This is the part that would be the hardest, I thought. Offering that kind of money to someone was a potential blow to their pride, but the rehab part of the deal could be a lot worse.

I moved next to her on the couch and put my arm around her. "No, you won't. Hear me out, okay?"

I explained it to her, and she took it surprisingly well. By the time we were done, she had promised me that she'd think about it.

"One thing, though," I said. "Let me know soon, okay? And in the meantime..."

"I know, stay away from that crowd."

Jesus. I felt like her mother, but I knew it was the right thing to do. She needed help and Max's offer was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get her life back on track. She'd take the deal. I just had to give her a little time.

"Oh, hey," she said as I was getting up from the couch. "What did Max say about the Kevin thing and you leaving your job?"

I didn't want to tell her that Max had offered me a job as his a.s.sistant. It might have only made her feel worse about what lay ahead for her. While she was facing rehab and getting her entire life back on track, my problem had seemed to work itself out in a matter of days.

So I just said, "He called Kevin a 'f.u.c.kwit'."

"A what?"

"That's what I said."

We enjoyed a good laugh over the word and it saved me from having to tell her the rest of the story.

Later that evening, I talked to my parents and found out they'd be arriving that Friday. Grace was coming, along with her kids, but my brother-in-law was staying home.

I felt a mixture of happiness and dread about the whole thing. Maybe it would go well. Or maybe it would just go fast. After all, they'd only be here for a couple of days.

I had to warn Krystal about it. She had known my family for years and I didn't want them to see her in the state she was currently in. Part of that was for her own good-she'd be totally uncomfortable, especially around Grace. Part of it was for mine-if my parents found out I lived with someone who was into cocaine and did p.o.r.n, I'd never be able to deal with their fury.

"They're not going to stay here, are they?" she asked.

"No. G.o.d, no. They'll stay at a hotel. But I know they'll want to see where I live."

"Okay, well, I can hide in my bedroom or something. Keep the door closed. You can tell them I'm working or something. They won't want to see my room."

Maybe she'd forgotten how nosey my parents were. "We'll work it out." I started to head back to my room. "Oh, and one other thing. I'm not telling them about Max. And they don't know about me quitting the agency. So, if for some reason you do end up seeing them....you know, just go along with whatever I say."

She laughed. "d.a.m.n, girl. You're having to hide everything."

"Story of my life."

EIGHT

Max called me first thing Monday morning and told me he'd talked to the editor of the tabloid.

The editor had already heard from Liza Carrow, and said they were going to run a story clearing up their previous one.

"That sounds easy enough," I said, "but didn't you want to give him a bunch of s.h.i.t for what they did?"

"I wanted to. Definitely. But it's better this way. If I had come across like an a.s.s to the guy, he might never take my calls again in the future when their next bulls.h.i.t story runs. Which I don't think it will, but you never know."

I was silent for a moment.

"Of course," he said, "next time I'd probably go over there and bust the place up with a baseball bat."

"Then you'd end up on the front front page." page."

"Excellent point, once again," he said. "What would I do without you?"

Late that afternoon, I got a call from Kevin. Of course I let it go to voicemail. When my phone chirped, I checked the message. I hated hearing his voice, but I listened anyway. Big mistake. I should have deleted it without giving it a single second's worth of my attention.

"Olivia, I won't bother you anymore after this. But let's please discuss what happened. I'm really sorry. I need you. I mean, I need you here here. Working." Pause. "Think about it. Please?"

Pathetic. He was begging, and there was only one reason: he was afraid he would lose out on the Jacqueline Mathers deal.

I was feeling particularly spiteful that day, so I decided I would let myself feel no guilt for letting him wonder and worry.

On Thursday night, I told Max that Krystal said she wanted to take him up on the offer. We were at his house, spending time together before my parents would arrive the next day.

I was brushing my teeth in the master bath when Max put his arms around me from behind. "I'm going to miss you."

"It's only a few days," I said, with my mouth full of toothpaste. Real s.e.xy.

"So you're not going to miss me?"

I rinsed out my mouth, and when I bent over Max lifted my shirt. I was wearing one of his t-shirts, and nothing else, ready for bed. He cupped my a.s.s and gave it a squeeze.

With my mouth now free of toothpaste, I wiped my face with a towel. "Of course I'll miss you."

"A few days of not being inside you is going to kill me."

I stood straight up, still facing the mirror, and saw that familiar intensity on Max's face. He reached around to my front and took my b.r.e.a.s.t.s in his hands and caressed them beneath the t-shirt. My nipples puckered at his touch, and I pushed back to feel his erection. He was wearing only boxers and so far, they were still holding his c.o.c.k back, although I thought I could feel the head as Max pressed against me.

He separated my legs and told me to stand on my tip-toes.

"I want to see your face in the mirror when I go inside you."

We watched each other's reactions as his c.o.c.k pushed into me. Max kissed my neck as we kept our eyes trained on each other. We stood like that for a minute or so, just feeling each other-him feeling my tight warmth, me feeling his rigid length and thickness.

He turned me around and lifted me off the floor, kissing me, devouring my mouth. He carried me out of the bathroom and over to his bed, laying me down on my back. I wrapped my legs around his waist, urging him to push inside me.

I needed him. Needed him to make love to me....

I reached down between us and gripped the firm length of his c.o.c.k. Smoothing my hands over the shaft, and then back up to the tip, I felt a droplet of liquid there. He was ready to go.

Max suddenly stood, pulling me to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Wordlessly, he removed his boxers, guided his c.o.c.k toward my mouth, and I opened for him.

I tasted his precome as my mouth covered the plump crown.

"d.a.m.n, Olivia. You're amazing."

His words encouraged me. I looked up at him and met his gaze. Wow, that stare. That animalistic stare, laced with intense need. A look that I never, ever wanted to get used to. And to think I brought this out in him.

My mouth was filled with his thickness. My hand held him at the base as I took as much as I could of him between my lips, across my tongue. My other hand reached for his b.a.l.l.s. I cupped them, this time more firmly than I had in the past, just as I'd seen him to do himself when he m.a.s.t.u.r.b.a.t.ed for me on the plane.

"G.o.d, Olivia, I love that...."

I kept my eyes trained up, watching the facial expressions created by what I was doing to him. I smiled around his c.o.c.k.

"Take it deep," he said, with a soft edge of command in his tone.

I worked my lips down the shaft as far as it would go and felt the head at the back of my throat. I couldn't keep it there for very long, so I slid my mouth up the length. He was wet, so wet, ready to come....

He felt like he was getting bigger with each throb, and I thought he was about to flood my mouth. If he had, it would have been fine with me. But Max didn't want to, just yet.

He pulled back and his c.o.c.k left my mouth with a little wet pop pop and and smack smack sound. sound.

"Not yet, Liv."

Liv. No one had ever called me that before. The sound of that word-the nickname Max had just created for me-sent a tingle through my nerves. He'd given me a name. One that he and he alone had used or would ever use. No one had ever called me that before. The sound of that word-the nickname Max had just created for me-sent a tingle through my nerves. He'd given me a name. One that he and he alone had used or would ever use.

Hearing "Liv" made me think of "love" and "live." Thoughts of how I knew I loved him and was living for him flooded my mind and my heart, but I managed to keep from blurting it out.

I just wanted him inside me. Badly.

"I don't want to come yet," he said. "I want this to last, we're going to come together."

Max gently moved me back on the bed and pulled the t-shirt over my head. Then he dropped to his knees on the floor. His mouth dove for my p.u.s.s.y and his tongue was vigorously fluttering my folds. Then I felt his mouth seal around my c.l.i.t as he sucked the tight little bud between his lips.

"Tell me what you want, Liv."

G.o.d, there it was again. That name.

"I want to come with you deep inside me." I managed to get the words out through my uneven breaths.

He kept his mouth where it was. Teasing. Torturing. And I knew he wanted me to beg.

"Do it, Max. I need you in me."

He moved swiftly on top of me, and was effortlessly inside me in the flash of a second. His rigid length stroked along my slick flesh. He pushed deeper and I arched my back in response.

"Yes!" The word just flew out of me.

"f.u.c.k, Liv, you're so perfect. So tight. So warm. I want to be here forever."

"M-me...too....don't stop...ever...."

Max got into a long, even, hard rhythm, moving in and out of me-almost all the way to the tip of his c.o.c.k, then back in to the hilt.

"Are you mine?" he breathed into my ear.

"Yours. Yes, I'm yours."

Max sat up between my legs. He remained inside me as he grabbed the t-shirt that was lying next to my head. Many times before, while we had s.e.x, he would hold my arms above my head with just one of his large hands wrapped around my wrists. This time he was going to do it differently.

"Do you trust me, Olivia?"

A spark of adrenaline flashed in my chest and I started moving my hips in little gyrating motions, ma.s.saging his c.o.c.k with my p.u.s.s.y.

"Yes."

Max wrapped the t-shirt around my wrists, then tied the ends through the iron posts of the headboard. I was restrained now, and he was totally free.

He reached for one of the extra pillows and held it as he turned me over onto my stomach. The t-shirt tightened as I rolled and it twisted a little, but there was no pain from it.

Max lifted my hips with his hand and slid the pillow beneath me. It raised my a.s.s up, giving him better access to me. He spread my legs, making me even more open and vulnerable. All his....

I felt his hot breath on my neck as he lowered again, his arms on either side of me holding him up, his c.o.c.k rubbing against my a.s.s.

Oh, G.o.d...was this it? My first a.n.a.l? I wasn't sure I was ready for it. I'd never wanted it before, but now, with Max, I wanted everything.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'm not going to do that."

Jesus, what was it with him always practically reading my mind? Or was I just that easy to read?

"It's okay," I said.

"No, we'll have to work up to it. And I can't wait right now."