Page 103 of Wicked Devotion
Max and Lily should have one. Fill me in once they’re done so I can say yes or no to whatever comes up because this seems to be my role in all of this. Picked it myself, usually happy with it, but something has changed and I still fight against accepting it.
As I come back inside and see Max in the kitchen, busypreparing lunch, I’m tempted to vanish out the backdoor again. He spots me before I have a chance to touch the handle.
“Hungry?”
I answer him with a grumble, and he smiles at me, grabbing a third plate. Watching him prepare everything causes my stomach to make an embarrassingly loud sound, and Max just laughs as he hears it, telling me to come to his bedroom so I can eat together with him and Lily.
Lily’s face lights up as she sees me, and I catch myself smiling back at her.
While the others eat in bed like animals, I flop down in the chair Max uses as a dump for his clothes. This is exactly why they have to do shit like this in here and not in my room, because I won’t sleep in a damn bed filled with crumbs.
I’m focused on my sandwich, but when Max makes Lily laugh and I catch her holding her side, worry spreads in my stomach, and I lean forward.
“You good?”
“Yeah,” she says, searching for my gaze. “Just sore.”
“Told you. You didn’t want to listen.”
“Not my,” she breathes in deeply, gathering the courage to say the next word, “pussy.”
“Lillian.” I gasp in fake shock, clutching my chest, which causes Max to shake his head with a laugh. Lily’s cheeks turn bright red as she mutters something to herself.
“What else is sore then, sweetheart?” I ask to distract her. I shouldn’t have mocked her, but she’s just so goddamn cute when she’s flustered.
“Everything,” she says, letting out a deep sigh. “It has been a while since my last workout.”
“I hope it was worth it. The workout, I mean,” I say with raised eyebrows before I take another bite of the sandwich Max made for me.
Homemade pesto—his doing, obviously. Burrata andprosciutto we got from Ruby. Not slices in a package, no, a whole fucking leg. The quality of the ingredients is surely doing its part, buteverythingMax makes tastes like heaven. He’d say the secret ingredient is love, and he’s the only person on earth where I feel like this is true.
“More than worth it,” Lily replies, a smile on her face.
The moment Lily is done eating, Max takes the plate from her, and as she tries to get out of bed, he jumps up and steps in front of her with a worried expression. I lean back, witnessing Max’s change into his mother-hen-version like it’s a nature documentary.
He likes that; taking care of someone. I know it all too well since I have a habit of avoiding the medical wing on base like the plague. Max is the better nurse either way, hotter, too. Even sinks down on my cock before stitching up my wounds, like the good boy he is.
Lily clears her throat when Max doesn’t move. “I need to go to the toilet, Max.”
“I’ll carry you,” he says, and I let out a dry laugh.
“No.” Lily huffs. “That’s a line we’re not going to cross.”
“You can hold my cock while I take a piss if it makes you feel better, sunshine,” I offer with a grin.
Lily uses the opportunity to vanish into the on-suite bathroom, locking the door behind her. Clever girl.
“You’re pampering her a bit much, don’t you think?”
I pick up a piece of prosciutto that had slipped out of the sandwich, wondering how Max slices it so fucking thin.
“Nope,” he says, sitting down on the edge of the bed across from me, stretching out his legs until they rest between my spread thighs.
“Thank you,” I mumble, staring down at my plate. “For the food. And for taking care of her. You know I—“
“I know,” he says, softly patting my thigh before he takesmy plate and brings it to the kitchen together with the other dishes.
He always takes care of my mess. Of the chaos I create and the chaos inside of me.Always, without a word of complaint.
