Page 95 of Looking for Love in All the Haunted Places
“You know me,” he began quietly. “You called me cautious. I can see how you might interpret my…self-controlfor something it isn’t. You’re so affectionate, and I love that about you. I can’t stress that enough—love it. Okay?”
She nodded enthusiastically. “I love that about you too.”
“Okay.” He bit his lower lip, dragging it through his teeth before continuing. “I feel like you might be sensitive about this, but I don’t know how else to explain it.”
“Tell me. It’s okay.” She braced herself for impact.
He took a deep breath. “I don’t think we’re on the same wavelength. I mean, look how we’re laying—it’s obvious that I’m the only one struggling right now.”
“Oh, shit.” She instantly reeled backward, using the back of the couch to sit up. How could she be so selfishly oblivious? She was literally laying between his legs on top of him.Of course, he was having a hard time.
But he sat up just as quickly, pulling her back to him. “No, don’t go, please. Don’t leave.”
He pulled her into his lap, at presumably a better angle, holding her against his chest again. She curled her arms under his, placing her hands on his shoulders and doing her best to hide her face.
Faking attraction wasn’t hard when the other person didn’t see you clearly.
Lucky learned to be a mirror. People saw what they wanted. Their desires reflected.
But Maverick saw through her like a window. She chose to let him see who she was. He chose to see her beyond his needs.
“If I start crying, no, I didn’t.” He was so, so good to her.
“Okay.” He rubbed her back, smooth, gentle circles.
“This is so strange. I worked so hard learning all the rules and taking the time to figure out how to make them work for me.” She started giggling. “No one’s ever rejected my sexual advances before.”
His reluctant laugh made her look at him. “I didn’t reject you.”
“I know,” she said softly. “Thank you for showing me how much you really do see me. I said no one did, and here you are, proving me wrong—wow, you’re really wrecking my ego tonight.”
“I told you—you don’t know everything.”
“And you hit me with theI told you so?” Lucky was saved from further humbling by her phone chirping across the room.
“What is that?” he asked.
“I chose the most annoying sound possible for Hennessee’s motion detector alarm. Otherwise, I won’t look at it.” She regretfully untangled herself from him. The orchard had frequent visitors like possums and raccoons. More so now that Gengar wasn’t constantly patrolling his territory. “Oh, shit.”
“Everything okay?” He turned off the TV and was folding the blanket.
“Yeah. Raccoons.”
She also had seven missed calls from the unknown caller. In Springstop, the calls became so frequent she tuned them out until she copied the times on her spreadsheet for analysis. And then…Maverick happened. She’d been so preoccupied by him that she’d forgotten all about them.
According to the call log, before today, the last call was a few hours before she returned to Hennessee House. Nothing in between then and now—the night she skipped curfew.
Interesting.
The screen changed, signaling an incoming call. “Hello?”
Low-grade static sounded through the phone. She held it slightly away from her ear, purposefully turning her back to Maverick. The noise continued with the addition of clicking every three seconds.
Maverick’s hand on her lower back made her hang up. “Come on.”
They’d stopped at the store to get the toiletries she preferred, but he let her borrow one of his shirts for bed. She walked out ofthe guest bathroom post-shower wearing it, holding it to her nose and sniffing.
“Are you checking if it’s clean?”
