Saving Maverick

by Debra Elise

  She knew it would be different with Maverick. The intense hot spark of attraction was firing on all cylinders, for both of them if his erection was any indication. She was ready for the ride of her life. She’d deal with tomorrow—tomorrow.

  Maverick’s world felt like it was off its axis and he sure as hell didn’t want a repeat of “the kiss” that was now being splashed on every entertainment channel in the western hemisphere. He yanked Kelsey out of the doorway, slammed the door, and pressed her body up against it. He couldn’t get enough of her. Or her sultry promises.

  She was making the hottest noises he’d ever heard while running her leg up and down the back of his thigh. “You ready for me, baby?” Maverick asked in between taking nips along her smooth neck. He could feel her involuntary shivers.

  “Mm-hmm” was the only answer he heard and that was enough for him. He bent down and gathered her into his arms and strode down the short hallway to his room. He tossed her on his bed where she bounced once while her gorgeous auburn hair flew into her face.

  She pushed a hunk of it out of her eyes and sent him the sweetest smile. “In a hurry, Mav?” She scrambled up onto her knees and reached for the bottom of her knit sweater and yanked it up over her head while he tossed his towel to the floor.

  She stilled when she saw the evidence of his desire. He swore. Hell, if she kept looking at him like that, he was going to lose it before he even touched her.

  His cock jutted out proudly and he let her look her fill. “See anything you like?” he asked. “You realize you have too many damn clothes on, Kelsey? Need some help?” He itched to touch her soft creamy skin and reached out to help her, but she held him off with a silky shake of her head. She kept him spellbound as she trailed her hands behind her back and undid the hook of her bra. Before he could blink, she gave it a shimmy and tossed it to the floor.

  She then threw his words right back at him. “See anything you like . . . Maverick?”

  He let out a short growl and stalked toward her. Slow and with clear intent, he pushed her backward and stretched his body over her, hovering inches above her. “You forgot your skirt and panties.”

  “I did? Well, I guess you’ll have to let me up, then.” Kelsey rose, arched her back, and rubbed her hard nipples on his chest. Temptation and sass all rolled into one delectable treat. He couldn’t take much more of her teasing and reached down and tugged on her skirt.

  “Wait.” Kelsey put a shaking hand on top of his and said, “The zipper’s in the back.”

  “Babe, I’m not sure I’m steady enough to take care of it without tearing it from your body. I think you better do it.” He cupped her neck and kissed her deeply. He broke off the kiss and rolled to his side. “Hurry.”

  She made short work of yanking off her skirt and panties, but she was taking too long for him. He grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down to the bed and tucked her into his side. “What, not fast enough for you?”

  “When it comes to getting you out of your clothes, time will never go fast enough for me.” He rolled her onto her back and captured her pouty lips. This time he took it slow. Playing with her tongue and sucking on her lower lip as his left hand traveled to her breast and began tugging on a hardened nipple.

  Her moan washed over him as he continued to devour her lips and battled his body’s dictate to take her fast and quick. He needed this first time to be right. Memorable. For both of them.

  He wanted to hear her scream his name before he gave into his own needs. Maverick pulled away from her sweet mouth to make his way down to her breasts. He placed hot, openmouthed kisses along her pulse points and ran his hand down her hip, kneading her warm flesh along the way.

  When he reached her stomach he swirled his tongue inside her navel and took a small bite. Kelsey cried out, and he kissed it better.

  “Oh my, that felt good. Who knew having your belly button kissed and bitten could feel like that.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you touched me from the inside and ignited a thousand tiny fireworks.”

  Maverick liked that he could bring her new sensations and had many more in store for his ice princess turned sultry siren. “Kelsey, I want you so damn bad.” His voice broke as he swept a few strands of hair away from her face.

  He held her gaze, noticed her flushed face, her bright eyes. Lord, she was beautiful. She nodded and the piece of hair he’d tucked behind her ear fell back into her face, covering one eye. “I want you too.” Her whispered acknowledgment did him in. He never wanted this moment to end.

  She was sin-wrapped perfection and it made him all the more eager to see how she looked as she came.

  Maverick turned his attention back to her body. He leaned down and gave one last kiss to her belly as he opened her legs and placed his hands under her thighs. Looking her in the eyes, he dipped his head and kissed one inner thigh, then the other. He stopped and looked at her again. “Baby, you’re so wet for me. I can’t help myself, I need a taste.”

  He speared her female lips and ran his tongue inside her. He did it over and over again as she began to squirm and moan. His cock grew harder at hearing her cries of pleasure.

  “Maverick, please.” She grabbed his head and held on tight. She began rotating her hips, asking for more.

  “Harder,” she pleaded.

  He didn’t disappoint.

  He thought she might be close, so he placed a finger at her entrance and started pumping her channel while he sucked her clit.

  Kelsey groaned and he felt her body stiffen, then spasm as she rode out her orgasm. He didn’t want it to end for her too soon, and he continued his intimate kisses and rubbed her clit with his thumb.

  Her reaction was sweeter than he imagined. She screamed his name. He couldn’t hold back his grin. His name on her lips was the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. Kelsey begged him to keep going and who was he to tell her no?

  After another orgasm where he thought he’d come as well, she reached for his head, pulled him up to her chest. “Condom. In my skirt.” She panted. “I . . . oh, I need you inside me. Now.”

  “Sssh. I’ve got my own.” He reached into his side table and made quick work of rolling it on. His hands shook. She did this to him. Made him feel nervous like a randy teenager with his first girlfriend.

  Maverick pulled himself up on shaky forearms and positioned his body at her entrance. “Baby, you are so beautiful when you come. I need to hear you scream my name again.” He kissed her breasts, nipping each bud in turn and guided his swollen cock inside her.

  “Yes.” Kelsey groaned and lifted her hips to greet him. “Yes. Oh, Maverick, you feel so damn good.”

  Her throaty voice pushed him to the edge. He couldn’t hold back. Maverick thrust in and out of her hot, wet channel over and over. His own orgasm built but he wanted to hold it off. He wanted her to come one more time. He flipped her over onto her stomach and growled into her ear. “Hands and knees, baby, I want to make this last for us.”

  Kelsey lifted herself up and glanced back at him, her half-closed eyes urging him on.

  “Shit, keep looking at me like that and I’m going to lose it all over your back.” She gave him a wink and opened up her legs giving him better access to where he needed to be.

  He wrapped his arm around her waist and entered her from behind. Her pussy clenched hard on his cock as he started a slow rhythm to prolong their ecstasy. He pumped in and out of her and felt her juices bathe him.

  She threw back her head and moved her hips in time with his. His orgasm exploded and shudders racked his body. He grinned as he heard Kelsey calling out his name. Fuck, he loved that.

  He placed his head on her shoulder and eased her down on to the bed, holding her tight as they both rode out the waves of completion.

  “That was . . . I have no words.” Kelsey snuggled up against him. She dropped kisses along his shoulder and arm and trailed her fingers along his lower stomach and back up to his belly button where she dipped a finger and
tickled him.

  “Oh!” Kelsey shouted.

  “What?” Mav shot up a frown on his handsome face.

  “I totally forgot the whole reason I came over here.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I think you handled yourself pretty well.” He tickled her ribs and pulled her back toward him. “Maybe I should make you forget again, hmmm?”

  She grinned at Maverick and wound her hands slowly up his arms. His muscles tensed at her touch. She felt powerful and desired. She could get addicted to him if she wasn’t careful.

  “Paperwork. The Children’s Club. Need to fill it out—later.”

  “Anything you say. Just do me one favor?” he asked.

  “What’s that?” Kelsey sighed as his hand snaked between her legs.

  “One more time,” he said. His lips captured her ear and he blew a puff of air before he suckled her lobe. She arched her back and moaned. The man had talents off the field too. And she wanted to learn them all.

  She looked into his eyes and melted. This gorgeous man wanted her. He was a player. And she didn’t care. She was through being cautious. Done with the worry of what others would think of her.

  She was walking into this with her eyes wide open, and unlike a rookie at his first big league at-bat, there was no way she’d get caught looking.

  Chapter 18

  Maverick was on his way over to the Children’s Club to meet with the director and some of the kids, but he couldn’t dispel the image of Kelsey in his bed, beneath him, totally undone by his loving. Hard to believe that was yesterday. He was still in awe that someone like her, smart, professionally adept, and so damn sexy would want to be with him.

  He had followed the director around, only half listening, and realized that the man had to repeat himself. “How about we start with a meet and greet? Let the kids ask you some questions and get the stardust out of their eyes before we see where you’d be a good fit?” Sam asked Maverick.

  The facility still had that new smell having opened under a year ago. One thing Mav picked up right away was how this community pulled together when the chips were down, especially when it came to the kids who needed it most.

  “Sure, no problem. That’s why I’m here.” Maverick looked for any signs of censure in the hulking director’s face. Maybe he didn’t pay attention to or watch the local news and hadn’t seen the photo being paraded around on social media. Unlikely, but then again there were some folks out there who could give a flying rip about the Internet.

  Sam, it turned out, wasn’t one of them. “Mr. Jansen, I need to discuss one item with you and then we can get the kids in here.”

  “Shoot,” Maverick said. He knew what was coming.

  “The kids have been talking for the last couple of days about some photo of you and Ms. Sullivan on the Internet. It, ah, well, I guess I wasn’t fully aware of your relationship with each other when I met her.” Sam’s face turned a shade darker. “I want to be clear that you know that I know about your past troubles, and I have no problem with you being around our kids—today. You seem to be making an honest effort to move past your, well, past. However, if we need to end this right now, if there is anything else that may come out, you need to let me know. I don’t handle surprises well and I need to protect this center and more importantly these kids.”

  Maverick had to admire a guy who cut through the bullshit. They each stood in silence letting the threat hang there. “You ever play any ball, Davis?”

  “Right-tackle. Eastern Washington Eagles,” Sam said.

  “No hardball, huh? No I guess not. You definitely have the frame for a footballer.” Maverick suddenly wanted to prove to this man that what he had to offer the kids was worth a hell of a lot more than his fame.

  “I’ve played team sports since I was eight. Some soccer, but always baseball. I’m a team player, Sam, through and through. If I win, the team wins. If I lose, I take that loss personally. When I’m being interviewed, because I’m the one the media focuses on, I always think of how hard my teammates played, and strive to ensure their efforts are highlighted right alongside mine. What you see or hear in the media . . . I’m not that guy. And I can guarantee you, when I’m here, working with the kids, it’s all about the kids. Not me, and not the media.”

  “Good to know. Let’s do this,” Sam said. He offered his hand and Maverick grasped the lifeline. Today was the first step on the right path. The kids weren’t exactly what Maverick had expected. Not sure he even knew what to expect since his experience with children and teenagers had mostly been autographing balls before a game or at events where access to him was tightly controlled.

  These kids were well mannered and quiet when he entered the gym. No one was shouting his name or asking for his autograph. They stood in a semicircle with varying expressions of wariness and excitement.

  They were shifting from one foot to the other and Maverick noticed the matching shirts they wore. Like a team. A few were wrinkled, probably due to being bunched up and tossed in the corner of their room. Others had unidentifiable stains, but all were tucked into their jeans, sweatpants, and in one case, a tutu.

  The little girl may have been all of seven. Mav wasn’t sure, but her lopsided pigtails and doe eyes struck a chord in him. Her coloring was similar to Kelsey’s. Made him think what she looked like when she was this girl’s age. Could she have needed a place like this or did she grow up like him? Secure and taken care of, if not always paid attention to.

  Hell, it made him think he wanted, needed, to know more about the woman he now wanted to possess.

  Whoa, where’d that come from? Maverick felt a bit shell-shocked from the revelation that he now considered Kelsey his and had to give himself a shake, to refocus on what Sam was saying to the group of kids.

  “Mr. Jansen chose our center because he, well, why don’t I let him tell you,” Sam said. The director’s face held expectation and a dare. “Maverick, the floor is all yours.”

  Mav’s hands shook ever so slightly. He stepped forward and took a moment to look at each of the fifteen or so kids standing before him. He felt the weight of Sam’s earlier comments and wanted to live up to his new commitment.

  It was important to make eye contact. To let them know he wasn’t only here for show, but they mattered to him. Seeing their expectant faces, he was damned if he’d let them down.

  “Hi, guys. Well, I guess you know who I am. I want to thank Mr. Davis for letting me come and meet you today. And why I’m here is pretty simple. I believe in giving back to the community I live in. Plus, I like sports, obviously, and from what Sam has told me, most of you do as well.”

  While he finished his unplanned speech, he noticed one kid standing off to the side. Not too far away, but far enough to indicate he was too good to be part of the gang, or maybe wanting to stand out. He was about five three, and if he had to guess, about thirteen years old, but what the hell did he know about kids’ ages.

  After Mav answered some baseball questions, one of the girls asked him if he had a girlfriend. This sent the rest of the group into squeals of laughter. Oh boy, how to handle that one. Obviously the older ones knew what was going on because of the Internet, but he needed to tread lightly for the little kids.

  “Um, yeah. And she’s originally from Pineville. Her name’s Kelsey, but she hates it when I go on and on about her, so . . .” Real smooth, Mav. Trying his best to look cool and unaffected by their attention toward his love life, he turned the conversation back to the kids.

  “So what do you guys like doing best around here? I saw some pool tables. Do you have tournaments?”

  The kid who was off to the side wearing a Maroon 5 T-shirt spoke up first. “You play, Mav . . . , uh, Mr. Jansen?” He shuffled his feet but kept eye contact.

  “Sure. It’s been awhile but I’m game. You’re not a hustler or anything like that, are you?” He winked.

  Maverick immediately wished he could have taken the comment back when he heard Sam clear his throat, but screw it. He didn�
��t curse and he wasn’t going to change the way he spoke in front of the kids. Besides, he needed to address them on their level. In their language, right?

  “So what’s your name?” Maverick asked.

  “Ian.”

  “My name is Holly,” the little girl with the tutu piped in.

  “I’m Mikey.”

  “Yeah, mine name is Mike too,” another kid said.

  “Okay, hold on, hold on, one at a time, kids.” Sam jumped to the rescue. “Give Mr. Jansen a chance to match the names with faces.”

  “How about everyone calls me Maverick, and when you want to talk to me or ask me a question from now on, you say ‘I’m so-and-so’ until I have all of you locked into my memory? Deal?”

  Ian led the way to the two pool tables placed in an alcove at the back of the center’s main room. “If we played in teams of two on each table, that would give about half of us a chance to play, and then if we put a time limit of thirty minutes on each game, we can switch out so the others have a turn. Except for ah, you, Mr. Jan . . . I mean, Maverick.”

  “That sounds like a good game plan, Ian. Any dibs on sticks or can I choose any one of these?” Maverick was almost at the pool cue board and gave Ian a quick smile. The kid’s posture changed. He stood up just a tad taller and puffed out his chest.

  “No, we’re not allowed. Everyone has an equal chance to pick out the good sticks. Depends on who’s quick enough is all,” Ian said.

  “Well now, you wouldn’t happen to be the one who gets the best stick most often, would you?” Maverick teased. He could see the change in this kid already. Damn, wasn’t there anyone at home who took the time to spend with this obviously bright kid?

  It made him think back to his own interactions with his father. How he tried constantly to pull his dad out of whatever seemed so important at his job, to come out and play catch, or watch a game with him. Or hell, just spend time with him. His mother stepped in when she could. But it wasn’t the same.

  Then again, one of the reasons that these kids came here was because their home life was less than ideal, or their parents were so busy working two, sometimes three, jobs to keep food on the table, emotionally there was nothing left over for the kids at the end of the day. It floored him to realize that this center was all some of them had when it came to social interaction or a friendly smile.