Friction

Chapter 46

Once the blackest of the storm clouds eased from his troubled mind, a quiet, gray calm settled over Max. His breaths evened out to a more relaxed rhythm. Tension in his body melted away. Gradually, ever so gradually, the world came back into focus. The frenzied desperation that had flooded his consciousness at the haunted house began to dissipate, and, quite suddenly, Max couldn't help feeling like a pants-shitting wuss for falling apart so disgracefully in front of his dream girl.

Yet, the doting way that Nina was gazing into his eyes, as though he was someone who mattered to her, filled his heart with a soft, shining lightness that had evaded him for the past twenty-four hours. Her touch on his skin felt like sunshine and showers after stumbling around a pitch-black desert for days.

Nina cupped his face and smiled. "Feel better now?"

Max swallowed sheepishly and tried to crack a joke, "What are you talking about? I only cry like a little bitch when I'm happy."

"Then I'd hate to see you when you're sad," she teased in a soft voice. "That was pretty intense, huh?"

"Yeah, I kinda lost it, didn't I?" Max said as he flushed in embarrassment. "I'm sorry you had to see me like that."

"Don't apologize, Max," she chided gently, "never apologize for something like this. I have no idea what the hell is going through that head of yours right now, but, whatever it might be, I'm sure it was pretty fucked up to render such an intense reaction from you. I wish you'd tell me what's bothering you, but I won't push you if you're not ready to share it."

Max's stomach flipped and flopped. He didn't want to talk about his troubled childhood or any of the fucked up shit that had driven him to drop out of high school. He was afraid that, by simply revisiting his past through conversation, the memories alone would send him hurtling into a deep depression once more.

However, at that moment, Max decided to stop denying the fact that there was something deeply wrong with him. In hesitant tones, he admitted to Nina, "I-I don't... I don't know... if I'm ready to talk about it... yet."

"That's alright," Nina replied with only a hint of disappointment. "Then... let's do something else for now. Until you're ready to tell me."

Suddenly, Max didn't want to think about anything else except the beautiful girl in his arms. All he could focus on was Nina's tantalizing nearness to him. She smelled sweet. Like berries and vanilla. Like the first day he had wormed his way into Nina's apartment by helping her carry her bed frame.

After months of rationalizing away his feelings and desperately clamping down on the basic needs and urges of his Lower Brain, Max simply didn't want to hold back anymore. Maybe this was a moment of weakness. He was certainly acting like a hypocritical ass.

Hadn't he just told himself that it was time to give Nina up?

Ugh, he was a selfish, greedy bastard, hardly man enough to deserve a woman like Nina, and yet, and yet —

The shapely swells of her breasts called to him. To look. To touch. Max wanted to bury his face into the crook of her neck and feel every inch of her soft, creamy skin against his body. His cock strained for release against his pants, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to form coherent thoughts in his growing state of arousal.

Max kept searching for signs that his overwhelming desire to fuck was purely one-sided, but he found none. Nina seemed to be on board with the new game plan. Her crotch kept brushing against his now painful hardon. Max felt almost positive that she was doing it on purpose. Daring him to make a move and staring deeply into his eyes as though, as though—

She wanted him as badly as he wanted her.

Nina even dipped towards him until her lips were hovering mere inches away from his face. The heaviness in his soul dissipated. Everything else seemed to fade away as well. Only Nina existed in Max's world. A sweet, electric tension crackled between them. His blue-green eyes locked onto Nina's soft, full lips. Max couldn't remember why he had ever thought it necessary to step away and give her up. Max wet his lips. Nina bit lightly into hers.

He moved in to kiss her.

Acting on pure instinct, Max leaned into everything that felt good and right in the world. Nina gasped when their lips touched, but she didn't pull away. No. Just the opposite. Her hands came up to cup his face. She drew him closer and kissed him back passionately. Max's heart thudded with happiness as his cock swelled with pleasure. Need and want shot through his veins like liquid fire, but he forced himself to do just the opposite of what his body begged of him. With any other girl, Max would've been pawing at her jeans and tugging at her panties by now.

But this was Nina. And he wasn't going to do anything to rush things. He refused to fuck this up. Carefully, sweetly, Max continued to kiss her like a teenager on a first date even though his entire body was drawn taut with arousal. Her tongue slipped inside his mouth. Their kiss deepened. Max groaned and tried desperately to hold himself in check. After months of a sexless existence due to his depression, followed by a few more months of living with blue balls syndrome thanks to Nina and her annoyingly irresistible charms, his cock was angry, frustrated, and ready to burst at the slightest provocation.

Just then, Nina pulled away to whisper something in his ear. It barely registered. Blood was no longer flowing to his brain, after all.

Like a dumbass, he grunted, "Huh? What?"

Nina chuckled huskily and repeated herself, "I said, I'm clean, and I'm on the pill, you loser! What about you? Have you slept with anyone since the last time you got tested?"

Max swallowed hard as the meaning behind her words sank in.

Holy shit on a stick!

Nina wanted to fuck him, too. And it sounded like she might let him do it bareback. Max nearly jizzed in his pants right then and there.

All in one breath, he rushed to assure her, "Oh! Don't worry, Nina! I'm clean. I've been tested. Right before I moved out of the Wilders' mansion, in fact. And I swear on my mother's life that I haven't even touched another girl since I moved into this complex."

Nina's eyebrow arched wryly at his unmasked fervor.

Max grimaced. A sudden bout of insecurity chipped away at his pride. His boner deflated a little. Every admission he said was true. For months, Max had been in no condition to date or fuck after Lexi's video dropped. Although, he wanted to kick himself for revealing this embarrassing fact to Nina. Right when Max feared that Nina might change her mind and call the whole thing off, she clasped his hand and tugged him from the couch.

He eyed her questioningly.

With a sexy smile that promised very good things to come, Nina murmured, "Come on, Max. Let's go back to my room."

Oh, thank God!

She still wanted him. Like a good soldier, Max grinned and padded after her without another word.