Total pages in book: 149
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 714(@200wpm)___ 571(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
The way he makes me feel.
The way he makes me laugh.
The way he makes me think.
God, the way he sees me. He’s generous. Not even talking about money, but generous with his affection and praise. He’s mere yards away, and I’m fleeing in the other direction.
Alone.
I stand, prepared to go, when the door behind me opens and then snicks closed. I don’t have to turn around to see who it is. I know how he smells. My atoms ignite and italicize, leaning in his direction every time he enters my radius. It’s like my body doesn’t just know him now, but can predict him. The pull between us is barometric.
I don’t make a sound and barely move a muscle, and for a few seconds neither does he, but then he speaks and I even somehow knew exactly what he would say.
“Wagwan, Gorgeous.”
CHAPTER 29
MAVERICK
I’m not sure how to play this.
I wasn’t going to press Hendrix at the party. It’s Zere’s night and I wanted her to feel my friendship and support, but I’ll be damned if Hendrix is leaving this place without at least talking to me. So when I saw her dip out of the party, I excused myself and told Zere I’d be around. Her new guy visibly relaxed. I wanted to tell Charles there’s no need to worry. The woman I want is literally running from me.
“Leaving?” I ask once inside the coatroom. The muscles in her back stiffen as I approach. “Or just hiding from me?”
“Leave me alone, Mav,” she says, still not facing me, but turning her head enough to offer a clear view of her profile.
Full glamour tonight, her face is a vibrant palette of rose cheeks and matte red lips and long, fluttery lashes. So different from the fresh-faced woman with two damp braids tucked beneath a baseball cap, laughing with me in Waffle House. Just as beautiful, though. Just as magnetic. I imagine the long hair she wears tonight streaming over us, curtaining us as she takes the top, riding me in my bed. I have Charlotte Thomas sheets, bespoke, literally made to my specifications with twenty-two karat gold woven into the fabric, and I want to see Hendrix come all over them.
“Leave you alone?” I push the stream of long hair aside and over one shoulder to expose her back. “It’s too late for that, Hen.”
I run the knuckle of my index finger down the shallow basin of her spine. To my fascination, a shiver trembles through her shoulders and goose bumps prickle her arms. She doesn’t pull away, so I risk resting my hands at her hips.
“You look magnificent tonight.” I press closer until the curve of her ass rests in the cradle of my hips. I’ve been hard since the moment I saw her and do nothing to hide the evidence pressing insistently into her softness. She gasps and drops her head forward.
“Mav, we can’t…” She lifts her head and looks at me over her shoulder. “We can’t do this here.”
“Are you saying we can do it somewhere else?” My hands tighten around the lush roundness of her hips, move to palm her waist. “Because my apartment isn’t far away.”
She turns to face me, stepping back and out of my reach. “We can’t do this anywhere, but especially not at Zere’s birthday party.”
“You got the flowers I sent?”
She frowns, but her expression softens. “They were beautiful. I’m sorry I didn’t thank you. It just felt like I should shut everything down for a while.”
“It’s fine. I figured as much. It seemed like you needed a breath to think about things, so I backed off.”
“Thank you. I—”
“But that’s over now.”
“Mav.” She closes her eyes, the lashes long on her rose-dusted cheeks. Her face is a fresco of bold lines and beveled bones and rich pigments. I tip up her chin to get a full view. In her heels she’s my height and we look dead into each other’s eyes.
“Damn, you’re beautiful, Hen.”
A slow smile works its way onto her lips. “I thought I was Gorgeous.”
“Obviously.” I venture a hand back to the curve of her hip and tug her close in cautious inches so she doesn’t pull away again. “Zere’s new guy is here with her tonight. She invited me to the party. How much more proof do you need that she’s moved on?”
“You’re not the kind of man a woman gets over quickly,” she says, eyes fixed on the top button of my shirt and not meeting my gaze.
“You’re speaking theoretically, of course.” I tip her chin up with one finger, locking our eyes together and immediately feeling a tightness in my chest at the vulnerability I doubt she wants me to see. “Why don’t you try me for yourself?”
“So I can be where Zere is now?” She shifts to free her face from my touch. “Psssh. No, thanks.”