Chapter 27
ALL THE WAYS TO FALL
Clover
I’m a mess on the flight home, even though I changed it so I fly into Milwaukee instead of Chicago, which will put me closer to my cabin on Pearl Bay. My paranoia is ridiculously high, and I’m afraid Gabriel somehow managed to get my flight information and is going to show up at the airport.
My stomach is a twisted knot when I get off the plane and text Maverick that I’ve landed. As soon as I have my bag, I head for the exit, scanning the area, still worried that Gabriel is going to show up and ruin my plans.
I’d been struggling with what I should do before he showed up at my parents’ place, but once he came in and turned my holidays upside down, I decided I’d had enough of playing by everyone else’s rules.
I want what I want. And that’s Maverick.
If all I can have is a few months, I’ll take it and not regret it.
My breath catches when I see him walking toward me. He’s wearing a peacoat, black dress pants, and a white button-down. His shoes clip across the tiles, the floor gritty with salt and wet from snow.
He’s refined, put together, and gorgeous. He doesn’t look like a student. He looks delicious. And I’m standing here in a pair of leggings, an oversized sweatshirt—I almost wore his hockey one on the plane—and my hair in a messy ponytail.
He stops when the tips of our shoes touch—his black and polished, mine scuffed—and his eyes take me in with a hot sweep. “How do you feel about PDA?”
“What?”
“Public displays of affection. Are you for or against them?”
“Most of the time or right now?”
“Right now.”
I glance around, reminding myself that we’re not in Chicago and no one here knows us or that up until a few weeks ago, I was his professor. “Right now, I feel reasonably good about them.”
He grins, that dimple in his left cheek appearing.
“I was hoping you’d say that.” He cups my face in his palms and covers my mouth with his.
I grip the lapels of his coat and sink into the kiss.
One hand leaves my face and pulls my hood up to shield me, and the other drifts down my arm and wraps around my waist. He pulls me tighter against him and angles his head to the side, deepening the kiss for several mind-bending strokes of tongue.
When he finally breaks away, he holds the edges of my hood and backs up only enough that his beautiful face is clear. “I missed you more than I wanted to,” he admits.
“Me too.”
“At least we’re on the same page. Want to get out of here?” He inclines his head toward the door.
“Absolutely.”
He takes my suitcase in his free hand, and we head for the exit. The blustery cold of winter has me tucking my chin to my chest. Maverick puts his arm around me and pulls me against his side, protecting me from the wind until we get to his truck, parked in the short-term valet.
He opens the passenger door, hands me the keys, and puts my suitcase in the back seat before he rounds the hood and takes his place behind the steering wheel.
He leans over and kisses me again, and I wish I could snap my fingers and we’d be in Pearl Bay. Our kiss lasts until someone honks their horn behind us. Maverick unlocks his lips from mine and sighs. “To be continued.”
He shifts the truck into gear, and we leave the airport. He places his hand on the center console, palm up, and I slip mine into his. It’s snowed over the holidays, the landscape blanketed in white.
“How was the flight? How are you?” he asks.
“The flight felt longer than usual, but anticipation does that. And I’m . . . better now that I’m here with you,” I answer.
He gives my hand a squeeze. “That’s good. I’m glad to hear that.”
“How are you? How were the holidays with your family?”
“I’m better now too. The holidays were okay. I’m not used to having someone I miss, and my family picked up on that.”
“Oh?” It comes out pitchier than I intend it to.
He glances over and gives me a tight smile. “Don’t worry. They don’t know about you. I won’t say anything, not even to Kody. I won’t put you at risk like that.”
My heart clenches at the way his jaw tightens. “Thank you for understanding. I’m sorry I made the holidays difficult for you.”
“You didn’t make them that way. I’m the one who pursued you. I understand the limitations and restrictions.”
I wonder if part of the allure for both of us is that this has the added bonus of being not only taboo, but secretive too. We’re only real in the cosmos we create with each other.
I internally berate myself for going down that rabbit hole mere minutes after I’ve gotten what I want, which is time with Maverick.
I bring our clasped hands to my lips and kiss his knuckles, finding myself wanting to know about all the things I’ve missed over the past two weeks and wishing I could have seen him with his family.
He’s clearly close to them the same way I am to mine.
Or as close as I can be when they live in Florida.
“Tell me what you did,” I say. “How’d you spend your time? I want to know more about your parents. Did you play hockey with your dad? Tell me about your mom and her filter-less antics.”
“I played some hockey and spent time with Kody, which was good. Lavender and I had a heart-to-heart, I guess you could call it.”
“Was that a good conversation? What did you talk about?”
His jaw ticks. “Yeah, it was . . . helpful, I guess. We talked about what happened at the carnival when she went missing. I’ve never wanted to bring it up with her, because she’d already lived through it.
Why make her do it again, you know? But it’s been weighing pretty heavy on me lately, as you know.
Anyway, she set some things straight for me, and that was good. ”
I squeeze his hand. “That’s great. Do you feel better now? Less like it’s yours to own?”
He blows out a breath. “I think so. Or at least it’s starting to feel that way.
I think I also didn’t want to ask because if her answer had been different, all that guilt I’ve been holding on to would’ve been even heavier.
But I’d been spinning all these worst-case scenarios, and it felt like they were eating me alive.
Fuck. This got heavy real fast.” He shakes his head.
“Anyway, things are better, and that’s what’s important.
And now I’m here with you, which is the icing on the cake of this holiday. ”
I let it go for now, not wanting to push him, but relieved that there’s finally been some healing for him where his sister is concerned. “What else did you do? Did you spend a lot of time with the rest of your family?”
“Oh yeah, my grandparents came to stay with us for a while, so the house was basically a zoo. My Gram-pot is pretty awesome.”
“Gram-pot?” I must have heard that wrong.
“Yeah. He’s a chemist. Spent his career developing medical marijuana strains. He snuck me a couple of cookies without my dad knowing—you know, ’cause they perform random drug tests when you play on the school teams.”
“And your dad wouldn’t like that, obviously.”
“I could get cut from the team if they found out, and potentially lose my shot at the NHL. Weed is pretty tame, but they still don’t want us putting that stuff in our bodies.”
“But you took the risk?” It’s a bit shocking how cavalier he is about it.
“I needed the escape from my head and drinking myself into oblivion didn’t seem like a good alternative.
One cookie isn’t going to stay in my system that long.
It’s more if it becomes a habit that it’s a problem.
My younger brother smokes a lot, but he’s not interested in a professional football career, so he’s not too worried.
And he needs something to mellow him out. ”
“Should I be worried that you needed a cookie to escape your head?”
He gives me a sidelong glance. “Wait until after we’ve fucked each other into next week before you start psychoanalyzing me, Clover.”
I bite his knuckle.
“You wanna use those teeth anywhere else, you know you’re more than welcome.”
I glance at his crotch, which has a prominent bulge. “I’m sure there are places you don’t want me to use teeth.”
“Well, not like—” He gnashes his together a couple of times. “But a light, teasing graze is always welcome—more like when I nibble on your clit.”
I groan and cross my legs, the memory of his mouth between them causing everything to clench. “How much longer until we’re in Pearl Bay?”
“About twenty minutes.” A smirk tips the corner of his mouth. “The center console is a pretty crappy obstruction. Otherwise, I’d offer to stick my hand down your pants.”
I bark out a laugh, then bite my lip and glance between Maverick’s face and his crotch. “I could stick my hand down your pants, though.”
His top lip curls. “I appreciate the offer, sweetheart, but I need to keep my attention on the road, and if my cock is in your hand, I’m going to be hella distracted. You could put your hand down your own pants.”
“Hmm.” I tap my lip. “Now that’s a good idea. Then maybe we can skip some of the extensive foreplay and get to the good stuff faster.”
Maverick makes a face. “The foreplay is the good stuff.”
“You trying to pound the demons out of my vagina is the best part, though.”
He cringes. “That sounds awful.”
“It doesn’t feel awful. In fact, it feels the opposite of awful. Orgasmic, even.” I use my phone to light up the center console. “Where’s your wallet?”
“In my pocket, why?”
“Because if I’m going to fuck my own hand, I’m going to need that little packet of lube you always carry around with you.”
“How do you know I always carry it with me?”
“I’m assuming. And while I don’t normally do things like that, based on how much time you spend on foreplay, I sense that you probably restocked your wallet as soon as you got home.”
“I actually didn’t restock it right away. In fact, I didn’t restock at all until yesterday when I realized I was running out of time to pick up all the things I needed for tonight.”
I hold my hand out.
“You’re serious?”
“Pass me your wallet and find out.”