MAV: Are all butlers cool?
My grandpa’s butler Winston was an asshole.
Winston was more than an asshole, but I didn’t have enough hours to explain to Maverick why we hated Winston. I saidwelike he was going to magically hate someone he hadn’t met just because I did.
MAV: Well, Winston can go fuck himself.
Yes, he can.
MAV: So, what are you up to?
Standing in my bathroom, trying to get into the shower.
Was that too much information?Probably. But I really wasn’t sure what constituted realistic friendship interactions. Thefriendsmy mother approved were the children of my father’s business associates or connections. They were uptight, egotistical guys who couldn’t brag enough about their stuff and never treated anyone right. I didn’t want to be friends with people like that.
MAV: Jesus fuck. Get in the goddamn shower, princess.
I’m trying, but you keep texting me.
MAV: Excuses. Just get in the shower before I come over and make you.
Something warm wove its way through my core at the idea of him doing just that. It melted through my muscles and settled in my bones, setting my nerves on fire and making my heart pound a little faster. It was a foreign feeling, but not at all uncomfortable.
Why did Iwanthim to do just that?
Fine. If you insist.
MAV: Good boy.
A flush burned my cheeks as I read and reread that single message from him. It was nothing more than an innocent phrase laced with praise, but it did something to me. A hot sensation spread like a wildfire through me and settled in my core. My dick reacted in kind, thickening quickly.
Thatwas a foreign feeling. I still believed I was broken because I didn’t walk around horny and desperate like the rest of my classmates. In fact, I’d never felt any kind of attraction to anyone. It was a weird and awful thing to know that I wasn’t like everyone else.
And yet, here I was, standing in my bathroom with a hard-on as I thought about what those two words would sound like coming from Maverick.Yeah, I liked that idea a lot.
I reached into the shower and turned the water cold because, apparently, I needed a cold shower.
CHAPTER 09
harley
Sneaking around to spend time with Maverick became as easy as breathing. His presence was freeing. I fell all too happily into the safety of his presence. I didn’t have to be anyone with him, and he still wanted me there. He taught me to ride, and I kept him fed with minimal protesting. We laughed, we talked, and there was some form of flirting building between all the rest.
The flirting part was strange to me. At least, I was almost certain it was flirting. This area of interaction wasn’t my strongsuit. Maverick was unfazed by it all. He just kept at it like it was nothing. Maybe it was to him.
I, on the other hand, struggled with it. Well, not so much with the fact that he was flirting with me, but rather how it made me feel. I was a chaotic swirl of emotions I’d never experienced before. They weren’t bad emotions per se. They were a flurry of exciting and wonderful emotions, with anxiety being the cherry on top.
I liked Maverick.
I liked being around him. I liked who I was around him. I wasn’t Harley Lowell, the son of Christopher and Elizabeth Lowell ofFortis Financial.
No, around Maverick, I was just Harley… and sometimes princess. And I really liked it when he called me princess.
Squishing my toes in the wet sand of the shallow waters, I let out a content sigh. Spending time at the beach with Maverick was easily my favorite way to pass the time. He wasn’t as easily fascinated as I was, but he didn’t seem to care. He’d kick off his boots and bury his feet in the sand while he sat out of the water’s reach.
“Why do you keep doing that?” Maverick called out when I dropped another seashell back into the sand.
I took my time formulating an answer as I bent down to scoop up another handful of sand. I let it filter between my fingers until I was left holding another seashell, this one a little larger than the last. Wilde Bay didn’t have big seashells. They were all practically pocket-sized and white as marble.
