Page 36 of Matched By Mistake
He was so tempted and more than once started to reach for her but kept his hands to himself. Dancing closer and closer, almost brushing but not allowing their bodies to touch. He leaned closer and she tilted her head to the side, her lips parting, and damned if that didn’t make his cock twitch and his lips tingle.
She dropped low and then stood up slowly, her hands moving on her own body. And then he did the same thing, not one to let a woman out-move him. Her pupils dilated and her skin was flush as she watched him stand back up and move his hands down his chest. She licked her lips and he groaned.
“All you have to do is reach out,” she said.
“Or you could.”
She shook her head but just then they were jostled by the people around them who were also dancing and they fell into each other. He took full advantage of it, putting his hands on her waist, and she looped her arms around his shoulders. They both let out a long, low sigh as their torsos brushed against each other. He canted his hips toward hers and felt her hips brush against his erection. His hands started to drift lower to her butt but the crowd moved away from them.
Their eyes met and he wondered how much longer they were going to do this.
“Looks like it was a draw,” he said.
“Looks that way to me,” she said.
So he kept his hands on her hips until he heard his mom clear her throat and he dropped them. But Maggie just turned her back to him and he wrapped his arms around her and they sort of swayed to the music as the song changed to one of the band’s own. His erection was nestled against her buttocks and she had her hands resting on his arms that held her close to him.
Her fingers were drawing a random pattern on his wrist and it felt like the most intimate touch. It felt like it was only the two of them here listening to the music. He felt a connection to her that he didn’t dwell on. He wasn’t going to do anything but take this end of the no-touching game they’d been playing as a win. There was no way either of them was going to be able to figure out how the other felt without sleeping together.
And while he’d enjoyed her teasing and flirting, he knew that he was also going to enjoy taking their relationship to a more physical level.
“I’m taking you home tonight,” he said in her ear. “Unless you tell me differently.”
She turned her head, her hair brushing against the side of his neck. “I was thinking the same thing.”
“Glad to hear that,” he said, moving them to the music. About an hour later, the concert ended and Jericho waved goodbye to his parents.
“Winters and Del Rio... Is that really you?” Mandee Meriweather fromRoyal Tonightcalled to them as they were almost to his car.
“It is,” he said with a forced smile.
“Our viewers are split on whether the match is the real deal or if you two are faking it for ratings on the app.”
“Well, I’d say half your viewers are correct,” Maggie said.
“Which half?”
“You’ll have to keep watching to find out,” Jericho said, taking Maggie’s hand and leading her toward his car. “We can pick your car up tomorrow. Let’s get out of here.”
“Agreed,” she said.
He held open her door and his eyes lingered on her long legs as she swung them in. She noticed him watching and ran her fingers up her thighs and then winked at him when he groaned.
He hurried around the car, stowed their picnic gear and got behind the wheel, driving home at record speed as Texas blues music played in his head and his body still pulsed along to it, recalling the feel of Maggie in his arms.
Something had happened when she’d found herself sitting at the concert with Jericho’s parents. It had been surreal at first, and then she noticed how much she’d been trying to control everything in her life and in her relationship with Jericho. As the covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s songs had played, she’d let go of that need to try to manage something that she’d never been able to.
She was never going to know if she could trust her gut unless she just did it. She wasn’t going to get a magic sign from the universe that Jericho was a good guy unless she started looking at him as one. And as the music had played and she’d sang alone with Joseph Winters, she’d realized that nothing was as it had seemed to her.
So she’d decided to stop playing a game that she’d started—out of fear, if she was honest. She’d been afraid to sleep with Jericho because she didn’t trust herself. That was it. But she wasn’t afraid anymore. She knew a big part of it was the man Jericho was. The way he just sort of rolled with the punches regardless of whether they were comfortable or not.
She turned her head against the headrest and looked over at him as he drove toward his house. She assumed that was where he was taking them, as he hadn’t asked for her address. He stared at the road ahead, driving fast but safely. She watched as he shifted gears and saw how careful and thorough he was. Remembered the way he’d danced next to her and seduced her without ever touching her.
She might have thought she was teasing him, but the truth was she’d been responding to him. He had something indefinable that her body just responded to, and she was hot and wet and couldn’t wait to get him in her arms again.
She put her hand on the top of his thigh and let her fingers caress him moving toward his cock. He put his hand over hers and shifted it closer, urging her to touch his erection, which she did. He was hard under her hand and she stroked him through his pants as he hit a button to open the gates to the guarded community on the outskirts of Royal. He slowed down as they drove through the neighborhood and he pulled into the driveway at a large house with landscape lighting. He turned the car off and got out in one smooth motion, coming around to open her door.
He reached for her hand, and when she got out of the car, she leaned into his body, having missed the feel of his mouth on hers for more days than she wanted to admit. His mouth under hers was firm and soft at the same time. His lips parted and she felt the brush of his tongue over hers as she sucked his tongue deeper into her mouth. He put one of his big hands on her ass as he lifted her off her feet into the cradle of his thighs, rubbing his erection against her center as the kiss deepened.
