Page 70 of Hate To Want You
“Are you planning on joining me or just staring?” he asks, reaching out a thumb to swipe at the corner of my mouth. “You’ve got a little drool right there.”
I swat him away, rolling my eyes. “Stop it.” Turning around to give him my back, I do the same, peeling off my tank top slowly.
“Heidi.”
“Mm-hmm?” I ask, innocently peeking at him over my shoulder.
“Where’s your swimsuit?”
I don’t answer. Instead, I slowly shimmy my shorts down, step out of them, and kick them to the side, along with my socks and shoes.
“And you said I was bad.” All of a sudden, two strong arms are wrapped around my waist, and I’m lifted in the air.
“Max,” I squeal. “Put me down.”
“Not a chance. Not out here where anyone can see what’s mine.” He walks into the water and sinks down instantly. Only when we’re submerged up to our shoulders does he loosen his grip enough for me to turn around in his arms.
I run my hands up his torso. “I like you saying that I’m yours.”
“Good.” He leans down to kiss my bare shoulders. “Because you are. Just as everything I am belongs to you.” His lips trail across my collarbone, and my hips rock into his pelvis automatically.
“Take me, Max.”
A low groan is the only answer I get. But then again, I don’t need anything else. I don’t need anything except this man.
“Why am I nervous? I’ve already met everyone. I’ve already done the Donnelly dinner.” Max’s hand comes over to cover both of mine, which are twisting nervously in my lap. We’re parked outside his parents’ house for family dinner, and there’s a lot of cars in the driveway. “Are there more people here than just your family?”
“No,” he says, his voice filled with love. “Just Kat and Hunter, Sawyer, Beckett, Leo, Serena and Violet, and my parents.”
“That’s a lot. Serena and Leo weren’t here last time.”
“No big deal. My family loves you almost as much as I do, and Serena and Leo will be just the same.” He lifts my hand to his lips and presses a kiss there, melting away most of my tension. Most, but not all.
I take a deep breath in and out. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Max’s warm chuckle precedes the brush of his lips across my temple. “It’s going to be fine. But if my mother starts with any baby talk, just smile and nod.”
I twist in my seat, leaning back against the side of the car. “Baby talk?”
The impossibly handsome man I love more than anything just smiles, his blue eyes dancing with mirth. “I’m joking, Heidi.”
He might have been joking, but now the idea of being pregnant with Max’s baby is in my head. And I kinda really like it. Still, I shake my head slightly. “No baby talk yet. Please.”
Max opens his door, climbs out, and walks around to open mine. Reaching a hand in, he pulls me up to stand and straight into his strong arms. “Deal. Notyet.” He winks on the emphasis of the word “yet” and I shiver.
“Hey lovebirds! Mom won’t let us start eating the appetizers till you’re inside, and I’m hungry.”
I peer over Max’s shoulder to see Sawyer with his hands in his pockets, leaning against the porch railing, grinning at us.
“Just ignore him. Sometimes it works to make him go away.”
“I heard that,” Sawyer calls out.
Max drops his forehead to mine. “I swear if he and Beckett weren’t identical, I’d wonder if he was actually related to me. He’s a menace.”
“Don’t worry. Someday, someone will come along and turn him into the man he’s meant to be.” I mean that in a teasing way, but Max gets a solemn look on his face as he cups my cheek.
“Just like you did with me. I didn’t even know I was living half a life until you came along. Even when I was trying to make myself hate you, I couldn’t, simply because everything felt richer, fuller, better when you were around.”
