Chapter 15 #2
Maverick was being polite, or, maybe, conscious of how he behaved in front of Poppy. He hovered at the foot of the bed, so Nina flipped it around and held it up for him to see.
‘It’s a great shot,’ he said.
‘Yeah.’ But because she heard the caution in his tone, she added, ‘Markus always frames his best ones for my birthday.’ It wasn’t true. It was an outright lie. But she didn’t want him to worry, didn’t want him to read too much into it. After all, they had come up with ground rules for a reason.
‘While you open that last one, Poppy and I are going to cut this cake,’ Sierra said.
Poppy, in her excitement for cake for breakfast, didn’t argue. She hopped off the bed and ran after Sierra, her happy little voice chatting all the way down the stairs.
The moment they were out of earshot, Nina said, ‘Don’t overthink the photograph. Markus sees people as art, and sometimes he forgets …’
‘I wasn’t overthinking it. I was wondering if I could ask him for a copy.’ He walked around the bed and put his own wrapped gift on the mattress next to her. Before she could move to open it, he leaned down, placed his hands on either side of her face, and brought his lips to hers.
The kiss was as quick as it was hot, over before she could right her addled brain let alone return it. But it still spread through her like wildfire, burning with no thought as to what walls it destroyed.
He straightened, nudged the last gift towards her. ‘Happy birthday.’
‘You guys really didn’t have to go to all this effort,’ she said as she ripped the mangled tape off with quick fingers. ‘I typically don’t celebrate.’
‘At all?’
Nina shrugged. ‘Markus usually forces me to go out. Or, if I refuse, he and Juan come over and harass me into a movie or pizza night.’
Maverick sat on the edge of her mattress. ‘I’m glad he’s there for you. Birthdays should be celebrated.’
‘I don’t know. Celebrating getting older doesn’t always feel fun.’
‘It’s not only a celebration of age. It’s a celebration of you and what you bring to the world.
It’s one day where other people have an excuse to show you how much you mean to them, and the value you add to their lives.
’ He reached out one hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, repeated, ‘Birthdays should be celebrated.’
Nina felt a little choked up, not necessarily because she disagreed, but because his words only proved her earlier thoughts. She had one friend who celebrated her birthday – who celebrated her. One.
But because she didn’t want to be self-pitying on this, the best birthday, she laughingly asked, ‘Oh? And what do I bring to your life, Mav?’
He waggled his eyebrows suggestively, making her laugh.
Nina tore the last of the paper away, but this time, when she saw what the gift was and the emotion clawed up her throat, she had to grind her teeth together to stop it from coming out. Because there, in her lap, was the most beautiful makeup box she’d ever seen.
The wood was dark and smooth beneath her fingers.
The box was long, maybe two feet, and had been designed to sit on a bathroom counter.
The back opened to little compartments meant to hold brushes and eyeliners or mascaras.
The front contained one long drawer beneath which four smaller ones sat.
Two little brass hooks for jewellery were on either side, and when Nina opened the drawers, she saw that they were full of product.
‘Sierra’s half was the makeup,’ Mav said. Reaching forward, he brushed an errant tear off her cheek. ‘I insisted you probably had plenty of your own and didn’t need any with that face anyway. She disagreed, said a woman could never have too much.’
Nina didn’t speak for a long moment, only traced the flowers that were carved into the little drawers at the front of the makeup box, but Maverick was looking at her, and he could see that she was struggling with her emotions.
‘Thank you,’ she managed eventually. ‘These—’ She spread out her arms, encompassing all three gifts. ‘These are the best gifts I’ve ever received.’
‘So, why are you so sad?’
‘I’m not,’ she insisted. ‘I’m just … A little … overwhelmed.’
Maverick didn’t try and talk her down from the wave of emotions as she choked on her tears.
Didn’t he understand exactly what she meant?
Hadn’t he felt that swift kick to the stomach when Nina had thrown her arms around Poppy and invited her to blow out the candles?
In that small moment, Maverick had looked at them, and he’d seen everything he’d ever wanted.
He’d thought: My girls – and then he’d felt that instant punch of panic.
So, he didn’t try and placate Nina now. He understood.
And based on what she’d told him about her childhood, her mother, and, yes, her past lovers, the speed, the intensity, of them was probably even more overwhelming for her than it was for him.
And that was saying nothing of the extremely traumatic incident that had brought them together in the first place …
He did reach for her though, and he did haul her across the two feet separating them and onto his lap.
Nina didn’t laugh as he’d hoped. She snuggled into him and sighed as if she’d found a momentary resting place. Her slender fingers, always so anxious, toyed with one of his shirt buttons. ‘I like this,’ she whispered. ‘I like this too much.’
‘Yeah. Me too.’
He didn’t say more. He couldn’t quite manage it against the weight of his past, which pulled him backwards when he’d rather not remember. But he’d been here before. He’d rushed into a relationship with an unavailable woman, and it had almost destroyed him.
As much as he’d never regret Shannon, because she’d given him Poppy, Maverick didn’t want to relive any of that pain, and saying goodbye to Nina was already going to be difficult enough.
He didn’t give her any false comfort, only held her as she regained her composure, and when she seemed to have levelled out a bit, he said. ‘You look like someone who’s never had cake for breakfast.’
She laughed quietly. ‘Do pancakes count?’
‘No.’
‘Why not?’
‘They’re the wrong flour to sugar ratio to be considered cake,’ he said seriously, and pushing to his feet, started carrying her to the door.
‘Wait! Mav! I’ve got to change.’
Maverick looked down and noticed for the first time that she was wearing the old ‘Rage Against the Machine’ shirt he’d had on the night before and a pair of little shorts. ‘You looked dressed to me.’
‘What if Poppy recognizes your shirt?’
‘Poppy is about as interested in my clothes as she is in vegetables – i.e. not at all.’ Still, he put her down and watched as she quickly lifted the shirt up and off and sent him a playful wink over her shoulder.
Maverick’s mouth watered at the sight of her slender back, bare to his gaze. Because he was standing close to the door, he kicked it shut.
Nina laughed.
He went to her, said, ‘I love the way you look,’ as he approached because it was true, and because he didn’t want to sneak up on her.
She watched him over her shoulder, her dark eyes beckoning him, her mouth set in a sexy smirk, and when he stopped directly behind her, she pressed her bare back into him, welcoming him.
His hands rose to her naked breasts and kneaded.
Leaning down, he trailed his lips over the velvet skin of her neck.
‘I love the way you taste,’ he murmured and lightly bit down on her shoulder.
‘I love the way you fit in my hands.’ To make his point, he cupped both of her breasts, and when she moaned, he whispered, ‘I love those little noises you make.’
‘Mav …’
‘What do you want, Nina?’
‘Touch me.’
Her trust almost shattered him. He knew what she was asking, knew that it took momentous courage after what she’d been through. And then she said, ‘When you touch me, it makes me forget everything else,’ and he groaned aloud.
He took her mouth in a passionate kiss as he slid his hand down, past the waistband of her shorts, breaking the kiss to curse when he slipped two fingers through her and found her soaking wet.
Nina let her head fall back onto his shoulder as she arched into his touch. One of her hands snaked back to hold on to his neck as he began to move, sliding his fingers up and down her damp inner flesh. ‘I’m already so close,’ she whimpered.
‘Fuck,’ he swore again. He slipped a single finger into her, felt those little muscles closing around him. He thrust quickly, pulling almost completely out of her every few strokes to rub the nerves around her entrance.
When she started panting, he gripped her hip with his free hand as if he could anchor himself to earth, to her, and when she closed her eyes and started riding his hand, he brought his lips to her ear and whispered, ‘You’re so goddamn sexy.’
‘Mav …’
‘I could come just from watching you.’
She erupted on a gasp.
Her back bowed.
Her body tightened around his finger, holding him close as the orgasm rolled through her, and when she started sliding down his front, he hauled her into his arms and placed his lips gently on hers.
This kiss was tender and slow and deep, full of everything he felt but couldn’t say. Things like, I want you, I need you, I’ll miss you.
It went on, spinning them through time, and when they finally broke apart, Nina smiled, and she whispered, ‘Best. Birthday. Ever.’