“You could never do anything wrong.”
I paused. “Maybe take off my shirt first?”
He chuckled. “Don’t mind if I do.”
I shivered as I knelt there on the bed, with his chest pressed into my back. I lifted my hands as he gripped my shirt, and for the first time in my life, I felt a man take off my clothes. It was invigorating. I felt alive as my bare skin came into contact with the air of his room. His lips fell against my shoulder as I heard my shirt bunch up onto the floor. Then, Max stepped back.
“Where are you go--”
I peeked over my shoulder and watched him slip his own shirt off. And when I saw his torso for the first time, my jaw fell open. Because he did have more tattoos.
He grinned. “Like what you see?”
I reached out for him and his shirt fell from his hands. He came closer to me, and I let my fingertips run along the ink embedded into his skin. Over his heart, there sat a circle of interwoven vines, like the ones wrapped around his bicep. There were thorns on the vine, with little roses. It was almost identical to the one around his arm. And in the middle of the circle was a red rose. A large one. And behind the entire thing was a sun rising over the hill of his chest. I traced the colors with my fingertips. The sunrise itself spanned almost the entire width of his chest.
It was mesmerizing.
“Rogues in Arms?” I asked. I hadn’t noticed the words underneath the circle of thorns until my eyes followed the colors down in that direction. “What does that mean?”
My eyes rose back up to Max’s and I found him staring at me. Hard.
“It’s the Red Thorn mantra.”
I paused. “What does it mean?”
He cupped my cheek. “Maybe someday, I’ll tell you.”
“Why can’t you tell me now?”
He grinned. “Because that might ruin the mood.”
He went to capture my lips again, but I pulled back.
“Dani?”
I swallowed hard. “There’s really something you should know before this goes any further.”
He furrowed his brow. “I don’t think there’s anything you could tell me that I don’t already know.”
“Wait, what?”
30
Max
Fucking hell, this girl was the cutest thing I’d ever come across on the face of this planet. Her lips were swollen from my kisses, her cheeks pink from how turned on she was. My cock was rock hard, ready to go and be played with however she wished. I felt myself already leaking against my boxers. My hands were ready to explore her folds, tease her until she was wetter than she’d ever been in her wildest dreams.
I knew what she was about to say.
“You know?” she asked.
I smoothed my fingers along her cheek. “Why don’t you act like I don’t?”
The second she pulled away from me, I knew I had fucked up. I wasn’t sure how, but I had. She fell to the bed and curled her knees to her chest, trying to cover herself as much as possible. The pink of her cheeks turned to red. Arousal to embarrassment. I didn’t like seeing her that way. I didn’t like her caving back in on herself like that. But I understood it.
This kind of thing was different for girls.
“Here,” I said.