CHAPTER TEN.
Ten minutes later, Bree was climbing up the tall oak outside Max"s childhood bedroom window.
She"d done this about two million times in her life as well.
It was almost midnight, and the house was dark. Bree had dressed for the climb in jeans and T-shirt and her best tennis shoes. She knew exactly which branches to put her weight on and which ones to avoid.
She"d fallen out of this tree only once in her life.
She climbed out onto the roof outside his window and crawled up the slight incline. She knocked softly. His bed used to be right inside the window, so she didn"t have to knock hard.
The window slid up a moment later.
"Really?" he asked, his voice gruff from being awakened.
He didn"t sound irritated, though. He sounded really s.e.xy.
The tree blocked some of the light from the streetlight at the curb, but it was very clear that he was wearing only boxers.
She smiled. "I forgot to tell you something."
"And you had to climb on my roof to tell me?"
She nodded. "Yep. Needed to tell you in person."
"You could have called me to come over to your house," he said, his voice dropping a little lower. "I would have been there in two minutes."
"We have history in this house, at this window," she told him. "I was really overcome by that tonight. I guess it felt right to tell you this here instead of at my place where we have a lot fewer memories."
Max braced his hands on the windowsill, his triceps bunching and making her tingle. "Okay, what did you have to tell me?"
"That I definitely did still want to kiss you tonight. Even with no drama or danger around."
He just watched her, his eyes roaming over her face.
She smiled softly. "Just sitting with you and planning, talking about the training center, cooking and laughing with your parents-that all made me want to kiss you even more than any of the other times." She swallowed when he still didn"t say anything. "And I thought you should know."
He didn"t respond right away. He looked at her for a long moment. Then, hands still on the windowsill, he leaned closer. "Show me."
Her heart thumped in her chest, and the heat and tingles that had shown up the moment he opened the window intensified.
She shifted to her knees, took his face in her hands, and kissed him.
Max kissed her back, his lips moving against hers, his tongue meeting her strokes, but otherwise his hands and body stayed still.
Bree felt like everything inside of her was lighting up. She was turned on and happy and relieved and hopeful. If she could have a fun day working with Max, followed by a quiet, easy night, and end it with a kiss like this, then she was right where she needed to be. Maybe they could even throw in some hot, hard s.e.x in a random place in the middle of the day once in a while.
She pulled back after several minutes, her lips tingling. She smiled at him. "How was that?"
"It was a good start."
"What do you-"
A moment later, his big hands grabbed her around the waist and pulled her through the window.
It turned out that his bed was still right by the window.
He tumbled her onto it and followed her down, bracing himself on his elbows on either side of her shoulders.
"I"m guessing we"re going to do this your way now?" she asked breathlessly from her back.
"d.a.m.n right we are."
He kissed her again. The pure need in it made her entire body go hot and melty.
He lifted his head and said gruffly, "Tell me you didn"t climb that tree and sneak in my window to have s.e.x with me while my parents are just down the hall because it"s a bigger thrill than inviting me over to your place."
She shook her head. "I didn"t come over here for s.e.x at all." But she made no move to get up or push him back. "I realized I hadn"t kissed you good night, and I really wanted you to know that I wanted to." She put her hand against his face. "You were the one who pulled me through the window."
"It was what you said about our history in this house."
"Yeah?"
"I thought I wanted to make love to you for the first time in your bed, so you"d think of me every night, but I realized that making love to you here, where I"ve dreamed about you so often, is even better."
Her heart swelled. "You"ve dreamed about me?"
He leaned in and kissed her. A soft, sweet kiss unlike any of the others. "So often."
"Like naughty dreams when you were a teenager?" she asked, arching up against him and feeling clearly that he was as turned on as she was. And they weren"t even naked yet or talking dirty or touching other than his body stretched out over hers.
"Yes," he admitted with a half smile. "And plenty of them as an adult, too."
"Really?" She liked that. Until she"d kissed him in the ditch, she hadn"t thought of him that way, but she could admit now it was probably because she hadn"t let herself. She"d known it would complicate things.
Which it would. It was.
But she was ready for the complications now.
And maybe the tornado was a part of that. Maybe putting things back together, turning things right side up again, was making her realize the things she liked the way they"d always been and the things she could change and rearrange.
"Really," Max said. "And I"ve had some nice dreams, too."
"Daydreams or actual night dreams?" she asked.
"Both."
"What were the dreams?" She wanted to know this. Badly. She was quite sure that no man had ever dreamed about her before. The guys she dated were just . . . guys she dated. And she was just a girl they dated. They did the stuff people did when they were dating, but now, in this moment with Max, Bree thought it was very possible that few of them thought about her much when she wasn"t with them.
And dreams were a whole other level.
"Us traveling-sometimes trips we"d already taken, sometimes ones we haven"t yet. Us doing things like tonight with my mom and dad."
"Really?" That was hard to grasp. That she"d seeped into his subconscious like that. And she liked the "ones we haven"t yet." That sounded very present, and very much like that was going to be a part of her future.
Even thinking about the word future made her shiver with pleasure.
"I would love to make some of those dreams come true," she said, not even sure where those words had come from. That was so not a typical thing for her to say.
Max"s eyes flickered with emotions. "Oh, you"re going to," he said huskily. "We"re going to."
d.a.m.n, another delicious shiver. The type that usually happened because of a touch or a dirty suggestion, not from something so sweet.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, wanting to absorb it all. She loved these rushes of pleasure she got from the nice things like watching him with his mom, or hearing that note in his voice when he talked about his work, or the way he smiled at her that seemed different from the way he looked at and smiled at everyone else in the world. Even the people he loved. He talked to his parents and Jake and Dillon differently, with an affection that was clear. But he had a special look for her.
And it had always been there.
That wasn"t new. That wasn"t just since the tornado.
A thought occurred to her, and it sent a definite thrill through her-Max loved her.
Not loved her like a friend or even like the men he was like a brother to, but loved her. The love that was unlike any other, the one-and-only kind.
The thrill of that realization was stronger than the one she"d felt when she was at the top of a ramp about to fly down on her dirt bike, stronger than the one she"d felt going up and over the waves the one time she"d tried to surf.
And maybe the best part? She could keep on feeling this. This rush wouldn"t go away after the weekend ski trip was over or after the storm pa.s.sed. This rush would come every time he smiled at her, every time he called, every time she listened to him get impa.s.sioned about his work or laugh with his dad.
She could have this every single day, always.
"Kiss me," she said to him. "Please, kiss me."
"Once I start, I"m not stopping for a very, very long time."
She felt her heart flip over at that. "Good."
So he did. He kissed her; he pressed his body against hers; he stroked her tongue with his; he ran a hand along her side, squeezing her hip and then taking her thigh and lifting it so her leg was wrapped around him and he could press against the soft, sweet spot that was aching for him.
He lifted his head after several long minutes of simple making out.
"This is going to be different from the locker room," he said.
She knew that. She already felt it. Nodding, she said, "I know."
"And tomorrow is going to be different because of it."
She smiled and nodded again. "I know."
He held her gaze for a moment. Then he said, "No holding back."
She wasn"t sure what that meant, but if he meant he wanted her to beg and whimper and let go when her o.r.g.a.s.m threatened . . . she was all in on that. "Okay."
He pushed back and got up onto his knees. "Need to see you. All of you."
He reached over and turned on the lamp on the bedside table.
Oh, lights on. Okay. Well, this was already new. She liked s.e.x in the dark.
But as her eyes settled on Max"s body, still clad in only boxer shorts that did little to hide his huge erection, she had to admit that lights-on had its advantages.
"Take your clothes off, Bree," he said, settling back on his heels. "Slowly."
A striptease. Okay. New, but not bad.
She reached for the bottom of her shirt, her heart suddenly pounding. She knew that Max would demand the intimacy he"d been so clear about the other night. She"d known this would be different from how it was with other guys.
But she was still nervous.
Bree pulled her shirt up and over her head, tossing it to the side.
She looked at Max watching her.
The heat in his eyes was enough to make her bones melt, but there was something else-that affection or pride or whatever she saw so often.
That was enough to make her heart melt. Yes, this was going to be different, maybe a little scary, maybe even difficult, but this man had been beside her on every snowy hilltop, rushing river, and airplane doorway. This was Max. He might be the one pushing her, but he"d also be the one making sure she was safe.
"G.o.d, you"re beautiful," he said, a roughness to his voice that sent goose b.u.mps skittering everywhere.
"You"ve seen this much of my skin before, in swimsuits and stuff," she said.
"This is different," he said. "You"ve never been spread out on my bed, mine to touch and kiss and lick."
The goose b.u.mps got goose b.u.mps.
He ran his hand over her stomach, almost reverently. Then he slid it up between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, over one shoulder, and down her arm. He cupped one breast, his thumb rubbing over her nipple through the silk.
Goose b.u.mps and then some.
"Take it off," he said.
"You could take it off me."
"Yes, I could." He lifted his gaze to hers again. "But I want you baring yourself to me. Deliberately. Aware of me the entire time you"re taking it off."
Bree wet her lips. This already felt so much more intense than any s.e.x before. That had been mostly stripping quickly in the dark, doing it hard and fast. Then pulling things back on shortly after it was over.
She had a feeling she was going to be very bare with Max. Because there was definitely more to stripping down than taking off clothes.