Page 18 of Matched By Mistake
He smiled and shook his head. “I know. Why do you have to be a Del Rio?”
“Why do you have to be a Winters?” she countered.
He moved to lean against the wall next to her, his head turned to face her, and she couldn’t help but notice how thick his eyelashes were and that he had a scar just near his left temple. She reached out to touch it. “How’d you get this?”
“Doing a sick scooter trick off a homemade ramp in our backyard,” he said.
“You don’t really seem like the X Games type. I assume that’s what you were going for,” she said.
“I’m not, but Trey was. He thought Dad would say yes to building a half-pipe in the backyard if we were both into it. Anyway, after I was rushed to the ER and had stitches, we gave up our X Games dreams.”
She smiled remembering that summer she and Preston had decided they were going to be water ski champs. Their mom had been on board and had taken them out on the lake every day to practice jumps and stunts. But at the end of the summer, their passion for skiing had waned. It was funny to think that they would have something in common with the Winters family.
“You make your family sound almost normal and not like the competitive, driven demons I’ve always imagined you to be,” she said wryly.
“Yeah? I always pictured your clan more as the devil,” he said.
“To be fair, there is a lot of back-and-forth business competition and one-upmanship on both sides. I’m not going to pretend I’m not competitive.”
“Me, either. But dating isn’t a place where I normally want to feud.” He paused, gazing straight into her eyes. “I do like you, Maggie.”
“Not Maggie darlin’?”
He shook his head. “Of course, darlin’.”
“Ah, I know you call all the girls that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it rolls off the tongue so easily for you,” she said. “I can’t make a decision based on lust.”
“One-night stand?” he suggested. “I mean, let’s face it—every time we come within a few feet, it’s hard for us to keep our hands off each other.”
“For you maybe. I have the famed Del Rio willpower.”
He put his hands up near his shoulders. “Fine. If you don’t want me, then we stick to the agreement and that’s it. I won’t touch you again unless you specifically ask me to.”
She took a deep breath. Why had she said that? Because she knew that a one-night stand wasn’t what she wanted. But at the same time, he’d put the ball squarely in her court. If she wanted to just do what they were going to legally agree to, then he’d abide by it.
Easy, right?
She could do that.
But she couldn’t.
She wanted him and by his saying he wouldn’t touch her unless she asked him to... Well, it was a challenge, and though she knew it would be wiser to just ignore him, a part of her wanted to see how far she could take things before he broke. Because she wasn’t going to be the one to ask—he was.
“You’re on.”
Brian stuck his head out of the conference room and beckoned the two of them back in. He gestured for Maggie to go first but her words were heavy on his mind.
You’re on.
He knew that maybe he should regret challenging her but he didn’t. He wouldn’t say he was overly competitive, especially compared with other members of his family, but in this case he was determined to win. Probably because it was Maggie.
She was a Del Rio. And just based on what had happened when they’d met, he knew that there wasn’t going to be an easy way to ever have a relationship with her. But sex... Well, no one said they couldn’t hook up. Except Ms. Maggie Del Rio. She’d dropped a barrier between them and he’d issued his challenge.
The truth was, no matter how long it took he was going to have her in his bed. If that meant making her think it was her idea, even better. But he knew that inevitably they were going to end up together.
