Chapter 14
He put the movie on that night as a reward for getting his spreadsheets done ahead of time.
Maverick showered and changed into a pair of ancient sweatpants.
He settled on his bed with his beer and turned on the television, making sure to keep the volume low so as not to wake up Nina, who shared a wall with him.
He found Dogs of Despair on Prime, offhandedly noted that it had an almost five-star rating, as he purchased it and pressed play.
Around him, the house settled for the night. As the opening credits rolled, he slipped off his bed and snuck across the hall to check in on Poppy one last time. She was sleeping on her stomach, one arm beneath her, the other flung across her bed.
Mav closed her door with a quiet click and backtracked to his room.
On screen, a beautiful blonde woman with a chic, chin-length haircut and glamorous aviator sunglasses walked into a bank.
Dressed in a short black skirt and a long black jacket that was open at the front, putting her impossibly perfect legs on display with every step she took in her sky-high boots. She carried a black leather suitcase.
When she reached the bank teller, she removed her sunglasses.
Mav slowly lowered his beer as Nina’s big, dark eyes punched through him. He hadn’t even recognized her – and it wasn’t just the wig and the sunglasses. Everything about the woman on screen exuded sex and power, and though anything had yet to happen to prove it, violence.
He supposed that’s what acting was, by definition. Yet it was strange, he realized, to see Nina play someone who may as well have been her antithesis.
The heist scene started so suddenly and occurred so quickly that Mav found himself completely immersed in the film in under a minute. He watched as it continued, as Nina – or ‘Saskia’ – covertly took out the bank’s cameras and then opened fire on the floor-to-ceiling windows.
The glass shattered.
Unsure of what was happening, seeing an escape, the hostages started to flee en masse, pushing and shoving each other through the broken windows until people fell over one another in their haste to escape.
And in the chaos, right as the police cars arrived, the camera panned to Saskia as she stripped her wig, removed her coat, and joined them, the briefcase, now full of money, in her hand.
She clutched it to her and rushed out onto the street, pointing and crying, ‘He just started shooting! Oh, my God!’
The officers swarmed past her.
Saskia continued down the street unhindered. The next shot was a brief close-up of her face, and instead of the smug expression the viewer would expect, she looked devastatingly sad a moment before she put her sunglasses back on.
The plot progressed, as a blackmailed Saskia became more and more volatile and the police protagonist, Jude, started closing in on her, Mav’s beer sat forgotten on his nightstand.
He no longer saw Nina in a wig, playing somebody else.
He saw Saskia, the ex-military single mom, working against the clock to save her daughter from the men who’d kidnapped her.
Approximately halfway through the movie, Saskia and Jude’s paths crossed, and while Saskia knew him, the cop still had no idea that the victim from the bank robbery he was interviewing was actually the robber herself.
Their chemistry was undeniable.
The attraction raw.
And by the time Jude left the interview, his last words to Saskia were: ‘I’m not supposed to do this, but is there any chance I could see you again sometime? Unofficially.’
Saskia slowly nodded.
Jude grinned at her. He tapped his phone once against his palm and said, ‘Ah, I have your details. I’ll call.’
Maverick didn’t hold his breath that it would end happily as Saskia started plotting how she could use Jude, but when she met him for dinner to set her plans in motion and then invited him back to her place, Mav’s heart started to tap.
On screen, Saskia poured Jude a drink and excused herself.
Maybe because he had half been expecting her to shoot the poor bastard, Mav was shocked when she reappeared on screen, this time nude but for a sexy-as-hell, high-waisted thong that defined her subtly curved hips.
But the moment she did, he didn’t see Saskia.
He saw Nina, her small breasts gloriously naked.
Maverick didn’t look away. He couldn’t have, even if he’d wanted to. He did release an agonized ‘Fuuuuck,’ as, on screen, she sauntered over to an equally stunned Jude and then slowly removed her underwear.
Mav exhaled a tight breath as Saskia and Jude tore frantically at each other, their passion clear in their absolute abandon. But all he could think was that the woman completely naked on screen just then, the same woman who he had started something with, had told him to watch this movie.
Maverick looked down at his painfully hard erection beneath the fabric of his sweatpants. He could have finished himself using nothing but a few strokes of his hand and the rest of the scene. But it felt odd, even dirty, when Nina was right next door.
Taking his phone off the nightstand, he shot her a text.
About two-thirds of the way through Dogs of Despair …
He thought she might have been sleeping, but she replied right away.
Oh? What do you think so far?
Maverick grinned at the nonchalance, but he decided to play along.
Great acting. Gotta love a heist movie.
The little typing bubbles appeared and then disappeared. Appeared again.
Glad you’re enjoying it!
Maverick looked down at the text. ‘Glad you’re enjoying it?’ he whispered to himself. What the hell was he supposed to say to that?
He sat down on his bed and stared at his phone, suddenly unsure of himself. Maybe she hadn’t meant anything by it? Maybe this was her best movie, and she had genuinely wanted him to watch it.
It was a damn good movie.
He decided he would go speak to her and got all the way to the door before he simply stopped and banged his head gently against it. ‘What are you doing? Idiot.’
He had promised himself that he would give her the time and space to take that next step, and though he was pretty sure she’d wanted him to watch that scene, it didn’t mean anything until she told him it did.
Because that felt right in his head, he turned towards his shower. He’d take it ice cold and then he’d finish the movie, this time fast-forwarding through any scenes where Nina wore anything less than jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.
He got halfway to his bathroom before a quiet knock sounded.
He knew it was her.
He could feel that static attraction pulling at his skin.
He exhaled one deep breath before backtracking.
He opened the door.
She stood a few feet back, dressed in those little silk pyjamas he’d seen her in that first morning.
She shifted anxiously and clasped her hands together.
Those dark eyes pulled at him. ‘Based on all the rom-coms I’ve watched,’ she whispered, conscious of Poppy across the hall, ‘this is kinda the part of the movie where you’re supposed to knock on my door … ’
Maverick’s heart thumped erratically. He took a single step towards her, watched as those eyes steeled with determination. She was still afraid, he realized. She was afraid and trying not to be. ‘I won’t hurt you.’
‘I know. It’s just … I’m not exactly experienced in this department.’
That gave him pause, but only because he wanted to know how gentle he needed to be. ‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked quietly. And when she didn’t reply right away, but blushed furiously, he added, ‘I want to know how to touch you without scaring you.’
She broke his gaze. ‘I’ve had sex three times,’ she said so quietly.
‘And no, not three partners. Three times total. And mostly because I wanted to test myself, see if I could feel any deeper emotional connection to the men I was with after sleeping with them … And I didn’t,’ she said in a rush.
‘And I’m kinda freaking out. Because I already like you so much, and what if I can’t … ’ She dropped her gaze.
‘Can’t what?’ he asked quietly.
‘Enjoy it,’ she said simply.
There was so much for him to process. To say he was surprised by her inexperience would have been a huge understatement.
Nina wasn’t just a beautiful, famous woman.
She was sweet and gentle and kind and wrapped in a killer body.
She was irresistible, so it was hard to imagine that more men hadn’t broken their backs trying to woo her.
And even over that, he couldn’t quite reconcile that the three men she had been with hadn’t seen that anxiety and inexperience and gone slowly, taken the time to show her how that fire could be kindled.
‘I’ll show you,’ he promised. ‘We’ll go as slow as you need.’
When she nodded, Maverick closed the small distance between them – finally. When she didn’t move, he gently guided her arms around his neck, and the moment she tightened them, he reached down and lifted her.
Her legs wrapped around his waist instinctively and squeezed, sending all the blood in his head to his crotch. As he turned and carried her into his bedroom, closing the door with a kick, he said, ‘Anytime you want me to stop, you tell me. Okay?’
She nodded.
It was enough. Still, he silently promised himself that he’d take care of her, and that he’d show her what her body could do and that a man could be gentle and thoughtful.
‘Mav …’
‘Yeah.’
‘No fingers inside … Please. I don’t like it …’
Maverick stopped walking. He wondered over that. He worried, because she sounded scared. He wanted to ask her for more information but wasn’t sure how, so settled on, ‘Nina, are you sure this is what you want?’
‘Yes,’ she replied firmly. ‘Absolutely. It’s just … He—’
‘He touched you.’ It was not a question. But as he carried her, so light, so small, to the bed, he promised himself that if he ever met the man who had hurt her, he would break those fucking fingers.