ishoulddo and more about what I want.

Chapter fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: Max

Even when the weekend arrives, I can’t get myself to relax.

Working so hard makes me feel like I’m going through an adrenaline rush, and it’s hard to get it to wear off, even when I’m not at the office. This shit is probably going to kill me one day if I don’t get a handle on it.

And it doesn’t help that every single day I’m struggling with how I feel for Emma. It makes me bury myself in work even more because it’s the only distraction I have.

Until we have to work on something together.

Then, I’m biting back flirty comments. Fisting my hand under the table to keep from brushing her hair out of her face or cupping her cheek when it gets flushed. Willing myself not to mess up my brotherhood with her brothers.

On top of it all, I still have Christmas presents to buy.

With a tired sigh, I drag myself out of bed and to the shower to wake up, my muscles tense and heavy. I need to relax. I need areleasebecause all of this tension is killing me.

Hot water pounds against the back of my head as I stand under the stream, the roar of it filling my ears. I should find peace in a quiet morning all alone, but all I can think about is how nice it would be to have Emma here with me.

I close my eyes as I feel the ghost of her touch on my back. Her gentle hands and her red and white themed nails. Her soft breath on the back of my neck and then my ear.

“Max…”

My jaw tenses as I hear her voice of desperation. Of need. I start to harden just at the sound, heat burning low and intensely within me.

“Please…”

Desire claws through me, ripping away my sense of control and my common sense on top of that. I wish she was here to help me relax, to take my mind off things like she did when we went to the ice skating rink.

Unable to stop myself, I wrap my fingers around my hardening erection and start stroking myself, letting a fantasy of my ownmaking unfold in my head. A fantasy that I can never make reality.

“Fuck,” I whisper as the water continues pounding down on the back of my head.

I feel her hands slide over my shoulders and chest, her fingertips tracing the grooves of my muscles. She moves lower over my abdomen, her lips fluttering against the back of my shoulder.

I feel hereverywhere.

My breathing quickens as I pump myself faster, every muscle in my body tensing as I shuttle closer to the edge. Just the thought of her drives me crazy, but picturing her hand replacing mine as she whisperspleasein my ear nearly takes me out.

I want her so damn bad it aches, and I just want some relief.

“Em,” I grit out as I thrust into my own fist, my cock growing even harder.

It only takes a few more strokes to make me spill all over my fist, all of the air leaving my lungs. My head spins as the intensity hits me like a train, dizzying me for a moment and forcing me to place a hand on the shower wall.

I lift my head out of the water with a faint gasp, heat gradually ebbing away to leave me cold and guilty. Why the fuck did I do that? Why can’t I get a handle on myself?

It’s not just a crush anymore. It’s obsession. Need. And the more I try to push it away, the more it digs in. I can’t be alone with these feelings—not when I’m seeing her nearly every day, laughing with her, getting tiny pieces of the life I keep imagining but can never have.

It’s hard enough acting unaffected around her, but I can’t even get my shit together when I’mnotaround her.

Disappointment looms over me as I get through the rest of my shower and dry off, water glistening in the short strands of my hair. I pitch a quick look over at my phone on the bathroom counter when it buzzes, my stomach dropping at the sight of Ethan’s name on the screen.

Oh, fuck. Did he somehow know what I was doing in the shower? Why the hell is he calling me so early?