Beyond Eighteen(42)

“I can’t make you…tell me. All I can do is let you know that I want to be the person you share every part of your life with. Good, bad, or whatever. Wilson, I want to be it for you.” He set my phone onto his chest, in front of me. His moody green eyes twinkled with just enough dampness to pull at my heart before he looked away. I knew he was speaking from that space in his soul that needed me to respond. That place within him that ached to be made whole again. His breathing lengthened in an effort to keep from losing it. Seconds felt like minutes as every attempt to work out the words in my head kept rolling over and over. Finally I just spilled my guts as tears, filled with the whole day’s stress, cluttered my eyes.

“Dax Fuller,” I sighed. “He’s the lawyer for my grandparents’ place. That’s who was calling. He called a couple of days ago, too, when I was with—when we were apart.”

I noticed Max flinch as the words spilled from between my lips. I took a hurried breath as I sat up off his chest and claimed a spot on the sofa. I continued, “He called to tell me that, now that I’m eighteen, the restraining order has expired against Candi. He said there was nothing he could do, and that I’d have to file it in person again. I don’t know how to do that.”

Max adjusted himself to crouch in front of me. His hands moved down to the sides of my thighs as he pushed his waist between my knees against the sofa. He reached up and dragged his hands against either side of my face as his thumbs caressed my cheeks. I felt so warm with him, so safe. I continued telling him…everything.

“It was around the same time Candi left me a message—” I started.

“Candi called you? Why didn’t you tell me?” Max interrupted protectively.

“I just didn’t think…with everything you’re going through—” I tried to finish the words before the tears over came the ledges of my eyes and streamed down my cheeks, colliding with his hands. Shit, I don’t want to frickin’ cry. I looked down at my hands. I was wringing them in my lap.

“Wilson, look at me.” He stopped talking until I worked up the courage to look at him and his determinedly sultry expression.

“Don’t you know by now that I’m your family? You told me so yourself that day in the garage. You said I had to take care of my family in order to be a part of yours. So, I did…I did what you said,” he whispered as his head swayed closer to mine. “Wilson, I need to be it for you,” his lips trembled as he spoke and his eyes closed before he nudged up and cautiously pressed his mouth against mine.

“Max, you are it for me,” I whispered in the spare moments when his lips left mine. But his kiss intensified, passionately. Our tongues succumbed to the pressure of our mouths, trying to discover every word that we didn’t need to say to one another. His teeth caught my bottom lip as he ebbed and flowed, pulling just enough so I’d gasp and sigh.

God, he felt so good. So perfect, so right. And yet I began to feel the day catching up to me. All I wanted to do was make out with him for the rest of the night, but my body betrayed me and overruled my heart. Max pulled slightly away from our kiss, and that’s when a wave of fatigue rushed through my entire body. I felt like I had run a marathon, barefoot and backwards. Every muscle surged with lassitude and instantly, before I could stop it, a huge cat-sized yawn hijacked my make-out session. Damn! The yawn wasn’t even slightly feminine; it was a huge, lazy lion in the sun, full mouth, tongue almost hanging out, kind of yawn.

Contagious as yawns are, Max followed suit. He fought it back until it took over his entire body. I felt him flex as he raised his arms from around me and I watched his stomach and chest stretch and tighten. His eyes squeezed shut and the evidence of his long day dampened the edges of his eyes.

“Wow, I didn’t realize how tired I was—,” he said, yawning again, as his expression fell back to the sexy look he had before exhaustion demolished our moment. His arms draped back around me as he lowered his head into my lap. I pushed my hand through his hair and dragged my fingernails across his scalp, causing him to shudder with a chill.

“Mmmm, that feels so good,” he purred as his hands tightened their grip at the small of my back.

“You ready to go to bed?” I whispered before another yawn caught my breath and took over control of every muscle in my face.

“Soon. I think we should finish our conversation about Candi and the lawyers first,” he said as he tilted his head to meet my eyes.

“I thought I told you enough,” I groused. I was dog tired and I didn’t really want to continue discussing anything about my loser of a mother and my dead grandparents’ estate.