the kiss, my blood thickened with the fire that raged through me at her touch. Her taste. The feel of her in my arms. Eventually, one or maybe both of us needed to breathe, and we broke apart. Her big blue eyes were wild. And shocked. “Wow.”
“Right?” Our last kiss was hot, but this one was explosive. We fell in step again and walked a block in distracted silence. I wasn’t sure about Maxine, but my mind was full of that kiss. Of how she felt in my arms, on my tongue. It only made me want to taste her again and again. I needed to taste more of her.
“Did you mean that, about why you call me Maxine?”
“Yes. Do you not like the name Maxine?”
She shrugged. “I hadn’t thought about it, but everyone calls me Max.”
“You’re Maxine to me,” I told her honestly, and it seemed to settle something inside of her. “So, was my company bearable this evening?”
She nodded and hit me with a smile that made me trip over my feet. “More than bearable. Thanks for letting me crash your binge-fest.”
“Anytime, Maxine. In fact, maybe next time you’ll let me just ask you out instead of showing up at the right time?”
She said nothing until we stood eye to eye on her doorstep under the soft yellow glare of the small bulb above us. “Ask me sometime and see what happens, Dr. Cahill.”
“I’ll do that.” And then, because it had been too long since I’d had a taste of her, I speared my fingers through her hair and pulled her flush against my body before devouring her mouth for long, endless minutes. My tongue danced in her mouth, teased her until her own tongue was under my spell, gliding and caressing until we were both overheated. Breathless.
Dying for more.
Maxine pulled away and put two fingers to her mouth, staring up at me like she was seeing me for the very first time. Like she was trying to trap that kiss onto her full, kiss swollen lips. “Damn. On second thought, maybe I’m not ready for a date with you.”
I grinned and pushed my body against hers, sandwiching her between me and the front door. “That’s how you know you are ready. Besides, I’ll only bite if you ask me to.” I heard the shocked, aroused gasp as I turned away and jogged down the walkway with a smile. Leaving Maxine stunned and wanting more was exactly what I needed to do to make sure she thought about me later. I sure as hell would be thinking about her.
In fact, I was thinking about skipping the football highlights in favor of a long and very, very cold shower.
Max
For the past few years, I’ve had a love-hate relationship with cupcakes. They’ve become a craze and, as a person in the creative arts, I automatically wince at the idea of crazes and fads. But as a single mother with a child to feed and clothe and satisfy with fashionable toys and taco nights, I appreciated the income they generated. But today, these cupcakes presented a bit of a mission for me—I had half a dozen different deliveries to be made for two bachelorette parties, a senior’s birthday, a teenage wedding, a church party, and three dozen to be delivered to an office building with no other instructions.
It meant a lot of time in the delivery van which I normally didn’t mind, but a lot could go wrong with that many deliveries and I couldn’t stop thinking about all the possibilities. Well, that and the fact that I couldn’t stop thinking about that text message waiting for me when I woke up and looked at my phone, like I did every morning.
Let me take you on a proper date with dinner and dancing. So we can flirt and laugh all night, while trying really hard not to think of the goodnight kiss. Xoxo Derek
How in the hell was any red-blooded woman supposed to focus on the task at hand with that message replaying in her head? I couldn’t think about Derek, or his sexy messages that reminded me it had been far too long since I had sex. Since I was held by a man… and I knew, now, that Derek was all man. And then some.
“Max, there you are.” That voice feigning surprise at finding me inside my van, loading up deliveries, belonged to Betty Kemp.
“Who else would be here, Betty?”
She laughed and gave me a chastising look. “Funny girl.