Chapter 10
Author's note: short one this week, as allergies have been kicking my ass. But also, I wrote this chapter five different ways, and this was my favorite. Hope you enjoy!
*The Following Day*
Maxine shoved her binoculars between the metal blinds of the veterinary clinic’s window and peered through the lenses. She had a head-on view of any car pulling up to the front of Brooks’s office and could monitor the street for as long as she needed to. Eashan, Derek, and Arden had refused to stay out of it completely but had agreed to leave the stake-out to Maxine while they went and handled another task for the mission.
It was not ideal to have her friends involved, but for once—and only out of desperation—she decided to take whatever help she could get.
Case-in-point, taking up her new friend Charlene’s offer to help with any case.
Charlene was the veterinary clinic's receptionist, someone Maxine had just met during her first few days of being banned from working on the case. Maxine had run into the clinic’s lobby for sanctuary while attempting to spy on Brooks. She had chosen to be real with the girl, mostly out of desperation. While she had discovered nothing about what Brooks was up to, she had unexpectedly made a new friend and potential accomplice.
The two had hit it off quickly, Charlene being around the same age and having a considerable interest in female private detectives (she’d watched every available lady detective show). When Maxine texted to ask if she could utilize the clinic’s waiting room for a stakeout that morning, Charlene was only too pleased to help.
“Babycakes, how much longer?” Charlene called in her Southern twang from where she was completing some filing work in the back.
“Quiet, please!” Maxine whisper-shouted, and Charlene obliged with a whispered, “Sorry!” just as Miles’s Honda Civic parked outside the office. He got out quickly and jogged to the door, which had seemingly been left open in anticipation of his arrival.
The moment Maxine laid eyes on him, she felt a mixture of fluttery euphoria and utter rage.
“So fucked up,” she mumbled to herself, shaking her head.
Maxine’s mind flashed on an image of herself, pressed against the wall of Mile’s room, with him kissing and licking at her neck as he slid his fingers inside her.
“What was that, babe?” Charlene called, causing Maxine to jump.
She blinked abruptly and sucked in a slow breath, ignoring the ache between her legs that the memory had evoked.
Sighing, she said, “Nothing, I just hate men.”
“Awww,” Charlene said, popping out from the stacks and approaching where Maxine was standing. “He got one over on you, and now you’re salty about all men?”
Maxine scoffed loudly. “He did not get one over on me, okay?!”
Her mind, however, inconveniently flashed on another image.
She was sprawled out on Miles’s bed with his head between her legs. Her back arched as she convulsed against his mouth for the second of three times.
With a shake of her head, she said, “He just did what I asked. He’s like that. Likes to follow instructions.”
She heard Charlene giggle and then felt the girl stand beside her.
“Sounds more like he played you at your own game.”
“Hey! Whose side are you on?” Maxine cried, momentarily taking her eyes off the street but returning after sending Charlene a good glare. “I’m about to IRL unfriend you.”
Charlene laughed, then Maxine felt a sharp slap on her left buttcheek as the girl said, “The truth hurts, darlin’, and you are most definitely hurtin’.”
Before Maxine could respond, Charlene was back in the stacks, leaving Maxine to stare through her binoculars while grumbling to herself.
*The Previous Night*
When Maxine came for the third and final time, a ringing erupted in her ears, and she found herself temporarily immobile. Staring up at the dark blue canopy over the bed, she took deep breaths, noting the way her heartbeat reached all the way to her throat. Her arms and legs were like jelly. Lacking form or functionality. Useless.
She could not think of a time when she’d been so exquisitely and extensively sated.
They hadn’t even had sex, only oral. Hell, they hadn’t even kissed on the mouth before she’d found herself falling back into the mattress as he removed her jeans in one smooth pull and stationed himself between her thighs.
But where was he now?
The ringing in her ears was something that only happened along with a powerful orgasm, and Maxine could not recall experiencing it outside of her own bedroom, by her own hand and/or toy.
Experimentally, she spoke aloud to gauge how bad the temporary tinnitus was. “Hello?”
Slightly muffled. Not horrible.
Mile’s answering, “Hello,” was twice as muffled, however. Upon sitting up, she saw that this was because he was in the bathroom with the door closed. A moment later, the ringing lessened more, revealing the sound of the shower running.
Carefully and with difficulty, Maxine peeled herself off the mattress and managed to stand. Like a newborn baby giraffe, she stumbled awkwardly to the door, nearly slamming into it as she grasped the handle for purchase. When she pressed down on it, however, it didn’t give.
“Miles, the door is locked,” she said into the seam where door met jam.
“It sure is,” he called back.
She felt her eyes turn to slits, brow furrowing. “What the hell do you mean? Open the door!”
His only response was a low chuckle.
“Miles, for real! What are you doing?” she said, trying not to raise her voice to the volume it wanted to go to. If he was playing some game with her, she would be better off not showing him all her cards.
“Uh, I’m not sure why you’re mad,” he said, and she felt a frisson of anger course through her but took a deep breath to hopefully keep it at bay. “You asked me for help, and either you’re an outstanding actress, or I really, really helped you.”
“Okay, fine, but that doesn’t explain why you’re in the bathroom alone with the door locked.”
“It sure doesn’t!” he said, and Maxine let out a flurry of silent curses at how impossible he was being.
What could be the game here? Had he just… just seduced her into losing the chance to question him further?
Uncomfortably, her mind began to call up little mental movies of every time she herself had done such a thing to another person.
It did not feel good to be on this side of it.
Gritting her teeth, she decided to play along and pretend that what he was doing hadn’t bothered her in the least.
“Fine, I get it. That was a good play; I guess I have to admit you’re better at this than I thought.”
“Wow, high praise, Lady Detective Alvarez, but I’m not falling for it. I’ve already taken care of myself here.”
She froze for a moment, blinking, realizing what he was saying.
He had been pleasuring her for a good long while. She hadn’t timed it but would not be surprised if it had been twenty or thirty minutes straight.
The idea that he’d gone to the shower and finished himself off there made her instantly feel ready for more. Except there couldn’t be more. Unless…
“Fine, then I’ll just go back to my room by myself,” she said, shifting her tone to something lighter. “I already feel like I could go again, so I guess I’ll finish myself off.”
There was a brief pause before he said, “You enjoy that.”
“Oh, I will. Just laying there, completely naked on my bed.”
“Mmmhmm”
“With the door unlocked.”
“Goodnight, Maxine!”
Stifling a grunt of annoyance and a stamp of her foot, she turned to gather her clothes so that she could go to her room to take a cold shower.
As she was getting dressed, however, she spotted it. Miles’s phone, still on the bedside table, the edge that was now face-down against the cherry wood, lighting up with a new message.
Gingerly, she flipped it over and saw the text from Brooks.
“Tomorrow. My office. 8 am. Don’t be late.”
Taking care not to touch the screen, she flipped it back over, threw on her clothes, and made her way back to her bedroom.
When it came time to lock the door, she did not.
When it came time to set the shower to cold, she chose hot instead.
And when she awoke at dawn the next morning, it was to discover herself alone in bed, with Miles long gone from the estate.
*The Following Day*
The moment she spotted Miles leaving the office with Brooks, she hauled ass (quietly) to the back exit of the veterinary clinic, outside of which her car was parked. Well, not her car, but the one Derek had lent her so she wouldn’t be recognizable in case Brooks or Miles spotted her.
“Let me know if you need anything else, sugar!” Charlene called from the back door with a wave.
Maxine waved back distractedly, rolling forward to peek into the alley between buildings so that she could see them driving off. While waiting, she grabbed the trucker hat on the seat next to her and put it on, taking care to tuck her hair up into it, then donning the pair of Rayban’s Derek’s dad kept on the visor.
The moment she saw his car, she high tailed it to the end of the narrow road just in time to follow him after he turned, with two cars between them, and the game was on.
A/N: What do we think Miles is thinking right about now?!