Page 39 of Maverick

“You’re teasing me.”

“Nope. I am damn good at what I do, Grace.” He was confident in his abilities, which did give me a bit more faith in him, but it didn’t make sense.

“Why are you willing to help us?”

Slate shrugged. “Because Maverick asked us to and he’s my brother. Mabel is like family, and you kept her safe last night, that means something to us. All of us.”

“Fine.” I rolled my yes. “I’ll give you his name, just don’t make me regret it.”

“Never,” he promised easily. “You’re in good hands,” he said with a smile. “Maverick is a good guy. Probably too good sometimes.”

That was a foreign concept to me, but I gave over Trent’s full name knowing that it would lead to my identity.

Sooner instead of later, which meant I needed to brace myself for the inevitable.

Chapter 19

Maverick

After a long day at the clubhouse and our various businesses, all I wanted was to go home, eat some food, and relax undisturbed. I stepped inside my home and inhaled the various scents that assaulted my senses. It felt like a real home. How could I have forgotten that there were two females residing in my home? “Grace?”

“In the kitchen,” she called out, a hint of a smile in her voice.

“Back here, Mr. Maverick.”

I couldn’t help but smile at the sound of Sophie’s greeting. My feet carried me towards the kitchen almost instinctively, and I stopped abruptly at the sight before me. Grace was at the stove, one hand on her hip as she stirred and flipped things on the different burners, while Sophie smiled and hummed as she colored different pictures in that creative way that little kids had about them. I was hit with a pang of longing for something I hadn’t realized—until this moment—that I wanted.

This could be my life.

The thought entered my mind and took hold like one of those strangling vines that climbed up old buildings until they were completely covered. But it wasn’t just a life like this that I wanted, it was this life with these two girls. I wanted the exact picture right here in front of me.

“What smells so good?” I hadn’t come home to such smells since I lived with Mabel.

“Dinner,” Grace answered without turning to face me. “Have you eaten?”

My stomach growled at her question. “I haven’t,” I answered easily, inhaling deeply. “But I, uh, need to take a shower first.” Sweat clung to my body along with the dirt and grit of the day.

Grace turned over her shoulder with a sweet smile that knocked something loose deep in my chest. “I didn’t want to say anything,” she offered with a smile and a sigh.

“Mommy is saying that you stink, Mr. Maverick.” Sophie giggled, scrunching her nose up into an adorable scowl.

I smiled again and shook my head at their teasing, closing the distance between Grace and me. “It’s called man musk,” I whispered in her ear, and a swell of masculine pride shot through me at the shiver my words produced in her.

“Interesting.” Heat filled her gaze as it raked over my body. “Man musk.” The words fell out of her lush mouth on a soft, almost breathless whisper.

My cock twitched in my pants, and I knew it was time to make my escape. “I’ll be back,” I said gruffly and damn near ran from the kitchen.

I needed to get myself under control before I came back down. I stripped out of my clothes and tossed them in the laundry basket inside the bathroom. Then turned on the shower, and almost immediately the bathroom filled with steam and the tension in my shoulders started to fade.

I stepped under the powerful spray and closed my eyes, which was the worst fucking idea imaginable, because there was Grace with that same heated look burning in her green eyes, only now I was naked and alone, though my cock still stood at attention.

I took my cock in hand, loving the way the Grace in my mind licked her lips like she wanted a taste. “Want some?” I asked her in a low, gruff voice.

Without a word, she nodded and dropped to her knees, fisting my cock in a tight grip just the way I liked it. Her pink tongue slipped out and flicked against the tip of my cock.

“Grace,” I moaned, and ran my fingers through her hair.

“Show me how you like it,” she demanded in a throaty whisper.

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