Me: I’ll wait up for you.
MyMax: No, baby. I want you to sleep. Play with your phone for a while. There is an Apple Books app that Nova said has tons of free books. I’ll set you up an account tomorrow so you can buy whatever you want. And there are games in the app store you might like. Have fun, but don’t stay up too late.
I started to type out an argument, telling him I would wait up for him again, when another text came in from him.
MyMax: I miss you already. Knowing you’re at home safe in our bed is all that is keeping me from saying to hell with this shit. Get some sleep. For me, treasure.
Well, dang, I mused as I gazed down at the phone in my hand. How could I possibly argue with that?
Me: I miss you too. Don’t work too hard. Xo
That got me a red heart emoji in response, which put a goofy smile on my face. Dropping back onto the bed, I held the phone to my chest. Max Reid was turning out to be the hero prince in all of those fairy tales I used to love to read when I was a kid. I didn’t think guys like that really existed, yet I’d found one and he was treating me like I truly was his treasure.
Happily, I rolled onto my side and came face-to-face with all kinds of girlie bathroom items.
Gasping, I sat up and inspected everything. Realizing I now had the tools to groom everything that needed attention, I gathered them and my phone and rushed into the bathroom.
Maybe it was a good thing Max had been called out. Now, I had time to take care of my legs and other areas so that the next time we kissed I wouldn’t be embarrassed to take things further.
And I ached to take them so much further.
6
Max
My fist connected with the bastard’s gut so hard, the contents of his stomach spewed from his mouth. If I’d been standing in front of him and not to the side, I would have been covered in his puke. Which would have had me ending this sooner than I knew my dad wanted—without getting the information he was interested in—because I would have put a bullet in the motherfucker’s head.
I couldn’t go home with puke all over me. Blood might be something I could come up with a cover story to tell Delaney that wouldn’t make her scared of me. Hell, it might even get me sympathy from her since this was taking so much longer than I had first anticipated.
When Dad called and said he needed me to help Uncle Spider deal with someone, I’d been pissed. Delaney had been in my lap, her wet little pussy soaking through the sweats she was wearing. The feel and scent had been enough to make me come a little in my jeans, and I’d been seconds away from rolling her onto her back and burying my face between her thighs.
But I couldn’t tell him that. For one, I didn’t want him or anyone else to know about my little treasure until she trusted me completely. So far, it had been easier than I’d thought, which was a good thing. I didn’t want to mess up the progress I’d already made with her. I just wanted her in love with me before I introduced her to my parents so that she wouldn’t want to leave me once she realized Mom could be a little…intense at times.
Especially when she was trying to protect those she loved.
I knew she would love Delaney, but would it freak my girl out at how Mom tended to show her love?
Delaney was on the run from her family, who she said were bad people. And my fear was that maybe she would get the wrong impression of Mom once she realized that Raven Hannigan Reid’s go-to way of showing affection was putting a gun to the head of anyone she deemed a threat to her babies.
Uncle Spider motioned for me to back away as the guy who’d just blown chunks groaned and coughed. He was a mess, with blood and sweat dripping from his brow. His eyes were bloodshot from pain, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if this idiot was high on something hard. It would explain why he hadn’t broken yet. The drugs were dulling the pain I was dishing out.
And I’d already dished out a hell of a lot.
His left eye was swelling shut, and his nose was broken, the blood steadily streaming out. I’d taken off my cut and shirt before I’d started beating him, but my jeans still had droplets on them. My fists were cracked in a few places, but I’d put on gloves so his blood didn’t mix with mine. No fucking way was I chancing this guy was carrying something I couldn’t get rid of.
The puke had a few pieces of broken teeth in it, which didn’t surprise me. I had a powerful uppercut. I was honestly surprised I hadn’t knocked him out from all the punches to the head he’d already sustained.
“I’m going to ask you again,” Uncle Spider said in his deceptively soft voice. That tone made me have to fight a shiver. The enforcer used that voice to fuck with his prey, get them to think they could trust him, before he struck. The last time I’d heard him use it, he’d gotten some poor bastard to spill every secret he’d ever kept all the way back to childhood. Then Uncle Spider had slit the sobbing fool’s throat without flinching. The shock and betrayal on the guy’s face when the room filled with gurgling sounds as he fought for breath that wouldn’t come while he choked on his own blood was something I wouldn’t forget. “Why were you creeping around town?”
“Just enjoying the scenery, man,” his newest victim said with a laugh. “Ain’t no crime in
