Our lips connected, full of silent promise and understanding. Maverick's hands slid up my arms, eliciting a shiver along my spine, and buried themselves deep in my hair. 

He was usually so cold and untouchable, but heat flowed between us. Something was different about him. He was gentle. Soft. Holding me as if he couldn't believe this was really happening. Handling me like fragile glass he didn’t want to shatter. But as the kiss deepened, the Maverick I’d come to know resurfaced.

His hand curved around my neck holding me in place as he took control. He pulled me away slightly, enough for his mouth to hover over mine. “Maverick?” I whispered as he watched me. Obliterated me with his darkened gaze.

That wicked smile tugged at the corners of his mouth and he leaned in, sucking my bottom lip between his teeth, chasing the sting away with his tongue. A low growl rumbled in his chest and in one swift movement he scooped me against him until my soft curves fit against the hard ridges of his chest like two pieces of a puzzle. 

“Do you know what you do to me?” His gaze travelled over my face, searching my eyes. “How fucking crazy you make me? I can't think straight, London. You're in here.” Maverick clasped my fingers in his and tapped our joined hands to his temple. 

“The feeling's mutual.” I admitted, earning me another wicked grin. 

“Enough talking.” He gave me a lazy smirk as he lowered me to the floor and unzipped my dress. It tumbled down my body like warm butter and his hungry gaze swept over me sending another shiver through me. His irises were obsidian with lust. Maverick wasted no time stripping out of his shirt. My eyes danced over his tanned body. Drinking in every smooth dip and hard plane. I reached out, desperate to touch him but he caught my wrist and tugged me forward, capturing my lips again. My hands went to his belt, pulling and fumbling until we were nothing but skin on skin. Maverick tilted my head, licking a path from the column of my neck to my ear, drawing a soft moan from me. God, this feeling would never get old. The way he played my body like an instrument. Brought me to life and made me fly. He was my addiction. I craved the high. The escape. And I wanted to lose myself in him and never come back.

Lust took over and before I knew what was happening, Maverick pushed me down onto the bed, covering me with his body. “I've waited too long for this.” His voice was raw with need as his fingers dipped inside my lace pants and glided across my centre. 

“Oh God,” I panted, clinging to his shoulders.

“You're mine, Lo. Mine.” Maverick devoured my mouth, swirling his tongue with mine, owning me. Claiming me.

And I gave him everything.

In a strange way, it had always been him; the mysterious dark-eyed boy on the beach last summer. He’d hurt me that night, but it hadn't stopped me daydreaming about him when I returned to England. About his story. The secrets behind his dark indefinable expression. 

I wanted to know him.

To uncover the story behind his cold exterior.

Maverick curled a finger inside of me, and another, working me faster until I was a blur of moans and sensations, and my world shattered around me. But he gave me no time to catch my breath as he shucked out of his boxer briefs, rolled on a condom, and pushed inside me. “Fuck,” he groaned, but he didn’t move.

“Maverick?” His name pierced the heavy silence.

“I just need a minute.” His chest heaved with the force of his ragged breath, and then he rolled into me and we both groaned.

My legs pressed against his hips. I needed more. Maybe it was my need to escape—my addiction—or maybe this thing between us was real.

It didn't matter. It would later when the spell broke and reality came back. But right now, all that mattered was this.

Us.

“Lo?” Uncertainty filled Maverick’s voice as he eased back to meet my gaze.

“Don’t stop,” I pleaded, arching my body up to his, fingers raking down his shoulders.

He searched my eyes, but I slammed my lips to his, pouring everything I felt—everything I needed—into the kiss. And relief washed over me when Maverick responded, kissing me deeper, harder. Each stroke of his tongue matching his thrusts.

Delicious heat spread through me, burning and deadly. Maverick sucked the salty skin along my jaw, whispering dirty words in my ear. How good I felt wrapped around him. How he wanted to hear me scream his name. I was so lost in him—in the way he felt stretching me, how his naked body felt pressed against mine—I was barely present. So far gone I almost missed him say, “I wanted you that night, so much. I wanted to lose myself in you. To make it stop.”

But then stars exploded behind my eyes and waves of pleasure crashed over me, and Maverick’s declaration melted away with my contented sighs and quivering limbs. 

~

“What time is it?” I murmured.

“Past seven.” Maverick's husky voice made my stomach flutter and my pulse quickened. Then it dawned on me.

“No one will come in here, right?” I could think of nothing more embarrassing than Rebecca or Macey… or even worse, Gentry, barging into the pool house and finding us wrapped up in each other. 

“Don't worry, we're good.” He pulled me closer, pressing a soft kiss to my hair.

Maverick… soft and gentle. It went against everything I knew about him, yet it felt completely normal. We lay in comfortable silence for a little longer, but I knew we couldn’t stay here forever. There were things we needed to talk about.

“So...” 

“So...” he laughed around his reply and I felt his lips curve against my skin. “It's too early to think, Lo.”

“Can I ask you something?” Maverick let out a groan of frustration but I continued, anyway. “Kyle knows about us?”

He rolled me onto my back and hovered over me. “What do you think?”

“Did you—”

“Did I tell him?” He shook his head. “I didn't need to. He knew the second I laid eyes on you.”

“He knew?” I whispered confused about what this meant.

Maverick grazed my lips with his own and the need for him built again. But I needed to hear this so I tamped down the urge to wrap my legs around him.

“We got drunk one night, right after I called things off with Caitlin, and I ended up telling him about the mysterious girl I met on the beach last summer. He didn't tell me it was you though. I guess he wanted me to find out the hard way.”

Kyle knew.

He'd known all along.

Even though I suspected he knew something, I didn’t realise he knew about last summer. I didn’t know how to feel about it.

All this time, he’d known.

And he’d never said a word.

“What happened with Caitlin, Maverick? I saw you that night on the beach, at Brendon Palmer’s party, and that night when you kiss… almost kissed me.”

Maverick went rigid, a stony mask slamming over his face. “You don't need to worry about Caitlin. She won't pull that shit again. It was over way before you got here.”

But I did worry. Maverick might not have wanted her, but she still wanted him. And the way she'd declared open season on me at the dance told me it was only the beginning.

Silence stretched out before us. Maverick tucked me into his side once more, drawing lazy circles along my ribcage, his lean body cocooning mine. There was so much I still wanted to know, to ask, but for now, I was happy to enjoy the moment.

If I didn’t ask the question on the tip of my tongue, we could pretend everything was fine. But the longer we lay there the harder it became.

I wasn’t that girl. 

Maybe before the accident, I could have been. But not now.

Too much had happened, and I needed to know where I stood because for the last three months, Maverick said one thing and did another. He was here now, but what happened once I left?

“I can hear your thoughts from here,” he pulled me closer.

“What happens now, Maverick?”

He shifted over me and caged my body with his. His eyes captured mine, holding me there, and then he lowered his face, touching his head to mine. “I need you, Lo.” He breathed out, and I held my breath, waiting. “I don’t know what tomorrow brings or the next day or the one after that but I need you.”

“Maverick—”

“Don’t ruin this. Not now. Not yet. Please.” The plea in his voice surprised me. Maverick didn’t beg—for anything. “Things are complicated, Lo. I’m complicated, but I’m done pretending. I meant what I said. I walked away once, I won’t do it again.”

There was a but in there somewhere—a pretty big one if I knew Maverick.

And I did.

But it was already too late. I was a goner the second he showed up at the dance. Maverick cared. He'd cared all along and it was enough.

For now, it was enough. 

 

 

Lo and Maverick’s story continues in Wicked Rules, coming January 2018

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… and if you enjoyed Wicked Beginnings keep reading for an excerpt of Liar Liar