Becoming His

Max intercepts my reach for the conditioner. Opening the bottle, he pours some into his palm. “Coffee and muffins.” He nods at me, eyeing my hair. I look at him, seriously considering objecting to this idea, when he holds up his other hand and extends his index finger down and turns it, indicating for me to turn.

He gently rubs the conditioner through my hair, massaging my scalp with the pads of his fingers, and I feel myself relax against his touch.

“No more disappearing acts for you either.”

His hands fall to my shoulders and I tilt my head back, basking in his touch.

“I didn’t disappear. I was gone less than fifteen minutes. You weren’t supposed to wake up.” His lips graze along the tender skin behind my ear, leaving a soft trail of nips and kisses along my shoulder, making my heart race faster than it had when he’d startled me.

He grabs the sides of my shoulders and turns me to face him. His hands run down to my hips, where he softly clutches and walks me back a couple of steps so I’m under the shower head. I close my eyes and reach up to rinse my hair and hear Max let out a small groan.

“I have to get out of here or I’m going to attack you,” he says gruffly.

I open my eyes and feel the water ru

“I need to go get a condom,” he says, pulling back from me.

I grab his wrist and he looks at me and shakes his head. “Max, I’ve been religiously taking the pill since I was fourteen. The statistical probability of—”

He interrupts me by pressing his lips to mine. He pulls back slightly and cups my cheek in one of his large hands that feels hot against my skin while his bright blue eyes lined with dark lashes shine with dampness from the shower and hold mine. “One day, I want you to wear nothing but that expression and use more phrases like statistical probability.” His voice is thick as he leans down and kisses me again. Hands glide down my sides, falling on my lower back as he takes another step closer to me. My mind begins spi

“Stop thinking.” Max growls.

My eyes flash open, wondering how in the world he knows I’m contemplating this entire scenario. He stops kissing me, pulling his head back so he can stare into my eyes as I watch him read me.

“Would you rather—” I shake my head before he can finish, diligently working to tune out the visions of us falling and breaking our necks in here. I place my hands on his shoulders and press my mouth to his as I lean further into him. He groans a deep, throaty moan that I feel against my lips. His hands grip the back of my thighs, silently urging me to wrap my legs around him. As I do, I wonder if every girl fears that they feel like a whale in this situation. My thoughts cease as I feel the cold tile against my back and Max’s heat against my front. He deepens the kiss, and my excitement and need consumes me as I run my hands over his short hair, trying to pull him closer to me.

“There’s nothing sexier than seeing you turned on,” Max rasps.

I open my eyes to see him looking at my face hungrily.

“God, I want you,” he whispers, shoving himself further against me. His words and arousal are enough to make my entire body clench with need, causing heat and pressure to burn low in my belly.

I lean forward and kiss along his jaw, feeling the prickly roughness from his scruff, and it excites me even further. I arch my body against his, silently begging him.

“Tell me you want me.” Max’s voice is a pleading whisper, and I pull back slightly to look at his face and see doubt in his eyes that I don’t understand nor recognize.

I place both of my hands on his face staring into the blue abyss where I completely lose myself and any inhibitions that I have left. “I want you,” I softly confirm, tightening my legs around his waist. “I want all of you, Max,” I whisper, dropping my hand to land on his chest over his heart, feeling the warm steady beats accelerate.

Max closes his eyes, accepting my words, and when he opens them I find a resounding calmness as he squeezes my thighs and pulls me back slightly before plunging inside of me, taking the air from my lungs as he kisses me with an immeasurable amount of hunger.

We never make it to the park. Max leaves the confines of my bedroom only once, and that’s to answer the door when we order Chinese takeout late in the afternoon.

We spend the rest of the day lazily sprawled out on my bed like it’s a sanctuary, taking time to slowly and thoroughly study one another’s body and the reaction from each part as it’s nibbled, kissed, sucked, and licked in a mind-blowing, tantalizing experience. Periodically we speak, whispering secrets and truths, dreams and fears. It’s the most perfect afternoon of my entire life.

The next day I walk into Philosophy and take my seat, smiling to myself as I unpack my laptop. Fingers drum along the edge of my desk and I look up to see Wes giving me a tight smile. I’m sure the shock on my face is evident as he sits at the desk that has been unoccupied on my left as his smile grows.

“Hey, stranger. Hey I just wanted to—”

Thankfully Professor Parker walks in before he can finish. I feel my eyebrows furrow, trying to understand what he’s doing in here, but Professor Parker doesn’t seem surprised by his presence at all.

When class ends I again wait for Nate to get up before I stand, grab my bag, and head outside while reaching for my phone. I see that I have a text from my dad when I hear someone approaching me.

“Ace, hold up a sec.”

I look over my shoulder to see Wes and don’t slow my pace as I continue toward the track.

“Okay, so this is really awkward,” he says, and I stop, turning to allow him to finish because he’s right, this is really awkward. If he wasn’t one of Max’s friends I would probably keep walking but we need to clear things up. “I had no idea.” He starts again. “I mean, he’s mentioned you several times, but I didn’t realize that Ace was short for Harper.”

“It’s okay,” I say, shaking my head. “It really isn’t important. I just want us to forget about it and pretend it never happened. I won’t leave him, Wes. We have a really great thing between us.”

“You didn’t tell him, did you?”

“No,” I answer, glancing ahead at the field, feeling a bit ashamed that I didn’t. “I don’t want to harm your friendship, and I’m going to assume you have no intention of harming my relationship.”

Wes nods in understanding. “I swear. I would never do that to Max. We’ve known each other for like ten years,” he explains, placing one hand on his chest to display his sincerity.

“Then there’s nothing to tell.” I shrug as I turn to head toward the track again.

“Maybe we could go ru

I stop and glance over my shoulder and see his hopeful expression. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Wes. You’re Max’s friend.”

The next few weeks fly by as we attend classes, work on papers, read assigned chapters, and work on various projects. Wes and I have slowly become friends after we were paired together on a project for Philosophy. I start seeing him more and more as he comes around to visit Max. He’s actually a pretty decent guy as much as I initially hate to admit it. He’s easy to get along with and seems to sincerely care for Max. He even has a pretty good sense of humor. Although he has a tendency to quote shows I’ve never watched. I repeatedly explain to him that I grew up in a house with six women and that Seth MacFarlane really didn’t grace us with his presence much. We even begin ru