Okay,surpriseis too mild a word for the shock that courses through me—that this man of so few words would stop one of the steamiest kisses of my life in order totalk.
“Of course,” I say, stepping back out of his orbit as I force that needy pain between my legs to take a backseat while I listen to whatever it is he wants to say.
He draws in a deep breath, and he wanders over to the window. He keeps his gaze out there as he talks, as if it’s easier for him to say what he has to say without having to face my eyes. The whole idea of it sends a shudder down my back.
“I know we’ve only slept together twice, but before we make it three, I need to say some things. I’ve been through some shit that shut me off to ever wanting to get involved with someone again. And then you swept into my life like a fucking tsunami with your rebrand and red lipstick, and something woke up inside me that died a decade ago.”
He turns to face me, and I realize I’m holding my breath as I wait as patiently as I possibly can for his words.
“My dad spent my entire childhood cheating on my mom. Usually in front of me, and always with a line about how I needed to cover for him, like we were buddies instead of father and son. It hurt my mother, it hurt me, and that’s why I think he’s a bag of shit to this day. I never wanted to be anything like him. I took a different course and got married young, right out of college. She was my high school sweetheart. We’d been together six years by the time we got married—through most of high school and all of college. A month after our wedding, she died in a car accident, and I found out that night that the baby I didn’t know she was carrying had also been killed.”
“Oh my God, Maverick,” I whisper as tears heat in my eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
He presses his lips together. “If only that were the end. If only that were the worst part of it.”
My brows crash together as I have no clue what he means.
“I found out at the funeral that she’d been cheating on me. The man she’d been cheating with, a friend of mine, showed his face and admitted the baby was his.” His voice breaks on the last line, and tears start to tumble down my cheeks at the incredible pain this man has endured.
No wonder why he hates the world. No wonder why he prefers to be by himself. No wonder why he hasn’t let anyonein.
It’s been nothing but betrayal after betrayal for him his entire life.
But somehow, some way…he’s letting me in. He trusts me. And I hold that sacredly. I won’t let him down. I can’t.
“My entire childhood tumbled back as I was in the midst of grieving my wife. I lost her to this horrible accident, not knowing I’d already lost her long before that. I thought my life would be different, but she was no better than my goddamn father was. We were supposed to have this child, a boy or maybe a girl who would have turned ten this year. Ten. Double digits. And he wasn’t even mine. And instead, I’m alone because I’ve been too fucking scared to let anyone in. The only person I have left is my mom, but she’s long gone.” His voice breaks again, and he doesn’t hide his own show of emotion as he starts to break down.
My voice is soft as I ask, “What happened to your mom?”
“Her memory. She has Alzheimer’s, and it’s advancing. Fast. She thought I was my father when I visited her on Saturday.”
“Oh, Maverick,” I murmur. I swipe at the tears still tracking down my cheeks as I think about how hard that must have been for her to mistake him for someone he holds so many negative feelings for. “You’re not alone anymore. I’m right here.” My voice is a whisper, and he moves away from the window and back over to me.
He takes me in his arms and buries his face in my neck. “I know.”
He clings to me, and I wrap my arms around him to hug him and hold him in a way he hasn’t had in far too long, in a way that lets him know that someone is right here on his side.
“Why did you tell me?” I ask softly as I hold him.
“Because I trust you.”
My heart both shatters and swells at the same time—that he hasn’t had anybody to turn to in an entire decade and that I have the privilege of being that person for him.
His lips move from my neck to my mouth, and if our time on Saturday night was filled with intensity, this time is filled with emotion.
His tears mingle with mine as this connection we share is helping him let go of the pain and revel in something better. He deserves happiness. Love. We all do. And suddenly, I want with all my heart to be the one to give it to him.
He walks us toward the bedroom while we kiss, and he drops his pants and boxers and kicks them off along with his shoes. He lets go of me just for long enough to reach under my dress and slide my panties down my legs, and then he sits on the bed and pulls me down on top of him so my legs fall onto either side of his.
He gazes at me, and I see the longing there, the need. The want. The intensity. The heat. All of it, but also this time, there’s something else, something big. Maybe it’s love, or maybe it’s just feelings that could be the start of something like love, but either way, I want to drink in the way he’s looking at me for the rest of time. I want to be the only woman he looks at with these eyes, and as he pushes himself into me and I start to slowly ride him while our eyes continue to hold that gaze, I feel a searing sense of the same thing as it races through me.
I’m not sure where it comes from, but it’s there, deep, intense, and raw, and it’s something I never expected to feel with this man who hated the very idea of me before he even met me.
I’m getting through to him, and maybe this was always meant to happen. Maybe we were destined to cross paths so I could rebrand hislegacy.
But what I never expected was the thought that maybe I’d end up being a part of that legacy with him.
CHAPTER 25: Maverick Jennings
