Page 105 of Wilds of Wonder
“Are you having sex with Hot Professor yet?” he challenged. “Annalee said you two disappeared somewhere together earlier.”
I crossed my arms. That girl was downright mischievous. “No, we were doing some investigating.”
“Of course you were.” Driscoll stood, walking over to his wardrobe and opening it. He grabbed a black jacket that was far too big for him and shrugged it on. “So I listen to your wise words, but you won’t listen to mine?”
“I did listen. It doesn’t mean I have to take your advice.” I strolled across the room to look out the window, but my feet got tangled in something, and I tripped, falling to the ground with a crash.
“Emory!” Driscoll ran to me, crouching down.
“What in the blood and frost...” I trailed off, seeing that the strap of a satchel was wrapped around my slippers. Maverick’s satchel.
“What is that doing in your room?” I asked Driscoll.
“Oh.” He crawled to it, unentangling it from my feet and lifting it. “Aron brought it to Maverick’s room, but you all were off on your little adventure, so I told him I’d keep it in here until Maverick got back.” His face turned thoughtful. “So really I have Maverick to thank for our sexcapades. I wouldn’t have invited Aron in and had the best sex of my life if it weren’t for Maverick forgetting his satchel?—”
In his attempt to free it from my slipper, it had opened up, all its contents dumping out onto the ground.
“Oh, spirits below.” Driscoll knelt down to pick everything up. He lifted a folded piece of parchment. “Why does he have so much parchment? Was he planning on writing a ton of letters while he was here? Sending them off in the post?” He scoffed.
I stared at all the parchment on the ground. Hundreds of little notes, folded. Not just any notes.
Mine.
I scrambled forward, picking them up and opening them in a frenzy. Reading them. My handwriting. My words. And he’d kept every single one. He—brought them with him.
“You know, that’s kind of an invasion of privacy.” Driscoll stuffed a few back in Maverick’s satchel. “I’m all for snooping, but I think I’m actually going to have to put my foot down here.”
“I wrote these.” I held one up, showing Driscoll the WH.
His eyes widened. “You wrote these?” He glanced back down at the papers scattered everywhere. “And he kept them? And brought them on his journey? Hot Professor is a romantic.”
I sat back, surrounded by all the notes I’d written over the years, stunned.
“This has to change your mind, right?” Driscoll asked, shaking one of the pieces of parchment. “If you don’t kiss that man, I might.”
I gave him a look.
“Okay, I probably won’t because of all the sex I’m having now, but Hot Professor deserves to be kissed by someone! Preferably the woman he loves. He risks his life for you, risks his career for you, and now this?”
I stopped abruptly, Driscoll’s words hitting me.
“Hello?” Driscoll waved a hand over my eyes. “Is anyone in there?”
“You’re right,” I said slowly. “He’s risked his life for me over and over. He risked his career helping me escape from the frost guards. He risked his career just by being the bone collector.”
“Uh, yeah?” Driscoll scratched his head. “I know.”
“No.” I stood and began pacing. “You don’t understand. It’s not just that he put me before his job, he puts my life before his. Constantly.”
“Uh-huh,” Driscoll said. “Everyone knows this. I told you he’s kind of obsessed with you.”
I thought about that vision in the lake. It supposedly told my future, and I’d believed it. I’d believed it over not just Maverick’s words, but his actions. He’d shown me time and time again that he was willing to put me before everything.
“You’re having a huge realization, aren’t you?” Driscoll asked, then waggled his finger at me. “I can tell by the way your eyes have gone as wide as saucers. About time, by the way.”
“I love him,” I said, grabbing a handful of the notes. “And he loves me. And I don’t care what a stupid lake showed me. That won’t happen to us.”
“You’ve lost me on the lake thing,” Driscoll said. “But it sounds like you’re ready to finally sex up Hot Professor, so yay?”
