Taking Chances: Tangled Up Part 33

She reached behind her for the clasp and unhooked it, sliding her bra down her arms slowly. Her nerve endings jumped with electricity just from the very purposeful removal, and she marveled that Max knew all of this.

"You're good at this." Her voice was breathless.

"Am I?"

"You know you are."

"What do you mean?" he asked, running his big, hot hand back and forth over her stomach.

"You've had a lot of practice."

He shook his head. "Not like this, Bree. Never like this."

She really wanted that to be true.

She laughed lightly and knew it sounded nervous. "You don't even have the blindfold out yet."

"Don't want that with you. Not this time." He slid a hand up and cupped her breast again, this time without any barrier.

Without any barrier. That was a pretty good description for all of this.

"Why not?" she asked, just before sucking in a quick breath as he thumbed her nipple, making her entire body clench.

"Just having you here, willingly climbing in my window and taking off your clothes, that's all I need."

"What do you usually need?" she asked, sensing something underneath his words.

"To prove myself," he said. "That I can do it all for them."

She rolled her head on the pillow. "Never mind, I don't want to talk about this." Max and the other women he'd bedded? Yeah, not her favorite topic.

"I want to talk about this." His hand slid down to her hip, and he just held her, waiting for her to look at him.

She sighed. The talking. That was also new. The guys she was used to didn't stay perfectly silent, but there definitely wasn't talk about intense feelings. "Oh, baby, that's so good" was about as involved as it got.

"Fine."

He gave her a smile that said he knew she was uncomfortable. There was a challenge to it. Like the time she'd almost chickened out at eighteen thousand feet on their highest skydiving jump.

"You need to know this," he said. "I liked them. We had some emotional connection. The intimacy beforehand made the physical better-but mostly for them. I couldn't get as emotionally connected as they could."

"You wanted them to all fall in love with you," she said.

He didn't deny it right away. And then he gave a slight nod. "Maybe a little."

"And you didn't want to fall in love with them."

He sighed. "Actually, I'd been hoping one of them would really get to me and make me fall head over heels," he said. "But it hasn't happened."

Her eyes widened. "So essentially, you've been going around being this romantic, amazing guy, getting these women emotionally connected to you, not because you fall for them but because your ego needs them to all fall for you?"

"A little," he reiterated.

She rolled her eyes now. "So maybe they don't want to have your babies and spend their lives with you, but they're pretty hung up on you."

He gave a slight grimace. "Maybe a little."

"Max!" She swatted at his hand. "Why do you do that to them?"

He looked directly at her and sighed again. "Because of you."

"Me?"

"Because I wasn't able to get you to fall in love with me. I had to prove that I could make someone fall."

"Oh, for G.o.d's sake!" she exclaimed. "We were teenagers. That was forever ago."

"We weren't teenagers in Breckenridge, Bree."

She stopped. Then slowly nodded. "I know."

"That was-not a great trip for me."

"I panicked."

"I know."

"I shouldn't have."

He shook his head. "You weren't ready. But that was worse for me, because we'd been seeing each other all that time, and you hadn't fallen for me."

She wet her lips, reluctant to say what first came to mind. Then she did anyway. "You're sure about that?"

"I'm sure things are changing," he said without blinking.

"So the emotional stuff is pretty one-sided with them."

"I like them. I don't take every woman I meet to bed. I don't take a different woman to bed every week. I date these women and like them and enjoy them."

"Max, are you trying to get me to fall in love with you so that you can get some kind of revenge for me not falling in high school?"

"Or for the past twelve years," he reminded her.

"Right. For all of that. Is that what all of this has been? You showing me I was wrong?"

"That would make sense," he said, as if he hadn't thought of that.

Her heart twinged a little. "It would, I guess."

"But no, that's not it."

She blew out a breath.

"Because this isn't about me only doing things for you," he said. "It's about me getting some things, too."

"Are we talking about b.l.o.w. .j.o.bs here?" she asked, hopeful and trying to lighten the moment.

He didn't even smile. "That's not what I'm talking about."

Of course not. She was sure he got plenty of those anyway.

"So these women don't give you what you need?" Beyond the obvious b.l.o.w. .j.o.bs, of course.

"No."

"But you think I can?"

"I think you're the only one who can."

That made her toes curl. She was absolutely sure that had never happened before.

"So what do you want from me?" she asked softly.

"Everything."

She'd been afraid he was going to say that.

"You know I'm not very good at that."

He c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. "At giving everything you've got to something? No, Bree, I don't know that. I know that you go all in, that when you're in a moment, that's all that exists. That's what I want-to be that moment where you're fully there and there's nothing else that matters."

She swallowed hard. d.a.m.n, this intense side of Max was still rattling her.

"You didn't want that from any of them?"

"Oh, I got that from them."

c.o.c.ky. She'd known he had that side, but she'd never seen it in regard to women. It was kind of hot.

"But it didn't matter enough?"

"It couldn't matter enough."

"Why?" she asked softly.

"Because they're not you."

Her heart slammed against her ribs, and she stared at him. "Seriously?" Her voice was suddenly scratchy.

"Seriously."

They stared at each other for five hard thumps of her heart.

"Toss your bra," he finally said.

The command was soft but firm.

So she did. It landed on the opposite side of the bed from her shirt.

He ran his hands all over her again, taking extra time on her nipples with his fingers and tongue, until she was writhing.

"Keep going," he said huskily after a few minutes. He sat back to watch.

Breathing hard, her hands shaking, Bree wiggled out of her jeans.

He caressed her from head to toe, kissing several spots in between as well, before telling her to toss the panties, too.

She did.

His hands returned, this time turning her into a quivering ma.s.s of jelly. Except she was hot jelly. Sweet and sticky and . . . yeah. Hot jelly. That was a good a.n.a.logy.

But he wouldn't use his mouth and tongue.

"Max," she begged softly. "Please, more."

"Show me," he said gruffly.

"Show you what?"

He leaned back. "Show me what you want."

She pointed. "Your mouth right there."

His mouth curved up into a s.e.xy smile that made her want those lips on her body even more.

"Show me."

"I don't-"

He put one of her hands on her breast and the other between her legs.

"You know what I want, Bree."

Yeah, she did.

Intimate. Dang. He kept using that word, and it was really accurate right now. She had never touched herself like this in front of another human being. And certainly not spread out with the lights on and him with a front-row-and-center view of it all.

"Show me the most personal thing you do. Show me this moment when you truly, fully let go."