Chapter 17 - Max

After finalizing some things online, I headed back downstairs to find Brooke, rolling my eyes at the packages left untouched in the entrance hall. It had been several hours since I returned home from meeting up with Dima to see if he was still in on the idea of expanding down south, and I hadn’t heard a peep out of my bride.

It was time to either rile her up enough to get her to throw herself at me again, or just see if she was willing to talk to me without a death glare on her pretty face. I braced myself for what I might encounter when I found her, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw.

Sitting out by the pool all alone and crying? Was she sick or hurt somehow that she’d been keeping from me? I cursed the damn doctor as I rushed to her side to find out what was the matter.

As soon as I was beside her, crouching by her lounge chair, she hastily swiped away her tears and recoiled from my attempt to reach for her. She was obviously upset that I found her crying, but this was no time for pride.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

That same fierce pride that had her continuing to wipe away the tears that wouldn’t stop flowing had her squaring her shoulders and glaring at me. She was about to fight.

“Do you really have to ask?” she spat. “This is because of you. You made me lose my job, which I loved, by the way. You’re keeping me here and lying to my best friend.”

“When things have settled, I’ll get you another job, in any field you choose.”

That didn’t make her happy or come close to appeasing her. In fact, it only twisted her face into a snarl. “Of course, everything comes so easy to you. You’ll buy my place back at Berkeley, too? You’ll make up the classes I miss and the respect I lose when I don’t show up? Don’t you know how hard I worked—no, of course, you don’t because everything was always handed to you and…”

I waited patiently as she continued to rail at me. Some of her points hit a bit close to home, but she was dead wrong about many of them. I knew what it meant to fight for something I cared about. I was doing it right now, even though she didn’t see it yet.

“I have to be back for summer classes, I just have to,” she finally finished, her shoulders wilting. “This might be one big joke to you, but it’s not to me. This is my life.”

I stood, looming over her. She didn’t cower, but stared up at me with fire in her tear-filled eyes. “This isn’t a joke to me, either,” I said, reaching to take her hand.

After a slight bit of resistance, she stood and followed me to the security office where I had the files I’d been collecting printed out. “This is just what I was able to dig up. There’s more, but it’s all hearsay.”

She read over the list of shady deals that I had pinned to Luca or the production company he ran. She scowled, looking over the sheaf of papers. “Yeah, this is pretty shitty, especially running a bunch of nuns out of their home just because the convent happened to be on prime beach property. And—”

I stopped her before she could tell me the things I already knew. “This is just what I could pin on him, remember,” I said. “And I can’t say I’ve never done some things I’m not proud of, but believe me, even the Bratva doesn’t mess with nuns. Do you remember an actor named Brodick Rodie?”

She squinted up her eyes and shrugged. “Yeah, wasn’t he a big deal about ten years ago, then just kind of disappeared?”

“He was up for the same role as Luca at the time. That big comic book franchise.” I made a sour face; not really into that sort of thing.

“Brodick Rodie was supposed to be Captain Thunder?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, and early gossip was that he had it locked. But then his wife died.”

“Oh my gosh, I remember now. She was killed under suspicious circumstances, but it was never solved.”

I nodded. “At the time, there was a small flurry of activity with an Italian organization that just kind of went away. It was a big deal to us because we were just gaining real power in the area. I have no hard proof, but I think it was a hit.”

Her brows furrowed. “Brodick was so heartbroken he ended up in rehab and then just fell off the face of the earth.”

“He actually lives in Montana now and is doing just fine, but yes, for all intents and purposes, he disappeared, which is just what Luca wanted and needed. He was second in line for Captain whatever the fuck, and that franchise catapulted him to world stardom.”

I reeled off a few more things I suspected Luca of doing, all on his own with no help from any outsiders. More suspicious deaths, all accidents. People he worked with had mental breakdowns and left the industry. People were just plain disappearing, but they weren’t important enough to ever make the news. Luca was crafty and had a lot of pull, so I had no proof, just whispers on the crime grapevine and my own hunches based on what I knew he was capable of.

“You can bet if something bad happens to someone and it somehow works out well for Luca, that he’s behind it.” I gave her a hard look. “And there’s what he did to you. What he would have done if you hadn’t been able to send me those messages.”

She sank to the nearest chair, and the papers fell out of her hands, which I saw were shaking. I refrained from pulling her into my arms because I needed her to really understand what the danger was. When she looked up at me to meet my eyes, I knew she was starting to get it.

“I wasn’t the first,” she murmured. “I couldn’t have been. Oh my God, how many…”

“There’s a difference between crime and being a sick fuck,” I said bitterly. “Do you understand now what kind of man keeps driving past this property? Biding his time and waiting to pounce. That’s the man who wants you for his own. The one I’m trying to keep you safe from.”

I watched as she hardened her quivering lower lip and clenched her fists. She stood, striding past me toward the office door. “This has nothing to do with you,” she said. “I’ll handle it on my own, like I’ve always done. The way I see fit. I don’t want or need you.”

Not my help, not my interference. She didn’t want or need me . That stung more than I cared to admit. Hell, it felt worse than a bullet tearing through my flesh. How had she gotten so deep under my skin in such a short time?

I stepped in front of her to block her way and grabbed her shoulders, my fingers biting enough to make her wince. Instead of shaking sense into her, I loosened my grip at the same time as I yanked her closer, kissing her roughly.

Her hands shoved against my chest as she kept her lips closed tight against my questing tongue. I backed her into the desk, her thighs hitting the sleek mahogany and knocking the small printer to the floor. She gave me a hard punch with both her clenched fists, twisting her head away from me.

“Brooke,” I gasped raggedly, snaking one hand behind her to pull her lush curves against me. The other hand tangled in her hair and tugged until her eyes met mine. “Brooke,” I said again.

Her lips parted, and her eyes closed as she stopped pummeling my chest to curl her fingers into my shirt. Her mouth met mine with an eagerness that had me swelling against her belly. She groaned, digging her fingers into the flesh under my shirt, scrambling to tug the fabric away.

I needed to feel her hot skin just as desperately and shoved her top up to splay my hand against her back. She let her body go weak in my grip, sliding her plump little ass onto the desk and wrapping her legs around my hips. Wanting to taste her skin, I dragged my lips from her mouth to kiss my way down her throat. A soft moan escaped her, followed by a short, sharp gasp.

Those hands that had been tearing at my shirt gripped my shoulders and shoved me hard. Her legs snapped shut, and she scrambled off the desk, glaring at me with so much fire that my cock nearly tore through my pants. Her whole body trembled as she shoved me again, but this time I remained immobile, close enough to feel the heat radiating off her.

“No,” she snapped, as if to herself more than me. “I won’t fall for it again.”

I laughed, every muscle yearning to pull her close to me again and make her a liar. I kept my hands at my sides. Anyone looking at me would have thought I didn’t give a shit either way. Who would have thought I had acting skills? Inside, I was on fire, red hot for the woman who looked like she was about to crumble under the weight of our combined lust.

“I won’t,” she repeated, glancing over my shoulder at the door.

I stepped aside. “I think you will,” I said. “And I won’t even have to touch you again.”

I refused to let her look away when her eyes returned to mine, flashing with the electricity that crackled between us.

“Good,” she said, voice hardly wavering. “Then let me go, and let me deal with this on my own.”

I shook my head. “That part I can’t do.”

Her nostrils flared, and her chest heaved, but she didn’t look away. Neither did I.

“Fuck,” she hissed, flinging her arms around my neck.

Her body hit mine just as I claimed her mouth, open and waiting for my tongue to delve inside. I wrapped my arms around her waist and let my hands smooth over her lush ass. My fingers gripped her soft flesh, finding her heat between her thighs. Her soft moan turned wild as I pushed her back toward the desk.

This time, when her legs hit the edge, she eagerly held on tight, lifting herself onto it as I eased her back, kissing down her chest. I’d had enough of her ripe tits being hidden from me and dragged the fabric down with my teeth until I had a pink nipple between my lips.

Her back arched beneath me, and her legs locked around my hips. When my cock pressed against her heat, she moaned again, louder this time. She ground herself against me until I couldn’t take it anymore. This wasn’t going to be long and drawn out. As much as I wanted to lick every inch of my woman, I needed to be inside her. The memory of her tight, wet pussy clamping around my shaft on our wedding night had been haunting me.

“I need to fuck you,” I said, letting go of my iron control. “I need to be inside your hot little body so damn much, Brooke.”

“Hurry,” she begged, so far gone she didn’t gloat that I’d let go of my control every bit as much as she had. “Oh, yes,” she gasped as I slid my fingers under the edge of the ridiculously oversized shorts she stubbornly wore instead of accepting my gifts.

A moment later, the shorts were around her ankles, and she kicked them away. I sunk my fingers into her wet heat, groaning at the same time she grabbed a handful of my hair.

“Max,” she moaned. “Please hurry.”

This was us, fast and furious and so full of passion we might burn each other up. I kissed her deeply, my fingers delving into her pussy, teasing her until she writhed against me. I wanted her, all of her, but for now it would have to be enough to hear her cry out in ecstacy. To make her admit how much she wanted me.

When I felt her clench around my fingers, I yanked my own pants down. Brooke blinked down at my cock, reaching to grasp my shaft and stroke from my balls to my tip. With a glimmer in her eyes, she ran her thumb through the moisture there.

“I think…” she murmured.

“Don’t think,” I said.

Grinning, she reached for my head to pull me down for a scorching kiss. “You’re right, now—”

I rammed inside her in one swift, smooth motion, cutting off her demand that I do just that. Her head lolled back as she tightened her grip on my hair, clamping her legs tight around me to seal us together.

“Brooke,” I growled, losing my grip on reality. There was only Brooke, her body, our connection, and that feeling that I was going over the edge of a cliff.

Her cries grew louder, more intense as she ran her hands down my shoulders and back up to hang on tight. Leaning over to sink her teeth into the muscle only drove me to pump into her harder. I wanted this to last forever, and I could have happily died at that moment.

But we had so much more ahead of us, even if she didn’t see it. I had to make her see it. Sliding my fingers between us, I found her swollen clit, smiling when she cried out and held on with even more ferocity. She was fighting to hang on, just like I was.

“I need to feel you come,” I whispered in her ear.

She shuddered, and seconds later, her spasms strangled my cock. With a loud groan that crescendoed to a roar, I let loose inside her, filling her up until we were both spent. I let my hands fall to the desk on either side of her to keep from crushing her under my weight. As soon as my heart stopped threatening to crack through my ribs, I cradled her in my arms and lowered her limp and sweaty body to the thick carpet.

She fell against me, and I chuckled, running a hand through her hair, which was still damp from the pool. A strange happiness welled up in me at our closeness, and I laughed again.

Big mistake. Brooke stiffened in my arms. Before explaining that I was just happy we’d managed to work out our differences, she scrambled away, reaching for the discarded shorts. Yanking them on, she hastily rolled them several times to keep them from sliding back down to her knees.

“Brooke,” I said. “I wasn’t—”

“Gloating?” she cut in, already flouncing toward the door.

“Brooke, get back here,” I demanded. “It didn’t mean anything.”

She gaped at me in horror and huffed. Before I could clarify that, I meant the laughter didn’t mean anything other than me being happy, she was gone, the door slamming as soon as she was out of my office.

I let my head drop to the carpet and stared at the ceiling, knowing her well enough not to chase after her until her tantrum subsided. I was beginning to get used to them and felt a smile curling my lips. It seemed I was even starting to like them.