The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

I rushed to the staircase when Sam opened the door with another copy of my key. Shit! I looked around. Where had I left my keys? No, where had Alex left my keys? No, that wasn’t the problem I needed to address first. I rushed to the railing. Sam flinched to see me.

“Heads up!” said Max. The boots flipped by my ears and hung off my shoulders. She giggled behind me.

“Oh, OK.” Sam left her fuzzy winter boots on the third step above my soaked sneakers and Max’s steel-toed giants. “Look, I’m not really sure this is the right place for me to be.”

“The fuck it isn’t.” Max stuck her head out around my elbow as Sam took the turn off the landing and climbed the last three steps. Max pulled the boots off of me. “Now put these on.”

“I’ll take your coat.”

“I’m not staying that long,” Sam rebuffed me. She turned around and sat her butt down on the floor, her feet reaching down the stairs. She took the boots one at a time from Max, who watched with reverence and excitement. This was happening... This magic thing was happening!

Sam’s right foot went into one boot, then the left. Her face didn’t change. I sighed, relieved that the world worked as worlds do. I hadn’t realized that denial of miracles was such a pillar of my worldview. She zipped up the right boot… Still nothing. Then the left.

“Holy shit! It really worked...” I said in awe. Max saw it too: Sam was back.

Sam was boiling excitement. Her lips cocked up and her hands shot in the air. She hopped up and spun. The heels clicked on the floor as she ran back up the last two steps and stood before us.

“I am so sorry! I’ve been a bitch!”

“No, you haven’t.” I shook my head. She was being manipulated. She wasn’t to blame.

“How’d you feel before the boots?” Max questioned. She turned to me and hit my chest with her knuckles. Her smirk was redoubled in her eyes. “I thought you were going to take the lady’s coat.”

“Of course,” I smiled. I accepted, gracefully, pink earmuffs and matching mittens. Those I handed off to Max, before I stepped around Sam and slid the coat down her arms. I could feel the iron in her shoulders. She was standing much taller than she had been a few minutes earlier. Her heavy winter coat slipped down. She was so beautiful. She had such a perfect figure. I was struck that she was wearing the same light sweater and jeans she had been wearing in her dorm room, though the jeans were zipped up now.

“Sam? Don’t just stare at the hunk,” Max said.

“What? I’m not staring, I’m undressing him with my eyes. Big difference!” Sam smirked. I flashed her a grin and grabbed a hanger from the closet.

“How did it feel when you came over?”

“Wrong,” Sam said. “Thank God it’s alright now.”

“OK, that’s less than detailed.” Max shook her head. She blinked and nodded. I started to walk back to them but Sam’s eyes flitted about the room.

“Did Alex have real cocoa on that list of hers?” Sam asked.

“You know she did,” Max answered.

I frowned. I tried to appreciate the generous, flamboyant, expensive gesture. I tried not to find the groceries and amenities to be an invasive act of demeaning charity. I tried to focus on the girl. Okay, yeah, that worked.. I forced the positive to the surface. The negative niggled in my guts. I wasn’t used to people doing things for me.

I put on the kettle. Sam flipped through my cupboards to find said cocoa and accompanying marshmallows. Max grabbed a spray can of whipped cream. I was then grabbed, ejected from my kitchenette, and sat down in my armchair.

“How was your date?” Sam asked Max.

“You know, I didn’t even realize it was one until after!” The engineering student laughed at herself. I watched their denim-clad butts move back and forth as they filled mugs I had not owned when I had purchased the condoms that stood next to my keyboard. I had thrown those haphazardly on the bed. Great, just what I had wanted Peter to see when he brought his little girl over.

Wait! Would I rather he think that I wasn’t taking precautions with Alex? That I didn’t care about her safety and health? That I—

“Of course you didn’t, you couldn’t see the look in his eyes,” Sam countered Max. “I was so jealous when you left.”

“Why? He looks at you the same way,” Max replied. She smiled, and brought me a mug.

“Thanks,” I said. A big spiral of whipped cream melted in the steam. Chocolate flakes were sprinkled on top. I’m sure there were marshmallows underneath. Oh well, I was going to get diabetes from all of their sweetness eventually, no sense in waiting.

“It’s hot. Don’t burn your tongue,” she warned.

“Yeah, she’s got plans for it soon,” Sam grinned. She hurried over and sat down on the coffee table. Max settled down next to her.

“What were you jealous of?” I asked Sam as I let the drink cool.

“Oh? Yeah... I, um, wanted to feel like I did when I was here last. I was certain that I never would again.”

“Ouch.” I frowned. “I would’ve done whatever it took to keep you from that misery.”

She considered that seriously, then nodded. “Yeah, you literally would.” She grinned. “God,” she elbowed Max, “we are so lucky.”

“It’s not just luck.” Max smirked. After her first sip there was whipped cream on the tip of her nose. I grinned, lunged my head forward, and slurped it off. She was giggling. Sam immediately scooped up a dollop with her own nose and leaned in to me, expectantly.

I shook my head. “I just tagged Max. She’s it, now.”

“Oh, I, um—” Sam never finished her thought. Max snapped forward like a rattlesnake, engulfing Sam’s entire nose. Sam shrieked in surprise. I was laughing when Max came back with whipped cream on her triumphant smirk. I managed to move my knee and avoid the splash of Sam’s spilt cocoa.

“Oh crap! I’ll get a towel!” Sam made more of a mess as she rushed to put her mug down. I was still laughing. The cocoa had cooled enough so that I wasn’t about to be scalded. I sipped my cocoa. Max pushed the mug higher. She made certain there was something on my nose. I grinned at her. Sam dropped down and started wiping up the spill with a paper towel.

“Well?” I dared Max.

“I’m not it,” she said, sipping her cocoa without nasal involvement.

“You’re up, Sam,” I said and touched her thigh with my toe to catch her attention.

“OK, I’ll…” She saw my face: hers was soaked in nervous worry, but mine was adorned with silliness. We both felt better when she laughed. She rose to her knees, kissed my nose, and then stuck her tongue out at me as she moved to stand. I snatched the cream off the tip of her tongue.

“Ok, geez, let me throw these out.” Sam hurried away with her cheeks flushed red. I grinned at Max who was smiling.

“Hey, Gene, I got a question.” Max was blushing like Sam. She locked on my eyes and I got the feeling she was forcing herself.

“Fire away.”

“Did you like watching me kiss Sam?”

“When did you guys kiss?” I frowned.

“Just a second ago!” Max poked me with a laugh. I looked to Sam; she frowned, shrugged, and shook her head.

Max rolled her eyes. “Like this.”

Sam had just sat back down when Max grabbed the brunette’s head and dove in. Sam’s gray eyes went wide as her shaking shoulders stiffened. Max wrapped her lips around Sam’s nose and slipped off, smiling. The redhead settled back and looked at me.

“Do I like watching you kiss like that?” I asked.

“Like... guys like lesbians, right?” She flicked her eyes at Sam but dropped them when she looked back to my face.

“Oh! Don’t worry, Max. I’m not going to push you into something that isn’t you,” I tried to assure her, but she had a strange frown, one I saw whenever I asked her to set limits. “How do you feel about this stuff, Sam?”

“I’m not either. I’m not going to push you into something that isn’t you,” Sam said. She reached out and grabbed Max’s hand.

“I gotta start somewhere,” Max said to Sam. “And Alex and I have been best friends forever. We practiced kissing before but… This wouldn’t be practice.”

“This won’t be practice.You’re worried how it’d feel to full-on make out with Alex?” Sam asked. Her hesitation killed her smile. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I volunteer as tribute.”

Sam looked away as her cheeks flared.

“That’s sweet,” Max said to Sam.

“Don’t worry about that kind of thing,” I reached over and took Max’s hand. “I’m not going to stand between or break you girls apart in any way. If—”

“Did you like me kissing Sam?” Max asked more clearly and directly.

“Yeah, it was cute.”

“OK, cute’s fine.” Max gave Sam a calculated look. “What’d be hot?”

“Hot? Oh my god! Your date! Should I take off?” Sam motormouthed. I looked to Max.

“We’re both staying tonight,” Max said. “Alex loaded up the washroom with extra toothbrushes and proper body wash and shampoo.”

“So we just need to buy more bedclothes?” Sam asked.

“No, we’re good, actually. We’ve got more sets of sheets and stuff than you’d think in the closet,” Max answered for me.

“OK, time out,” I said. Which was good. I had managed to finish off my hot chocolate and had an excuse to gather my thoughts as I walked over to the sink to put down my cup. “Max, Sam, this thing with everything and the boots. I don’t need to be bought or performed for. I don’t want you to be anyone you’re not.”

“What are we not?” Max asked.

“Pretty sure you’re not gay,” I suggested.

“Definitely into at least one guy!” Sam grinned. Max nodded.

“Yeah, what’s gay? It’s us girls and you, the boy.”

“You were just asking about getting hot with Sam.” I walked back. I flopped down in my chair. Max got off the table and flopped down on my lap. She wasn’t a heavy girl but she could fall fast. She laid into my chest. I teased my fingers into her hair.

“Dude, we already did four to a bed,” she reminded me. “Team Girlfriend isn’t Maxine Monday Thursday, Alexa Tuesday Friday, and Samantha Wednesday Saturday.”

“Sunday’s free? Calling dibs,” Sam announced. I smiled at her.

“Look,” I grabbed Max’s face and both of us were smiling so I squeezed a bit and deformed her lips. I brightened. Her eyes sparkled. My fingers pushed up the corners of her lips into a bigger grin. I looked over and smiled for Sam, not for Alex. I stopped my fingers from actually hooking into Max’s cheeks—I didn’t know the rules of the ‘exactly that close’ game. The best way to learn any game is by playing it, but what if asking for an explanation ruined the mood? Max wanted me to teach her. “I think you wanted and deserved a little one-on-one romance. That’s what tonight was for. I admit, I’m not the best at romance, but it doesn’t usually involve an extra brunette.”

“Yeah, Max,” Sam agreed as I let go of Max’s jaw. “Alex and I figured you’d need a bit more of a firm hand to overcome your neuroses and get down to business.”

“And then the boots.” Max waved that off. “Me and you are going to need a recharge every day or so. He has to go to work; we have to go to class. There’s not enough day in the day to carve it out for just me.”

“I’m glad you’re thinking about everyone,” I said. “Are you thinking about yourself?”

“What about me?”

“This is going to be your first time, right?” I asked. “What did you want to happen?”

“Warm blankets and lots of kissing.” She shrugged, blushing.

I smirked at her.

“Oh! I can help! I can bring more body heat to warm up the blankets! And more kissing, too!” Sam rushed out her words until she glowed with pride.

“Maybe the kissing. Your hands and feet are always cold,” Max teased. Sam flipped the redhead the middle finger.

I was stuck. The plans had gone awry. Discussion wasn’t illuminating anything new. I did have warm blankets. I grabbed Max once more and turned her face to me.

I kissed her. She seemed shocked for an infinitesimal of a heartbeat. Then she grabbed my head and rolled herself back so I ended up folded weird but kissing down onto her soft lips. I ran my hand over her arm from the elbow to her shoulder. I let go of her jaw and cupped the back of her skull.

She was eager. We had kissed before. We had snuggled, and petted, and joined two more naked girls in bed. Max didn’t know what to do with her hands. She was trepidatious, and only reaching forward with her fingers. It felt like I was being caressed by a T-Rex. I didn’t know what to do with myself; Sam crossed over and urged me up.

“Ah! Damn…” Max murmured as she slid off of my lap and onto her feet. She looked worried at me. “It’s a good ‘damn’. I mean, the kiss was great. I, um, I wasn’t ready to stop.”

“Go to the bed, he won’t be wrapped around you like a hunchbacked python that way.” Sam walked by my bed and grabbed the blankets and sheets and pulled them back. The bed had been made. I had done it. I don’t usually do it, but I was getting into the habit after that first night with the three of them. I admit, I had a moment of panic that maybe Alex had made the bed when she and her father had filled my fridge.

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Max pleaded as I had taken her hand and one pace to the bed. She was looking at Sam’s legs. “I better have a pick-me-up, just in case.”

I didn’t like that. I thought of a porn star who wouldn’t shoot the scene without a snort of cocaine first. I immediately regretted thinking of Max as a porn star. I subsequently enjoyed the idea of making porn with Max. I sort of hated Winter or Faye, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel anything but attraction and affection for Max.

“What if you wear one and I wear the other?” Max asked.

They were above-the-knee leather winter boots with a stiletto heel. They were hot; I was looking forward to getting a firm grip on the heels and pushing someone’s toes behind her ears. I smiled at that idea.

“Let’s try it!” Sam lit up. Was she reading my mind? I smiled broader. Oh, right: the ‘one boot each’ thing. I nodded and my smile collapsed into a weird frog-lip embarrassment.

“You OK, Gene?” Max asked. Sam stroked my hair. I looked at her.

“I’m guessing you’re fine,” she told me. “I kinda wanna stall in taking the boots off.”

I grabbed her. I kissed her. I squatted down in front of her. I yanked down the zipper inside her right leg.

“Ooh, that’d work on me,” Max smirked. Sam balanced herself with a hand on my shoulder as she pulled her foot from the leather. I handed it to Max. I could see the end result by looking up. I decided not to get up yet, if Max wanted her pick-me-up…

“So, you can’t just have one, then?” She zipped up her right boot. Max’s left tiptoes just barely touched the tile floor.

“Story of my life.” I smiled as I zipped down the other boot. Sam extracted herself and hopped backwards onto the bed. Max wobbled over in the right boot.

“You better believe it,” Max wagged a finger in my face. “I don’t want any relapses of ‘Oh no! These girls are too precious and pretty for me! They need to find their own douchebags to break their hearts! No happiness and getting it RIGHT the first time.’”

Max would never be the character actor Alex was. Those weren’t my words, those weren’t my hand gestures, and that wasn’t my posture. But she nailed my ‘Serious Face’.

“Damn! I could’ve sworn there were two Genes! I’ve never been wetter.” Sam laughed. Max flashfried red, but she smiled. I reached inside her leg and yanked up the second zipper.

“How does it feel?”

“I didn’t notice the change this time!” Max said gleefully. “It’s all or nothing!”

“OK,” I considered. “No steady decline—just a drop-off, then the deep end? Is that better?”

“Maybe?” Max said, “It does give me an idea, though.”

“Dude, run towards the bed!” Sam patted my mattress. “There’s no sex outside.”

“Not until it warms up some,” I agreed.

“I can’t get in bed wearing these!” Max rolled her eyes.

“Why? I would’ve,” Sam countered.

“And how would you have got your jeans off?”

“Blowjob?” She gave me a look up and down. “Do one of those titfuck things?”

“She meant your—” I stopped myself. I wish I had realized Sam was joking before saying something stupid.

“Yeah, there’s only the one Gene.” Max fished her phone out of her bag. She voice-commanded her phone to start a stopwatch and then rushed out of the magic footwear as fast as she might. “OK, OK. OK. OK. Experiment begins at 10:22 pm. Feeling of euphoria and love and self-worth returns at closing of the zippers. Return to love has also occurred in Guinea Pig B. Start time is at most thirty minutes ahead of…” Max grinned at me… “Guinea Pig A.”

“I don’t want those to be your pet names,” I declared.

“Yeah, Max’ll be Sex Kitten A and I’ll be Saucy Minx 1.” Sam’s declaration lit up Max’s smile and blush.

“OK, but I still don’t like you guys being science experiments,” I grumbled.

“Stop playing ethics board, Gene,” Sam said. “Let her do her little experiment. While she’s busy, how about you and I do an experiment of our own?”

“Keep up that lip and you’ll experimenting with me, Saucy Minx 1,” Max said with a purr in her throat. I grinned. Sam blushed. The redhead flashed her eyes at me. “That was hot, right?”

“Get your pants off,” I commanded. She had to rush over and hug me first. I kissed her before letting her go. Sam’s jeans fell onto the floor beside the bed.

“Are you OK?” I asked Max. Despite all the oomph as she was showing, I could still feel she was quaking and nervous.

“I’ll get the lights,” Sam slipped off and by us. She teased a lock of Max’s hair as she walked by. “I’ll be in the computer chair in case you ask me to join you.”

“Look, I thought we—”

“Can I film it?” Sam interrupted Max.

Max froze. “.... Uh.” She looked to me, but I had her in the flesh, and, I realized, a recording would never be equal to that. She looked back to Sam.. “I... I guess? Get my... my good side?”

The false bravado was uncomfortable. Sam blushed. “For Alex, I mean!”

“In the dark?” I asked.

“Then get the lights,” Max said reluctantly. I shook my head at Sam.

“What?” The brunette didn’t follow.

“Lights out, no video,” I declared. Max exhaled, and I felt good about pushing the idea of making porn with Max off into the indefinite future. I lifted her chin. She unfastened my jeans. I kissed her again.

She pushed with eagerness that amplified as the lights went out. I grabbed her waist. She was curvier, by a small margin, than her friends. I eased her around. I walked her backwards to the bed. She bit into my lip.

“Tell me you love me,” she said. I almost answered. I wanted to say it more than anything. I knew I shouldn’t. There’s an up that comes with a new attraction. You can’t know you love someone until after your brain stops going full junkie and eases off on the neurochemistry. I wanted to love her. Could she have read my face in the dark? I don’t know, but her nose rubbed back and forth on my chin as she continued. “No, don’t. Make me feel it.”

That, I was willing to do. When the backs of her legs hit the mattress, I lifted her so she folded back on her knees. I heard my computer chair squeak as Sam climbed into it.

“Oh my god!” Max breathed as I climbed up over her. Her hands snaked out, discovering my face in the darkness. Her thumb touched my lips; knowing where I was, she eagerly sought me out. I smiled into the kiss. We snaked until we were crooked across the bed. She fought gravity to be closer and closer to me. I walked my knee over her knees.

“You’re ready,” I told her. She could tell me if she wasn’t, but I’d rather encourage her up with everything I said. It seemed to work. She grabbed the neck and hem of my shirt. I helped her pull it off. Her hands went to my belly and then up to my chest. I loved the feeling of her skin on mine and she adored me back. I pulled myself free of my jeans.

“Wow,” she said reverently, and filled me with pride. She was pushing my boxers down to my knees. I got rid of those. My cock, free, settled down on her thigh. We both went for her top. She bucked her hips and rubbed me. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”

“Yes you can,” I told her. “You’re more than strong enough to handle this.”

“I am with you here with me.”

“Thanks, doing my part,” Sam called from across the room. I couldn’t help but smile. That’s when the computer chair began squeaking. Max started laughing.

“I wanted to do that when you were with Alex,” Max grinned. She kissed me hard. Max overtook my senses, and I could hardly distinguish the chair squeaks from Sam’s altered breathing.

“Sounds like—” My words were cut off as Max kept kissing me. I indulged. Sam’s voicebox wheezed again. I slipped back from Max. “Sounds like our little voyeur is masturbating again.”

“What?” Sam jumped and her breaths came out rapid and ragged. “I’m not—”

“Yes you are,” Max teased. I swelled with pride; I kissed Max’s neck.

“No, I’m not!” Sam declared. “A voyeur is male. Female is a voyeuse.”

I laughed and Max joined in. Sam covered her face as she recovered from her embarrassment. I spoke for the whole apartment but said it to Max’s ear: “As soon as our voyeuse starts again, I’ll strip you.”

Sam’s chair resumed squeaking. Max squealed, not ready for the eagerness I was about to apply. It ramped her up, though. Tugging off her shirt and throwing it wildly, flipping her bra cups up and off of her tits before she could undo it underneath her. I took her breast in my hand. I kissed her hard. She mumbled against me and melted under me. Her fingers finished their chore, her bra slackened its stranglehold over her breasts. It was too small for her. She expanded to her full size beneath my hands. I grabbed the garment; she managed to snake her arms out and I threw it aside.

“You hit me in the ear. Oh my God! Is that your bra? Nice!” Sam’s laughing illuminated a different feeling to the connection I was pushing with Max. She was a warm, shivering, rushing-to-keep-up mess. Sam’s amusement helped hold Max on track. We were kissing again and she had a left-handed deathgrip on my hair.

I worked her jeans loose and tugged them over her hips. I ran my fingers over the softness of her underwear. I might need to break her grip of her waistband to get rid of them like her pants. I kissed her a minute longer but she refused to open her grasp. I slowly caressed her fingers until she released her panties.

She was breathing hot and heavy. Her hands held my neck or rubbed against my chest. I could hear Sam lick her lips and Max match the gesture. She lifted off the bed rather than let go of my neck. I had to lean forward to roll her ass into the air and get rid of the jeans. She kicked away her panties.

We pressed back into the bed. She was ecstatic to kiss me hard again. I pushed further and deeper. She rocked out of rhythm. My hand slid between her breasts, over her stomach, and into the thin hair of her sex. She flooded over my fingers. I pushed a little harder, separating her lips. She kneed me in the stomach as she snapped her thighs shut.

“What?” I groaned, realizing she had bumped my diaphragm. I clawed for a good breath. That broke our faces from each other.

“I gotta take my socks off,” she said in a rush. I would’ve laughed if I’d been able to breathe. Sam did enough for both of us. She had kinked her foot to her right hand, and threw away the first sock.

“I don’t think they were in the way, Maxie,” Sam snorted.

“What?” Max turned her face back to me. “Are you OK? What happened?”

I managed a long pull of breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. I managed to raise up. I wasn’t certain I could force a word out without it getting threshed so I grabbed her left leg, yanked it straight up, snatched away her sock and sent it sailing to God knows where. I threw her butt back down on the bed.

“Anything else stopping you?” I asked. It came out more gravelly and threatening than I had meant. Judging by the cessation of Sam’s soft chuckle, and the uptake in the squeakiness of the chair, she really liked it. Max grabbed my head.

“I guess the sock thing was a little silly.” I could hear her cheeks turning redder.

“Good.” I snap-kissed her lips. I kissed her chin. I kissed her throat. I had a goal. Shove my face between her legs and make sure she was ramped up as she could be for when I moved ahead and deflowered the last of my three girls.

My. Three. Girls.

I bit the hollow of her throat above her collarbone. She squealed. I lifted my face to go down, hungry for her breasts and skin. She grabbed my ears and yanked me back to her lips. She kissed me as she pleaded for me to stay. I never strayed down to her jaw again.

She was ready. My fingertips were soaked. She knew what she wanted. Lots of kissing indeed. I circled her clit and ran the perimeter of her lips. I pressed her thigh to the bed and yanked the covers over my ass and our lower halves. She felt the blanket touch her far knee. I could smell her arousal now.

“Now,” I said. Our lips continued to mash as I warned her, “I’m taking you now.”

“You take me, you have to keep me,” she threatened.

“I’d like to see anyone try and stop me,” I growled.

“Not me, they should just leave us alone,” she said with a bit of anger and fear. I kissed her again. Her hands were stuck around the back of my neck. I had my left thumb pulling up her clit and lips and my right hand aiming myself into her.

Maxine wasn’t a virgin anymore. She had spasmed from the intrusion. Our connection flooded in warm wetness. Her breath arrested for a full second. Her face twisted in a dozen grimaces. Her hands had come off my neck. The first thing she did was punch me.

Punch. Her right fist into my chest. Punch. Her left hand into my shoulder. Punch. She finally breathed. Punch. Punch. Punch. I grabbed her wrists and slapped her hands down above my pillows and over her head.

I had a lot of leverage and power over her body in this position. I started slow, but regular. Every time I was inside of her, her breaths rushed out. Sam was bouncing in her chair. She was encouraging us, telling us what she wanted to be happening.

“Wrap your legs around him, Max! Sling your hips up when he fucks you!” Sam’s breathy voice was incredibly hot, even if her directions were mostly unhelpful. I held down Max’s hands. We kissed sloppy and fast. I pushed into her harder. She spasmed with her knees way out. The blankets had fallen off my butt and only kept our feet warm.

Max was quieter than Alex had been. She was breathing, but that was mostly an awkward ragged mess when our kiss had a moment to stop. She liked to bite my lip when her breath caught. I was going to have a sore lip for days. I expected she would eagerly kiss it and make it better.

“Gene, uh…” The sex was intense. “Max, uh…” I heard Sam’s entreaties amidst her rising and falling breaths. Her loud panting triggered me. I bit Max’s lip this time. She finally screamed.

“Gene! Oh, God! This is awesome!” she managed with appropriate breathless breaks. Her thighs were squeezing closed on my sides. I don’t think I was holding back, but now that I knew she was set I was rushing forward. I went over the cliff. Our kiss broke as I grunted. I pressed my forehead down on hers. The sweat in our hair slipped the gesture apart and I went past her ear and into the pillow. I growled her name. I had cum inside of her.

“Oh shit!” Sam growled as I slowly found a breath. Max rubbed the shell of my ear. I felt her face turn and I loved the smell of exertion in her hair.

“C’mon over, Sam.” Max’s throat scratched like sandpaper. “It’s time to join us.”