Chapter 14 Maverick
Maverick
When I get to the penthouse, it’s just me and Zeus…the dog I’m pretty sure likes watching Phoenix get railed more than I do.
Of course Conrad isn’t here. He’s busy being pulled in a million directions, fixing issues and making plans.
I’m just picking up the slack, dealing with promotions and soothing over issues the front desk and concierge don’t have the authority to handle.
I take a deep breath and try to remind myself that it could be worse. No one is looking to me to solve the hard shit. I get the simple stuff, the fun stuff. Like Phoenix and her aftercare.
Storm is taking care of culling the weak employees and dealing with the lawyers. Atticus gets to run numbers—ugh—and hunt down the hackers. Just the idea of staring at all that code endlessly scrolling on a monitor makes my skin itch.
Con is playing master of the universe. It sounds like fun, but I know better. Master of the universe means that all the responsibility lands on him. Sure, he gets the praise if we succeed, but he also takes it on the chin if we fail.
Fuck that noise.
I get to plan parties, approve special cocktails, pick the colors and cuts of bikinis for the models we’re hiring to be waitresses at one of the poolside parties.
The hardest part of that job is making sure they all sign ironclad NDAs, that they are well compensated, and that the bouncers are watching for any signals the waitresses might give if a patron gets too handsy.
Anyone could do this shit, and since the skills I have are the same Con has—but not as good—it all lands on me.
I should be thrilled, so why does it feel like a noose?
Con comes in with Phoenix asleep in his arms, dressed in what looks like a bathing-suit cover-up for a woman four times her size.
“Couldn’t find a circus tent?” I ask.
“I had something run up from the gift shop. I told them I needed something that would cover her completely, and this is what they sent.”
“Okay, then.”
“Look, she came hard, and she came a lot. I pushed further than I should have, and normally I wouldn’t give a fuck, but…”
“But it’s Phoenix,” I nod, then add the words I know Con won’t. “This girl is different, and it isn’t just because Storm wants to keep her.”
“Right. I have shit to do, and I thought maybe you would like to…”
Jesus fucking Christ, this is hard for him.
“You want me to babysit the babysitter?” I raise my brow, waiting to see if that is what he really thinks she needs.
“Yeah, I don’t want her running off again and causing more problems. Especially since we don’t know who is after us and I don’t want her being used against us.”
Con is so full of shit.
He doesn’t want her to wake up alone, in case she goes through some kind of drop. He also doesn’t have the balls to be the one who holds her. He doesn’t want to be vulnerable with her, and after the marathon of orgasms it's clear she had, she’s going to need that.
I’m not sure I can blame him for that one.
He opened up to her once before, completely, and when she left him…it destroyed something in him. Maybe having her back will help him heal the gaping hole in his chest that she created, but he isn’t ready to trust yet.
I, on the other hand, have no problem being there for her. I crave it. Crave the comfort I’ll give her. The post-orgasm haze she’s going to have is more erotic than watching her suck Conrad’s dick.
“Fine,” I say, crossing my arms like it’s some big inconvenience. “But I’m not staying with her here. If I’m doing this, it’s in my bed.”
I take Phoenix from his arms and carry her into my room, lying her down on my smooth satin sheets.
Zeus, the world’s best wing-dog I’ve decided, follows me in and plops himself down on the dog bed that I definitely didn’t order as soon as it was clear we were keeping the pup.
This wasn’t how I was planning on getting Phoenix today, but fuck it. Carefully, I slide that monstrosity she’s wearing off of her and tuck her into one side of my bed, then kick off my shoes. I throw my shirt across the room and crawl in next to her.
“Conrad?” she asks, low and groggy, as the mattress dips beneath me.
My head drops, the sound of his name on her lips slicing through me.
I clear my throat. “No, Firebird. It’s me. Sleep. You need to rest. I’ll be here when you wake up.”
“Maverick,” she purrs and snuggles into my arms, her head resting on my chest above my heart. That should be enough to soothe my irritation at her calling me his name, but it doesn’t. I wind a piece of her hair around my finger and stare up at the ceiling.
I can’t help it. All day I have looked at the faces of people expecting Conrad and getting me instead. Everyone from the front-of-house managers in the restaurants to the women I escorted out of the business center. Even the managers of the teams looked at me like they were getting the second best.
Even now, Phoenix, who’s sexually satisfied and asleep in my arms, is only like that because of him.
I push down those thoughts.
Conrad is my brother.
He doesn’t act as if he’s better than me, even if everyone else thinks it.
I close my eyes and go through the breathing technique Phoenix taught me when we were children. We couldn’t have been older than ten.
It was in the middle of summer when I first saw her for the first time. And god, once I saw her, I couldn't ever look away.
Her clothes were cheap and wrinkled, her honey hair all wild tangled curls, freckles dotting her nose.
“Whose child is that?” my mother asked from between clenched teeth. We were in the lobby, just getting back from a morning out on the boat.
“I—uh, I’m not sure,” the front desk girl said, shaking at the irritated look my mother was giving her.
“Well, find out,” she hissed.
“I think her dad is at one of the poker tables,” I said.
I don’t know how I knew who she was. The Titans and I never went to a public school, but I knew who the girl running around the hotel was.
“She doesn’t have a mother. Her father works as a mechanic here.
I think he’s the head mechanic, and he pretty much signs his paychecks over to the casino as soon as he gets them. ”
“What?” My mother’s glare swung in my direction. I forced myself not to shrink away. That glare always made me feel…wrong.
“T-they say the girl is pretty quiet, doesn’t bother anyone, and sometimes she helps the maids fold towels so they let her stay. Her mother used to be a maid, but she died.”
“How do you know all of this?” My mother grabbed my arm, her polished acrylic nails cutting into my skin. I didn’t cry. I didn’t make a sound.
I never did.
“I listen,” I lied. “I overheard the manager talking about her. They say even if they give her a sandwich and let her play in the pool, it’s a net positive for the resort, and the maids like her. They are pretty sure a few of them stay on with the job just to look after her.”
“You overheard all of that?” One thin eyebrow arched at me as I nodded.
I hadn’t overheard it. Conrad did, and he filled us in. He had spotted the girl first and wanted to know more.
“Why? Why do you care?”
“I like knowing what’s going on around me.” It’s another lie, but one my mother wants to hear. “People say things all the time that they don’t realize I can use.”
“Well, I guess the Masterson boy may not be the brains after all.”
Conrad was never the brains, but my mother didn’t know that. The smart one was always Atticus, but I knew better than to correct her. Still, when she looked at me with something other than annoyance and disappointment, I felt taller, stronger.
Almost proud.
I looked back at the girl, and this time she was watching me too…and I felt seen. Like she wasn’t expecting someone else. Like she knew who I was, what I was…and maybe she didn’t find me lacking.
That was the moment I fell for her, long before I had ever talked to her.
And that secret is one I thought I’d take to my grave.
A week after that, my parents started fighting. My mother had caught my father with a younger woman. It was the first ugly fight where they used me as a weapon against each other. It proved that neither of them really gave a damn about me.
I ran out of our suite, and I couldn’t breathe. Tears streamed down my face, and it felt like my lungs were going to explode. I wanted to get someone, an adult, to call an ambulance. But they didn’t find me.
She did.
She knelt in front of me and took my hand.
“You need to box breathe. It’s going to hurt, but it helps,” she said, looking right into my eyes.
“What? No, I need a doctor. I’m going to die.”
“No, you aren’t; it just feels like you are. Take a deep breath, as deep as you can, and count to four.” She lifted her hand and pointed her finger, drawing an invisible line in the air.
My eye went immediately to the dirt beneath her nail, but I dismissed it and took a breath with her, my lungs screaming.
“Now hold it for four.”
She drew the line to the right, and I followed her finger, noticing how it was bent a little funny, like it had been broken at some point and not reset correctly.
We held our breath for a four count together.
“Good, now let it out slowly, count to four again.” Her finger moved down. “Now hold it again for four.”
Her finger returned to the exact spot it started.
“Again.”
We sat and breathed together, her fingers drawing those boxes in the air with each breath.
“Better?” she asked.
I nodded.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Phoenix.”
“Like the city?” I asked. We had a resort in Scottsdale. The city was nice enough, but why would you name a girl in the South after a city in the desert?
“Nooo, like the mythical firebird,” she said slowly, like I was slow. I didn’t like it.
I could handle anyone else looking at me like that, but not her.
“You can’t tell anyone,” I said. If my father knew about this, the lectures…and worse…would be never-ending. It would be just another way I wasn’t as good as the others. More proof that I was the weak link.