Page 1 of Alpha's Arms - Makes My Heart Race

Chapter One

Charlene

“I know it’s short notice… I know it’s not how you wanted to spend your vacation… me neither! I’ve been looking forward to this for months, Charlie’s gonna be gutted…”

I feel my heart sinking, a weight in my gut alright, pulling down and making me feel ill. The trip’s off, I just know it. I can feel it. Dad’s not going, so neither am I.

Why does this always happen? Always at the last minute.

“I just couldn’t imagine her going alone… no way! But with you at her side, Max? I’d feel safe sending her to the moon, let alone New Zealand…”

My heart stops, and butterflies flutter in my stomach as my mind races at the thought.

Max? Max going on the cruise with me instead of dad?

I have to cover my mouth to stifle the squeals of delight that try to launch out of me, I feel my whole body flushing hot at the thought of him. The memory of him being so close… those big strong arms…

My chest stiffens and I feel my nipples scraping against my thin white cotton tee.

I’ve been crazy about my dad’s best friend, Max ever since I can remember. Always loved him as a friend of the family, but once my thoughts found meaning thanks to my hormones… I knew I had more than just a teenage crush on Max.

I just wished I hadn’t made such a mess of things at my graduation party. I haven’t seen him since.

But a cruise, all alone with Max… I feel a warmth radiating from between my legs just thinking about it.

I moan softly, imagining his huge hands, those massive arms. Holding me, lifting me onto his-

“You will! Oh, Max, I owe you one buddy! Can you make it to dinner tonight? I’ll go over it then, just have a crazy schedule with this Taiwan business… I’ll have to fly out first thing… alright buddy, I’ll see you in a few.”

Dad’s loud relief breaks my reverie. It feels like Christmas, my birthday and every special occasion all mixed into one magical feeling, a new celebration.

Something I like to call… Max.

I’ve never been one to get physical with myself, but the urge to touch myself thinking about Max is overpowering, making me sway on the spot in the hallway, my eyes half closing as I think about him, my fingers circling one of my thick nipples. My shifting weight creaking the floorboards.

“Charlie? That you. Can you c’mere a minute?”

Hugging my tight chest, I pretend I’m flushed and shaking because I’m upset.

“I heard you on the phone,” I tell my dad, huffing. “We’re not going, are we?” I fib, creasing my fake frown further.

And the Oscar goes to…

“Aww, honey. I know how much it meant to you, we can go again together, at the end of the year, I promise. Didn’t you hear though? I asked Max to go instead of me, he’ll be your chaperone.”

Dad hugs me, and holds me as my body shakes with what he thinks are tears, but it’s not disappointment, it’s my smoldering arousal at the thought of me and Max, alone. Like being handed the keys to the greatest treasure imaginable.

“You alright?” he asks, concerned, “You’re burning up, shaking… are you sick?”

“I’m fine!” I squeak, I was just… But my dad’s phone saves me. He rolls his eyes, seeing it’s his work.

“Sorry hun. I gotta take this, Max is coming for dinner.”

He answers his phone and I stifle another squeal, skipping down to the kitchen to start getting dinner ready, feeling the slipperiness between my legs as I think about him.

“Italian, I think,” I muse aloud, picking up the take-out menu from the stack by the fridge, then skipping up to my room to lay down, planning our meal… planning our time together.

Max and me.

Even the thought of food isn’t doing it for me. The idea of Max and me alone, for two whole weeks… adjoining cabins too…

I feel that hot rush again at the image of Max without his shirt on in my mind. His huge, thick arms chopping firewood, moving furniture. Every time I’ve seen his huge body flex with his natural strength floods my mind, making me moan out loud.

I feel my hands running over my body again, down this time, under the top of my track pants.

His thick, chestnut hair. Those dark eyes burning into mine like they did that night, his huge body towering over me, drawing me in closer with those big alpha male arms as he leaned in.

Was he really trying to kiss me?

You know he was. You saw the look in his eyes.

I shudder at the thought, a fresh line of moisture escaping me as I prolong the memory, advancing it to the fantasy ending I wanted then and still want now.

But it’s not the same.

Laying on my back with my hands down my pants.

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