“You gonna try to sleep some more?” he asked, dragging a hand through his hair. Hair she knew was so soft.
What was wrong with her? The last thing she needed to be doing right now was drooling over another man, but she couldn’t seem to stop noticing all the things that had always driven her crazy about Maverick Rylan.
“Al?”
“Huh?” Her gaze snapped to his, and found that dark, dark blue absolutely blazing. “Oh, uh. I’m not sure there’s much point. Maybe I’ll just watch some TV. Or something.”
He nodded toward the living room. “Maybe there’s something good on HGTV,” he said with a wink. “Probably not, but . . .”
Alexa chuckled. “Don’t say that like you don’t like a lot of those shows, too. You know you do.”
“Do not,” he said, shuffling toward the living room and yawning.
Walking out of the kitchen, she came up behind him. And the sight of his back nearly took her breath away. She’d forgotten how sexy his massive tattoo there was. The words Raven Riders arched across his shoulder blades, and below, a huge black raven clutched at the hilt of a blade stabbed through the eye of a skull. The club’s logo. Every fully patched Raven had one like it. Mav’s muscles rippled under the ink, making the big black bird seem alive.
“How much of the work around here did you do yourself?” she asked, glad when he dropped onto one end of the charcoal-gray couch, breaking her view of his impressive ink. She sat away from him, but not all the way at the other end either. She hugged her legs to her chest as Lucy perched on the rug on the other side of the coffee table and stared at them.
“I had some help, but I had a hand in all of it.” Mav flipped on the TV and changed the channel to a show about fixer-uppers.
“Uh-huh. Don’t worry, big bad biker. Your love of HGTV is safe with me.” She gave him an innocent look, but inside this all felt so familiar that she could almost pretend that the last five years hadn’t happened. She and Maverick had always shared an interest in design. Interiors were her first love and building custom bikes was his, but they’d watched more than their fair share of shows about rehabs, renovations, flips, and more. They both liked learning new things and neither was afraid to try to do something themselves. She’d always loved refinishing and repurposing old furniture and, as the updates to his place proved, he had more than a little handyman skill. She used to enjoy watching him work on his bike projects in the chop shop at the Ravens’ clubhouse. She’d always found competence and confidence sexy as hell—and Maverick had both in spades.
“It’s a good thing I like you,” he said, yawning again. He stretched his legs out in front of him and settled his big body into the cushion behind him.
Alexa chuckled, but her smile slipped right back off her face. Because the past five years had happened. She couldn’t pretend they hadn’t, after all. More than that, she was going to have to deal with a whole host of consequences for all the things she’d let get so out of control.
They watched the show for a couple minutes, but as soon as a commercial played, her thoughts raced. Laying her head against her knees, she peered at Maverick. “I don’t know what to do about work in the morning.”
Maverick gave her a serious look. “Do you have any kind of a contract?”
She shook her head. “I’m in the middle of a huge project, though. The deadline’s next week. God, I don’t even have any clothes to wear.”
“I can run you home in the morning, Alexa. But if he’s realized you left your ring there, that you intend to leave him for good, you gotta prepare for him to be vindictive. And that maybe means violent, too. He’s already shown he’s not above that. But don’t worry. I can bring some of the guys if I need to.” Maverick shifted toward her, crooking one of his legs up on the couch. The position pulled the gap at his waist open, and her gaze couldn’t help but lock on the fascinating strip of skin it revealed.
“Yeah?” she said, looking back to his face. “Okay.” The heat in his gaze said he’d caught her admiring him. She pressed her fingers into her neck and massaged a knot there. “You don’t have to stay up with me, you know.”
“I don’t mind.” His gaze flicked to her hand. “You hurting?”
She gave a little shrug. “I’m just a ball of stress.”
“I’d say you came by that honestly, Al.” He sat up, bringing his body closer to hers, and then he pushed her hand out of the way. “Lemme.”