He holds up his other hand, his shoulders still shaking. I just lift a brow and wait for him to stop, my smile growing as the seconds tick by.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he suddenly asks.
I shake my head.
He closes the distance between us. “Darlin’, if that’s the kind of reaction I get from a surprise ride through the mud, I can’t wait to see what happens when we really get dirty.”
My jaw drops. “Maverick, I’m going to need you not to say stuff like that when you’ve made it clear you’re not going to do anything about it.”
His free hand comes up and cups my jaw, his expression shifting. His eyes darken, as his smile turns mischievous. “Soon,” he whispers with promise.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Promise me, when we get there, I’ll get those claws back while you scream like that again. This time in my ears, though.”
I groan, a little annoyed and a whole lot turned on. Shifting my feet, I try to ease some of the tension between my legs. “You have got to stop talking like that.”
One side of his lips turns up and he winks. “That’s not a promise I’m willin’ to make.”
I narrow my eyes. “Then do something about it.”
“I’m workin’ on it, darlin’. You keep puttin’ these thoughts in my head, though, and I can’t help but use them to build this up so it’s the best damn ride you’ve ever had.”
“God,” I say with a gasp. “Stop.”
“Come on,” he chuckles. His eyes still hold the passion I had just seen blazing, but his tone is playful rather than seductive. When he turns from me, he has to pull my arm softly to get my feet working again, my mind still thinking about the possibility of other surprise rides we will take together.
I have no doubt the claws will come out and he’ll get me screaming again.
It takes me a second, my mind still fuzzy, but when we stop walking a few minutes later, I realize where we are. I know, if the trees weren’t blocking my view, I would see my house just to the west of where we’re standing. A few hundred acres in the other direction is the Davis ranch.
And in the middle of it all is an achingly familiar field that I know still blooms bright in the spring with the most beautiful patch of bluebonnets around. My father had planted them years and years ago, a gift for my mother when she mentioned how much she wished we had them closer to our family land.
With spring over, now the field waits with weeds and grass, for the next time it’ll be painted in stunning color. If I close my eyes, I can see the beauty that will be back next year.
It’s one of my favorite places in the world.
Or it was, long ago.
When I’m finally able to drag my eyes from the patch of land spread out before us, and look at Maverick, he’s so still. His eyes roaming over my face, waiting with rapt attention to see my reaction to where he’s brought us.
“Do you know why I brought you here?” he questions, his serious tone breaking me free from the trance my memories held over me.
I swallow thickly. “It’s been a long time since I came out here, Mav.”
He drops my hand, then lifts up and removes his hat. When he pushes his hand into his thick hair, I take the time to really look at him. By all accounts, he looks relaxed, but I know better. The dusting of stubble covering his jaw can’t hide the way it’s ticking as whatever’s going on in his mind plays out. I don’t need to see his eyes to know he’s working through the words he wants to say. After a few silent seconds, he squares his shoulders and places his hat back on his head.
“Do you remember coming out here with me?” he asks softly.
I nod. “Of course I do.”
“I think the last time we were here I had just turned fourteen, maybe fifteen. Quinn had come home around lunch after spendin’ the weekend at your house. I remember because I had just taken a bite of my sandwich when I got the old man’s hand against the back of my head. He knocked me so hard just for askin’ if he would take us to the old drive-in movie place on Buckley that night that I saw damn stars go off in my head. I was used to bein’ on the receivin’ end of his anger, but I still haven’t got a clue what set him off that day. Quinn had just walked in a few minutes before talkin’ about how beautiful the fields over here looked now that the bluebonnets had started bloomin’.”
“Mav.” I try to stop him, hating to hear how bad things had been for him.
“Gotta get it all out, Leigh.”
I nod, taking the few steps toward him to grab his hand.
“I knew two things in that moment. My head hurt like a bitch, but I didn’t feel a thing when I thought about this field. About you. I dropped my food in the trash and slammed the door behind me, tearin’ ass out of there without even speakin’ a word. Something inside me had to get here. I just had to. Couldn’t explain it to you if I tried.”
“I remember that day.” I’d noticed him wincing in pain a few times but hadn’t wanted to bring it up, worried about breaking the spell of him just being with me. “You were so mad.”
“Yeah.” He grunts. “I was until I got here and you were just runnin’ around lookin’ up at the sky with the biggest fuckin’ smile on your face. Your hair was a lot longer back then and I swear to God you looked like a fuckin’ angel with it dancin’ behind you. I might have been mad, but when you stopped and gave me that smile, the rage racin’ through me just vanished.”
I think back to that moment, the same one that began our weeks of sporadic meet-ups in the same spot. He always looked like an enraged bull when he would ride up on one of their four-wheelers, but the second he sat his butt in the dirt, it was almost as if a calm had taken over him.
“I can even tell you how many times I came back to this very spot,” he tells me, looking away from me to point behind his shoulder. When his eyes meet mine again, they don’t look nearly as troubled as they did minutes before. “Come on.” I get a small smile before he guides me a few feet behind him.