Trick and Treat - Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

A sudden screech of tires and blast of a horn brought her to her senses. She grabbed the back of the seat to steady herself, and Maverick grabbed her waist, keeping her from flying into the front seat, across the gearshift. Lizzie looked up in time to see the brake lights of the car in front of them that they’d almost hit. The sudden stop sent Lizzie nearly into Maverick’s lap.

“Whoa,” Paul said, glancing back at them apologetically. “Sorry, guys…traffic jam.” He motioned to the stack of a dozen cars in front of them. The light changed red a few cars in front of them, and several cars were stuck in the intersection.

Lizzie felt heat creep up her neck. She’d nearly forgotten Paul was even there. She wondered how much he’d seen. Did she care? She was never going to see either of these men again. This was Halloween. The rest of the year, she went strictly by the “no kiss on the first date” rule and the “no sleeping with any man until after a minimum of three months” rule. She’d read in a dozen date-to-marriage books that that was the way to land the man of her dreams. Break the rules, and the man would run for the hills. Not that she had a chance to institute her rules lately. She hadn’t even been on a date in three months.

Vance had given her a big hug at work yesterday and told her all that would change the night of Halloween. That’s when you can get your freak on, honey, he’d told her. She’d laughed, not quite sure she could ever be as bold as Vance; the man wasn’t afraid to tell a dirty joke to a nun. In fact, he had done so during a library conference they’d attended last year. Lizzie loved Vance. He was the big brother she’d never had and all the things she wasn’t: fearless, bold and always impeccably dressed. Vance had also made it his mission to get her hooked up with someone ever since he’d gotten married to his longtime boyfriend last year.

“This might take a while,” Lizzie said, noticing the cars ahead of them weren’t moving at all, despite the light change. Accident up ahead maybe?

“I know something we could do to pass the time.” Maverick put his heavy hand on her knee, and she nearly stopped breathing. He caressed her inner thigh with the pad of his finger. A million dirty thoughts ran through her mind at once. Was he going to touch her? There?

“Bold, aren’t you?” she managed, even though her throat felt thick, and she was distracted by the fact that all the nerve endings in the delicate skin of her thigh had come alive under his touch.

“Only when I know what I want.”

“And what’s that?” Lizzie intended to sound sexy and sultry, but instead her voice came out nearly as a croak. She couldn’t look at the man’s dark eyes without feeling a tingle of nerves.

But he leaned forward then, his lips grazing her ear as he pulled her close enough to whisper the single-word answer in her ear.

“You.”