Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,25

brought her lips to mine and I smiled against them.

“That’s my girl,” I whispered against her lips and when we parted and I looked, her face was shuttered, stony, and unreadable.

I made a mental note that something about that bit of praise bothered her and vowed to change it up.

“Now come here,” I ordered gently, pulling her down into my arms, tight up against my side. She settled and while it was wary, it was also eager in the way she did it. She smoothed some of her long hair behind her ear before resting it on the upper swell of my chest – or what passed for it on my slender frame.

“Now what?” she whispered, and I smiled.

“Now, we sleep.”

Chapter Eight

Marisol…

I woke to a gentle sweeping touch along my nude back. I sucked in a startled breath and hugged the pillow to my chest out of reflex, my head coming up and turning on my neck to take in Maverick, fully dressed and sitting on the edge of the bed framed in the daylight pressing in at the edges of the bedroom’s window’s blinds.

“What time is it?” I asked, my voice coming out sultrier than I intended as I chased the cobwebs of my lingering sleep out of my head.

“Not too late,” he answered. “At least by my standards.”

I pushed myself up and he sucked in a sharp breath. I froze.

“You do that, I might get undressed to fuck you all over again,” he declared, his voice rough with need.

“Don’t threaten me with a good time,” I teased gently. “Seriously though, did I miss something? Do I need to get up?”

“Only if you want to come with me. I figured I would give you the option.”

“Where are we going?” I asked, not wanting to be left behind. At least, not today. I was sure I would want some alone time at some point, but not yet. I didn’t know how I would feel left alone in Maverick’s house so soon.

“The club,” he answered. “I have paperwork and shit to do.”

I nodded slowly and pushed myself up again into a sitting position. This time, it was met with just a rakish curve of his lips, an appreciative smile filled with lust.

“I have time for a quick shower?” I asked softly.

“That you do. You drink coffee?” he asked.

“Um, yeah.”

“Good deal, I’ll get some going.”

I showered swiftly after clipping up my hair to keep it from getting wet. It was a bit of a challenge given the rainfall feature of the shower, but I managed. When I got out, Maverick was moving around the kitchen. I skirted around the doorway and back into his room where my pack lay.

Dressing swiftly, I pulled my hair up into a high ponytail, smoothing things out when he ducked around the doorway with a travel mug in his hand.

“Thanks,” I murmured, taking it from him.

“Gonna have to bring it on the bike, I got shit to do,” he said, and it wasn’t unkindly, wasn’t terse, it was just sort of matter-of-factly stated. My curiosity about the man deepened as I nodded and followed him through the house and back out to where his bike was parked.

We didn’t have to ride very far, maybe just a couple miles over cracked and weathered streets through poorer neighborhoods that were showing signs of major gentrification. I felt my heart sink, knowing what that meant for the poorer demographic. How many of them likely ended up priced out of their rental homes? It’d never happened to us or our family, but it’d happened to some of the other workers. Hard workers who ended up seven or eight deep in a one- or two-bedroom home.

He pulled up in front of an old wrecking yard full of bikes, having me hop down so he could back his beastly iron horse in line with the rest. Across the street was a heavily graffitied building, another man from the Sacred Hearts smoking on the little wood platform for the back steps, thumbs moving swiftly as he tapped out a text.

“We’re going on a trip,” Maverick said, and it was loud in the wake of his bike’s engine ceasing. I turned my attention back to him. He stood beside his parked bike, helmet off his head, swinging from one of his handlebars, his hair tousled and long enough on top it tangled in front of his eyes.

Those eyes were intent, intense, where they were fixed on me. Their color made brilliant in the morning light,