Page 2 of Wild Love
“Maybe you should let Charli stay with me when you’re entertaining.”
“Or maybe we cut the other girls, and you could stay at my place and keep us both company.”
I roll my eyes. See what I mean? Not serious. “I can’t believe any line that comes out of your mouth actually works.”
“I don’t usually have to run lines. I mean, look at me. All this could be yours.” He grins as if he knows how absurd he sounds.
“At least shower off the last girl… I’m sorry,girls,before you hit on me.”
He smiles at me, which always makes me feel a little off balance. Not just because he’s totally hot. Maverick has this way about him that, despite all reasoning, he makes people feel important and seen. Or he does me, anyway.
Our attention is drawn upstairs as the apartment door above his opens, and my best friend and roommate, Reagan, and her boyfriend Adam tumble out. Arms around her waist, Adam walks her backward toward our apartment across the breezeway. He presses her against it, devouring her mouth.
“I gotta go,” he says but keeps kissing her. Mav and I are frozen, staring at them. The air crackles with the chemistry between them. A flight of stairs separates us, but I canfeelhow desperate they are for each other.
“Just ten more minutes.” Reagan opens our door, and they disappear into it, slamming the door behind them.
Mav’s deep chuckle sounds beside me. “Want to come in for a few minutes?”
“Not really,” I mumble but follow him.
“What is it with everyone this week? They’re…” I pause, searching for words.
Mav drops Charli in the living room and continues into the kitchen. “Fucking like the world is ending?”
“Yeah, that.” I scan his living area for evidence from last night. I don’t want to sit anywhere that he had sex in the past twenty-four hours.
“It’s the end of an era. People are graduating, moving on…” He holds out a Powerade and a bottle of water. I take the first, and he motions toward the couch.
“I think I’d rather sit outside.”
He cackles like he knows what I’m thinking. If he did, he’d be repulsed with himself and not smiling like a guy… well, like a guy who just had a threesome. To be clear, I’m not anti-threesomes. I’m not really anti-anything when it comes to sex. I’m just so over all of it right now. All of my friends are deliriously in love, and I feel like I’m the last single person. I might not be ready for my own happily ever after, but can’t a girl find a decent guy to date?
The last few guys I’ve met think foreplay is sexting, and dating is meeting up when it’s convenient for them to get drunk and then go back to their place.
“How far did you run this morning?” he asks, holding the door open for me.
I push past him and sit on the second step leading up to my apartment. He falls into the narrow space beside me.
“Just two miles. I have a tour at the Hall of Fame this morning. Some hockey guy named Toby Russo.”
“Oh, right. Coach is salivating over that kid.”
“Not you?”
He takes a long drink from the bottle in his hands and then leans forward so that his elbows rest on his thighs. “He’ll be an asset wherever he goes, but something about him rubs me the wrong way.”
“You’ve met him?”
“Yeah, he was at the Frozen Four. He came up to me after our first game and gave me some tips.”
I snort. “He gave you tips? Seriously?” Maverick is one of the best college hockey players. I’m not just saying that because we’re friends, there’s a list.
“Yeah.” He nods his dark head.
“What’d you do?”
“I told him thanks and walked off.”
