Chapter 26
MAVERICK
Knowing Boone feels as lost as I do… it helps. The hurt and anger disappear like smoke the second I put my arms around him.
“I believe you,” I say, tightening my grip on him. “Shit got messy, but I know you’re telling the truth. You weren’t using me to get to Hop. We both pursued those interactions. And today was just…really fucking bad timing.”
He sniffs. “The worst.”
Poor Booney.
“Yeah, but you gave something back to my uncle that he thought he’d lost forever.”
That seems to make Boone cry harder. “Hop said the same thing,” he whispers through tears.
“Did he tell you about the statute he made?”
Statue.
Sniff. “Yeah. And today Hopper started sculpting me. Like, he balled up some newspaper and slapped some clay on top of that, and then, like, there was my face.” He looks at me, wonder in his red-rimmed eyes. “He’s so fucking talented.”
“It’s really something to watch him work.” I smile as a sweet memory floats by. “You do understand he’s going to spend the next six months fiddling with your facial hair and the shape of your teeth.”
“He was working on that commissioned piece today and spent most of the morning on a single nostril.”
We laugh together, and the sound loosens something in my chest.
A conversation—a reckoning—with my family is way overdue, but none of that is on Boone. He got caught up in this too.
And he did say he thinks I’m amazing.
We both take a deep breath and settle against one another. Boone lifts his chin, hope so fierce in his eyes that I can’t help myself.
He has always been mine.
I kiss him. And then I kiss him again because he makes me think that loving him is possible. And again because we’re surrounded by the night, and by the sounds of water splashing down around us, and by the beautiful pieces Hopper created with his own hands.
I wonder if Boone knows that he’s Hopper’s masterpiece.
“Stay with me tonight,” Boone whispers the next time we come up for air. “I need to hold you and make sure you understand how much you mean to me.”
His words leave me breathless and reassured. Special. I nod, needing it as much as he does. Still, there’s a truth I can’t ignore.
“Something wrong?” he asks, pointing to my expression.
“Not wrong, but you should know I want to spend time with you and… I’m avoiding my family.”
“Fair enough,” he says, gently tugging on one of my coils.
We hold hands and walk to Anders’ car. Boone opens the door for me and closes it after I get in.
“Check out the glove compartment,” he says, looking hot as he slides into the driver’s seat.
I open it and let out a happy sound. My phone and wallet, thank God.
“You didn’t wanna drive my car?” I ask, grinning as I slide on my bracelet.
He raises his brow as he pushes the Start button. “Have you seen your uncle’s car?”
I let my eyes slide across his competent hands on the wheel, the sure angle of his shoulders. “You look good driving it.”
He flushes at the compliment. Oh, sweet, sweet Booney. He probably doesn’t realize that, even if he refuses Anders’ gift, being Hopper’s kid means he’ll be able to afford one just like it.
I’ll let Hopper tell him that.
Despite the short drive, I’m so desperate to reconnect with Boone that every second feels like an eternity. We arrive in just a few minutes and race each other up the stairs. We’re barely inside the door when he spins me around and pushes me against it.
I cannot stress this enough: lovers often assume that my size means that I am the aggressor, but that could never be me.
A man who will come after me and not make a big deal of our size difference is everything.
It’s also helpful that Boone is so fucking strong and his kisses have an undercurrent of desperation to them.
As much as I’d love to believe he’s the one who can’t wait to rip our clothes off, we both need this. We still have a lot to say to each other, but I don’t have it in me to hold a deep, meaningful conversation right now.
A deep, meaningful dicking down, on the other hand…
His insistent kisses are scrambling my mind, as is the way he’s holding me tight to him. When we finally come up for air, I gasp, “Fuck me, please.”
“Yes,” he says, smiling against my lips.
We go back to kissing as he pulls me away from the door, walking me backward to his bed.
“This seems familiar.”
We hit the bed with a satisfying whomp, and Boone rolls on top of me, his kisses like chocolate after weeks of going without.
I run my hands under his shirt, taking in his toned back, strong ass, and broad shoulders.
He’s rucked my T-shirt up past my nipples, which tighten and peak under the whoosh of the overhead fan.
Kissing a line up my belly and onto my chest, Boone runs the tip of his tongue around one nipple before practically devouring the other.
“Take off your clothes,” he commands, rolling away from me.
You don’t need to tell me twice.
I jump out of bed and tear off every bit of clothing, and he does the same.
“Fuck,” he growls, his eyes hungry as they take in my body. “You are stunning.”
I gesture at his hardened physique. “Same.”
We fall into bed again, this time I push Boone onto his back, kissing his neck, thumbing his hip bones as I move down his strong torso.
I bury my nose in his pubic hair, memorizing the scent of him.
I’m a tease, ghosting my lips over his growing hard-on, just a tiny little suck at the very tip of his cockhead.
He makes a disgruntled sound when I feather his slit with my tongue.
“Maverick…” His voice is in the basement, and it rattles up my spine.
I wink, slowly taking the rest of his fat head into my mouth before slurping noisily. Fucking hell, he’s perfect. I chance a look in his direction, hoping he’s okay with what I’m doing, and his eyes light up when they meet mine.
As someone who’s seen his fair share of judgment in the eyes of others, this is a welcome change.
And not just because I’m naked with the man.
I trail kisses up his chest and find his lips again, thrusting cock against cock, hard and silken, as he pushes his tongue into my mouth. It’s heady, this intimacy between us, but it’s not enough.
Not nearly enough. I go in for another kiss, deeper this time.
“Fuck me, Boone,” I whisper, desperate. “Now.”
He surges forward, needing this as much as I do.
And then he pulls back with an apologetic expression.
“Something wrong?”
He shakes his head, and I trail my lips down his neck, sucking on the sensitive skin until both of his strong hands grip my shoulders and push me back.
“Boone?”
“I do wanna fuck you, Mav. So bad, you have no idea. But… I don’t have a bulb.”
It takes me a second to figure out what he’s talking about.
Shit.
“I totally forgot,” I say, rolling off him, breathing heavily as I stare at the ceiling. “Holy shit, I never forget.”
He huffs a breath on his fingernails, buffing them against his pretty skin.
“Seriously, though, we don’t hafta do that tonight…”
I shake my head, looking for my jeans. “I need my phone.”
He points out where they landed. I fish my phone from my pocket and sit next to him on the bed. I order supplies from my favorite delivery app. Boone looks over my shoulder and points out a toy he likes.
I raise my brow and add it to the cart. Then pay extra for the after-hours premium drone delivery.
“It’ll be here in under an hour.”
He taps his chin. “Whatever will we do for an entire hour?”
We have no problem figuring out how to pass the time.
“Call me a slut if you must,” I say, pulling the bulb from the delivery box and holding it in the air, “but I have requested this exact delivery on at least four different continents.”
We laugh.
“And you’re still good to go bare?” Boone asks, hunger in his eyes.
“Fucking breed me.”
Boone gestures to the bathroom. “Clean your ass, stat.”
I send him a crisp salute. “I’ll be right back.”