My Fiancé’s Bodyguard by Ivy Wild

"I'm exhausted,"I whined as we climbed the spiral staircase up to my suite. Max had another bottle of Jim Beam tucked under his arm, and I was carrying a bag with sandwiches and chips we'd picked up on our way back from the beach.

It'd been a long time since I'd spent more than a few hours at a time outdoors, and I'd expired pretty quickly.

"You were the one who wanted to go to the beach," Max said as he followed me through the door.

I kicked off my sandals and all but threw the bag of food onto the sofa.

"Careful!" Max said, grabbing the bag as if it were a prized possession and putting it on the coffee table. "That's our dinner."

We'd spent all of the morning and the majority of the afternoon outdoors. It was still light out, but the sun was threatening to set within the hour.

"Relax," I said to him. "They're just sandwiches."

"Don't understand why we couldn't just order steaks again," he muttered. I ignored him and made my way to the bathroom.

"I'm going to rinse off," I said to him.

"How nice for you," he retorted.

"You can have the shower after I'm done."

"Don't worry about it," he said. "I'll just head to the pool's locker room," he said. I poked my head out the door as I'd already started changing.

"Are you sure?"

But he was already closing the door to the suite. I stood there in the still of the room. It was the first time I'd been by myself since I'd been forced on this crazy trip. It was odd, but Max had been my constant companion this entire time.

I smacked my palms against my cheeks a few times to try and knock whatever it was I was feeling out of my mind and closed the door to the bathroom so I didn't have another unfortunate repeat of this morning.

By the time I'd made it back to the main room, Max was already sitting on the sofa eating his sandwich.

"So nice of you to wait for me," I huffed as I snatched the bag away from him and fished out my own dinner. He grabbed the remote for the television and started flipping through the channels while I took little bites of my tomato and mozzarella sandwich. Ultimately, he ended up switching off the device entirely. "Nothing catch your fancy?" I asked as I looked at him.

He was back in his long sleeve tee shirt and a pair of khakis all paired with his classic combat boots.

"I don't have a fancy," he gruffed as he took a bite and washed it down with a sip from his tumbler.

"What's with you and the Kentucky Straight?"

"Reminds me of home." He said it and then he stopped and looked incredibly uncomfortable. I could tell that he hadn't meant to share something so intimate about himself.

A smarter girl would have stopped. But, I didn't want to be a smarter girl. I wanted to know what made Max Holt tick.

"Ooo," I said, shimmying my shoulders. "Tell me more about that." I took another bite of my sandwich, and he looked at me with a flat stare.

"No."

"Oh, come on, Max!" I huffed, taking a swig from my iced tea. "You pretty much know everything there is to know about me. For Pete's sake, you saw me naked this morning. It's only fair."

"You think me seeing you naked is equivalent to learning about my childhood?"

I pushed another big bite into my mouth to give myself some time to respond. "I just think you know more about me than I do about you and that's not fair," I finally said.

He barked out a laugh. "Fair is a four-letter word, princess. Starts with an 'F' and is a lot less fun than its counterpart."

I put the few bites of my sandwich left down and took another sip of my drink all while looking at him. He didn't seem fazed at all and it really made me mad. "You know what, Max?"

He balled up the wrapper from his dinner and grabbed his tumbler. "No, what?" he said in a mocking tone before getting up and moving to the other side of the room. He stood in front of the window and took a sip of his liquor, not even giving me the courtesy of looking me in the eyes.

"You're a bully," I said to him.

He shook his head. "Don't get all whiney just because you didn't get your way," he said.

His words and his shift in attitude was really getting to me. If I were being honest, it actually hurt. A lot. The last two days hadn't exactly been fun, but they'd been the most fun I'd had pretty much my entire life. The irony of it all was it had also been the most freedom I'd had over my schedule my entire life. And, I felt really grateful to Max for it. I thought he and I had developed--something.

So this?

His complete disregard of me?

His absolute refusal to share the slightest detail of his life with me?

It pissed me off.

"You're a huge asshole, Max Holt," I said, standing up.

He finally turned to look at me. He placed his tumbler on the windowsill and crossed his arms over his chest. "Watch it, princess," he said as his gaze intensified.

“Or what? You can’t hurt me, Max. You said it yourself. You're responsible for my safety. All so you can return me to a fucking Maldonado. Why? Because that’s your job and you get paid to do it? Money isn’t justification, Max. And neither is the pursuit of it. I don’t care how poor you’d be, you’re still a terrible person for doing what you do.”

I poured out everything I wanted to say to him over the past two days. Everything I'd been feeling since that plane landed. No--before that. Everything I'd been feeling since he'd kissed me but still turned me back over to my father when he found me trying to make a new life for myself.

His jaw clenched. I was obviously getting to him, but I couldn’t understand why. He was normally so calm and controlled. But something was seriously off with him.

And maybe it was because I was hurting.

Or maybe it was because he’d crushed my dreams.

Or maybe it was just because I had nothing left to lose.

But I wanted to see him break.

Reallybreak.

So, I pushed him.

“What? Nothing to say?”

“I got reasons for doing what I do,” he finally replied. He turned around and his hands gripped the windowsill.

“Said every man on the path to hell,” I spat back.

He turned around and his expression was murderous. “Yeah, that’s it. Lecture me from your jewel-encrusted throne chair about how terrible of a person I am for doing what I do,” he said, starting to raise his voice. “You’ve never known hardship. You’ve never known pain. You’ve never truly known loss,” he said with pain behind his eyes. “You know what the problem with looking down your nose at people is, princess? It’s impossible to see clearly.”

“You don’t know the first thing about me,” I snapped back. “You say not to judge, but you judged me the moment you first saw me. How is that fair?”

He laughed. His tone was dark and it sent shivers down my spine. He straightened and looked at me with those gray eyes of his. “I told you life ain't fair.”

I gave him a look full of disdain. I shouldn’t have gotten close to him. I should have stayed away from Max Holt.

He was my jailer.

My warden.

But he was also the only man to ever look at me as more than a dowry.

And he was the only man to ever kiss me like he wanted me.

Since that first day I met him to the first time he kissed me, he’d swirled around me like secondhand smoke. And I’d inhaled him deep into my lungs.

And now, he was circulating in my veins.

He was poison.

But he was everywhere.

And as much as my brain knew he was bad.

I wanted more.

I wanted so much more.

I hated him.

Even as I craved him.

I walked right up to him and put my finger against his broad chest. The muscle didn’t budge under my finger.

“Life isn’t fair because people like you make it that way,” I said, jamming my finger against him to try and make my point. “There’s no reason—zero—why this world can’t be wholesome and good. It’s people like you who poison it.”

His arms were folded over his chest and he stayed there, not moving a muscle. But I was just getting started.

“You’ve taken everything from me,” I yelled, pressing a palm into him now. “And you have the balls to say life isn’t fair?” My other hand slapped against his chest, and I saw him wince slightly and then it happened.

The moment I knew would happen.

The reason I shouldn’t have messed with him in the first place.

His large hands landed over mine, holding them into place before he flipped our positions. I tried to resist him but there was no way. I found myself pinned against the window within seconds. The cold glass pressed against my back as Max’s scorching body pressed against me.

I was trapped between feelings of hot and cold.

And they weren’t just physical.

“I ain’t the cause of all your problems, princess,” he said in a low voice, his body pressing into mine further. His hands moved so they were spread across my hips, pinning me against the cold surface even further. “And I ain’t some white knight here to save you. I got my own demons to fight.”

His breath mingled with mine now. He was so very close to me and everything about him screamed danger.

And I seemed to delight in living my life on the edge of lethality.

Because despite how mad I was at him.

Despite how infuriating he was.

And despite how fucked up this day was.

All I wanted him to do was kiss me.

“Oh yeah?” I said in a hushed voice. “Then why do you keep spending the evenings with me?”

His lips smashed against mine, and I moaned at the feeling. No part of Max Holt was soft. Not his lips, not his body and definitely not his cock. His body pressed against me, and I could feel him through the fabric of his pants.

The center handles to the window dug into my back and I gasped, but he didn’t seem to care. Instead, he used the opportunity to push his tongue into my mouth. I drank him down like he was water in the desert. I didn’t want to stop. I couldn’t stop now that I’d had a taste.

I needed more.

More of him.

More of this.

“Fuck,” he moaned as he pushed away from me. I tried to follow him but he pulled back. “Fucking vixen, are you trying to get me killed?” he asked.

We were both panting heavily, and I followed him with my eyes as he started pacing around the room. My hands pressed against the window, but it was no use. My temperature was past boiling, and I knew if Max hadn’t pulled away, there was no way I was going to stop things.

And I didn’t want to stop things.

Because if I really was going to have to marry Johnny Maldonado, I didn’t want the only man I’d ever been with to be him.

“Max.” I said his name, and he stopped his pacing to look at me. “If I have to marry Johnny, at least break me first.”

“Break you?”

“Break me. Use me. Take me. Don’t let them have the best part of me. At least let me give that away to someone I choose.” I hesitated, before adding. “It’s only fair.”

Two steps and he was on me again, but he didn’t kiss me. His breathing hovered just above my ear before he said, “I told you life wasn’t fair, princess.”

I smiled. “And I told you that you had the power to change that.”

“You’re messing with things you don’t understand,” he said against my ear, causing shivers to ripple through my body.

“I’ll take my chances,” was all I managed to say before his lips were pressing against mine again. His hands roamed my body freely, and I moaned into his mouth. I gasped as he leaned forward and picked me up easily, wrapping my legs around his waist like I weighed nothing at all.

His lips were chapped, and they moved against mine roughly, reminding me just how different we really were. But, I didn’t care. I wanted Max Holt. I wanted to experience his anger, his fierceness, his rage, even.

I wanted him to show me what he kept hidden from everyone else.

I wanted to just let go with him.

He walked me over to the bed and threw me down. I bounced against the soft mattress, and he was on me in a second. I knew it from the start that this wasn’t going to be some intimate lovemaking session.

And I was fine with that.

Max was raw. And this was real. And it felt right.

His lips descended down my neck, and I moaned as I fisted my fingers into his tee-shirt. He let me pull it off of him, revealing that sculpted torso that I'd lusted after all day. His muscles rippled and flexed beneath my fingers as he continued his way down my neck.

“Up,” he said roughly, and I lifted my arms above my head as he pulled my shirt and bra off of me in one fluid motion. I didn’t have time to be embarrassed, because he was on me in a second, working his lips down before his tongue was circling one nipple.

His other hand came up to palm its pair, and I threw my head back at the sensation. Being with Max was nothing like I imagined it would be. The only sexual experiences I’d had were with awkward boys at high school parties. Max knew what he was doing, and I was complete putty in his hands.

I could feel his firm erection pressing against my leg through his pants. I wanted to reach down and touch him, but when I tried, he slid his hands up my arms and held me in place. “Patience, princess,” he whispered against my skin.

I bit my lower lip as he descended back down my body. He reached the edge of my shorts and he let his hands descend over me slowly, making their tortuous path all the way to join his mouth before he looped his thumbs into the material and pulled them down and off my body in one fluid movement.

I was completely bare to him now and as much as I tried to relax, I was a bundle of nerves over what was about to happen. Max must have been able to sense it, because instead of continuing, he moved up my body and laid next to me.

“Hey,” he said gently. “You okay?”

I nodded my head as he brushed aside some stray hairs from my face. His lips descended onto mine and he pulled back. “We don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do.” He said it, but the words sounded strained. He clearly wanted this as much as I did.

It was in that moment that I knew that Max wasn’t a bad guy. He was just a man who had somehow ended up somewhere bad. And to me, it was never the circumstances that defined a person. I’d been judged by my own far too many times to do that to others.

No, I judged people not by their circumstances, but by their essence.

By their actions.

By their intentions.

To me, that’s what showed me what a person was truly made of. It showed me the type of blood that beat through their heart and into their veins.

And Max’s?

Max’s was good. I knew if he bled, he’d bleed bright red. Even if he tried to convince the world he bled black.

I shook my head and didn’t say anything. I just pulled him closer to me and kissed him, showing him just how much I wanted to continue. He pressed his body into mine, and I could feel his erection against my uncovered core.

I moaned into his mouth and that was all the encouragement he needed to continue. His fingers trailed up my body before one dipped into my mouth. He was giving me the most devious smile, and I swirled my tongue around his finger as he looked at me with lust-filled eyes.

His lips were against my ear as his fingers left my mouth and made a wet path down my body to my thighs. “Just relax,” he whispered as his fingers dipped between my legs.

I wasn’t a complete virgin. I’d been fingered before and I’d certainly done it to myself, but there was something about the way Max was moving against me that had it feeling infinitely better.

His fingers dipped inside of me easily given how wet I’d made them combined with how wet I was. His thumb moved against my clit in slow circles and within minutes I was moaning his name, clutching at the sheets as he worked me to new highs. Just as I thought I might climax, he shifted us and moved down my body. I propped myself up on my elbows in shock before I realized what he was doing.

“Relax, princess,” he said as he spread my thighs. My eyes rolled back in my head as he gripped my thighs and moved his tongue forward. This was never something I’d experienced, and it felt better than girls in the porn videos made it look, which was saying something considering how much they moan. I fell back onto the mattress, unable to keep myself upright. My fingers fisted into his silky brown hair as his own pressed against my clit. His tongue entered me, fucking and tasting my depths.

When I came, it was a higher high than I’d ever experienced and I screamed his name as he sucked me hard. When I’d barely regained my senses, he flipped us over so that I was straddling him. I blushed when I realized that he must have kicked his pants and boxers off at some point, but he squeezed my hips and shook his head.

“Don’t you dare be shy, 'cause you are so fucking hot right now. I wanna see you grind against my cock.”

I sucked in a breath and put my hands onto his broad chest. From this angle I could read the inked inscription on his chest clearly. His hips rocked, bouncing me forward and I gasped.

“Grind that beautiful pussy against me,” he repeated and I nodded. I threw my head back and started to move. My folds were drenched with my release and they slid against his cock easily, but still he didn’t enter me. He let me work myself over him, rubbing my most sensitive area from crown to base as he moaned and squeezed my hips.

When I thought I might seriously come again from all of the friction, he flipped me over easily so that his form was caging me. He reached past me and into the pocket of his pants to fish out a condom before breaking it open with his teeth and rolling it on himself.

He looked down at me and I nodded. His grey eyes didn’t leave my blues the entire time he entered me. He moved slowly at first, and I gasped as my eyelids fluttered closed.

“No,” he whispered against my ear. “Don’t look away,” he said. “Stay with me.”

I opened my eyes again to meet his stormy gaze. All his anger, fury and ire melted away as he slid into me. He began to move as he brought his forehead to mine, not breaking eye contact as he rocked in and out of me.

I could feel my body begin to tense from his movements. Waves of pleasure from my previous high rushed through me each time he joined with me.

“Max,” I whispered.

His movements faltered at my voice. “Fuck,” he said as he broke eye contact and let his head fall into my shoulder. His lips latched onto my skin, his teeth grating me slightly as he began snapping his hips against me. His movements became rougher and my mouth fell open as I started moaning his name, each thrust bringing me closer and closer to another high.

It didn’t hurt like I thought it might. If anything, it felt good beyond the feelings of ecstasy he was building inside of me. It felt good to know that no one could ever take this moment from us. No matter how shitty our lives might be in the next days, this moment was real and it was ours.

I came again, moaning his name. My walls pulsed against him before I felt him push his cock deep inside of me and come with a roar of my name—of my real name.