Page 11 of Maximus

I shake my head. “You are a fool, Gina, or whoever you really are. You placed yourself in danger for a cheap thrill and lied your way into my penthouse. I could have been anyone—a monster even and it could have ended very badly for you.”

“Perhaps it did.” Her eyes flash as she faces me with a bravado that I wasn’t expecting.

“You see, it’s okay for you in your ivory tower making your own decisions, but some of us don’t enjoy that luxury.”

I love how her eyes flash and her chest heaves as she stands before me, her beauty astonishing.

“Perhaps some of us are doomed to spend their lives driven to madness by somebody else’s choices.”

I jump to my feet and reaching out, grip her face hard, punishing her mouth cruelly for daring to voice what is playing on repeat on my mind. She is judging me for being in the same position and faced with the pain it’s obviously causing her, it only reinforces my own predicament.

She fights back, gripping my hair and kissing me back hard, biting my lip and pushing me with a strength that impresses me. It’s as if we’re animals. Desperate animals and it only makes me want her even more, because I get to choose this time.

I’m hard again and I wonder about that. Three times in as many hours is a record for me. Her heated gaze draws me in and her desperate moans are in line with mine and as we enact a silent battle for supremacy, there can only be one outcome.

With brutal strength, I force her against the wall and kick her legs apart, entering her cruelly, without the need for protection this time. Why would I? I’m clean and she was a virgin up until one hour ago. She can’t fake that because there is enough blood on my sheets to prove it.

Her moan of longing matches mine as I thrust in hard and deep, pinning her to the wall of my penthouse as a trophy. The finest victory and one I will struggle to better. The night when fate sent me an angel to ruin, unapologetic and proud.

I come against her stomach, pulling out just in time, and her shocked gasp reminds me how close we were to one very big problem

“What happened?”

Her eyes are bright and yet so damn sexy it hurts to look at her.

“Isn’t it obvious?”

I smirk to hide how angry I am at myself and she hisses, “You—I mean, we - didn’t use protection.”

For some reason, I hold her face between my hands and kiss her softly, almost a lover’s kiss and she melts against me. Somehow, after the fury of a few minutes ago, this kiss is like a soft balm easing away the burn. I am not usually gentle and very rarely kiss, but I could kiss this woman all night. She tastes so good, every part of her that my lips have touched and then, as I pull back, I surprise myself by saying softly, “Spend the night with me.”

A sudden smile lights her face and I marvel at her beauty as I stare at a woman I wasn’t expecting to walk into my life tonight.

She nods shyly and as I take her hand and lead her to my bedroom at the opposite end of the suite, I experience an inner peace that I certainly wasn’t expecting to find.

CHAPTER 9

SIERRA

THE NEXT MORNING

My heart is racing furiously as I creep into my suite of rooms, hoping like hell the others haven’t discovered I was missing in action last night as they witness my walk of shame.

Shame is right because rather than sleep, we spent the rest of the night exploring unfamiliar territory.

I am fucked in every way and as I catch sight of myself in the mirror, I don’t recognize myself.

I am a woman now.

Painted scarlet and dripping in wicked abandonment, I certainly got what I went looking for last night with bells attached.

Luckily, my room is exactly how I left it and after messing up the sheets to prove that I slept here, I head to the shower for probably the most deserving one of my life. I reek of sex and I’m bleeding shame because now in the cold light of day I can recognize what a terrible mistake I just made.

“Sierra, are you in there?”

A gentle knock on the door causes me to say brightly, “I won’t be long.”

Adele huffs, “Thank fuck for that. The car’s waiting and we are due to leave in ten minutes.”

---