Page 82 of Lovers Like Us

Maximoff knows all ofthis.

Yet, he says, “We don’t know that.” He zips up hisjeans.

Good luck steering that ship, the security team told me. I almost smile because Maximoff being headstrong is as expected as finding a tree in aforest.

And there’s no reason to ask why he suddenly cares. I’m assuming reality is catching up to him, and he really,reallydislikes when people know the details of his sexlife.

He can easily talk about sex in generalizations, but when it includes “when” and “where” and “how often” he’s used to shuttingdown.

I wrap my towel low around my waist. I didn’t bring extra clothes in the bathroom. Leaning on the sink, I say, “How about I leave and you wait five minutes inhere?”

Maximoff pulls a gray shirt over his head. Water drips off his wet hair and runs down his temples. He’sthinking.

“Or,” I say, “we can walk out together.” I pass him in the cramped space, our chests brushing, and I place a hand on the doorknob. “Your choice, wolfscout.”

“Alright.” He takes a confident breath. “I’ll leave withyou.”

I open the door and step into the first lounge with ease. Besides Akara and Sulli in the driver and passenger seat, every person is packed inhere.

All three Cobalts are squished on a couch, busy on their phones, and Omega bodyguards cram in the booth and the adjacent couch, eatingcereal.

Their heads whip to us, and the chatter dies when Maximoff emerges. His jaw is tensed like he’s ready to enter afight.

SFO eagle-eyes him ten times more than they scrutinize me, their curiosity apparent. Before I came along, security used to talk about Maximoff’s one-night stands like a myth and legend, and no one has ever seen him “after”before.

My jaw tics, face all hard territorial lines.Back the fuck offwritten numerous times. They divert their gazes. I comb a hand through my hair and watch Maximoff reach the small counter. He makes hot tea, his bodyrigid.

“Didn’t you have to piss?” I askOscar.

He stands and whispers to me as he passes, “You lucky bastard.” The bathroom door shuts behindhim.

As normal chatter returns, I enter the narrowed hall. Sliding the curtains to my bunk aside, I grab my small duffel and pick out clothes. I change in the empty second lounge, cracking thedoor.

Black pants on, I slip my leather belt into the loops and clasp the buckle—suddenly, all noise fadesagain.

Something’swrong.

I gently kick the door open wider. Able to see down the hallway and into the firstlounge.

Shit.

Charlie leans forward on the couch and stares Maximoff down like he’s trying to hook a fish fordinner.

I ditch my shirt and reroute back to everyone just as Maximoff sets his mug aside and says to Charlie, “If you have something to say, just sayit.”

I fill the doorway and hang casually onto a pull-up bar above me, one that Sulli and Beckett put together. Oscar is already out of the bathroom, and Jane is inside brushing her teeth. I sense Oscar silently telling me to “stand down” and not intervene in a Cobalt-Halefeud.

As bodyguards, we’re not allowed, but that’smyboyfriend on the end of someone’s glare. And I’ve never sat idly by and let a man I love fight a battlealone.

Charlie flips his phone from hand-to-hand, and his twin brother whispers in his ear. I can’t hear what Beckett says, but no one expects Charlie to hold histongue.

“You pride yourself on being respectful,” Charlie begins, “and in your mind, I guess fucking in a shower that nine other people use lands in thatcategory.”

Fuck him.My hand drops off the pull-up bar, and swiftly, Oscar, Donnelly, Quinn, and even Thatcher stand and block mypath.

Maximoff glowers at Charlie. “You haven’t spoken to meoncesince we started this tour, and that’s the first thing you tellme?”

Thatcher whispers to me, “Calmdown.”