A Welcome Distraction
The Neck Kiss


As a rule, Mariam found cooking to be a tedious waste of time with a poor effort to payout ratio. That could be because she was bad at it, because she had been forced into it one too many times, or some unholy combination of both.

Either way, it seemed rude not to pitch in when Max offered to make dinner at his dad's. The least Mariam could do to pay Taro back for his hospitality was chop some vegetables, and if it bought her some alone time with her boyfriend, that was an added bonus.

He thought so too if his hands on her waist were any indication.

"Am I taking too long for you?" she asked sarcastically, as he watched her progress over her shoulder. He was so close that she could feel every exhale against her skin and it was slowly becoming the good kind of distracting.

"No," he answered simply with a grin obvious in his tone of voice.

When he neglected to explain further, she shrugged and resumed her task.

She was making decent progress when his arms snaking fully around her middle made her falter.

"Max, I'm holding a knife," she warned, even as she dropped it to focus on the sensation of his nose skimming up her neck.

He smiled against her skin and pressed a kiss behind her ear that turned into a line of kisses down her hairline. The feeling of his breath gusting over the base of her neck sent electricity down her spine. She gripped the counter top hard.

Mariam subconsciously tilted her head so her ponytail wasn't in his way, suddenly hyper-aware of how she had been holding her breath. She exhaled shakily and focused on the pace of Max's chest rising and falling against her back in an attempt to match it.

"Thanks for helping me," he murmured, hugging her even tighter like he couldn't be close enough.

Mariam let her eyes flutter shut when he started trailing sweet little open-mouthed kisses down her neck. She was too late to stifle the hum that escaped when he latched onto the junction where her neck met her shoulder. He paid special attention to the skin there, tugging her shirt collar aside to suck the beginnings of a mark where it wouldn't be seen.

She'd smack him for it if she wasn't also zoned in on the sharp feel of the counter against her hips and the warm line of his body pressing her against it. It was annoying how easy he could take her apart, if only because she was used to it being her job to do the same for him.

In an attempt to gain some ground back, even as one of his hands was slithering up under her top to settle on her belly, she bit her lip and said, "You know me, Max – always happy to lend a hand."

"Is that what they're calling it these days?"

Mariam's eyes snapped open and she was instantly mortified.

Max's father stood in the doorway that led down to the Hobby Shop with his arms crossed over his chest and an amused smirk on his face.

The noise of shock Max made before hiding his hot, blushing face against her neck would have been hysterical under different circumstances.

Instead, it was the booming sound of Taro's laughter that would haunt her memory for the rest of her visit.

Next time she was letting Max chop his own vegetables.


A/N: Three kisses down, two more to go! As always, thanks for reading!