Page 100 of Kept

I shift my eyes away. “Um… I don’t know. Maybe. Is that bad?”

“No,” he breathes, and my gaze flicks back to him. He looks tired, dark circles under his eyes, and I press my finger against them.

“You need to take better care of yourself,” I say quietly. “Always looking out for everyone else, Maverick.”

Even here he’s on edge, looking around, watching over us all.

He half smiles, the lines at the edges of his eyes crinkling. “I’ve never been very good at that.”

He’s really not. I’ve never seen him let go. He’s always so controlled, so aware.

“Dance with me,” I say. The words fall from my lips but as I say it, I realize how much I do want to dance with him. I want to know how he’ll feel against me, how his hands will feel against my skin.

I want to see him lose control.

He stands up with me still in his arms, letting me slide down slowly. He keeps his arms around me as he walks me backwards, his hands sliding down to grip my hips.

The music changes, the pound of the bass becoming something slower, more sultry. I suck in a breath as his hand finds my back, pulling me against him as his hips shift in time to the music. His other hand captures mine, entwining our fingers together as we move.

His grin is unexpected, almost bashful. “You didn’t expect me to be able to dance, did you?”

I bury my answering smile in his chest. “Well, I definitely can’t dance, so we could have been a perfect pair.”

His laugh feels like a victory, so deep in his chest I can feel it in my own. “I wouldn’t say that. Just because you’ve never done something doesn’t mean you never could.”

I gasp as I fall backward, his arm banding across my lower back as he slowly pulls me back up. “Now you’re just showing off,” I say breathlessly, and he smirks at me, his blue eyes bright even in the dim light of the room.

“Oh,” he teases. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”

I laugh as we move around the room, only stopping when I protest half-heartedly that I need a drink. Maverick keeps his arm around me as he leads me back to the table, handing me a bottle of water from the bucket and watching me drink it down.

“Stay with me tonight,” he murmurs, pushing back damp hair from my forehead and wrapping his hand around the back of my neck.

The room feels warmer than it did a moment ago, and as our eyes meet, I nod silently.

“Yes,” I whisper. “I’ll stay with you.”

“Good,” he murmurs, and my throat flexes under his fingers as he slides them to the throat, rubbing his thumb over the fluttering pulse in my neck. “Because I’ve been watching, Zella. And I have a lot of plans to work through with you.”

His voice drops, low and intimate in the tiny amount of space between our mouths. “All sorts of plans.”

My heart thunders in my chest.

I have a feeling his plans might finish me off completely.

37 – Maverick

Theridehomeisquiet. Zella sits in the front with me, my hand gripping her knee as she dozes with her head against my shoulder. Enzo and Ryder talk quietly in the back as I pull up to the house.

When I switch off the engine, they both silence, and I clear my throat.

“She’s mine tonight,” I murmur. “No interruptions.”

Ryder snorts. “Have you got your ropes ready?”

I don’t respond. I don’t need ropes tonight. I have everything I need in the sleeping girl that I carry from the truck. Zella curls herself into me, so trusting as she grumbles incoherently into my chest. Her heavy breathing is the only noise as I carry her up the stairs, my feet pressing softly on the floor as I shoulder open my door and carefully lay her down in my bed and kick off my shoes.

Fuck, she looks good there. Her eyelashes cast shadows on her cheeks as I turn on the lamp next to my bed, her braid catching my eye as I pick it up and begin unraveling it.

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