Page 24 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Twenty-One

MAX

I roll over again in my bed, punch the pillow into submission, and wish for my boner to deflate.

We’ve been home for a couple of hours. Usually, that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but we pussy-foot around each other like we’re strangers.

We barely spoke on the way back to her house, either.

She followed my unspoken directive to stay in the car while I did a quick sweep of the house.

If that person hadn’t cleared their throat, what would have fucking happened?

My cock hasn’t got the memo that it is staying lodged in my boxer briefs for the time being.

Me on my knees in front of her. Her beautiful face was looming over me. I liked it.

Seeing Serena like that… God damn it. She’s so fucking sexy. Everything about her commanding presence calls to my possessive and dominant side. I would love to switch roles and see how she enjoys being the bottom for me. I bet she submits beautifully.

I check the clock again to see if any time has passed since I started this restless night. Shit balls. It has only been five minutes since I last checked it.

I might as well work out or do something productive with my time since I’m not able to fall asleep. I have a slight urge to bust into Serena’s room to see if she’s also struggling with sleeping.

After shoving my feet into my sneakers, I grab a T-shirt to throw on. My basketball shorts have been discarded to the side of the room, and I yank those on over my shoes. Yeah, I didn’t think about doing this first.

With my phone in my hand, I walk out of my room to check in on Serena. Wait. Is she moaning?

“Max,” she whimpers. “Please.”

I see Serena’s hand pressed between her thighs as she bucks her hips against the heel of her hand. Should I help her out?

Everything is already cloudy between us, and I don’t need to complicate it anymore by shoving my cock up her little ass. I bet she would have a better attitude after I fuck it out of her.

I stand in the doorway, captivated by her. Serena could have any man or woman she wanted. For reasons unbeknownst to me, I want her only to want me.

She makes these cute little moaning noises while working her little clit quicker and harder. My dick is standing at full attention and doesn’t give a fuck about professionalism anymore.

“Max. I’m going to come!”

Wow. She’s really into the fantasy. I wonder what I’m doing to her to make her moan like this.

“I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Serena’s body trembles, shakes, and vibrates with her climax. I wish it were my face between her legs. Damn. I wish it were my cock being shoved down her pretty little throat until she chokes on it.

“Fuck,” she moans to herself. I see her lifting her fingers from between her thighs to look at her orgasm. I’m tempted to let her know I saw everything, but I don’t want to break this moment.

I see her swing her legs out of her bed, and I leave the area in hopes of not getting caught watching her touch herself to the fantasy of me.

I’m on my fourth mile when my phone starts to vibrate in front of me. “You got Max,” I answer.

“This is Detective Wood. Are you the bodyguard for Serena?”

I slam my hand down on the stop button on the machine. “Yes. What is this regarding?” He has my attention now.

“We received notification of a dead body outside of the club you were at earlier.”

Rage starts to flood through my body. Why would he be calling me? I quickly pull up the camera app on my phone to make sure Serena is still in bed, and she is. “Do you know who it was?”

Wood scoffs. “We were alerted by the club owner that Serena is under your protection due to a stalking incident.”

“I cannot confirm nor deny that,” I retort.

“It has been confirmed through her agent. We spoke with Bill about what happened. The victim, who passed tonight, looks awfully like your client.”

“Was there a note?” I demand.

Wood sucks in a breath. “Yes. We will need to speak with you and Serena as soon as possible. We worry this attack was motivated by the stalker’s obsession with Serena.”

“I’m not taking her out of the house right now. If you want to meet with her, you could meet with her here,” I suggest, with little room to decline my offer.

“I’ll see you at 9 am.”

Without responding, I hang up the phone. “Fuck!” I shout to myself. “Mother fucker!”

I grab a towel off the bench, then tread up the stairs to tell Serena about what happened.

Without knowing how she handles stress, I’m unsure how she will hold this information.

Part of me is tempted to call my brother and share this information with him.

The other part of me doesn’t want to talk to the asshole right now.

I’m standing outside of her door when she opens it in a cloud of sweet-smelling natural scent of the woman I’m protecting. She smiles cheerily at me, then drops the smile.

“What’s wrong, Max?”

“Shit,” I mutter to myself more than to her. “I think you should sit down,” I suggest.

My sudden urge to hold her in my arms overwhelms me. I have never wanted to comfort someone as much as I do her. Her own father doesn’t give a fuck about her, and she’s all alone in the world. No wonder she has a stalker.

The McGuires have many enemies. I bet her stalker is one of them. Or her fucking ex-husband. If I see her ex, I’m cutting out his tongue, fingers, dick, limbs, and anything else that touched her.

She crosses her arms over her chest, arches an eyebrow, and then smirks. “What is going on?” Her little pink tongue slips between her pillowy lips to wet them. I watch the movement with fascination.

“I got off the phone with the police department. There was a murder outside of the venue we were at tonight.”

“What?” She looks like the air has been let out of her chest.

I lean against the doorframe with my arms, mimicking hers. “The detective is worried the murder has been connected to you.”

It happens so quickly, I almost miss it. Her legs give out, causing her to fall forward into my awaiting arms. Her body trembles from the sobs she’s trying to hold in. I pull her close to my chest, tucking her head against my pec, and then my hands span her entire back.

“Sweetness,” I mutter into her soft hair. She must have taken a shower recently because her intoxicating smell of cherries and vanilla is making me feel drunk.

“It is all my fault, isn’t it?”

“No, baby,” I confirm. “You didn’t do this. Your stalker is sick. They are the reason why this is happening. Not you.”

Her body convulses a little in my arms. “Max, why is he targeting me?”

I kiss her hair gently. “No one knows. ‘S hard to know why people do sick things like this.”

“Who was it?”

“Who was who?”

She pushes off me a little to look me in the eyes. “Who was it that died?”

“They didn’t tell me a name. The detective is going to come over in the morning to talk to us about it.”

I don’t share with her the other information I know. I don’t tell her about the note, either. I will wait for the morning to drop that bombshell.

“Max… I don’t know what to say.”

Her mouth is luring me to plunder it with my tongue. It would be too easy to pick her up, shove those little shorts down her legs, and then drive my hard cock into her. Her lips are an alluring temptation for me.

“There is nothing to say, Serena,” I answer honestly.

With my hands still on her little body, she looks over her shoulder at her room. I see the little shake of her head as she considers what to do next. “I don’t want to sleep in here alone.”

Fuck me. “Grab a pillow and a blanket,” I instruct her.

Much to my surprise, she follows my directions. She might be a Domme professionally, but this woman submits to me beautifully. It takes everything in me not to grab her by the hair and kiss her mouth.

“Are you going to be okay while I take a shower?” I ask with an eyebrow raised.

She nods her head at me.

I’m out of the shower in five minutes and dressed, ready to take her downstairs with me.

Luckily for both of us, her couches are comfortable to sleep on.

Sure, I could be a masochist and sleep with her in a bed.

Sure, it would take every single ounce of my willpower not to slide myself between her soft thighs.

Holding my hand out for her, she slides her little one into mine. “Where are we going?”

There aren’t any answers that need to be given. We are in the living room with my back against the cushions, and she’s perched fairly close to me.

“Max?”

“Yeah, sweetness?”

She sucks in a breath. “Have you ever watched one of my cams?”

I chuckle to myself. “I’ve seen some of yours.”

She giggles, her head sliding off the cushion a little to land on me. “What did you think?”

“Probably the same thing every man thinks when they land on your cam page, Serena.” I try to slink away from her a little more to get some space, but she follows me more. “Why are you asking?”

She shrugs against me. “Just curious. I always wondered what my clients thought when they watched me.”

We’re silent for a few comfortable moments before she breaks the silence. “What made you decide to be a bodyguard?”

“Are we sharing secrets?” I ask her.

“Yes.”

“Secret for secret?” I challenge.

“Yes.”

Huh. This could be interesting. “Anything you don’t want to talk about?”

“Nah. I’m a pretty open book.”

“What was your question again?”

“Why did you become a bodyguard?”

“Oh,” I scoff. “My brother runs the firm and needed someone to come step in who has had my type of training.”

This is primarily true. I don’t share with her the fact that I’m a hired gun for the mafia… Or an enforcer for the McDougal Family. Or that I want to kill her dad.

She’s nodding her pretty head that is now dangerously close to my chest. I’m the one who takes the next step, placing my arm around her neck to place her on me. “I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing that this feels good.”

“It is just us in here,” I remind her. “I won’t tell anyone you don’t have your fucking whip in here to make me bow to your will.”

She throws her head back in a laugh. “If you did, no one would believe you.” After a pause, she begins to ask me another question. “What kind of training?”

I am considering how to answer this question. It wasn’t the first time someone had asked me what my specialty was in the forces. I don’t like talking about it, as many people will ask the one question I dread answering. How many people did you kill?

How does it feel to take a life?

I’ve done it so many times, it doesn’t bother me anymore. This isn’t a flex, but the truth. The first person I killed, I felt that shit for days… The second and the third got easier. The fourth, I didn’t care as much. Enemies of the McDougals are enemies for a reason.

“I did a lot of recovery missions,” I respond vaguely.

“Can I get a little more than that?”

My fingers trace down her sides. “I think you asked me several questions, and I haven’t got to ask any of mine.”

She giggles. “What do you want to know?”

“How did you get into camming?”

“I ended a bad relationship and needed to make money pretty quickly. It was crazy how many people were willing to pay to watch me masturbate or dominate another person.”

“That’s the problem with the internet, Serena,” I tease. “No matter what, there’s something new coming out.”

“So, are you going to answer my question?”

My hand flexes around her forearm. “I was trained to find, capture, and protect people the government wanted.” She looks up at me underneath her long eyelashes.

I wonder how she would look on her knees as she asked to suck my cock.

“Sometimes it went well, other times it didn’t.

It all depended on the intel we had before walking into it.

I started doing other things and then got stationed with you. ”

Serena gets on her knees to turn and look at me. She grabs my face in her hands, causing our eyes to clash. “I’m glad you came back.”

I should tell her the truth.

But I’m not ready to see the light fade from her eyes.