Page 20 of Maverick

He laughed huskily. “Don’t know, honestly. Don’t watch TV.”

“Exciting life you lead, Maverick.”

“Sometimes it’s too exciting,” he replied, and I felt the weight of those four words.

“I’m sorry you had a rough day. What do you do when you’re not being a professional biker?”

“Hang out with other professional bikers.”

I laughed out loud and smacked a hand over my mouth. “You can just say it’s none of my business.”

“Seriously,” he said quickly. “We have a clubhouse with a full-service bar, music, pool tables, and dart boards. We hang out and work, it all becomes a little blurred at times.”

Sounded wonderful and chaotic. “Doesn’t sound like a good work life balance.”

“It’s not, but for now it is what it is. What do you do for fun?”

I rolled my eyes. “Pretty much whatever Sophie wants to do. Boring, I know.”

“Sounds like a good mom to me. More than my own mother did for me when she was alive.”

“I’m sorry. That had to be hard.”

“I had Mabel and she was more than enough.”

I couldn’t help but smile at that. “She is a very big personality. Just the grandmother type Sophie needs in her life.” I gripped the phone tighter as I realized my mistake. It was another truth I hadn’t meant to reveal, even though that particular detail wouldn’t reveal my secret.

“Luckily she’s more than enough to go around.”

He was such a laid-back guy and I hated to admit that I had a bit of a crush on him, which was ridiculous. It couldn’t go anywhere for plenty of reasons, but at the top was that I was still married, and he didn’t even know my real name.

“You can talk to me about anything.” The offer came out of nowhere, but I knew he was responding to the fact that I hadn’t revealed much about myself.

“Maybe I will. One day.”

“Good thing I’m a patient man. Good night, Ruby.”

I was still smiling like a fool minutes after we hung up. It didn’t matter how much I told myself that this was silly, the smile wouldn’t fade. Neither would thoughts of Maverick.

Knowing that didn’t stop my hand from slipping between my thighs for the first time since I left Trent in Ohio. It didn’t stop me from sliding through my wet folds and bringing myself to orgasm with images of Maverick with his big hands and his lips all over my bare flesh.

It was the best night’s sleep I’d had in years.

Chapter 9

Maverick

Ruby was hiding something. I wasn’t quite sure what she was hiding or if she was just not at all interested in me, but everything pointed to her having a big secret. We’d spent the past week talking each night before bed, getting to know one another.

Sort of.

She, unlike every other woman on the face of the planet, was not a sharer. She didn’t volunteer information freely and only answered the questions asked, usually in the vaguest terms. I knew she was from the Midwest, Ohio, but I didn’t believe it was Cleveland, and that her parents were dead, that orange was her favorite color. It was all first date stuff most women gave away without a second thought.

Ruby was not most women. I had a deep desire to figure her out, to learn everything there was to know about her. That meant I needed Slate to look into her, something I should’ve done before moving her in with Mabel, but desperate times and all that.

“Oh my god, Mav, thank goodness someone is here!” Ellie rushed towards me, breathless with eyes wide.

“Hey, Ellie, where’s the fire?” Diesel’s woman looked like she was in a hurry. Usually, she was relaxed and calm, but not today.

---