I squinted, reaching out a hand toward my chest and feeling fur. A dog. Whose dog? Memories came flooding back through my mind. Cheyenne. The fire.Brandy.
I sat up and pet her softly, letting her lean into the touch. She smelled like smoke. So, that explained the scent.
I focused my breathing, urging it to slow, to even out. I didn’t want to start coughing again. My throat still felt tight, like any second my lungs would seize up and stop working all together.
You’re okay. There’s no more fire. It’s okay.
But it’s like my mind and heart weren’t speaking the same language. IknewI was okay, that the worst had passed, but my heart, my irrational heart, just couldn’t comprehend.
A voice cut through the quiet, just as light spilled into the room, chasing away the darkness. Standing there in the doorway with her hair a wild mess of curls and bathed in warm, buttery light, Cheyenne might as well have been an angel.
“Maverick. You okay?”
Chapter thirteen
Iris
Cheyenne
My heart clenched atthe sight of Maverick. He had that deer-in-the-headlights look in his eyes, terror lining his face, making him look somehow both older and younger in the same instant. Brandy leaned against him, as if she’d been trying to console him, but despite her best attempts, it wasn’t working.
Maverick’s wild gaze settled on me, and he let out an audible sigh.
“Hey,” I soothed, stepping into the room, repeating my last question. “You okay? Did you have a bad dream?”
I let out a soft gasp as he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the edge of the bed where he sat. There was a desperate feel to his touch as he wrapped his arms around me and dipped his head to rest against my stomach. He didn’t speak, though I didn’t expect him to, but his shoulders shook, his entire body trembled.
Tears pricked in my eyes and I pursed my lips. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t let him see how much this killed me. Knowing that this was because of me.
“Everythin’ alright?” Cash’s voice drew my attention. But not Maverick’s. Maverick remained still, his face burrowed against me.
I shared a lookwith Cash. Worry knit his brow, causing a frown to curl his lips downward. I offered him a soft shrug, before saying, “I think he had a bad dream.”
Cash blew out a breath, rubbing a hand over his stubbled jaw, and nodded. He regarded me for a long moment before saying, “Will you stay with him?”
I blinked my surprise. Cash obviously knew how to handle Maverick in this sort of situation, he was probably the better one suited for the job, to be honest, but the fact that he knew that and still asked me to take of Maverick said everything.
I nodded. I wouldn’t let him down.
With a final, weary look, Cash stepped back out of the room, closing the door and cutting off the light. Darkness descended over us. Charlie and Ryder’s muffled voices rose in the silence. Not enough for me to make out, though.
What if I somehow set Maverick off? I appreciated the confidence in Cash, but…what if he was wrong to place his trust in me?
Maverick still held me tightly against him, though his shoulders had stopped shaking quite as much. I ran my fingers through his short hair, reveling in the softness of it as a song fell quietly from my lips. It was all I could think to do. I couldn’t stand the sound of the silence lingering around us, and it seemed to help earlier.
It’s funny, you always hear about the power of music, and I’d definitely felt its effects on myself before, but witnessing the magic unfold right before my eyes was truly a sight. Maverick’s trembling stopped first. Then his breathing evened out. The vice-like griparound my waist loosened as the tension left each of his muscles, until he just held me against him. His hands began tracing little paths up and down my sides, the gesture soothing.
His palm drifted up over the fabric covering my ribcage, his fingers brushing feather-soft against the bottom of my breast.
I gasped, stilling in his grasp, the song dying in my throat. I couldn’t help it. The moment, the touch, it was so intimate and so unexpected.
Stop it. It was nothing. He didn’t mean to.
“Maverick…” My voice trembled only slightly as I tugged his chin up with a finger. His green eyes clashed with mine and my breath hitched in my throat. The air in the room shifted. His eyes held an intensity that sent a shiver down my spine, and not at all the bad kind.
His right hand drifted up from my side to cup the back of my neck, and with a certainty I didn’t expect from him—at least not right in this moment—he pulled my mouth down to his.
I melted into the touch, savoring the feel of his lips against mine. The kiss wasn’t rushed or brutal or filled with wanton need. It was soft, slow, but no less intense.
