Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Frankie
Cat stands on the other side. Her hair is a disheveled mess, and she’s nearly green with nausea. She holds a bag of ice to her wrist as she motions me inside. “It helps with the seasickness,” she says before bolting to the trash can by her bedside.
I stand patiently as she dry heaves, glancing around the room for any sign of the man. How could he leave his woman alone in such a state?
“Bennett went down to the—” Her voice is cut off by another guttural gag. “Bennett went down to the?—”
“Maybe just give me the second half of the sentence on your next breath,” I say with a gentle smile.
She nods and wipes a string of drool from her mouth. “Infirmary. Motion-sickness patch.”
“Ah, got it.” I look around the room for a place to sit, but the cabin chair stands on their balcony. I step closer to the bed, prepared to sit on the edge, but that’s when I notice the dildo sinking up to its silicone ball sack in a glass bowl of mashed potatoes. “What the actual fuck?”
Cat flinches as she follows my gaze. “Sorry. We like to play with our food.”
“Do you . . . eat it after you fuck it?”
She nibbles her bottom lip and wraps her arms around the metal trash can resting on her knees. “Sometimes.”
Note to self: decline any food from these two.
“I wish I could be more hospitable, but I can’t stop gagging long enough to fix you a drink.” She pushes the trash can away from her. “I think I’ll be okay if I just stay still.”
My gaze darts around the room as I look for any clue as to what might have been given to Maverick, but aside from the mashed potatoes, nothing is amiss—and my god, I hope he didn’t eat those potatoes. It feels too accusatory to ask, but I don’t have another choice, and I want to help Maverick.
“Um...when Maverick was here earlier, did you guys...give him anything?” I choose my words carefully. I don’t want her to feel as if I’m wagging my finger at them.
“Bennett loaned him a shirt. I styled his hair and?—”
“Gave him the clip-on earring. Right.” I dare to sit beside her on the edge of the mattress. “No, I mean anything that might have loosened him up a little. He’s acting strange. Sweating, remarking on how everything feels.”
“Fucking Bennett,” she mutters with a shake of her head. “He keeps a little pharmacy on standby, and I wouldn’t put it past him to slip something to Maverick, especially with how he was acting.”
I cock my head. “What do you mean?”
“I only caught bits and pieces because they were having a boy-talk sesh on the balcony, but the gist was that he wanted to make you laugh and didn’t know how. He wanted our help.”
“So Bennett drugged him?”
“Probably.” Her eyebrows pull together as she bites her lower lip again. “Actually, yeah, he was drugged for sure. Probably shortly after they spoke on the balcony, because by the time we got to his hair, he was willing to let me style it. He’s very particular about his hair.”
“So I’ve noticed. It never moves.”
“I don’t know why he’s so funny about the style.” She holds up a finger, then heaves into the trash can again. When she’s done, she flops backward on the bed. “Bennett should be back any second. He can tell you what he gave him.”
I shake my head. “No, I’m fairly certain he micro-dosed him with MDMA. His high should pass in a few hours. I’ll just keep him hydrated until then.”
“You want some too? The sex is pretty amazing, not gonna lie.”
I don’t know whether to laugh at her assumption or set her straight, but I settle on the latter. “Maverick and I aren’t intimate. To be frank, I think he’d rather stick his dick in a light socket than me.”
“I disagree.” She sits up and brushes a stray lock of blonde hair from her forehead. “He’s kind of mean to you, right?”
“I wouldn’t say mean, but he certainly doesn’t treat me like he treats everyone else.”
“Yeah, that’s my point. Take it from someone who pined after him for months. If he’s acting different toward you, there’s a reason.”
She’s right. There is. It has nothing to do with some imagined affection for me, though. He treats me differently because I’m a fed.
“Thanks, Cat. I’d better get back to the room before he starts wondering how it would feel to leap off the balcony, but I appreciate your help.”
“Anytime. And if you spot Bennett in the hall, tell him to hurry the fuck up.” She reaches for the trash can again as I take my leave.
I close the door behind me, silencing the retching on the other side. If Maverick ingested the ecstasy when he went to change, that means he should start coming down soon. It’s been nearly three hours.
When I open the cabin door, Maverick is still where I left him. He’s polished off the bottled water and even gotten another. The empty bottles stand on the bedside table.
He looks up and smiles when he hears me come in.
“I tried not to move, but I had to get more water. Have you ever tried sitting still for hours on end? It’s more difficult than you think.
” He tips his head to the side, and the ridiculous cross earring drapes over his shoulder.
“I think my head is starting to clear a little, though. I’m not sure what’s wrong with me. ”
“You were drugged.” I go to the sink to fetch a cool washcloth. When I return, he looks so confused.
“Drugged? I don’t partake.”
I motion for him to scoot over a bit, and he does. I sit beside him and dab his forehead, which is much less sweaty now. “When you went to Bennett’s room, he gave you something to help you loosen up a bit. Cat said you told them you wanted to make me laugh, so they were just trying to help.”
He closes his eyes and grimaces, then opens one eye to look at me. “Did it work, at least?”
I smile down at him. I can’t help it. “Yes, you made me laugh.”
“Good. You’re so much prettier when you smile. I mean, you’re pretty anyway, but when you smile, it makes me want to smile too.” He relaxes into the pillows. “Wanna cuddle?”
“I mean, if that’s what you need right now, I guess I can do that.”
Confused as hell, I sit on the mattress, then stretch out beside him. I rest my head on his bare chest, and the awkward feeling fades with each beat of his heart against my ear, each inward breath he takes. His arm bands around my shoulder, and he sighs.
“Damn,” he says.
“What?”
“This is actually really nice. I’ve never done this before, so I didn’t know what it would be like.”
“You’ve never cuddled?” I ask with a laugh. “I’m the Ice Queen, and even I’ve cuddled.”
He chuckles, and the movement bounces my head slightly against his chest. “I’m not some innocent flower or anything, but no, I’ve never cuddled like this. I, uh...I don’t really get close to women.”
“You and Eve seem close.”
“No, I mean intimately.”
My eyes widen, and I panic internally. “Is this intimate to you?”
“Well, yeah. If my shit worked, I’d be rock hard right now.
” His fingers trail over my shoulder. “Something tells me your skin would be this soft even if I wasn’t coming down from a high.
” He lowers his voice until I can hardly make out the whispered words when he says, “Something tells me I’d never come down if I were to get inside you. ”
I skate on thin ice. If this had happened on day one, I’d have leapt for shore. Now I’m considering plunging beneath freezing waters just to feel a little of his warmth.
His fingers trail lower on my back, and the ice cracks a little more.
This isn’t the same as before, when I teased him until he came in his pants. Now I want to tease him until he comes inside me .
“Maverick, maybe I should see if Eve could come take care of you. I’m afraid of what might happen if I stay in this room tonight.”
He sighs again, this time sounding more forlorn than relaxed. “Yeah, I know what you mean. But you don’t have to worry about us crossing any lines. My dick doesn’t work, remember?”
I nibble my lip, wanting to ask why that is, but the question dies in my throat. It feels too personal.
He must sense this, because he points to a thin white scar that runs along his hairline. “See that line? That’s why I’m so particular about my hair. I style the swoop so that no one can see it.”
“So that you don’t have to talk about how you got it.”
“Bingo.” He pauses, seeming to consider something before he says, “That part isn’t important, but it left me with a gnarly case of erectile dysfunction. Once I get it up, I’m good, but the initial erection can prove elusive.”
I shift, placing my hand on his chest, then resting my chin on the back of my hand so that I can look at him. “Is that why you don’t get close to women?”
“To be honest, I always thought it was because I cared so much about my career. Now I’m not so sure. I mean, what does working have to do with shutting myself off from connecting with someone like—” He stops, unable to finish the thought, so I do it for him.
“Like what we’re doing now.”
“Yeah.”
I raise my head slightly and trace lazy circles on his abdomen. Goosebumps rise on his skin, and I hate myself for wanting to run my tongue over all of them.
God, what am I doing? He’s practically a kid. At twenty-two, I doubt he’ll know my clitoris from my urethra.
And he’s a murderer, Frankie. Let’s not forget that.
Instead of turning me off, the thought of Maverick standing over a body as blood coats his bare skin does something disgusting inside me. I imagine what it would be like to slide against him, both of us covered in that awful metallic scent. A low whimper squeaks out of me, and I freeze.
“Frankie?”
I close my eyes. “Yeah?”
“What the fuck was that?”
With a squeal, I press my forehead against his chest and mutter into his warm skin. “I don’t fucking know. My brain went somewhere really weird, and that sound just happened.”
“What were you thinking of?”
“I don’t wanna say.”
“Come on, sweetheart. Judgment-free zone, yeah?” He slips his finger under my chin and eases my head upward so that I’m forced to look into his green eyes. “We’re having a moment. Just let it happen.”
Okay. I’ll fudge it a bit, but I’ll tell him. What’s the worst that could happen?
“I was thinking about a dream I had. You were . . . naked.”
He tips his head back and laughs. “That’s all? Hell, I’ve thought of you naked a few times myself. At least a dream is involuntary.” His expression sobers. “That was rude of me, and I apologize.”
“Apology not accepted,” I say with a giggle, “but that wasn’t the worst part. You were covered in blood. And I liked it.”
His hand firms on my shoulder, like he’s hugging me the only way he can in this position, and my insides begin to tumble. “Nothing weird about that.”
“I’m getting wet to thoughts of our bodies coated in blood as we fuck. I’d say that’s the definition of weird.”
His fingertips loosen, and his hand dips below my romper. Gentle warmth brushes over my bare skin. “Maybe we could try something tamer first.”
“Maybe . . .”
We’re dancing around a fire, both of us too scared to get close enough to feel the heat.
“Can I tell you a secret?” he whispers.
I nod against his chest.
“I didn’t want you to go on that date tonight. I wanted it to be me.”
“I know.”
He looks down at me. “You did?”
“Not at first, but when Cat said you wanted to make me laugh, I kind of thought something seemed odd.” I swallow around a lump in my throat. “And I wouldn’t say the curiosity is exactly one-sided.”
That’s when Maverick dives into the flames headfirst. Before I realize what’s happening, he’s shifted and pulled me into a sitting position. And with a force and passion I’ve never felt, he kisses me.