Page 27 of Wickedly Played (Checkmate #1)

Chapter Twenty-Four

MAX

I felt the damage as soon as I mentioned to Adam that I was a professional. There was no way in fucking hell I was going to tell him that I’m low-key obsessed over my protectee. How would that go over? I would be blacklisted.

After spending the night and early morning together, one thing was for sure.

I like her. I like her probably more than I should, and there isn’t fuck all I could do about it.

What is going to happen when her bodyguards come back?

What will happen when I receive the pink slip and move on to another mark?

Would we just high-five and be done with it?

Fuck. What will happen when I’m given the green light to slaughter her father?

I know Serena liked me, too. I felt it in the way she spoke to me. I felt it in the way she lay on me, as if she needed to draw my strength from me to transfer to her. I would have given her anything to help ease the guilt I know she’s feeling about the death of the waitress.

ME: Tell me everything you have on Serena’s ex-husband.

FRANKY: We intercepted a shipment of high-dollar shit. Retaliation is coming

ME: When can we make the move?

FRANKY: About a week

“She’s upstairs now. Tell me more about what you know,” I demand.

Wood places his hands on his knees as he looks at me.

“The waitress’s name is Meredith. She was twenty-two, just moved here, and from all accounts, she didn’t do anything to piss anyone off.

There wouldn’t have been anything tying Meredith’s death to your client, but there was a note left on her body. ”

Wood hands over a tablet with a picture of the note. I recognize the handwriting perfectly.

I know you found her body. I know you probably think it was some madman who killed this beautiful soul.

She interrupted me. I was going to talk to my true love, Serena.

She was with her fucking bodyguard. He has been trying to steal her away from me.

I know the truth, and soon everyone will, too. Serena is mine. I will kill again.

“The stalker is getting bolder,” I retort sardonically.

Adam plucks the piece of paper and starts to examine the writing on it. “There is something a little familiar about this writing. Where the fuck have I seen this before?”

“Maybe from the other notes that the stalker has left?” I snap.

“Do you really think your attitude is needed right now, bro?”

“This is getting us nowhere,” I murmur. Fighting with Adam is the last thing I want to do right now. He might be an asshole, but he’s one of my only family members I have left.

Well, Adam and our older brother, Joe. Joe has been a hired gun for the military forces since I learned how to walk.

I haven’t seen too much of him since I got back because he’s been busier than fuck.

And truthfully, I didn’t want to see him.

Joe never wanted to follow in our father’s footsteps.

He didn’t care to continue the family legacy of being soldiers for the McDougal Crime Family.

Every time I see him, I am reminded of everything I have done, and I’m still not good enough for the one thing I want the most.

Serena.

“Anyway, I have to check how Serena is doing. Are we done here?” I demand. I’m standing up and walking toward the staircase. The message couldn’t have been any clearer than it is right now. I’m ready for everyone to be out of the house.

“See ya later, bro,” Adam calls over his shoulder, and then the other men proceed to leave, too.

Once at the top of the stairs, I smell the sweet smell of Serena. She opens her door as my hand is raised to knock on the door.

“Did everyone leave?” Her eyebrow is raised in question.

I nod. “Yeah. They left just now. I wanted to check in on you.”

She giggles mirthlessly. “Your hot and cold act is getting really old.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I stare down at the little firecracker. “Excuse me?”

“You act like you like me, and then you take it back. You act like you might want to be with me, and then you’re all, I’m a professional and I don’t cross the lines, bull shit.”

“What do you want me to do, sweetness?”

Her head flies back. “How about you be honest with your feelings for once and tell me how you feel. Either you want me, or you don’t. This limbo act is getting to be too much.”

My hands reach out, and I grab her jaw a little more forcefully than intended. “Is that what you want?” She gulps loudly with her eyelashes fluttering. “You want me to be honest and do what I want?” One of my hands drops to her neck. My fingers squeeze her delicate throat.

Her hands graze my overheated muscles under the cotton shirt I’m wearing. “Yes. Please.”

“What if what I want is something I don’t deserve?

” I’m asking her honestly. I don’t deserve to have anything significant in my life after the life I have lived.

I have already failed one woman. Fuck, I watched my team die in front of me.

I couldn’t have done anything to prevent it from happening.

I watched it all happen while I was chained to the wall.

I faked passing out to see the fate of my team.

I got lucky. I got away with injuries, but I was the one who had to tell my team’s family members how their loved ones died. That was on me.

And my role as a hired gun.

I’ve willingly taken the oath as a made man for the McDougals. I’m the opposite of someone who deserves anything good.

I don’t deserve to feel any of the fluttering in my chest. I also don’t deserve the adoration I’m receiving from Serena.

Her arms link around my neck. Serena’s tight little body is pressed against mine. Every single one of my senses is crowded by her. I just need to taste her again.

“Tell me what it is you want. I bet you deserve it more than you think you do.”

My hands drop from her head, past her arms, to her hips, sliding to her ass cheeks, and I grip them in my hands. I hoist her up my body and press her against the wall. With a quick swivel of my hips, she comes alive in my hands. The little moan of pleasure encourages me.

Deciding to stop denying how I feel, I lay it out for her.

“What I want to do is fuck you into the mattress. I want to make you come over and over again. I want to fuck you all night so when you wake in the morning, you still feel me moving in and out of your body. I want to spread your legs open, throw them over my shoulders, and feast on your delectable pussy. Then, after you have come a couple of times, I’m going to pull you up on your knees, cuff your wrists to the bed, and then your ankles to the bed, then I’m going to fuck you again. ”

Serena loudly moans against my mouth. “Yes, please.”

My nose nudges her lips to have her kiss me. “You want to know what it feels like to be mine, sweetness? You want to feel what it feels like to give control over to someone else?”

“God, yes. Please.”

I rotate my hips again. I take a step back to let her feet fall to the floor.

Within a second, I throw her over my shoulder and toss her on her bed.

My hands remove her clothes with a fever, and she whimpers.

My lips trail up her legs from her ankles until my mouth is hovering over her soaking wet pussy.

“You smell like you need to be fucked,” I taunt darkly.

“I want you,” she whispers.

“You’ll get me, sweetness. I need to eat this little pussy first.”

My lips, tongue, and teeth begin to assault her sex over and over again. She’s writhing on the bed in front of me. I look up from where I’m at on the edge of the bed to see her body wracked from pleasure.

“Your little greedy pussy is addictive, baby,” I compliment. “I don’t know how I’m going to be able to stay away from it.” I shove two fingers inside of her, listening to the gasp that reverberates through her body.

It has been several months since I had sex with a woman. I have tried to follow my shrink's recommendations, but it is all about to fly out the window.

“Are you going to come?” I growl with her clit pinched between my teeth. I lightly nibble around the sensitive flesh, my fingers plundering inside of her over and over again. She doesn’t answer me, so I remove my mouth from her.

“What? No!”

“Answer me. Are you going to come?”

“Yes! Please!”

I suck on her little nub a lot harder than before, causing her to detonate in my mouth. My tongue and fingers continue fucking her through her orgasm. She’s screaming loudly under me until the last of her orgasm is squeezed out.

“Holy shit,” she whimpers.

Removing my mouth from her, I walk over to her closet to grab the ribbons, ropes, and the other toys I know she has in there. I lay them on the bed with her eyes watching my every move.

“You know,” she teases, “I’m the one who is supposed to tie you up and make you lose control.”

I chuckle at her joke. “Maybe another time, sweetness. I want to please you. I wonder how long it has been since someone made me so horny you could combust.” She sighs. “Do you trust me to please you, sweetness? Do you trust me to make your body sing?”

Serena nods gently. “Yes, Max. Please.”

She looks like she’s going to say something more, but stops herself. “What is it, baby?”

“Promise you won’t laugh?”

Shrugging, I nod. “I’ll try.”

She’s sitting up on the bed with her back against the plethora of pillows on it.

I can’t wait to push the pillows onto the ground and take her again.

“I, uh, haven’t had sex for fun in a long time.

Most of the time, my experiences have been getting other people off. Exercising the emotional side of BDSM.”

My fingers wrap around the rope I’m holding. My other hand grabs her ankles to pull her closer to me. “I won’t tell anyone how much you loved submitting to me, sweetness.”

“What is the safe word?” Serena whispers.

“What do you want it to be?”

“Pillow. I say it, and everything ends.”

I wrap the rope around her ankles to the railing at the end of the bed. “Okay, sweetness. What is something you don’t like?”

“I’ll let you know.”

Crawling up her body, I tie her hands together, unlike her ankles. “You look so beautiful tied up for me.”

“Please take off your clothes for me,” she begs.

“Want to see my cock?”

Nodding, she tries to push herself up on the bed. “Yes. I would love to suck it, too.”

I slide off of her, make quick work of my clothes, and then reach into my pocket to grab a condom. “I hate to have something separate us like this. I’ll get tested tomorrow so I can slide into your hot body without a barrier.”

“Max,” she screams. “I feel like I’m dying.”

“You’re not dying, sweetness,” I taunt, tugging the tip of my cock a little. The purple head is weeping to feel her from the inside. “You’re just waking up, baby. I can’t wait to see all the fire that comes out of you once I slide in.”

“I trust you. You don’t need to wear one.”

“I had a test done three weeks ago and haven’t been with anyone since,” I tell her.

She nods. I rip the rubber off, throw it off to the side.

With a quick change of positions, I flip her over, adjust her to be on her hands and knees, then slide all the way in. I’m glad the ropes allowed her to have enough leeway to move easily without biting into her skin too much.