Max (Ride Series Second Generation Book 6) Read online

  “The way you wear it, it might as well be lingerie,” he growled, unzipping my jeans to slide his hands down to my backside, squeezing firmly.

  “What are you doing?” I gasped as his finger slipped inside me from behind.

  He took my mouth again by way of answer, his tongue moving in time with his finger. Then he was on his knees and shoving my pants down my legs. His mouth was on me before I could utter a word of protest, not that I would have just then.

  My head slammed back against the door as I fought the urge to moan loud enough for the entire bar to hear.

  His tongue was beautiful torture, moving over me expertly as his lips joined the onslaught. In record time, I was gasping his name, my legs shaking, my entire body suffused with heat as I rode out my orgasm.

  He stood up slowly, his hands caressing my legs and hips as he went. He kissed me again, achingly slow. “I like the hair too,” he murmured against my mouth.

  I grinned just as a knock sounded on the door. “Oh my God!” I whispered, blushing profusely.

  He grinned wickedly, leaning down to help me with my jeans. “One look at you, no one would blame me.” He shrugged unperturbed by the interruption or the fact it was obvious what we were doing.

  Once my clothes were squared away, he took my hand, unlocking the door and leading me out into the hall. “Ladies,” he greeted the women waiting in line with an easy smile.

  They looked back at him with wide eyes, stunned into silence. If I had to guess, they were more befuddled by my gorgeous man than what we’d been doing.

  I looked down, biting back a smile as he led me back to our table. One thing was for sure, life with Max would never be dull.

  Chapter 27

  MAX

  Later that night, I lay in bed with Wren in my arms. I’d taken her twice after we’d gotten home, still feeling the need to claim her, to mark her. The taste I’d had in the bathroom earlier hadn’t been nearly enough.

  “You have fun tonight?” I asked, burrowing my face into her neck.

  “Yeah.” She yawned.

  “I wear you out?” I grinned playfully.

  “You know you did.” Her satisfied smile was sexy as hell.

  “You looked beautiful tonight,” I told her again. “But you’re just as gorgeous in jeans and a tee with grease all over you,” I added honestly. That was the girl I’d fallen in love with.

  “Thanks.” She smiled. “It felt good. I just needed the push that Gracie and Em are always willing to provide. If they have anything to say about it, there’s a shopping spree coming up in my very near future.”

  I snorted, knowing that was all too true. My sister never turned down the opportunity to shop or to provide a nudge, or a shove when needed. “Don’t let those two have you showing too much skin,” I warned.

  “I won’t,” she murmured drowsily, dropping her head back to my chest. I sensed she was just moments from falling asleep. “What’s the deal with Emmie and Gunner?” she asked, almost as an afterthought.

  I tensed, surprised by the question. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you told him he can’t date her or something?”

  “No. Does he want to date her?” I asked in shock. The idea I might be missing the fact that my best friend had feelings for my little sister was disconcerting.

  “You’ve never noticed the tension between them?”

  “No.” In fact, I spent energy trying not to pay attention to my sister’s love life.

  I felt her shrug against me. “Well, who knows what it is. Both of them are stubborn as hell about it.” She looked up at me with wide eyes. “Don’t tell either of them I said anything.”

  I looked back at her with a wrinkled brow. “Babe, based on this conversation, I’m not even sure what the hell we’re talking about here.”

  She relaxed and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a guy.”

  “Hope I don’t need to prove that you again,” I replied dryly.

  She let out a tired laugh. “You can prove it to me again tomorrow. How about that?”

  I pulled her closer, kissing the top of her head. “Sleep, babe.”

  “Love you, Max.”

  I’d never tire of hearing those words. “Love you too, baby.”

  ****

  I stood under the showerhead the next morning, smiling to myself at the thought of Wren in the kitchen making breakfast. Food had been the farthest thing from my mind when I’d woken with her long-ass legs tangled with mine, but she was on a mission. I’d been teaching her how to cook, and little by little, she was getting the hang of it. We’d started simple, but she was eager and so fucking cute. We’d ended up on the kitchen floor more times than with a finished meal, but it had been a hell of a lot of fun.

  I thought about the ring I’d bought for her. It sat in my bedside table drawer just itching to be on her finger. I’d bought it weeks ago, but I wanted Sal’s blessing, and I wanted this shit with her stalker done with. I wanted us to start our life together free and clear, without a hint of the fear I saw clouding her gorgeous eyes when she thought I wasn’t looking.

  X was staying on top of Johnny and seemed to think he was doing what he could to run down an address for us in Reno. It would be a start—a start that would lead us to the end of this fucking mess.

  When I heard the doorbell clang, I hastily threw on my shirt, wondering who would show up here without letting me know ahead of time. Everyone knew how on edge I was when it came to Wren.

  I stalked out to the living room, tensing when I saw she had the door open to someone. Her expression immediately had me on edge. “What is it?” I demanded a moment before I spotted the woman on the other side.

  All the air left my lungs, and for the first time since I could remember, my legs wobbled beneath me.

  “This woman says she’s your mother,” Wren murmured, her eyes full of concern. She knew Jill wasn’t my birth mother, but beyond that, she didn’t know much. I kept that information locked down tight, always had.

  “Hi, Max,” my birth mother, Janelle, greeted quietly.

  My memories of her from childhood were cloudy, but I could assess that she looked much older than she should, years in prison would do that to anyone. She also appeared to be sober, which was not something I’d seen a lot as a kid.

  I moved to stand beside Wren, glaring at the hauntingly familiar woman on the other side of the door. “What the fuck are you doing here, Janelle?” I demanded once I’d found my voice. I’d never expected to see her again after she’d abandoned Emmie and me at a motel over twenty years ago. We could have died had I not been able to reach Jill. She and Cal had taken us home that very night, and we’d never looked back. I’d never wanted to, and yet, here was my ugly past staring me right in the face.

  “I just got out,” she admitted. “I wanted to see you and your sister.”

  The possibility of her even setting eyes on Emmie enraged me. “You mean you want to see the daughter you abandoned when she was four years old?” I thundered. “You want to see the kids you tried to have kidnapped once we were finally living clean?”

  She flinched at my rage, and I watched without pity as she fought for composure. “I was a mess back then, I know,” she acknowledged. “I’m trying to get my life back together.”

  “Well, do it without me and Emmie. If I hear that you even breathed the same air as her, I’ll make sure you end up back behind bars where you belong,” I snarled.

  “Max, please,” she whispered, her eyes full of tears.

  “No.” I shook my head. “You don’t get a second chance. Hell, it wouldn’t even be a second chance or a third or fourth. You had plenty of those already. You made a choice. You chose to shoot shit up your veins rather than care for us. You made a choice to fucking abandon us in a motel by the side of the highway that most guests paid for by the hour. Get the fuck out. I don’t ever want to see you again.”

  She nodded once through tears. “I thought you might respond this way. I’m staying at t
he Hampton Inn if you change your mind and want to talk.”

  “Not gonna happen,” I bit out, watching as she pulled her purse further up her shoulder and, with a sad smile at Wren, made her way back to her car.

  My chest heaved as I stared after her, hating feeling weak even for a moment. When Wren’s hand pressed gently to my back, I flinched away from her touch. I was too raw and too angry to face her now.

  “Max—”

  “Don’t.” I shook my head. “I know what you’re gonna say. That I was too harsh. That I should have talked to her.”

  “That’s not what I was going to say at all,” she countered. “Don’t shut me out, babe. I’m on your side.”

  I snorted, unable to quell the fury welling up inside me. “Save the hallmark bullshit, all right, Wren?”

  She reeled back from my words. “Don’t try to hurt me because you’re hurting, Max,” she ordered, fire lighting her gorgeous eyes.

  I needed to get away—from the look in her eyes, from the house, hell, from this town all together.

  “You haven’t shared much about her,” she noted quietly. “But from everything you said, she doesn’t deserve you or Emmie. Don’t be ashamed. She’s no reflection on you.”

  The fact that she’d zeroed in so precisely on what I was feeling—shame—pissed me right the hell off. I wouldn’t be weak. Not because of that poor excuse for a mother.

  “I don’t feel anything other than pissed,” I barked, unable to quell my temper.

  She flinched at my tone.

  Fuck, I couldn’t seem to stop myself from lashing out.

  “You don’t talk about her,” she noted softly.

  “I don’t think about her, ever,” I snapped.

  Her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Yeah, clearly you have no issues, Max,” she shot back hoarsely.

  I sucked in a breath, trying like hell to calm down. “Look, I need to get out of here for a while.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest, the defensive gesture that I’d created, twisting my already churning insides to the point of pain. She watched me stoically, unmoving as I gathered my jacket and keys.

  “Max, what are you doing?” she demanded quietly, her gaze seeing right through my anger to the pain underneath. She’d always been able to read me, and right now, I couldn’t stand having her see me laid bare.

  “I’ll get Gunner over here in five minutes. Lock the door, set the alarm,” I ordered by way of answer.

  The shit of it was, I just couldn’t seem to stop myself from running. And that’s exactly what I was doing. It was as though the memory of Janelle was cloying at my insides, making me itch. Making me ache.

  I tore away from the house, kicking up gravel as I went trying to escape my past and knowing I could very well be fucking up my future.

  Chapter 28

  WREN

  I lay staring up at Emmie and Grace’s ceiling that night, feeling a mixture of worry over Max, who I still hadn’t heard from, and anger at him for how he’d treated me. I thought I’d had him, all of him. But as it turned out, he’d been holding himself back this entire time, and that hurt a whole hell of a lot worse than anything he’d said in anger. There was part of him I’d never touched, a piece of him that he held back from everyone, including me. Was that love?

  When Emmie appeared with a cozy blanket in tow, I watched her mutely as she walked into the kitchen, grabbed something from the refrigerator, and sat on the couch, moving my legs into her lap. She produced a pint of ice cream and two spoons.

  “Who needs dinner when we can have ice cream?” She shot me a warm smile before her expression grew pensive. “Have you heard from him?”

  I shook my head. “I know it’s only been a few hours, but he’s never done anything like this before. Part of me is worried, and the other is so freaking mad at him I can’t even think straight.”

  She nodded. “He deserves it. He shouldn’t have left the way he did.”

  “Are you okay?” I asked, feeling like a heel for not asking sooner. “With Janelle being out?” Both Max and Emmie seemed to prefer to refer to their birth mother by name, so I followed their lead.

  She shrugged, swallowing a bite of ice cream. “Yeah. I really am. I was younger than Max. I don’t even really remember her. Jill has always been my mom as far as I’m concerned. And what negative memories I would have had, Max always protected me from.”

  “He’s a good big brother,” I murmured.

  “The very best.”

  “He’s never talked about her with me.”

  “He’s never talked about it with anyone that I know of.” She handed over the ice cream. “I don’t know how much he’s really thought about it. Max can be hard to read. One thing I do know for sure,” she continued firmly, “is that my brother loves you.”

  It was the first time I’d doubted it, and just when I needed to believe it the most.

  When a knock sounded on the front door, we both turned in surprise. X was posted out front, so whoever it was didn’t pose a threat.

  Emmie rose and headed for the door. “What are you two doing here?” she asked Gunner and Cash as they stepped into the room.

  “We wanted to check on Wren,” Cash returned, his blue eyes landing on me.

  I bit back a smile, my heart warming at the knowledge that these guys weren’t just Max’s friends anymore. They were mine too.

  “I’m okay,” I assured them just as I noticed Gunner’s jacket was wriggling.

  “Do you have a dancing tumor we need to know about?” Emmie asked with a raised brow.

  Gunner unzipped his jacket, revealing the cutest little piglet I’d ever seen. “My mom doesn’t just breed Mastiffs. She breeds mini pigs too. This little girl is the runt of the litter. Ma’s been bottle feeding her. I thought maybe… well, I thought she might cheer you up.” He shrugged, looking mildly uncomfortable.

  “Hell yes, she will,” Emmie spoke for me, squealing with delight as Gunner handed her the piglet. “Oh my God, she’s so cute,” she crooned as she brought her over and placed her in my lap.

  “I can take her back. I just thought….” Gunner trailed off.

  “No.” I smiled despite myself. “This is perfect. You’re better at this than you think,” I assured him.

  I swore he blushed a bit at that.

  “Yeah,” Emmie agreed quietly. “You are.”

  The two of them shared a look that had Cash and me exchanging a raised brow in response before he waded in. “You guys got any beer? Ice cream ain’t gonna cut it judging from the mood in this room.”

  “It’s Ben and Jerry’s, it’ll cut it,” Em assured him. “But yeah, we have beer.”

  A key sounded in the lock a moment before Grace walked in. “What’s everyone doing?” she asked in confusion. “Is that a piglet? Or did I just have a really long day at work?”

  I laughed. “Gunner and Cash are taking a shot at being therapists and brought a piglet and are now apparently opening beer,” I informed her.

  She sat down next to me, reaching for the pint as though bikers, ice cream, and a piglet were a perfectly normal combination. “Cherry Garcia, my favorite.”

  ****

  Where are you?

  The text from Max came in close to midnight as I lay on the couch trying in vain to sleep. Cash and Gunner had left an hour ago, leaving the piglet I’d named Rosie with me. Emmie and Grace had gone to their rooms after I’d outright refused to take either of their beds.

  It wasn’t like I expected to get much sleep anyway.

  I looked at his text, the mixture of relief that he was okay and anger at his tone a bewildering combination.

  When my phone started to ring a moment later, I silenced it, anger winning out. He didn’t get to talk to me the way he had and run off and then demand where I was.

  “Seriously, Rosie, do yourself a favor and steer clear of cavemen, or… pigs,” I whispered to the sleeping piglet in my lap. I’d fallen so in love with her, I wasn’t sure what I’d d
o when it was time to give her back.

  When he called again and again, I turned the damn thing off.

  I flopped back down onto the couch, careful not to disrupt Rosie, and tried to fall asleep.

  Emmie and Gracie both appeared in the hallway, looking adorably sleepy. “Uh, Max has called me approximately one million times,” Emmie shared dryly.

  “I’m going on something close to that,” Grace added.

  “Shit. Sorry, guys,” I muttered. “I didn’t really want to talk to him tonight, but since he’s calling you—” I was cut off by a hard rap at the front door.

  Gracie raised a brow. “Guess you won’t have to bother with your phone.”

  “I can talk to him if you want,” Em volunteered.

  “No, that’s okay.” I sighed, rising with Rosie in one hand. “I don’t want to put you in the middle of this. Or more than you already are,” I added.

  “Good luck, girl.” Gracie offered a thumbs-up before heading back to her room.

  “He has his faults, but he loves you,” Emmie murmured. She was rooting for her brother, and how could I blame her? “Night, Wren.”

  “Night, Em,” I replied just as another knock, louder this time, sounded on the front door.

  “Coming,” I muttered.

  I opened it, finding Max looking infuriatingly gorgeous on the other side. I expected him to explode at me for ignoring his calls. Instead, his gaze was full of remorse. “I’m sorry.”

  I stared at him in shock. I’d been prepared for a fight, but his heartfelt apology had me off balance.

  He leaned on the doorframe, the muscles flexing in his arms. “I got a few hours out of town,” he began solemnly. “At first, I couldn’t think, couldn’t feel,” he admitted with an uncharacteristic openness I didn’t dare suppress. “Then I could feel fucking everything. I shouldn’t have left like that, shouldn’t have said the things I did.” He raked a hand over his overly long hair. “I’ve been fucked up over it all night. I swore I’d never hurt you, and I know I did, and…” His brow creased with near comical confusion as he looked at Rosie. “Is that a pig?”

  “Yeah,” I murmured. “Gunner brought her over.”