“That’s it, darlin’.”
My arms wrap around his shoulders to gain more leverage as I rub myself against the hard length of him one final time. My nails scrape against the skin of his muscular back as I cry out, riding wave after wave of my orgasm until I’m left spent and panting. I rest my forehead against his shoulder, trying to reorient myself to reality. I’ve never come so hard in my life, especially with another person present. “Holy shit,” I breathe as tiny aftershocks pulse through my entire body.
I can hear the smile in his voice. “Good?”
I nod, finally lifting my head from his shoulder to look at him. “You have no idea.”
He grabs my hand and places a kiss on my open palm, making my stomach erupt with butterflies. I reach for his cock, which is still unyieldingly rigid beneath me, but he shakes his head. “Not this time.”
I frown. “I want to.”
“You’re not ready for that.”
I rear back. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
His tone hardens. “It means,Delilah, that you’ve barely begun to explore your own pleasure, and I’m not gonna jeopardize that journey by making you think you owe me anything.”
I cross my arms over my chest, now intensely aware of my nudity. “How very noble of you.”
He leans back on his elbows with a sigh, clearly frustrated. “I just mean I don’t want this to become about me. You deserve to experience pleasure without the expectation of reciprocating.”
A dry laugh barks out of me as I clumsily get off his lap. I grab the first shirt I can find from the floor and pull it over my head. The elated, euphoric feeling I just had has completely evaporated, leaving me full of shame. “Am I not damaged enough for you or something?”
He looks utterly bewildered. “What are you talking about?”
I force myself to hold his gaze. “Sam said that’s your type. Damaged goods.”
“Jesus Christ.” He runs a hand through his hair and looks up at the ceiling. “My past relationships have nothing to do with this. And Sam is the last person you should be taking relationship advice from.”
I pull on a pair of sweats, needing to understand why she said what she did. “What happened between you two?”
Maverick sighs.“We were doomed from the beginning. It was too fast for her after everything she endured. Our dynamic quickly became toxic—breaking up and getting back together every few weeks. I should’ve just ended things but I was afraid to hurt her. It gotto the point where Bec essentially staged an intervention; she showed me that I was killing myself just to appease Sam.”
The smallest scrap of compassion worms its way into my heart for her, though I’m still embarrassed by his rejection. “What is it then?”
He shakes his head. “I already told you. You’re not ready.”
I scoff. “This is your problem, Maverick. You assume you know what’s best for everyone else without ever stopping to ask what they actually want.”
He stands and closes the distance between us, towering over me as his erection bulges from his briefs. “Is that right?”
I swallow, crossing my arms and holding my ground. “Yes.”
He tucks a curl behind my ear, never taking his eyes off mine. “Believe me, baby. There is no shortage of things I want to do to you. Every day that I don’t get to feel you clenched around my cock is another day in hell. But I will gladly suffer the discomfort of not knowing how good you feel if it means protecting your mind and your body from more pain. I refuse to be the cause of more trauma, so until I decide that you’re ready for everything I plan to give you, we won’t be taking that step.”
As much as his rejection stings, the high from my orgasm is wearing off enough to give me the clarity to know he’s probably right.
“Fine,” I say, and he exhales, looking up briefly. If he’s that relieved, maybe he just doesn’t want me like that and is trying to let me down easy. I quickly change the subject, hoping it will help curbmy embarrassment. “I think we should try and arrange for a hostage exchange.”
His brow furrows, apparently confused by the shift in topic. “We already talked about this. There are too many moving pieces to work out with the tight timeline.”
We did discuss this—extensively. The council voted against it, but I have to try one more time. “Think about it. Gabriel knows you. He knows you wouldn’t just give me back without furthering your mission.”
I can see him considering it, so I pout my lip and bat my eyelashes. He laughs softly.
“What would you suggest?”
I bite my lip to hide my growing smile. “We could go to a neighboring island and have Benji help us with another call to Gabriel to arrange the details. That way if they track the signal, it will lead them to a dead end.”
