She snorted, then rolled her eyes. “Of course you haven’t. Look at you. I suspect you don’t have to try too hard to land dates.”
Maverick jokingly lifted his arm, flexing his muscle again. “Well, I don’t like to brag.”
She laughed, taking another sip of wine.
“Silas wasn’t an online find?”
She shook her head. “Nope. I met him through the friend of a friend. I went out for drinks one day after work with a colleague—this was when I still had the evil day job—and her boyfriend joined us. Silas had been his college roommate, and he’d just recently moved to Meridian, so he came along too. Silas was…is…a really nice guy. He was doing his residency at St. Luke’s, our medical center. We dated the entire four years he was there. When it came time to do his fellowship year, he was placed at a hospital two hours away. We did the long-distance thing. Though, looking back, I’m not sure that’s the right way to classify it.”
“Why?” Maverick asked. Ella’s details of her longest, most serious relationship were sparse, to say the least. She talked about Silas like she did her parents and sister, giving him just the facts. Only sharing the bare minimum, without showing the least bit of emotion.
“Gigi was quite sick toward the end, so I wasn’t able to leave her. I never even saw Silas’s place in Twin Falls, and because he was busy with work, he only made it back to Meridian a couple of times that last year.”
If Maverick was only two hours away from Ella, he’d find a way to get back to her every damn weekend…and probably a few weeknights as well.
“He came back for Gigi’s wake, which was very sweet, but he couldn’t stay long because he had a huge exam he was studying for,” Ella continued. “Two months after she passed away, he finished his fellowship and landed a job at the hospital in Boise. He returned to Meridian…with a ring.”
Maverick’s eyes widened. Because he’d clearly underestimated Silas’s feelings for Ella. “A ring. Wow.”
She huffed out a sad laugh. “Yeah. Wow. I mean, I knew marriage was something we’d both mentioned seeing in our future, but we’d agreed to put off discussing it until after he finished his fellowship. And I was fine with that, because I wasn’t going to leave Gigi.”
“So she passed away, he finished school, and…”
“In his mind, the timing was right. He got down on one knee, asked me to marry him…and in that instant, I realized that while I loved him, I wasn’tinlove with him. So, I said no.”
Maverick whistled. “How did he take it?”
“At first, he was shocked. But when I explained my reasons why, I think it occurred to him that he wasn’t in love with me, either. Our relationship had merely been convenient because neither of us made demands on the other. Silas is a workaholic.His job will always come first. That was fine for me, because caring for Gigi was my top priority, what mattered the most. Without her…it was as if the veil had fallen from my eyes. I realized I wanted more,neededmore, than Silas would ever be able to give.”
“What do you want?” Maverick knew the second the words slipped out, he shouldn’t have asked the question. It was far too personal, considering they were only just reconnecting after many, many years apart.
He expected Ella to shut down. In fact, he wouldn’t blame her if she did. What he hadn’t anticipated was an answer.
“I think…” she started, her gaze locked on the wall behind him, not in avoidance but more as if she was lost in thought. “I think I’d like a relationship like your parents have.”
Maverick didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath until she spoke, and when she did, he was overcome by a sense of…rightness.
Because that was what he wanted too.
“Ella,” he whispered, drawing her bright green gaze back to him. Unable to resist, Maverick leaned forward, grateful when she did the same.
Ella’s tongue slipped out, wetting her lips, the sweetest invitation he’d ever received.
Wrapping his hand behind her neck, he closed the distance between them before she could second-guess herself and reject him.
The moment his lips touched hers, he swore he felt the earth tremble. The whole goddamn planet shook and it didn’t have a thing to do with the storm outside.
Maverick kissed her like a man who’d discovered a well of cold water after dying of thirst for half his life.
And Ella responded to the kiss, her lips parting for him, allowing his tongue entrance.
Maverick tightened his grip on her nape, desperate to draw this kiss out, ready to make it last a lifetime.
His other hand found her waist, and he pulled her entire body closer, shifting her toward the edge of the stool. Ella had always responded beautifully to his commands, the ones he spoke aloud and the ones he made clear through physical actions.
Her knees brushed against his. He parted his legs so that hers could rest between. Nothing about Ella’s response was passive. She was with him all the fucking way.
One of her hands fisted the front of his shirt as the other gripped his hair, pulling it with enough force that his scalp stung. Not that he cared. He wanted everything from this woman—passion, pain, pleasure, permanence.
