15. Max

I hobbled into the house,walking like I’d just gotten off a horse after ten hours of riding. My body was in pain and my head was really screwed up over this woman. I told her I didn’t want to see her again. What the hell was I thinking?

I mean, I wasn’t sure I did want to see her, but that might have been a little harsh. She was the best sex I’d had in years, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to lose that yet, but was I really willing to risk what happened tonight? I was pretty sure my dick needed to be stitched up.

“What crawled up your ass?” FNG asked, calling out from the living room.

Ignoring him, I kept walking. I thought for just a moment he would listen to me, but sadly, I was mistaken.

“Hey, Max!” FNG called out. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not okay,” I bit out. “I’m in pain and I need a drink.”

“Why? I thought you were going to see what’s her face.”

“Christa,” I muttered, walking over to the bar. I grabbed a glass and filled it with scotch. It would take more than this to erase the memory of what happened tonight.

“Okay, so I take it she didn’t want you there. Did she kick you in the balls?”

“No.”

“Slam the door in your face?”

“No,” I snapped. “It wasn’t anything like that. We had sex. End of story.”

“And yet you’re hobbling. Which means something happened after sex.” His eyes went wide as he glanced down at my crotch. “Oh, I see.”

“You see what?”

“Hey, everyone encounters those things from time to time. Personally, I ask for verification that everything’s on the up and up first.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Hey, I get it. She was hot. Although, it’s a little strange since she’s so religious and everything.”

I was completely fucking lost, and I was pretty sure my face conveyed that. “If you have something to say, fucking say it.”

He glanced around and lowered his voice. “The clap. Or maybe it was something else. I thought you’d be more careful.”

“She did not give me the clap,” I hissed. “Not that I would notice an hour after fucking her.”

“Oh. Then why are you limping?”

I couldn’t do it. There was no way.

“Look, it’s not like none of us have ever had…something bad happen.”

That was true. But to tell him…I was afraid it would be like experiencing it all over again. The trauma was still at the forefront of my mind.

He pressed his hand to my shoulder and started giving me a massage. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re so tense. You need to loosen up.”

I was tense. I was terrified and scarred, but mostly, I was kicking myself for snapping at her like that. Not because I really liked her, but because the sex was unbelievable.

“Look, it was…traumatizing.”

“It usually is when it comes to women.”

My lips thinned as I prepared myself to divulge what really happened. “I—Look, can we go somewhere private?”

“Sure. My room or yours?”

“Mine.” I needed the comfort of my own space if I was really going to do this.

We walked upstairs together, but as we approached my room and passed Brock in the hallway, I started to panic. Could I really do this?

“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”

“It’ll be fine. The sooner you get this off your chest, the faster you can move on.”

And that’s really all I wanted. To move on. To not see the most gorgeous woman on her knees giving me the best head of my life, followed by pain so deep that I would be scarred for life.

But I had to be brave. I opened that door and walked through it, determined to find a way to move past the trauma. As the door shut, I knew what had to happen.

“Have you ever…gone down on a woman and have it turn out wrong?”

His eyebrows shot up. “Um…I’m not sure how it can turn out wrong. It’s pretty straightforward.”

“Exactly!” I laughed. “Which is what I thought when I had her go down on me.”

“Nice,” he grinned.

“No. No, no. It was not nice. I mean, at first it was nice, but then it was very, very wrong.”

He stared at me in horror, but he didn’t even know the half of it. “What exactly happened at her house?”

Sighing, I sat down on the bed. “Everything was going as planned. We were enjoying our time together and I wanted the favor to be returned. It shouldn’t have been a problem. I mean, I’ve done it to her every time we’ve been together.”

“Okay.”

“And…things started getting rough.”

“Too rough?”

“Good rough. I mean, at first. The thing is…well, I like it when she uses her teeth.”

“Scraping can be very pleasurable if done right,” he agreed.

“Yes, if done right,” I repeated.

“Oh, shit.”

“Apparently, she has a retainer. A metal one.”

He winced, covering his own dick.

“And it’s broken.”

His face paled considerably as he dropped his eyes to my crotch again. “What…” He cleared his throat as he shifted uncomfortably. “I mean…is it…”

“I don’t know. It may never be the same.”

He nodded succinctly. “Well, luckily, I can help with this. I’m a medic. I should be able to…assess the situation and tell you how bad the damage is.”

I laughed at that. “Do you really think I’m letting you near my dick?”

“Hey, this is not a matter of one guy looking at another guy’s dick. I’m a medical professional.”

“No, you’re not,” I snapped.

“In the military, I was. If I was good enough for guys on the field of battle, I’m good enough here. Besides, I saw plenty of male genitalia in my time. It’s not like bombs refuse to go off near certain body parts.”

He was right. I was being a baby about this. “Fine, but I want a clinical examination. Nothing more.”

“Exactly. Clinical.” He motioned at my crotch again. “But…uh…you need to remove your pants.”

“Right,” I nodded, feeling like it was especially dry in the house right now. There was no point in making this last longer than necessary. I quickly undid my pants and slid them down, staring up at the ceiling as FNG dropped in front of me.

I heard the snap of plastic and looked down just as he moved his glove-covered hand toward my dick. I hissed in a breath at the cold feel of his hands on my dick.

“Yeah, she got you good, but I think you were exaggerating. Your dick is nowhere near about to fall off. It might scab a little, but seriously, this isn’t that bad.”

“Not that bad?” I hissed. “It felt like she took a chainsaw to my cock.”

“It’s a sensitive area.” I felt him shift…things and then his hands were other places.

“Whoa, what are you doing?”

“Making sure there’s no other damage. The last thing you want is an infection setting in.”

I definitely did not want that. I shifted my gaze upward again, ignoring the fact that a man was down there. It wasn’t a big deal. He was a medic, like he said. This was purely clinical. Purely?—

The door swung open and Fox walked in, stopping when he saw FNG on his knees in front of me.

“This is not what it looks like,” I said immediately.

“It looks like FNG is trying to get you to flip on him. You know, this makes so much sense.”

I yanked up my pants as FNG quickly spun around, shooting daggers at Fox. “How the hell does this make sense?”

“Well, let’s face it. All those women you supposedly dated? They were all an elaborate story because you couldn’t face who you really are. I get it, man. Live and let live.”

“I am not gay!” FNG snapped. “I was?—”

“Trying to convince me to let you give me a blowjob,” I cut him off. It was better that everyone thought FNG was gay than to know about my sordid tale. “I tried to tell him it wasn’t okay.” Then I glared down at FNG. “No means no.”

His nostrils flared in anger. “You’re gonna pay for this.”

I grabbed him by the arm and pulled him in close. “Don’t blow this for me.”

“For you? You just made me gay!” he hissed.

“Yeah, but everyone will finally be on your side again. Think about it, all those stories no one believed? Who won’t cut you some slack when they find out you were on a spiritual healing trip?”

“Then why did I come back married?”

“To cover it up, of course! Trust me on this.”

He yanked his arm away and stormed out of the room. I shook my head at Fox, who was watching him stomp down the hall. “You know, you try to help a guy…”

Fox’s gaze was steady on FNG as he stormed away. “And to think, I’ve been so selfish this whole time when a member of our flock needed my guidance.”

“Yes,” I nodded sagely. “You should make sure he’s okay.”

“You’re right. Another soul desperate to be saved.” I nodded. “To be snatched from the flames just as his wings are about to be burned.”

Okay, that might be taking it a little far.

“He’s like a ship without a rudder. A porcelain garden elephant with no one to sit on, a hammock listing in the breeze with no human to swing on it.”

“Sure,” I nodded at the strange analogies.

“A kite with no breeze,” he continued. “A fireplace with no wood. A tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it.”

I rolled my eyes. He was going to go on forever. “Okay, then. Go save that tree from falling.”

He looked at me sadly. “You can’t stop a tree from falling. You can only be there to comfort it afterward and honor the life cycle.”

I really didn’t know what to say to that. And luckily, he turned with a heavy sigh and walked out of the room. Christ, I couldn’t take listening to any more of that bullshit. I slammed the door behind him and laid down on the bed, wincing at the pull I felt on the skin of my dick.

I was lucky I’d gotten out when I had. Things could have gotten really dicey if I’d stuck around any longer. Which only proved that it was pointless to go back to the same woman more than once. I had been stupid to be drawn in by her intoxicating scent. It was idiotic of me to willingly set foot inside her house, knowing what could happen.

Well, not that I could have known a metal wire would jab me in the dick. That was something I’d never expected.

But still…seeing a woman more than once always ended badly.

So, why did I feel like maybe I had been too rash when I walked away?