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Prologue

River

The sound of so outside jolted ht, it took ht in the storage roo me the shelves of supplies the Ink Shoppe kept on hand for all the tattoos Maverick and his father did every day

“What?” Maverick groaned, his huge hand touching my naked back before he sat up besideso forcefully awoken , babe?”

Heart still pounding, I shifted my eyes around the room while I strained to hear the noise that had pulled me so abruptly fro, I started to relax, and the trean to subside

“River?” Maverick cupped the back ofsex once the Ink Shoppe closed I’d been so blissed out after countless orgasrew heavy, and I’d passed out on the e room

“I’ht sainst the trash cans out back”

His eyes narrowed on me “You’ve been ju okay?”

Wrapping my arms around hisbut okay, but I couldn’t tell hi that was on my mind, but it was just better for everyone if I kept this to myself

At least for now

My birthday was a feeeks away Then, I could tell him

And pray no one tried to kill him once our fathers found out

Until then, I wouldn’t put that kind of stress on him

The alar ht in , I kissed Maverick quickly and then pushed to ht curfew, but it was Saturday My parents never got home from the bar earlier than two—later than that if it was Dad’s turn to close—but an urgency was shouting in the back of my head to hurry, hurry, hurry

“Slon,” Maverick said as he took his ti on his jeans “You have plenty of time”

“No,” Imy hair out froet ho feels…off”

“Hey,” he grurabbed my purse and phone His arms came around er under ray eyes Fuck, I loved those eyes They were so full of love and possessiveness every tiuy look at her the way Maverick looked at me As if there was no other person in the world they would rather be with for the rest of their life As if the sun only rose to shine on their love A lump filled , River”

Of course he sensed so with me I would have been surprised if he hadn’t There had always been this connection between us that I hadn’t fully understood until I was fourteen As if we could read each other’s , and h my head as well

Then he’d kissed me one day, and I’d realized ere so connected

Maverick Masterson was my soul mate He was the other half of my heart The reason I was born was to love him

But as desperately as I wanted to share as going on with ht then, I couldn’t

Not yet

So instead of telling hi I pushed the attention to so’s up with her” I bitweird lately, and I orried about her But I’d been so stressed over as happening toon with her