Max's POV:
The whole night had been surreal. Sure, it had started out a little rocky, but now with Lizzy beside me in my bed sleeping soundly, I couldn't be happier with the way the night had ended. After she had kissed my brains out on a couch I sincerely wanted to have made into a monument, she had actually opened up to me. She had even relaxed enough to drink beer and eat ice cream with me again on the couch before falling asleep on me. It was too late for her to drive home safely, so I let her sleep and carried her upstairs to my bed. She slept soundly even as I pulled off her boots and jeans and tucked her in under the covers. Since there was no point in me sleeping on the couch when she only took up a small part of my king sized bed, I slid into the bed beside her to pull her closer to my side. Instead of fighting me like she might have if she was awake, she sighed in her sleep and curled towards me to press her forehead into the crook of my shoulder throwing an arm across my stomach in the process. I smiled at the fact that in sleep, Lizzy was a cuddler. Something she would definitely not admit tomorrow morning. I wasn't used to having women actually stay in my bed and the fact that she was here innocently sleeping with me was a new concept. She had said earlier that she wasn't sure if she wanted an actual relationship with me but did she even realize that that's what we were heading towards?
It's definitely too late to be thinking about this. I thought before allowing myself to drift off with her.
Eliza's POV:
I woke up the next morning to feel a strange weight around me holding me down in a sea of white cotton. I shifted still partly asleep and trying to figure out where I was before remembering what had happened last night. Suddenly the weight around me shifted and I felt a hand slide up and down my stomach before stopping and tightening around me again. Oh shit. I'm in bed with Max. I thought remembering what had happened last night before I fell asleep. I lifted my head to find myself in an enormous bed of white linen with Max who was still sleeping soundly, sprawled out next to me. I couldn't see the clock from my position due to the mountain of pillows blocking the nightstand. The man obviously believed in cushy linens and I had never seen so many blankets and pillows on one bed except for in design magazines. Because he wasn't going to let go of me himself, I nudged Max and tried to wake him up enough so that I could move out of bed.
"Max, come on. Max?" I said still trying to wiggle out from his hold on me. He murmured something in french before sliding back into sleep. Obviously this wasn't going to be easy.
"Maaax. Come on! It's time to get up, Max." I whined to his still sleeping form. Okay, time to get serious.
"Max.." I tried again this time breathing into his ear. I saw his eyes flutter slightly so I knew he was waking up. I kissed his jaw and the space of his neck below his ear hoping that maybe he would respond and let me go. I noticed the beginnings of a grin on his face before realizing that he had been awake for a couple of minutes now.
"See, that is definitely the way you should wake me up from now on." he said finally looking at me.
"You creep. You were waiting for that weren't you?" I asked hitting him lightly on the shoulder. "And who says that there will be a next time anyway?"
"Yeah well, I let you sleep in my bed with me and drool on my shoulder so I figured that you owed me. And you know that you won't be able to resist me or my bed from now on." I pretended to be outraged and wiggled more to slide out from his arm but was pulled on top of him instead. His lips met mine in a soft kiss before he murmured "Good morning" to me. I kissed him back enjoying the quiet with him before remembering that we still hadn't figured out what time it was.
"Do you know what time it is? I can't see anything beyond your enormous bed." I said still trying to see around the pillows. He lifted his wrist to look at the watch he had left on and replied "8:30."
Because it was Saturday, I didn't have to worry about being anywhere but it was still strange for me to be in another person's home especially in their bed. Why didn't he just let me sleep on the couch last night?
"Sorry for falling asleep here last night. You could have just woken me up." I said sitting up realizing that I was only in my tank top from last night and underwear. It figures he would get my pants off even without sex.
He smirked at me as if he knew what I was thinking and said, "I figured you would be more comfortable and besides, I wanted you here and it was too late for you to drive."
I didn't know what to say except to tell him that I was going to go make some coffee before crawling off of the bed to run downstairs to the kitchen.
I didn't know how I felt about the fact that I had stayed the night in his bed because I hadn't done that since a disastrous relationship my first year of law school. Since that time, I hadn't been with a man physically or really emotionally limiting myself to casual dating every once in awhile. Now Max was suddenly in my life and moving fast getting me to open up about my Dad's death and having me sleep in his bed with him. All of this was really stressing me out and to top it off, I couldn't find his coffee grounds and I really needed coffee this morning.
I was cursing his enormous kitchen when I heard the door leading into the garage open and a female voice ring out, "Max? You better be awake!" I froze not knowing what to do. What would the person think about seeing a strange woman in the kitchen in her underwear? Before I could dart back upstairs the woman in question entered the kitchen arms loaded with two bags of groceries.
She was mumbling to herself and entered the kitchen without noticing me. It wasn't until she put everything down that she looked up and blinked in surprise at the sight of me. I had at least moved so that the kitchen island covered my bare legs but that didn't stop me from blushing furiously and opening my mouth to say something- anything. Before either of us could speak, Max came running down the stairs and into the kitchen to see both of us staring at each other in surprise and me partly in humiliation. He would neglect to warn me of this detail.
"Hey Mrs. Rollins, you're looking lovely this morning!" Max stuttered trying to fix the situation but failing.
"Maxime, who is this?" the woman questioned still staring in surprise at me. She probably thought I was some slut which I suddenly felt like for being scantily clad in his kitchen.
"Uh, this is Lizzy. Lizzy, this is Mrs. Rollins, the woman who keeps my home in order and who calls my mom to talk about me." Max introduced us still trying to soothe the awkward tension with charm.
"He likes to think that all of our conversations are about him." She said rolling her eyes at his comment. Maybe I would like this woman after all.
"Sorry, I'm Eliza" I corrected finally speaking and holding out my hand for her to shake. "I'm sorry if I scared you this morning. I was looking for Max's coffee." I said trying to be friendly.
She smiled at me before pulling out a drawer to get the coffee started for me. I sighed in relief before realizing that I still wasn't in the clear because I still didn't have pants on. I would not win the woman over if I looked like a hussy sans pants in her kitchen.
"He forgets that I come every Saturday to check up on him and usually sleeps through it. It's a miracle that he's even up before 9 today." She said busying herself with the coffee maker and pulling out two mugs from another cabinet.
"So if you don't mind me asking, what do you do Eliza, or is it Lizzy?" She asked turning around to face me. Max had actually stuck around and I could tell that he found it amusing that I was trapped without pants. He kept teasingly brushing his hand over my butt and was smiling like an idiot clearly enjoying the position I was in.
"You can call me either name. Normally it's Eliza but Max insists on calling me Lizzy even though I'm his lawyer and it's completely unprofessional." I batted his hand away from my butt trying to look casual. He sneaked a pinch in and I wanted to throttle him for making me blush right now.
"You're the lawyer?" she asked suddenly looking more delighted to be talking to me.
"Uh, yes. Has Max complained about me or something?" I asked looking to Max for an explanation. When he didn't say anything Mrs. Rollins continued to talk.
"Oh, I've wanted to meet you for months!" she said excitedly. Why was she so excited to meet me? "I've been so impressed by the way you've all but eliminated his speeding habit. Between you and me, I think it's because he's afraid of you." she said apparently admiring my ability to scare him.
"Oh really?" I asked suddenly feeling like a queen. I could so use this against him next time he came to me with some sort of ticket.
"Hey now. Don't look at me like that. I am not afraid of you." he stated gruffly crossing his arms over his chest.
"You're practically his mother's hero." Mrs. Rollins said ignoring Max completely. "Do you want me to make you some breakfast?" She asked still looking delighted by the fact that I was there.
Max groaned and muttered something about females before excusing himself to get a shower. I stayed in the kitchen feeling a lot more comfortable and slid onto one of the bar stools while still trying to hide my legs. We chatted as she made scrambled eggs and toast and she kept the coffee coming which I instantly adored her for.
"Max initially complained about the bossy lawyer who yelled at him." She told me. "But he's been behaving because of you and his mother doesn't need to worry as much anymore." It was kind of cute how Max had these two women looking after him like hens. Suddenly the big, bad boy didn't seem so tough.
"Well, he needed to be yelled at a little bit." I told her while digging into the plate she had placed in front of me. She shook her head whole-heartedly in agreement with me.
"Are you two involved now? Dating I mean?" she asked me sitting down with her own cup of coffee and not hiding the fact that she was being nosy.
"Um. I don't really know." I told her making sure that Max was still upstairs. It would be super embarrassing if he overheard this conversation. "I know we're friends but I'm not entirely sure what we both want at this point." I told her honestly. She could tell I was uncomfortable by the question and let it drop instead asking me about my job and family. I told her about my family here in Pittsburgh but left out the heavy stuff explaining why I moved back here.
"So you speak Spanish?" she asked interested in what I had studied prior to my actual job now.
"Yep, I did a lot of traveling and studying abroad because I wanted to work for the government initially." I told her trying to explain why that's what I studied for 7 years before working for a hockey team instead. I knew it would still seem a little bit odd and frivolous no matter how I explained it. Everyone but my parents had always found it odd how fascinated I was with Latin culture and politics leaving me to be the black sheep in my family. All of my cousins were already married, settled down and living quietly in suburbia while I had been off traveling and studying and decidedly not looking to settle down.
"Oh well that's so interesting!" she told me after I explained what I had spent all of my time studying for almost a decade. "Do you miss it now in this job, now that you work for the Penguins?"
"I do. I miss speaking the language and I miss D.C. but I needed to be here with family for awhile so I'll go back when the time's right I guess." I didn't even want to think that far in advance at this point. I wanted to go back eventually but I had already turned down job offers back in D.C. and taking a few years off would not help my job search later when I had already lost so many important contacts except for a few from Law school.
As if reading my mind, Mrs. Rollins patted my hand and told me not to worry. "I can tell that you're a smart girl. You'll figure everything out. Truth be told, I'm happy you're here in a way to keep that boy in line." she said gesturing to upstairs where Max was.
We continued talking about her family and Max until Max returned from his shower sliding into the bar stool next to me and sliding a pair of shorts over my lap under the counter where Mrs. Rollins couldn't see. I looked at him gratefully before trying to slide them on and still look casual. I managed to get them on completely and got up to take my dish to the dishwasher thanking Mrs. Rollins for the food and coffee. I excused myself to go upstairs and shower and get dressed thinking that I would need to leave eventually today. Because Max hadn't bothered to make his bed I stopped to make the monstrosity of sheets and pillows look tidy. I also took the time to snoop around his room a little because I hadn't had the chance last night or this morning. His room was painted a navy blue and because the master bedroom was big, he had enormous mahogany furniture to go with it. Very few personal touches were in the room and it looked as if he had merely had it decorated but hadn't bothered to really add himself into the room aside from the pile of laundry he left in the corner not in the laundry basket and some random items on the bed stand. He didn't even have pictures up and had opted to leave the blue walls bare.
After showering, I felt more refreshed and clear on what to do about Max. I couldn't stay over here again much less make a habit of it. It was too..it was too comfortable. Something about the fact that it would be so easy to fall into a pattern here with Max and the sweet Mrs. Rollins made me uneasy. I got dressed from my clothes from last night and twisted my wet hair into a neat bun before slipping my boots back on and looking for my purse. I found my purse downstairs and saw that I had missed 6 calls. 3 from Mia, 2 from Marc and 1 from my Aunt. I texted Marc to see what he needed and decided to hold off from the other calls until I was home. They were all probably just wondering where I was anyway. After everything that had happened with Max last night, I knew that I needed to call my Mom and finally really apologize to her. I needed my Mom to talk me through everything and give the sage advice she had given me my entire life.
Walking back into the kitchen I saw Mrs. Rollins folding laundry and watching a morning show on the TV in the corner. I thanked her for breakfast and for the chat before wandering off to say goodbye to Max and let him know what I was leaving. He was in the living room watching Sportscenter from the night before still dressed in his sweatpants and I couldn't resist thinking how good he looked even in sweats.
"Hey, so I'm gonna get going. I need to finally get my Christmas decorations up and everything." I was trying to not feel awkward. Why was saying goodbye suddenly so awkward?
"You're leaving already?" he asked me surprised. Did he actually want me to stick around longer?
"Yeah, I need to get going, get caught up on some chores this morning-that sort of thing."
He pouted a little before getting up saying that he would walk me out to my car. Outside I thanked him and had managed to find my keys in my bag after a minute of digging around.
"So, you're going home?" I nodded when he asked me again. Didn't we already establish this?
"What are you doing tonight?" he asked me suddenly still not letting me get into the car.
"Um, I'll probably put up my Christmas tree or something." I told him not understanding what he was getting at.
"How about dinner?" he asked leaning us both up against the side of my car. We both knew that I had nowhere to go and no excuse to say no but that didn't stop me from making something up.
"I don't know if that's a good idea." I told him avoiding his stare.
He frowned at me before asking, "Why not? What excuse do you have now?" He was brushing the damp hair at the back of my neck making me want to lean into him.
He knew I didn't have an excuse and rolled his eyes at my lame attempt to think of something quickly. "I thought so." he stated pushing me gently into the car even more with the weight of his body.
I was trapped in more ways than one and instead of saying anything else, Max leaned down to kiss me roughly before backing away to go back into the house. "I'll see you later." he told me before walking out of sight in the garage, leaving me to stand confused still pressed up against the car. I let out the breath I had been holding since he kissed me and got into my car.
Yep, I definitely needed to call my mother.
Poor girl! Just give in sweetie! And Max! ooh that Max! Haha, excellent chapter
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