Maverick didn’t tell me much about what we were doing today. All he said was to wear jeans and my boots. It was days like this that you forget summer had already started. It had been a mild May for Texas standards. Even now, with June already halfway over, the temps were still comfortable. It was only a matter of days until we started feeling triple-digit temps, though, and when that happens, I wouldn’t be caught dead in jeans.
I throw on a tank top, pull on my favorite jeans, and make quick work of pulling my boots on. I can feel the anxiousness to get back to where Maverick is waiting as my heart kept thundering. I didn’t want to be away from him. I know, logically, that I shouldn’t feel this intense about him already, but he isn’t a man I just met. Sure, we’ve been apart for ten long years, but when he touches me those years fall away and I feel like the same sixteen-year-old that knew with everything she was that he would be hers forever.
It would be so easy to let my thoughts linger with those fears, doubts, and concerns that had been swimming in there for the past month. It damn sure would be easier, but he isn’t the only one who’s sick of living with regrets.
This is our second chance. He might have been on to something last night when he said it was our time to take what we weren’t meant to have ten years ago. We were meant to come back to each other, I know that deep in my bones, and I’m going to make sure I give this every chance to succeed.
I smile to myself and stand in front of the mirror that is on the back of my bedroom door. “My God, we’re going to have a beautiful future,” I tell my reflection, letting that declaration fill my body with the knowledge that I’ll do everything in my power to make it happen.
I’m all in.
No more looking back. It’s time, together with Maverick, to start living for everything.
Maverick’s voice calling out through the house makes me smile. “Did you get lost, darlin’? I know from Quinn that you women think you need to spend hours on end in the bathroom doing whatever it is that has you comin’ out lookin’ just like you did when you went in, but you could knock me on my ass without all that, and Leighton, I’m pretty sure your cat/beast is tryin’ to figure out which part of me is gonna taste the best, so please hurry, darlin’.”
I snicker to myself. My thoughts going from funny to X-rated with one beat of my heart. “I could probably tell Earl which would taste the best, if you want me to help him out,” I call back before I can stop myself from letting my erotic thoughts out.
I hear a crash in the distance. Silence follows, but not for long. Right when I’m about to open the door and go investigate what is going on, it’s pushed open and a panting Maverick is filling the space. His chest is heaving. The now-wrinkled, dark blue button-down that he’s had on since he showed up last night is untucked and hanging at his sides, the stark white undershirt pressed tight against his chest. When I’m finally able to move my gaze from its fixation on the bumps his abs make against that white shirt, his expression looks wild.
Wild and out of control with a little bit of panic mixed in.
“Are you okay?” I question, trying to shake the lust-fueled thoughts from my mind. I take a step toward him and he finally comes out of whatever trance had him glued to the spot.
“You can’t say shit like that to me, Leigh.”
“Uh, shit like what?”
“If you say shit like that, I’m going to forget that I’m supposed to be a gentleman and take things slow. If I let myself forget that, I’m not going to be able to hold back anymore.”
I appraise him, dragging my eyes over every mouth-watering inch. “How much slower can we take something that’s been building for twenty-six years?”
My words seem to only egg him on. His chest still heaving, but now I can hear the force of his breaths leaving his lips. “Darlin’, I’m hangin’ by a thread here. I went years without wantin’ or needin’ another woman. All you have to do is breathe and I feel like I’m goin’ to come out of my skin with my need for you. You have no idea how much I want you. I just need you to work with me here. I don’t want to screw this up between us by rushin’ you to the bed.”
Oh, wow.
Logically, I understand what he’s saying. I do. Hearing him admit, again, that he hasn’t been with anyone in years does something powerful to me. That being said, I wasn’t kidding either. You can’t rush something that’s been more than two decades in the making. “I appreciate that, Mav, I do. But you can’t make decisions like that without talking to me. For fifteen years, even with the ten that you weren’t actually present, I always wanted you. I’ve been with two other men in that time and even they couldn’t break through the part of me that only wanted to share that with you. So, while I get what you’re sayin’, I want you to hear me when I tell you I’m sick of wastin’ time.”
His eyes close and he drops his chin to his chest, looking pained as a groan escapes his lips. I hear him mumbling, but with the way he’s standing, I can’t make out what his words are. I shouldn’t push him, but the memories of our night together a few weeks back have made it impossible for my body not to crave him when he’s near.
“I don’t want the first day of our ride together to make it look like I only want one thing from you, Leigh. I let the desire I have for you take the lead that night, and as much as I want and need that from you again, you have to let me prove to you that I want more than just to fuck you raw.”
“I’m not really sure what to say to that,” I tell him, my voice coming out thick and hoarse with want.
“Darlin’, give me today. You want to keep pushin’ my buttons, do it, but until the day I know you’ve given me all of you with complete trust with your heart, I’m not goin’ there—no matter how much I want it.”
I stare at him. “We’re not going to have sex?”
He shakes his head.
“Even if I want to?”
He shakes his head again.
“Even if I tie you to the bed and make you?”
His eyes darken.
“It might be hard, to get you on the bed and tied up and all. I mean, you’ve got almost a foot on me, but I could probably figure it out.”
A noise, deep in his throat, rumbles through the air.
“I really want to feel you inside of my body again, Maverick Davis.”
And that’s what breaks him.