Isaac
Since we’d clearedthings up last week, Max had been a lot more relaxed and even slept better at night, too. It felt like we were finally at a stage where we could learn to be a couple together. We had a routine of going to work together whenever we could and sometimes, when he was doing a late or night shift at the hospital, Lucy and I would take him dinner and sit with him during his break.
He’d introduced me to all the nurses and doctors in the ER, and I even exchanged numbers with Shelly. I remembered her from my brief stint at the hospital last year when I suffered from smoke inhalation. Shelly had a younger sister and told me if I needed any help or tips on how to deal with stroppy teenagers to give her a ring.
Max had also gotten closer to Lucy. They had competitions to see who could add more marshmallows to their hot chocolate and got ridiculously excited when a well-known TV channel started showing all the Christmas movies.
I was both dreading and looking forward to Christmas. I was dreading the holidaysbecause it meant that for the first time in years, I wouldn’t spend Christmas with my family.
On the other hand, I was also looking forward to it because it marked a year since Max came into my life, and despite all the challenges we’d faced—and continued to face—we were together. I felt like for the first time in a long time I had a family that was mine. I felt responsible, but also loved.
Of course, every time I thought of family, I missed Alex, Joana, and especially Sofia. I felt like I was missing so much of her growing up, and I was definitely going to miss her first birthday.
We’d had a few video calls, but the time difference meant it was a challenge to find the right time that fit with both our schedules.
Last week, Alex had sent me a video of Sofia’s first steps, and I’d sobbed like a baby when I saw it. Max had come into the roomas it happened. He’d been great at calming me down and reassuring me we would figure out a way of spending time with them, too, maybe fly there for a vacation. I’d been a brat and said I didn’t want to miss all these milestones in Sofia’s life.
Max had thought I was telling him I wanted to go home to Lisbon. It had taken a whole day and Lucy playing peacemaker for us to talk again and for me to tell him I wanted to stay in New York, but I still missed my family.
Max decided we all needed time out and to be tourists, so he made one of his “Max’s guide to New York” plans and told us to wrap up warm.
Fernando had also become a good friend since, like me, he was adapting to a new culture and way of life. He was happy with his job in New York and felt it had been the right decision moving here to support Diogo.
Diogo and Lucy’s shy introduction transformed into a fullfledged friendship. Or that’s what Max and Fernando thought. Individually, both teens had shared with me their feelings for one another. They valued their friendship, so they were scared that if they shared their feelings, it would ruin things. It was all too sweet.
“Baby.” I sauntered over to Max from our bathroom wearing nothing but a towel around my waist showing the outline of my erection.
He looked at my bulge with hungry eyes and made a slow move toward me. I took a small step back, looking at him with my best bedroom eyes. He kept moving slowly in my direction as I moved back. I’d started this game, but now I was as desperate for his touch as a thirsty man in a desert was for water.
I put my hands behind me to feel where I was going andcame to a stop when I felt the chest of drawers on my back.
“Keep them there,” Max said in a low voice that resonated deep inside me. I left my hands where they were, resting on the chest of drawers.
He removed his shirt, exposing his beautiful body with those delicious muscles I so loved to explore in every which way I could.
“I know what you want.” His voice was low as he came close but not close enough to touch me. I shivered as his breath on my collarbone caressed my skin.
His tongue left a wet trail as it moved up ever so slowly, and he planted a kiss on my Adam’s apple that made my breath catch. I closed my eyes, which only made every touch, kiss, and lick feel as though he was touching me all over.
“What… what do I want?” I managed to say.
“Me. Inside you.”
“Yes,” I said, half whispering, half moaning. We’d had the results from our tests back and we were both negative, so I was dying to feel Max inside me without the barrier of the condom.
“When we do, baby, I will take my time with you. It won’tbe rushed because I’m going to wind you up so tight you’re going to beg to have me.”
I jumped into Max’s arms with no warning and wrapped my legs around his waist. My towel came undone, but it was trapped between us. Max lost his step, managing somehow to get us to land on the bed as he fell backward with me on top of him.
I attacked his mouth like a starved man pillaging for food.
“Wait!” I said, lifting myself up and away from his sinful mouth. “You’re not gonna fuck me, are you?”
Max had the decency to look embarrassed.
“Baby,” he said, pulling me back down to him, “were you trying to seduce me so I’d tell you where we’re going?”
Damn it.
