I knocked again—and harder.
This was getting more humiliating by the second.Maybe he saw me and was deliberately not answering the door because he regretted what we did too.
I was about to turn to go when footsteps inside pinned me in place, and the door swung open.My jaw dropped and those butterflies actually stopped their haphazard flight plan and gaped as well.
Maverick stood there, naked, dripping wet, and with a white towel slung impossibly low on his hips.So low, a thin line of hair along the top of the towel peeked out.
All the moisture left my mouth.
“Gabrielle,” he breathed, his mouth curving up into an almost cocky smile.
I swallowed.“Uh …”
“I was just in the shower.I thought I heard knocking, then I realized it might be you.So I jumped out.”
My head shook like a bobblehead doll on a dirt road.“This was a mistake.I need to go.”I turned, attempting to flee, but his puma-like reflexes had him gripping me by the arm and hauling me back under the overhang, shielding me from the rain.
His nipples pebbled from the cold wind, but he didn’t seem to mind.Steam still rose off of his damp, ripped torso like he was the warmest, most delicious cup of tea in the world.
“If it was a mistake, why’d you come at all?”he asked, releasing my arm.
“Because … because you told me to.”
That made him smirk.
I narrowed my gaze.“I mean, youaskedme to.”He most certainly didn’t ask.He told me to, and like some bewitched fool, I submitted and did as I was told.
“Sure.Let’s go with that.”Reaching one arm up onto the top of the doorjamb, and leaning forward a little, all his muscles contracted.“Would you like to come in?”
“No.”
Yes.
“Okay.So we’re just going to stand out here in the rain and stare at each other?Cool.”
“I … I came to tell you that what happened in the kitchen earlier was … was a mistake.It can’t … it won’t happen again.”
Pursing his lips together, he nodded like he was simply placating me.“Okay.”
“I mean it.”
“Sure you do.”
“I’m being serious.”
He blinked a couple of times.“I can tell.”
“You’re not taking me seriously though.”
“Hard to take you seriously when your nostrils are flaring, your pupils have dilated, a flush is in your cheeks, and the pulse in your neck is racing.”Then that bastard reached out and pressed at the spot in my neck where my pulse hammered.And god, if his touch, as gentle and soft as it was, didn’t send a zap right between my legs.
I didn’t even know I fluttered my eyes shut until he chuckled, low, deep, and oh-so gritty, and I blinked them open.
“How about this,” he said, his tone taking on an even raspier grate that only made my resolve not to leap up onto his hips and have him carry me inside, almost cease to exist.“If you can go twenty-four hours without thinking aboutusand what happened in the kitchen, or what youwantto happen in the bedroom of this cabin, then I’ll let it go.I’ll take your lead, and we can call it a ‘mistake,’ if that’s what you really want.”
I squinted at him.
“But, if you think about it, and don’thatehow you feel when you think about it, then we talk about it some more, and maybe give it a shot.”
