Grayson waved his concern away with the flip of his hand. “You don’t have to say that, Mav. We know you’d never do anything to hurt a woman or take something she hadn’t offered.”
“And?” Jace asked. “What did she think of the bondage?”
Maverick gave his brothers a crooked smile, then used Sam’s phrase. “Bottle rocket.”
Jace smiled, but it faded quickly. “What happened after?”
This was the part where Maverick’s memories failed him. Because the way he recalled the rest of that afternoon didn’t match the letter that arrived several days later. “Immediately after, we lay together in bed, cuddling and kissing, both of us speechless because it had been…” Maverick ran his hand through his hair. “Fuck me, it was the best sexual experience of my life.”
“Still?” Jace asked, somewhat aghast. Probably because Maverick had had more than his fair share of sex.
“Still,” he said firmly. “And Ella said it had been the same for her. She asked if we could do it again.”
Grayson leaned back in his chair, crossing one foot over his knee. “That all sounds okay.”
“I thought it was. Until I got that letter.”
Grayson had lifted his beer for a swig, then stopped short. “Was there more in the letter than you told me?”
Maverick nodded. “She said that I’d taken advantage of her innocence and forced her to do things she didn’t want…then she added that there was a special place in Hell for guys like me.”
“Fuck,” Jace muttered under his breath.
“I felt physically sick after reading it, because she made me feel like I’d hurt her. We were young and learning about our sexuality together. Maybe I’d pushed her into trying things she wasn’t ready for or didn’t want. Maybe she’d agreed to try just for me, and it scared her.”
Grayson scowled, clearly angry on his behalf. “You were inexperienced too. And she gave her consent.”
“I swear she didn’t act afraid or upset after the spanking or the bondage. I thought I’d given her what she wanted, that she enjoyed it.” He genuinely believed he’d misread her responses at the time, and he’d spent years kicking his own ass for pushing her too far. Now, however, he wasn’t surewhatto think…because of her writing. The way she’d described thingsthey’ddone on the page.
Her books were fucking hot—and they seemed to indicate she hadn’t been turned off by what they’d done at all.
Grayson was quiet for several minutes, then he sighed. “I can see why you’re hesitant to talk to her about the past.”
“For years after, I was too ashamed. I can’t tell you how many nights I woke up in a cold sweat, thinking I’d hurt her, that I’d scared her. After a while, I just had to put it out of my mind completely because…”
Jace reached over and patted his forearm. “You’d never hurt a woman, Mav. The way she reacted immediately following the acts doesn’t match that letter. And neither does the whole family uprooting and moving. Something else had to have happened.”
Maverick hadn’t considered that back then. Probably because he’d been young and stupid and overwhelmed by guilt and self-loathing. Now, though, he could see his brother was probably right. Her letter and the family moving did seem like extreme responses to what they’d done.
Grayson nodded in agreement. “Jace is right. The facts don’t add up. Which is why…” Grayson gestured toward Ella.
Maverick shook his head. “No. I can’t go there,” he said. “I don’t want to bring up something that might upset her. Ella seems to have moved on,” he said, thinking of their friendly conversation at the carnival. She didn’tactlike someone who was afraid of him.
“But have you?” Grayson asked.
Maverick didn’t reply to that. He didn’t have to, because his brothers knew him too well.
“So what are you going to do?” Jace asked. “You still have feelings for her, right?”
That was another question Maverick didn’t have to answer. His brothers—all of them—believed in the Storm family legend. If Maverick said she was the one, then they believed him.
“She’s only here for a visit,” he said, giving a non-answer instead.
“Anextendedvisit,” Grayson clarified.
Maverick didn’t acknowledge that. “I thought the easiest answer was to stay away but?—”
Grayson and Jace snorted in unison.
