I opened my closet and slid the heels inside their cubby. “Then tell them not to call you.”
He walked right up to me, clearly growing furious by my dismissal of everything he said. “Don’t be smart with me. Don’t tell me you aren’t coming home and then pull up at one in the morning.”
“I’m sorry,” I said sarcastically. “I didn’t realize my own home was off-limits to me.”
“Just don’t say one thing and do another.”
“Well, shit happens.” I tossed my purse on a shelf and stepped away from him.
He watched me walk away, his muscular arms resting by his sides. His unnaturally tight stomach looked harder than a slab of concrete. A knife couldn’t even penetrate his exterior because he was so hard. He made Dante seem soft, even though he was also a fit man. “What kind of shit would make you walk to your car by yourself and drive here in the middle of the night?”
I didn’t want to give Maverick the satisfaction of being right, but the truth would come out eventually. Why not now? “Dante dumped me.” I fell into the chair and crossed my legs, doing my best to ignore his focused stare. “He was tired of being a secret and found somebody else. I wasn’t going to stay there a second longer. If I’d known I couldn’t come here, I would have slept in my car.” I knew Maverick would gloat about his assessment of Dante, calling him a boy. He would kick me while I was down, rise victorious in my ashes. It wasn’t like me to avoid someone’s gaze, but I couldn’t bear to see the arrogance on his face.
Maverick stood still for a while before he moved to the spot beside me on the couch. Just like at the funeral when we were surrounded by watching eyes, he sat right beside me, his thigh touching mine. The second he was next to me, I could smell his lingering cologne, the cotton from his sheets. He didn’t smell like a woman, so I assumed he’d been in bed alone tonight.
I continued to stare at the cold fireplace, hoping he would just leave and we would never discuss this night ever again.
His next words were surprising. “I’m sorry.”
Just when I thought the worst of him, he surprised me.
“He was the last person from your former life…and losing him must be difficult.”
I was shocked Maverick understood my feelings so well. Losing a boyfriend wasn’t the difficult part. It was losing all the pieces that used to comprise my old life. Now everything had fallen away, and I was a whole new person…a person I didn’t like.
“But he wasn’t good enough for you anyway, Arwen. At least you aren’t wasting any more time.”
“All I have is time to waste. There’s nothing to look forward to. I’ll never meet a man and fall in love. I’ll never hit the milestones that other people do. I’m married and I’m rich—but I don’t have anything.” My life was empty.
“That’s not true…you have me.”
I finally turned my gaze and looked at him, surprised by what he’d said.
“I promised your father I would protect you—and that’s what I’ll do. You may feel alone in the world, but you do have that. We may not love each other or even like each other. But we’re still allies.”
And just like that, my opinion of him shifted. There was a big, beautiful heart inside that hard chest—he just hid it most of the time. His words could be so hurtful, but sometimes, they could be so beautiful. “Sometimes I don’t know if I hate you or I like you…but right now, I like you.”
He showed a slight smile, a rare sight. “Wait until tomorrow…you’ll change your mind again.”
From what I gathered, Maverick woke up early every morning, worked out, had breakfast, and then went to work at the building on the other side of his property. He was hardly around the house during the day, and if he wasn’t at work, I wasn’t sure where he went.
We didn’t see each other that much.
Sometimes I wondered if Maverick and I could be friends. Maybe we could do stuff together instead of sharing breakfast once in a while. But I remembered his kindness was used sparingly. If I hit a low point, he was there for me. He dropped his hostility and became the shoulder I needed to cry on. But once I was myself again, he turned back to the coldhearted jerk who didn’t mince his words.
I spent a few days recovering from my breakup with Dante, trying not to imagine what his new love interest looked like. Was she a brunette too? Was she interesting? Had he already slept with her? I told myself it didn’t matter, because deep down inside, I knew Dante made the right decision. He couldn’t stay with me just to make me feel better. He needed to move on with his life—because he deserved a full life.