“Okay.” The answer came out so quickly and simply that it surprised me.
“Seriously?”
“Yeah,” Harley said with a small laugh. He kissed me once. Twice. Three times. Each one was a little shorter as his smile grew. “I want to, Maverick.”
“Okay.”
Gently pushing him up, I hurried across my living room to double-check the deadbolt and chain lock. They would keep Aidan from just walking in unannounced. I wasn’t ready for the fight that would happen if he walked in to find Harley.
CHAPTER 25
harley
Waking up in that tiny bed was a version of peace I didn’t know existed. The space was small, and the bed was beat up, but that didn’t bother me. I had no desire to get up, except for the glaring issue that I was alone. Maverick’s side of the bed was rumpled and cooling with no sign of him anywhere.
I rolled onto my back and stared at the ceiling for a long moment, trying to organize the jumbled thoughts in my head. For years, I’d tried to make sense of my body—tried to figure outwhy it didn’t work the way everyone else’s did. My classmates didn’t make it easy with their body-count lists and relentless commentary. I wasn’t a vessel of raging hormones like they were. In fact, it didn’t matter how hard I tried to fit in and be like everyone else. My body never got the message.
It was frustrating enough that I was beginning to consider myself asexual. Internally, anyway. There was no way in hell I was saying those words out loud to anyone. But then there was Maverick. What was it about him that turned me on? Why did my dick suddenly work with him? Why did I want more with him?
I sighed. A part of me had hoped that doinganythingwith Maverick would help me get answers. However, all I had were more questions.
Why was I so damn broken compared to everyone else?
I forced myself out of bed and wandered into the tiny hall. The bathroom door was closed, and I could hear Maverick singing softly in the shower. Pausing with the door open, I listened to the low timber of his voice. I’d never heard him sing before. He was good.Really good.
“Close the door, will you?” Maverick said mid-song. “It’s getting cold in here.”
“Sorry,” I replied in a hurry and shut the door. The hot steam filling the small space was a welcome reprieve from the chill in the rest of the house. He went back to singing, and I just tried to figure out what to do.
I was so damn awkward, just standing there with no clue how to make myself move. This whole lack-of-experience thing was… stressful. I wanted to be in the shower with Maverick, but was that weird? Were we at a place where I could do that? Would it upset him?
The tiny shower curtain tore open.
“Stop overthinking it, and just get in the fucking shower, princess,” Maverick ordered. My cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment, making him smile. “You’re cute when you do that, you know that?”
My instinctive tendency to overthink everything was anything but cute. Still, I stepped into the shower behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist, my chin resting on his shoulder. His fingers threaded through my hair as he kept me close—not that we had a lot of room between us to begin with. The shower was barely big enough for the two of us.
“You sleep okay?” he asked, his voice quiet, and I nodded slightly.Better than I had in a long time.“Good.”
Turning into me, his lips pressed to my temple, warm and damp. I let out a small sigh. The relief of contact with him was a foreign feeling I could get used to. His hand tightened in my hair, and his mouth caught mine. I groaned as his tongue met mine in a hungry battle, the taste of mint toothpaste bursting on my tongue. My back hit the wall as his body crowded mine, pressing flush from chest to thigh.
I felt him everywhere, my every nerve flaring to life in a cascade of overwhelming and wonderful sensations that had my dick thickening between us. The urge to obsess over why my body responded so easily was right there, poking at the overthinking part of my mind. A flush of embarrassment crept up my neck at how quickly I hardened for him, precum beading on my slit. But at least I wasn’t the only one so readily into this. His length sat heavy against my hip, just as hard and desperate to be used.
My fingers drifted over his chest and abs, tracing the definition of his muscles with the kind of admiration I wasn’t sure would ever go away. The warmth and feel of his body in my hands fascinated me. I trailed my touch lower over the curves and dipsof his hips, each one more interesting than the last as I watched his abs tighten under my hands.
“You’re killing me, princess,” Maverick rasped against my mouth. “Touching me like that…”
“Is that a good thing?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was or not. I didn’t know anything about how he liked to be touched or kissed or… well, anything. That disadvantage made me self-conscious as my fingers hovered uncertainly near his cock.
“Yeah,” he breathed out with a slight nod.
“Okay,” I whispered and kissed him again. His admission made me bolder. Made me want more as my pulse raged in my ears. I traced the veins in his thick length, my fingers barely touching him as I explored him. I felt his cock throb and pulse in response, making my own dick leak with need. My touch was tentative—unsure. I wasn’t used to touching anyone like this, not even myself. The truth was that when I said I had no experience, I meanteven with myself.
“Like this.” Maverick’s calloused hand closed around mine as if reading my hesitancy. He guided my hand up and down his cock as he adjusted my grip and speed to his liking. His hips rocked forward, slow and controlled. “Fuck… just like that, princess.”
My hand skated up and down his length and over his crown with ease under his direction. His eyes slid shut, and his hands braced on the wall behind me. Every little breathy gasp and sigh he let out was euphoric in a way I couldn’t explain. Each hitch in his throat made my dick throb untouched between us. I kissed and licked the side of his neck, noting the little growl he let out as I nipped his pulse. And then I did it a second time just because I liked the sound so much.
Maneuvering the best I could with the space we had, I managed to make enough room to get down on my knees in front of him.
