Sex and the Billionaire Crime Boss - Season 2

Ch. 15: Don't Think About Tomorrow

We get our dessert to go, and although I didn't see him text anyone, somehow Gabe is there to drive us back to the hotel. He must have rented a car, which makes me wonder what type of business he was taking care of after he spoke briefly with Max then left Gino's hotel earlier today. I feel, not for the first time, that whatever I know is much less than the whole story. That this trip to New York is part of a bigger picture that I've only seen a small piece of.

We don't speak on the ride back. I don't know what to say, especially with Gabe right there in the car, so we make the drive back in silence. I squeeze his hand and feel the warmth radiating from our connection. But when he looks at me, I can't read the expression on his face.

Is he regretting sharing his mother's history with me? It explains so much. But I know he is not a man who makes a habit of revealing his feelings.

Gabe drops us at the front entrance, and deals with the valet, while Max and I head up in the elevator, still silent.

When we step into the suite Max shuts the door and turns to me and when I look at him I don't see the crime boss who meted out his own form of discipline to an employee who broke the rules. I see a man who is still haunted by the trauma his mother endured long before he was even born. A man who has not been able to share with me yet how she died. I'm just now realizing how much pain lives behind his veneer of arrogant and even ruthless control.

I reach up and touch his face, staring into eyes that so rarely provide a glimpse of the man underneath the image. Right now, I see the loss and the pain behind the determination. The blue of his eyes goes even deeper as he studies me, and the bag with the carefully packed desserts slips out of my hand and falls to the floor, forgotten.

I go up on my toes, put my hands on his shoulders and press my lips lightly against his. The kiss is soft, lingering and intense all at the same time. Max puts his hand behind my neck, his fingers gripping my hair against my scalp, and tilts my head back so he can look directly at my face.

His voice is low and sexy without even trying.

"Don't start something, Hadley, that you don't want me to finish."

My answer is to run my own hands through his hair, grip him tightly and pull his head back down to mine, fusing our lips together. This time I kiss him like I really mean it.

"Are you asking me to make love to you, Hadley?" he says, as he lifts me up and I clamp my legs around his waist. "Is that what you want?"

"Yes." My answer comes out in a breath, like a sigh. "Yes, if only for tonight. I want to make love to you, Max."

He carries me into the bedroom and sets me down so that we're standing face to face. Then he slowly unfastens the band collar around my neck, and the fabric of my cover-up dress slides down my body and pools on the floor. His gaze moves over me.

"I'm not sorry at all," he finally says, "that Gino and Joey D didn't get the chance to see you in this."

"Me neither." I tremble as he releases the bikini top, freeing my breasts, and I slide the palms of my hands under his shirt and over his chest, then move my hands lower and fumble to unfasten his pants. He catches my hands in his, then raises them to his lips and kisses them softly.

"Turn around," he tells me, and I do. He slides the palm of one hand down over my hip and then caresses my bottom, which is pretty much bare in the bikini that's practically a thong, while his other hand moves around me to tease my breasts.

"Yeah," he says, "Gino is never seeing you in this." His voice hardens slightly. "Don't wear this for anyone but me."

His hand slips between my legs, stroking me through the narrow bit of fabric that holds the bathing suit together, and I moan.