Maverick

She was going to be the death of me. But I could think of worse ways to go. Lo’s lips danced over mine, her hips rolling over my rock-hard dick, grinding onto me.

“Fuck, Lo,” I choked out and she grinned against my mouth, aware of exactly what she was doing.

“Maverick, stop trying to take control,” she whispered as I tried again to hook my arms around her.

“London,” I warned again. I didn’t hand over power. It made me vulnerable. Weak. It made me feel fucking useless. I needed to feel in control.

At. All. Times.

But this was Lo. She wasn’t out to hurt me or get one over me. She was here for me—with me.

Lo eased away from me, the sudden movement sending licks of cool air dancing across my chest. She stared down at me, her skin flushed with need. But something else was there. Grit. Fierce determination. My girl had a wicked glint in her eyes that had me groaning and my dick straining painfully against my shorts.

“My. Show,” she said again, raising an eyebrow.

Fine.

She wanted to play it that way, I’d let her think it was all her show. I nodded slowly, swiping my thumb across my bottom lip as I watched her rise onto her knees giving her enough room to work my shorts down my legs. My dick sprang free, her fingertips grazing the tip. I thought I might explode right then. It had been too long—too fucking long—since I felt her wrapped around me. Warm and soft and perfect.

Lo sunk down on me and my head dropped back, my eyes shuttering, as I breathed out a long groan. She felt so good. Like soft velvet. And, for a moment, she erased all the pain radiating through my body. 

But I needed more. 

As if she heard my silent plea, Lo rolled her hips, setting a slow torturous pace. Long dark hair hung over her shoulders and I wanted nothing more than to bury my hands in it, but my muscles were like lead.

“Oh, fuck,” fell from my lips as she moved again, and pleasure exploded through me. “Condom,” I rasped out as an afterthought. “We need a con—”

“Pill, I’m on the pi—oh, God.”

That was good enough for me. Now I’d felt her—all of her—there was no way I’d ever have her any other way. And I loved it.

I loved her.

Fuck, did I love her.

“Are you okay?” She paused, glazed eyes snapping to mine. 

I stared up at her, unsure how to answer that because I wasn't okay. I was so fucking gone. Completely at her mercy. Lo owned me. Plain and simple. She had ever since that night on the beach. And I'd walked away.

I'd lost her once, but she was here now. She was mine, and I’d do everything in my power to keep it that way.

“Maverick?” Her voice softened, and I gave her a wicked smirk.

“Show's over,” I said somewhere between a groan and a growl. Reaching out, I clamped my hand around her waist. She gasped as I lifted her gently and pulled her back down, flexing my hips up at the same time. It hurt like a bitch. Indescribable pain rippling from my pectorals down to my groin but it was worth it. 

Worth it to see Lo's eyes half-closed with pleasure, to hear her labored breaths and my name falling from her lips in a whispered prayer. 

“Maverick, God,” she panted, tracing her fingertips over my bruises. “More, Rick, I need more.” Lo leaned forward, barely able to stay upright, lost to the sensations washing over her. 

She needed this as much as I did. It was right now, like this, that all the bad shit—all the stuff with her dad, and the accident, and my dad, and our fucked-up families—disappeared. There was just the two of us. 

And it was fucking perfect. 

I flexed my hips again, changing the angle. My fingers dug into soft flesh, anchoring her on top of me. I could stay like this forever. Lo wrapped around me like a glove. One of my hands skated up her toned stomach and over her perfect tits. Her body shuddered, and I did it again. What I really wanted was to pull her down to me and lick and suck until she was writhing above me and screaming my name, but my pain threshold was already at breaking point.

Lo’s moans turned into a string of whimpers as I went at her harder. Faster. Beads of sweat rolled down my forehead as I tried to push down the agony and focus on her.

Lo.

Lo.

Lo.

The world stilled, went quiet, and then shattered into stars as I came. Lo flopped down beside me as I tried to catch my breath. My gaze followed her. Flushed skin, eyes heavy with desire, I gulped down the rush of emotion in my chest.

“What?” Her voice washed over me.

“You.”

She smiled, tracing patterns along the ridges of my stomach with her fingers. “Me?”

There was so much I wanted to tell her, to confess. But the words lodged in my throat. I reached for her, brushing her hair out of her face. “Thank you. I needed that.”

A slow smirk tugged at her lips as she stared at me. And I swear, in that moment, it was like she could see into my soul.

“Will you think about it?”

“About what?” I played dumb, still riding the high of her body pressed against mine. Her moans. How she looked when she came apart around me.

“About Steinbeck University.”

“Yeah, I’ll think about it.” I don’t know who was more surprised I’d said it, me or her. But I wanted college. And I wanted basketball. Fuck, did I want basketball. It’s all I’d ever wanted. From what little I knew about Steinbeck University, it was a good school but their team, The Scorpions, was a different story. They’d never made it past the sweet sixteen in their sixty years of Division I basketball and even then, they had only reached the finals a handful of times. They weren’t a team known for molding players into pros. But it was closer to home. Closer to Lo. And it was all I had right now.

“If he finds out—” Darkness edged into my euphoria.

“He won’t. He doesn’t have to know. We can be careful. Maybe they’ll even have a scholarship you can apply for.”

It didn’t matter. It was never about the money. Mom had trust funds in place for me and Macey, and Gentry would take care of Kyle and Summer. It was only ever about protecting them from my father. By letting him control me—my future—it kept them out of his claws. But if Gentry meant what he said; if he could find a way out of his contract with my father, maybe I had a shot at a future I wanted. A future I earned without his name or money or loaded threats.

“Maverick?” Lo brushed her nose across my shoulder. “What is it?”

“I want it, Lo. Steinbeck University and basketball, and you, and a future without being his puppet.”

I wanted it so much I could taste it. But I wasn’t foolish enough to think there wouldn't be a price to pay. Nothing in this life came free. And I knew my father which meant I knew things were about to get a whole lot worse before they got better.

~

“Didn’t expect to see you up and about yet.” Kyle shot me a questioning look and I went to reply, but Mom beat me to it.

“He’s not supposed to be up and about yet.” Her eyes narrowed, dropping to my arm which hung protectively over my side.

“I can’t sit around any longer. I’m going out of my mind.”

“Maverick,” she sighed. “You need to heal. And if you’re back at school, don’t for one second doubt I don’t think you’ll be back on the court.”

“I won’t, I promise. But I can still watch; help Coach run plays. Be there for the team. I’m the captain, Mom, I should be there. Besides, Coach won’t risk me getting injured any more than I already am.” With regionals looming, I needed to be there.

She pinched her temples and I saw the stress etched in her features. Since our conversation about my father, she’d aged.

“I’ll be fine.”

“Of course he will, he has the lovely Lo to look after him; right, brother?” Macey appeared from behind me and made a beeline for the plate of bagels.

“May as well get over it, Mace. Didn’t you get the memo? Prince and Lo are the real deal.” He was joking but it wasn’t helping things.

“Kyle,” Mom said at the same time as I groaned, “Stone.”

“Maverick doesn’t date.” She shot me a terse glare. “He hasn’t even looked at anyone since Caitlin, and we all know how that ended. And you’re trying to tell me this is any different? He’ll screw her over, if she doesn’t screw him over fi—”

“We get it, Mace. You don’t like Lo and you don’t like that I lied to you.” I held her unforgiving gaze. “Look, I get it. I screwed up and I should have told you sooner. I’m sorry, okay? But Lo isn’t going anywhere.”

Mom let out a strained sigh, watching our exchange with trepidation. We’d always been a united front. It had always been Macey and me against the world. But not now. Not since the day I walked into the kitchen and saw Lo standing there. And part of me hated the distance between us, but my sister needed to know if she wanted to draw a line, I’d be on Lo’s side every damn time.

“Okay, okay.” Mom finally broke the stifling silence. “I have to get to work. I have an early meeting. Can I trust you all enough not to kill each other before breakfast?”

“Who’s killing who?” Summer breezed into the room. Sixteen looked good on her. Although, something told me her new found confidence had more to do with Nick than her recent birthday.

“No one is killing anyone. Summer, since your older siblings can’t agree to disagree, you’re in charge. Okay?” My baby sister stared at Mom like she’d grown a second head. “It’ll be fine. I’ll see you later.”

“She’s joking, right?” Summer said as soon as Mom disappeared, and Kyle hopped down off the stool and ruffled her hair.

“What do you think?” he glanced between me and Macey and she scowled. “For as much as I want to stick around and watch this, I have shit to do. You need a ride?” he said to Summer and she shook her head.

“Nick’s picking me up.” Her eyes slid to mine, and I saw the hesitation there. She expected me to speak up—to have a reason as to why she couldn’t ride with him. But I swallowed it down. He was a good guy. He loved her and even though I hated it—hated the very idea that she was involved with anyone—Lo was right, I had to learn to ease up where she was concerned.

“Macey?” Kyle arched his brow at her.

“Come on, Mace,” I said. “You can still ride with me.”

“Are you riding with Lo?”

I didn’t answer. She knew.

“Give me ten minutes,” she said to Kyle before storming out of the kitchen.

“Well, that went well.” He came to stand beside me. “Want me to talk to her?”

“Nah.” I rubbed my jaw. “She’ll come around.”

I hoped.

I had enough to deal with without the girls in my life fighting. But Macey had taken an instant dislike to Lo. My sister hated change. Wary of strangers, of their motives and hidden agendas, she trusted people less than I did. Or maybe she saw the way I watched Lo. The way I acted around her. Whatever it was, I’d have to deal with it eventually. But today was not that day.

Kyle clapped me on the back and barked a laugh. “Good luck with that one, Prince. I’ll see you at school. You’re good to drive?” He cast me a sideways glance and I nodded.

“Only one way to find out.”

“Crazy sonofabitch,” he murmured as he left the kitchen.

I loaded a plate with some fruit and a bagel and sat at the island. Summer joined me. “I’m sorry I missed your birthday.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“It isn’t,” I said. “I messed up.”

Summer met my eyes and gave me a sad smile. “Yeah, you did. I’ve never seen Mom like that, Rick. She was…” her voice trailed off, but the pain in her voice twisted my gut in a way I hadn’t expected. “I heard Kyle say he and Lo dragged you out of there. Is it true?”

Lump in my throat, I nodded.

“I can’t imagine…”

“Sum, come on, I’m fine. And it won’t happen again.” No matter how much the darkness ate away at my soul, I wouldn’t step back in that ring. It was a promise I’d made not only to Lo but to myself.

“I love you, Maverick.” Summer lifted her head, sitting tall. She might have been two and a half years younger than me, but in that moment, I felt small. “But if you hurt Lo, God help me I will never forgive you.”

My mouth hung open as I tried to form words, but I had nothing.

I didn’t ever want to hurt Lo. She was the one good thing in my life. I needed her the way I needed air. But Summer knew. She knew my MO. I pushed people away. When shit got too hard or things didn’t go my way, I put up walls so high no one could break through.

And for as much as I wanted to tell her she was wrong—that she had nothing to worry about—I was Maverick Prince. It was a title that came with expectations. I was son to Alec Prince and a pawn in his game. So, while I wanted nothing more than Steinbeck and basketball and a future with Lo, I wanted to protect her more.

Even if I ended up hurting her in the process.