Damned if he wasn’t giddy as a teenage boy at the prospect. And just as fucking horny. Two months was a long time to go without Chloe’s touch. He was only mildly appeased by her willingness to describe in great detail just what she missed about his body. And what she wanted him to do to hers…
“Tomorrow!” she squealed as soon as the line opened up.
“Tomorrow,” Max agreed. “Are you sure you’re ready to put up with me in person?”
“Oh, God, I’m gonna put up with you so good you won’t be able to walk for two days.”
“Jeez. Maybe I should be afraid.”
“You should definitely be afraid. I’m going to…Oh, Max, I’v
e missed you so much. Jenn and Elliott are so annoying, always holding hands and looking at each other. It’s sickening.”
“You mean the way we’re going to hold hands and look at each other as soon as I get there?”
“Yes, it’s awful!”
“I’m sorry.” He was smiling as he said it. Jenn and Chloe seemed nearly back to normal. And Jenn was all Elliott ever talked about. Life had moved on without Max, and he was acutely jealous.
Suddenly, he couldn’t hold it back any longer. He’d wanted to wait until he saw her. Maybe he’d wanted to be sure. But there was nothing doubtful in him when he said it. “I love you, Chloe.”
Her breath jumped, spiking his blood with a quick surge of adrenaline. The moment drew out, stretching his pulse thin, until she finally inhaled as if she’d speak.
“Max Sullivan,” she breathed, “I love you, too.”
Max stretched out on his bunk with a sigh. He let her words sink in. Women had told him that before, of course, but he’d never believed them. They couldn’t have loved him, because they hadn’t known him.
But Chloe… Chloe knew all his secrets. Except one.
“I’D REALLY PLANNED ON TAKING you straight to my apartment, you know.”
Max couldn’t help the big grin that stretched across his face. “Half an hour,” he answered.
“In case I’m being too subtle, I want to have sex with you. Right now. I’m desperate. Horny. I’ve been horny for two months.” Her hand slid up his thigh. “I need your huge—”
“Hey!” he barked as the tires of his rental car thumped against the grooves in the highway shoulder. “Come on. That’s just mean. I have a surprise for you. Aren’t you excited?”
“If the surprise isn’t an erection, then no. No, I’m not excited. I’m sullen.”
He tugged her hand over and put it back on his thigh. “Come on, don’t pout.”
“Where are we going? We’re not even in the city anymore!”
“Almost there.”
“Max,” she groaned. But after a few seconds, Chloe seemed to forget her pouting and her hand moved in friendly little circles against his knee, edging up beneath the hem of his shorts. The skin of his thigh tightened until he couldn’t feel anything except the electric sizzle of her fingertips stroking him. “Oh, Max, I didn’t know I’d miss you this much.”
Strange how a heart could feel joy and pain at the same exact moment. Pain that he’d left her alone for two months and sheer, prideful joy that she’d missed him. When she leaned close enough to press her lips to his neck, Max nearly purred. The scent of her shampoo… Jesus, it seized hold of his soul with a nearly audible snap.
Her mouth felt so good that it took him a full thirty seconds to realize the problem. That snap hadn’t been his soul at all. “Holy shit, Chloe. Get back over there and put your seat belt on!”
She did as he asked, with only a little grumbling.
Despite the horror of Chloe without a seat belt, Max was hard as a rock now, and they were almost to their destination. Hopefully, there would be no one else around.
He pulled off the highway and turned onto a road that wound around the side of a hill.
“Where are we?”