CHAPTER 08
harley
You’re a mess, Mr. Lowell,” Clifford commented as he quietly shut the door behind us.
”Yeah.” I smiled sheepishly, trying hard to avoid a guilty spiral. “I went to the beach today.”
“I can see that,” he said. “Might I suggest a shower before dinner? Your mother has twenty-nine minutes before her meeting is over.”
In other words, I had just enough time to clean up and hide the scrapes on my arms. Clifford had been around my whole childhood.
He knew exactly how my mother would react if she saw me like this, so I appreciated his discretion.
He didn’t have to stick his neck out like that. She’d have his job if she knew.
“Thank you.” I started for the stairs, only making it one step before turning back to face him. “Clifford?”
“Yes, Mr. Lowell?”
“I made a friend,” I said. It was stupid—I knew that—but I wanted to tell someone. There was no way in hell I could tell my mother about Maverick. She’d have an aneurysm over just the idea of it. But I liked him, and I wanted someone to know.
“That’s very good, Sir,” Clifford replied with a slight smile.
“Yeah.” I nodded slowly. “Okay, I’m going to shower now.”
I was halfway up the stairs when his voice made me stop all over again.
“Mr. Lowell?”
“Yeah?”
“I won’t tell your mother,” he told me, “about your new friend.”
My only friend. How pathetic was that? I’d had trouble making friends my entire life.
Connecting with people was hard for me in general, but I’d struggled to fit in.
People only saw my money and status. Except Maverick.
He didn’t care how much money my family had.
Being around him was easy, and I didn’t have the words to describe the way he made me feel.
“Thank you, Clifford,” I whispered.
“You’re very welcome, Mr. Lowell.” With a little nod, he ended the conversation, and I hurried up the stairs to shower before my mother caught me.
My phone dinged with the text from Maverick as I stood naked in the bathroom, waiting for the shower to warm up and for the bathroom to steam. Seeing his name pulled an instant smile from me.
MAV: How much trouble are you in with the butler?
Clifford’s cool. He’s helping me hide the evidence.
That made it sound practically criminal. Granted, with my mother, it might as well have been.
MAV: Good.
MAV: Are all butlers cool?
My grandpa’s butler Winston was an asshole.
Winston was more than an asshole, but I didn’t have enough hours to explain to Maverick why we hated Winston. I said we like he was going to magically hate someone he hadn’t met just because I did.
MAV: Well, Winston can go fuck himself.
Yes, he can.
MAV: So, what are you up to?
Standing in my bathroom, trying to get into the shower.
Was that too much information? Probably.
But I really wasn’t sure what constituted realistic friendship interactions.
The friends my mother approved were the children of my father’s business associates or connections.
They were uptight, egotistical guys who couldn’t brag enough about their stuff and never treated anyone right.
I didn’t want to be friends with people like that.
MAV: Jesus fuck. Get in the goddamn shower, princess.
I’m trying, but you keep texting me.
MAV: Excuses. Just get in the shower before I come over and make you.
Something warm wove its way through my core at the idea of him doing just that. It melted through my muscles and settled in my bones, setting my nerves on fire and making my heart pound a little faster. It was a foreign feeling, but not at all uncomfortable.
Why did I want him to do just that?
Fine. If you insist.
MAV: Good boy.
A flush burned my cheeks as I read and reread that single message from him. It was nothing more than an innocent phrase laced with praise, but it did something to me. A hot sensation spread like a wildfire through me and settled in my core. My dick reacted in kind, thickening quickly.
That was a foreign feeling. I still believed I was broken because I didn’t walk around horny and desperate like the rest of my classmates. In fact, I’d never felt any kind of attraction to anyone. It was a weird and awful thing to know that I wasn’t like everyone else.
And yet, here I was, standing in my bathroom with a hard-on as I thought about what those two words would sound like coming from Maverick. Yeah, I liked that idea a lot.
I reached into the shower and turned the water cold because, apparently, I needed a cold shower.