Wind Therapy - A.J. Downey Page 0,90

way, I pledge to protect you, but baby I don’t want any other woman… I want to settle my ass down, figure out what it means to be a one-woman man. I want to go through it all. I want the days you drive me crazy and the days I know no peace until I fall into your arms.”

She sniffed, her bottom lip pouting out beautifully as she kneeled up abruptly. She lunged over the edge of the tub, water sloshing and barely staying contained as she threw her arms around me and sobbed by my ear.

I put my arms around her, holding her as tightly as she clutched at me and laying a reverent kiss against her bare shoulder I asked, “Is that a yes?”

She didn’t answer with words, simply drew back, placing her hand to my cheek, and her lips to mine in a kiss that tasted of hope and gratitude.

It was enough for me.

Our fate sealed with that kiss for all time.

Commitment never tasted so fucking good.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Marisol…

It was a strange sort of love Maverick offered me. A fierce love, an unwavering one, a love so deep it resonated in chambers of my heart I hadn’t known existed before now.

I was fully immersed, fully indoctrinated with my commitment to him and it not only felt so right it felt so incredibly good.

He helped me out of the bath, drying me thoroughly with warmed towels, leading me to the bedroom, both of us settling atop the covers as he let down my hair and spent the better part of an hour brushing it for me, brushing it dry where it’d gotten wet before tucking us both in and laying us down to sleep.

We kissed, and though we had kissed probably a thousand times before, this was new, this was different. Because there was no denying it now.

I loved him.

I had lost my heart to his debonair smile and his careful hands and I didn’t care to ever have it back. He could keep it. He had done so much to earn it, and as I fell asleep in his arms with him pressing the occasional reverent kiss to my forehead that night, I found broken bits of my spirit mended.

He had given me so much in the last week in recognizing my pain, in acknowledging my bravery and in trusting me with his secrets, his way of life. He had given me everything I could want, had handed me respect and worth, and his devotion as though it were nothing and I felt as though there was no debt here but I simultaneously felt forever indebted.

I looked forward to a lifetime of sensual give and take with this man, but first? First there was something I needed to do… for myself.

“Zaychik.” Maverick scowled at me, for the first time ever, darkly.

I swallowed hard, as every set of eyes around the chapel’s table fixated on me as I shut the door tightly behind me.

“I want to go with you,” I said and looks were exchanged.

“That’s not how that works,” Tic-Tac said dismissively, looking to Maverick to throw my ass out.

I swallowed hard and would not be deterred.

“Hear me out…” I plead and those eyes that’d been fixated on me exchanged looks.

“All in favor?” Mav intoned and he raised his hand. The majority of the table raised theirs, the few hands that didn’t go up – Tic-Tac’s, Derry’s, and Major’s simply raised eyebrows or shrugged accepting that they’d been clearly outvoted and not looking too terribly upset about it. Their curiosity likely getting the better of them just a little too late.

“Well, go on, say your piece, girl.” Glass Jaw leaned back in his boardroom chair.

“I want to go with you on this run. Mateo won’t go with you otherwise and Abuela will put up a fight… but if I go, I think I can mitigate the damage from the family drama which I’m so sorry I feel like I’ve dragged you all into.”

“You have an idea,” Maverick said, and I nodded. He knew my face so well and I didn’t bother to hide it from him.

“I have an idea…” I said and nodded.

“Well, let’s hear it,” Derry said, and his smug look said he didn’t think whatever was going to come out of my mouth was going to be worth it.

“I propose a coup,” I murmured.

That got their attention.

“Do what now?” Major asked.

“Look, I know Abuela. She raised me. She’s my grandmother – and I know that she would