He looks back at the road, not speaking.
“I just want you to know that, while I’m sorry I pushed you, I don’t regret it or what I said. I want you to know that. I mean, I understand if you aren’t ready.”
I see his shoulders move as he gives a few silent chuckles.
“Well, you don’t have to laugh at me. This is hard enough to get out as it is, cowboy.”
“I’m not laughing at you, darlin’.”
“Then what’s so funny?” I snap, losing my patience and throwing my hands up in the air.
His shoulders continue to move. “It’s funny that you think I’m not ready. I’ve already been inside you, darlin’, and I was ready to get back in there the second you came around my dick. It has not one damn thing to do with me not being ready.”
“You don’t have to be crude.”
“I’m not, Leigh. I’m being honest with you. It’s not that I’m not ready, it’s that we aren’t ready. I want you to believe me when I tell you that I’m here for good, and until I can prove that to you, I’m not taking it there. I don’t want to build what we’re starting with a foundation of just sex, even if it’s the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Such a charmer.” I laugh. “I hear what you’re saying, but how are you going to judge when we hit this invisible point of acceptance in our relationship?”
“No clue, Leigh. I reckon we’ll both know when we get there. It might be a week, might be a month, hell—it could take less or more than both of those, but until I stop seein’ you glance at me with worry that it might be the last time in your eyes, I’m goin’ to keep tryin’ to prove to you that I’m here for good.”
20
LEIGHTON
“Poison & Wine” by the Civil Wars
“You know, we could have just walked.”
Maverick laughs, his hand tightening around mine. He doesn’t speak, but the silence is comfortable. I’ve had a smile on my face since he parked his truck and demanded I don’t move until he comes to open my door. My smile might be a little manic, but I can’t help it. This Maverick—the one I’ve had since I opened my door last night—is the one I thought I had lost forever. There is no longer a guard up, keeping him from everyone around him. The heaviness he’s worn since his late teens isn’t anywhere to be found.
He really is giving me all of him.
And all of him is beautiful.
“We could have, but where’s the fun in that?”
I look over my shoulder at his truck, the one that was perfectly clean when we left my house, and my smile grows when I see the amount of mud stuck to it.
“It’s been a long time since I went muddin’. Quinn and I used to go all the time, but then things at the shop picked up for her and the PieHole kept me busy . . . we just hadn’t found time. I forgot how much I loved it.”
“I have claw marks on my arm that tell me a different story, darlin’,” he says with a laugh.
“Oh, hush. That ride just took me by surprise.”
His deep, bellowed laughter rings out around us, and I feel like my heart might explode. When was the last time I saw this? His unabashed hilarity. I don’t even care that I’m the butt of his laughter. I would gladly get back in the truck, take the trail, and scream all over again.
And boy, did I scream.
I completely get why he’s laughing.
Saying I was taken by surprise is a big understatement. You would have thought I was about to come out of my skin the first big mud hole he hit. And true to his words, when I look at his forearm, there are bright red nail marks present.
“You done, cowboy?” I smile.
He holds up his other hand, his shoulders still shaking. I just lift a brow and wait for him to stop, my smile growing as the seconds tick by.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me?” he suddenly asks.
I shake my head.
He closes the distance between us. “Darlin’, if that’s the kind of reaction I get from a surprise ride through the mud, I can’t wait to see what happens when we really get dirty.”
My jaw drops. “Maverick, I’m going to need you not to say stuff like that when you’ve made it clear you’re not going to do anything about it.”
His free hand comes up and cups my jaw, his expression shifting. His eyes darken, as his smile turns mischievous. “Soon,” he whispers with promise.
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Promise me, when we get there, I’ll get those claws back while you scream like that again. This time in my ears, though.”
I groan, a little annoyed and a whole lot turned on. Shifting my feet, I try to ease some of the tension between my legs. “You have got to stop talking like that.”