MisMatch (A Humorous Contemporary Romance) (4 page)

Gabe raised his eyebrows and nodded as if
this wasn’t the first request of this type he'd had tonight. “Yeah,
what’s the message?”

She handed over her card with a note
scrawled on the back. “I'm a manager. Tell him to call me.” She
shrugged and glanced at Poindexter again. “You can tell him he's
safe from me. I have something else entirely planned for
tonight.”

Moving away from the end of the bar, Jessica
spotted the guy in the suit again and made her approach. “So are
you going to stare all night, or were you ever going to come and
talk to me?”

His lips twitched as he met her gaze.
“Excuse me?”

Jessica raised a brow. “'Cause I gotta tell
you, if you weren't so good looking, it would be borderline
creepy.”

Poindexter barked a laugh. “Only borderline
creepy?”

She shrugged as her eyes met his. “This is
L.A. after all. There’s a whole different definition of
creepy.”

A small smile tugged at his lips. “Do you
always say what's on your mind?”

“I know it's a little odd for L.A., right?
But I find it cuts through the bullshit.” She looked around. “Is
that your friend?” She nodded in Mr. Italian Stallion wannabe’s
direction. His bulky build and darker skin, combined with the gel
he wore in his hair gave him a Jersey Shore effect.

The beefy guy grinned and his face
transformed, making him look like a schoolboy with his first
crush.

“I’m his only friend.”

“Well hello, friend.”

Friend smiled at her and said, “Hello,
gorgeous. You going to cheer my friend up here? He’s in a bit of a
mood.”

This was fun.
Go figure
. Since Ryan’s
call, she’d been in freak out mode. This felt easy and natural.
“Now why are you in a mood? There are a dozen women that are
throwing you hungry eyes right now.”

He blinked as if her candor surprised him.
“Too bad for them. I’m otherwise engaged.”

“Lucky bitch.” She grinned. “I’m appointing
myself as your cheer up committee for the rest of

the evening.”

There it was again. The corners of his lips
twitched. If just a partial smile was enough to tantalize her, then
what would it look like when this guy really grinned? Jessica
pictured panties dropping in neighboring cities.

“What, you mean to tell me you don’t have
any friends here ready to rescue you from the creepy, staring guy?”
His tone was teasing.

“I prefer to rescue myself.”

This time he did grin. And holy fuck, what a
smile. Straight, even teeth. Eyes crinkling at the corners. Her own
panties, if she’d been wearing any, would have started migrating
south.

“You really will say anything, won’t
you?”

So this was what flirting felt like; it had
been so long since she’d bothered. Man, she missed it. Nothing like
flirting to heighten the anticipation. “You never did answer my
question.”

“What question was that?”

“Whether or not you were going to work up
the courage to talk to me.”

He chuckled. “I was working my way up to it,
but I figured you might be trouble.”

“You were right about
that. Lucky for you, I believe in taking matters into my own hands.
Now, do I have to lead too, or can you dance?” she asked as she
tugged him to his feet.
Music thrummed and vibrated through
Jessica's entire body. His big, warm hand wrapped around hers, and
she shivered in anticipation.

This was something she could hold onto.
Something she could use to drum out the annoyance at her mother,
the insecurities of her job. The loneliness over losing Izzy. All
of it. She could use the anonymity on the dance floor to combat the
feelings she wasn’t ready to confront.

Bodies of other dancers jostled her until
she found a spot with enough space. Her partner looked unsure. She
leaned in to make sure he heard her. “Relax, forget about them. All
you need to do is concentrate on me.”

His intense green eyes focused on hers, and
in a second of irrationality, she wanted to shrink from the feeling
of intimacy. She didn’t even know his name, but felt like he could
see deep inside her.

“Am I going to get a name out of you?” As he
leaned in, his breath warmed her, and his stubbled chin rubbed
against her temple.

She shivered. “Giving you my name would only
ruin the spell.” And while he didn’t look the type, he was still
club crawling in L.A.. He wasn’t likely to give his real name
anyway, so why pretend?

His lips twitched in that sexy way that made
her stomach flip.

God, being that handsome should be a sin.
Jessica studied him, confused about her reaction to him.
Buttoned-up was so not her thing. She preferred tats and piercings
and some good old-fashioned hair dye. But this guy set all her
receptors to come and get some. Worse, something about him made her
want to spill her darkest secrets.

“And if I want to call you tomorrow?”

She shrugged, even as his large hand landed
on her waist, drawing her hips into his. “That’s the thing about
cheer up committees. You don’t want to overuse them. It affects
their potency.”

His eyes traveled her body and heat flushed
her whole body. “Somehow I doubt that.”

Jessica met his eyes again. Once more,
electricity crackled between them, and again she shut down the
connection by turning in his arms to dance. The DJ changed tracks
to the latest bass-pumping song by a female rapper, and Jessica let
her partner meld their bodies together, enjoying the feel of him
around her. For a moment, she let herself relax and enjoy the
music.

When he gently turned her to face him, she
tried to resist, but then he smiled.

They were jostled again, and he took her
hand to lead her through the throngs into the back lounge area. The
bouncer at the door greeted him like an old friend and said
something she couldn’t decipher. When they were let into the closed
lounge area, the door shut, silencing the din from the club.

“What did you say to the bouncer to get us
back here?”

“A magician never reveals his secrets.” He
smiled again, and Jessica forgot her own name. “Besides, I wanted
to be able to hear you. It was a little crazy out there. If you're
going to be my personal cheer up committee, I'd rather it be
quiet.”

Jessica chewed on her top lip and averted
her gaze. He might look like Poindexter, but his thought process
was right up her alley. “I couldn't have said it better
myself.”

“I prefer it when I can see your eyes.”

She tried to avoid his gaze and swallowed
around the lump in her throat. Intimacy was not on the menu
tonight, at least not the emotional kind. If he kept insisting on
seeing her and talking to her, he’d ruin her
about-to-have-anonymous-sex buzz. And he was replacing it with
something else that felt like nerves.

She searched through her cache of awesome
one-liners for a flippant quip but couldn’t think of one. The slow
caress of his fingers at her lower back robbed her of the ability
to think properly. Her instincts told her to bolt. Get out before
he saw too much. Before he got a gander at her soul. Before he had
the chance to run first.

She cleared her throat and made an effort to
disengage. But he held her still. “You can run if you want to, but
I have a feeling you want to find out if what you’re feeling is as
combustible as you think it'll be.”

“I—” She froze when his head dipped down to
hers. Even though her brain gave the command to bolt, her body
rooted itself in his arms. His body heat wrapped around her like
flames. His scent mingled with hers, and the combination of citrusy
musk, spice, and flowers made a potent combination. She swayed into
him, and she sensed his smile of triumph. Before his lips met hers,
one of his big hands scooted to the top of her ass and tucked her
body flush against his. She gasped as she felt the full length of
his arousal throbbing and pulsing against her belly.

On the parting of her lips, his mouth
covered hers.

Combustible didn't even begin to describe
it. The fire that had licked at her skin was only a precursor. When
his tongue expertly coaxed hers into a mating dance, her blood
boiled. The voice in her head that had screamed at her to run was
drowned out by the one that begged her to rub all over this man
with the magic lips.

The low growl from his chest enthralled her
as his hand stopped being respectable. Large palms scooted to her
ass and lifted her, prompting her to wrap her legs around his
waist. Her dress rode up, and as the flesh of her moist core came
into contact with the soft fabric of his trousers, she gasped.

He cursed as he broke the kiss. “You’re
wearing a G-string.” He blinked at her as he tried to make sense of
it all. The fire burned in his eyes, and his cock jerked again.

Jessica aimed for saucy as she said, “Well,
this dress doesn't really support panty lines.”

“Holy shit.”

“I think the phrase you’re looking for is
holy fuck.”

And there it was, the sexy lift of the right
side of his lips into a not-quite smile. She moved against him in
an involuntary effort to get closer. The fire would abate and she
needed him.

His hands squeezed her cheeks again, and he
moaned. But when his lips returned to hers, he was as gentle as if
they had all the time in the world. All her efforts to convince him
to deepen the kiss failed as he lazily sipped at her lips. When he
placed her gently on the cushioned padding of one of the booths,
she clapped her legs around him tighter. He dragged his lips from
hers and nipped at the column of her neck.

His hands skimmed her thighs, pausing only
to gently squeeze her hips before tracing up her belly. Jessica
gasped, unable to think about anything but having him inside her.
All she wanted was to focus on how he made her feel. Not about any
consequences of what she was about to do. She wanted to hold on to
the heated tingling of her skin and to the promise of ecstasy.

“Look at me.” His voice broke through the
haze of fog.

Lifting her heavy lids, she blinked up at
him.

“Tell me your name.”

Stubborn wasn't he? “We covered that
already.” She attempted to distract him by stripping off his shirt.
With each button she released, her smile broadened. Talk about tall
dark and handsome. She'd have to add ripped to that description.
She didn't know what he did, but wowza didn't even begin to cover
it.

His eyes flashed with something she couldn't
place. Maybe another flare of stubbornness. But his voice was
resigned. “So, I'm never going to see you again?”

She shook her head, even as she set her jaw.
“That's how cheer up committees work. One time thing.”

His dark brows drew in. “I guess we better
make this count.”

His hands stroked up her thighs. When he
reached where her panty line should have been, he cursed. “You’re
so wet already.”

She arched her back, begging him to keep
touching her. “You’re driving me cra—”

She lost the rest of her sentence as he slid
one finger into her slick core. Heat engulfed her body. When he
reached a hand up into her hair and forced her to look at him, she
wanted to hide from the connection. Wanted to close her eyes and
get lost in the anonymous sex. Instead, as he penetrated her with
his finger, he made them connect. Made it impossible for her to
hide.

Stubbornly, she tried to duck her head, but
he didn't let her. With every attempt, he met her with a kiss,
making sure they had eye contact before they had lip contact.

He teased the entrance to her slick channel,
but didn’t penetrate again. Aching, she tried to arch into him, but
he didn’t give her what she needed. “What are you waiting for?”

He teased her entrance again then stopped.
“I'm waiting for your name.”

Jessica wiggled again, but he held her
still.

“It's just this thing I have. I want to know
who I’m fucking.”

She hesitated, but she wanted him. Needed
him.

“All I need is your first name. I promise I
won’t call or write. I just want to know your name.” He teased her
again.

Why did the best sex she had yet to have
need to have a hang-up about names? “And if I don’t give it to you,
are you really going to walk away?”

He stroked her again, and a low growl
emanated from his chest. “I'm not going to pretend that I could. I
could call you Sassy all night, but it's such a little thing. You
can tell me.”

She chewed on her lip as she met his eyes.
She didn’t know this guy. It wasn't like she would ever see him
again. She wouldn’t ever have to face the intimacy he brought out
of her. The yearning he made her feel. She slapped back the tender
feelings the moment they reared their head.
No
, she wanted him, and that was the only reason she
would give him her name. “It's Jessica.”

He repeated her name on a whisper as he
entered her with his finger again. She felt her body stretching to
accommodate first one finger then two. He kept the pace steady,
pushing forward, then retreating, then pushing forward again.

Jessica bit her lip as he took her higher
and higher with his fingers. She focused on the bliss warming her
body from the inside out.

“Jessica, look at me.”

When she met his gaze, he leaned down and
placed the tenderest of kisses on her lips. He reached between
their bodies and used his thumb to stroke her clit, and Jessica
knew she was close. The tension coiled need within her. All she
craved was—

He pulled his fingers from her center.

“Hey!”

“Shh.” He brought his finger to his lips and
licked them. “So sweet. I need to taste more of you.”

Oh. Wow
. So he was
a giver. Jesus, she’d hit the jackpot all right. “O-okay.”

He placed wet, open mouth kisses along the
column of her throat. Kissing lower, he paused at her breasts,
suckling the taut nipple through the fabric of her dress. He kissed
lower, and Jessica threaded her hands into his hair. He moaned when
she ran her fingers through it.