Trust in Me

by Samantha Chase

  Jason lifted his head and stared intently down into Maggie’s eyes. Without ever breaking contact, he reached down and took her left hand in his and pulled the fake wedding ring from her finger and threw it across the room. “Do you have any idea how I’ve been berating myself for the thoughts I’ve been having about you?” he asked before lowering his head to go back to the task of nipping and kissing her neck.

  Maggie merely shook her head. “I didn’t know, Jason,” she rasped as his hands began to move from her waist upward. She’d dreamed about this moment; fantasized about Jason’s hands on her and yet it was nothing compared to the reality of it. “If it helps, I’ve been having thoughts about you, too,” she admitted.

  “Oh, yeah?” Jason asked, lifting his head once again before bending slightly to scoop her up and into his arms. “How about you point me in the direction of your bedroom and we can compare notes?” His tone was serious but his eyes were bright with mischief.

  Maggie couldn’t help but smile as she wrapped her arms around his neck. “Straight down that hallway and the last door on the left.”

  In a flash, Jason had her in her bedroom and was laying her down on the bed. He stood and simply looked down at her, taking in the sight of her sprawled out on the champagne colored comforter. She was so beautiful and he couldn’t believe that he finally had permission to touch her and not feel guilty about it or have to stop himself before going too far.

  He was going to go as far as he could; all the way in fact, and his hands actually began to twitch with the need to touch her again. “I’ve thought about this for so long, Maggie. I need to know that we’re on the same page here.”

  “I want you, Jason,” she said honestly. “It almost killed me to leave the airport earlier.”

  It was all the encouragement he needed. He peeled his wet shirt off and let it drop to the floor before kicking his shoes off and removing his trousers and socks. Maggie leaned up onto her elbows to watch him. When Jason stood before her in nothing but dark briefs, she gave an appreciative smile.

  Silently, she stood and slowly unbuttoned her own plain white blouse and added it to the pile that Jason had begun. Reaching behind her, she unzipped her skirt and let it fall to the ground, leaving her in nothing but simple white lace. “Is this the page that you’re on?” she asked, “Or am I missing something?”

  Her words were meant to tease but Jason was too far on the edge to play along for too long. Jason lifted his hands and cupped Maggie’s face. “I’m going to apologize right now for not taking the time to go slow. I need you, Maggie.”

  She gave him a sexy smile and stepped back and laid back on the bed in invitation. “I don’t care about slow, Jason,” she said. “I just care about feeling you here beside me.” She crooked a finger at him, inviting him to join her on the bed.

  He didn’t need to be asked twice.

  ****

  It could have been days or it could have been hours, Jason wasn’t sure. He was flat on his back with Maggie wrapped around him as he tried to catch his breath. In his wildest fantasies he’d never imagined how explosive they would be together. Once he had joined her on the bed, it was as if they had been two starving people who were finally allowed to eat.

  He smiled at his own analogy because he had certainly feasted on every inch of Maggie’s amazing body. She kept it pretty well hidden underneath her conservative clothing but now that he knew what was underneath, he would never be able to look at her the same way again when they were in the office.

  The room had darkened quite a bit so Jason knew that clearly it had been hours that they’d been in there. A quick glance around the room had him finding a clock and it was nearing eight o’clock. He turned his head to the side and smiled at the sight of Maggie’s head on his chest and her blonde hair in wild disarray.

  “Hey,” he said softly and waited for her to raise her head. When she did, he asked, “Are you hungry?”

  That wicked grin that he was really beginning to love appeared. “I could eat,” she said simply and then gave a little shriek when he reached out and rolled her under him, pinning her to the mattress.

  “Food, woman,” he playfully snarled as he kissed her soundly. “You have worn me out. I need something to eat.”

  Maggie pushed him off of her and rose from the bed to grab a robe from her closet. “Well, obviously I don’t have anything here since I’ve been gone for three weeks but we can order some take out,” she suggested.

  Minutes later they were rummaging through her collection of takeout menus until they agreed on someplace. “Their pizza isn’t the best but they do deliver,” she said of the one place Jason finally suggested. “I don’t really feel like going out in this weather again.”

  Jason took that as a sign that she wouldn’t want him going out in it either; hopefully that would include for the remainder of the night. He wasn’t ready to leave yet and he had a feeling it would be quite a while before he’d actually want to leave. Mentally shaking his head Jason knew that he’d have to wait and see what Maggie wanted. After all, they had been together non-stop for three weeks; she may be ready to be away from him.

  True they hadn’t been sleeping together for three weeks so maybe she wouldn’t mind him being around while they explored this new aspect of their relationship.

  Relationship? Normally that word had Jason breaking out in a cold sweat but right now, it made him feel good. He already knew that they were compatible at work and he genuinely enjoyed just spending time talking with Maggie and the last couple of hours had proved that they were compatible in bed, too. What more could he ask for?

  “I’m going to call this in,” Maggie said as she stood and reached for her phone.

  Jason reclined on the pillows, sheets draped over his hips, as he watched her. The last five weeks had been transforming. The woman he had initially met was uptight and prickly and now he understood why. The thought of someone doing something so horrible to Maggie made his fists clench. If he had known who that lousy SOB was while they were at dinner last night, Jason had no doubt someone would have had to come and bail him out of jail because he would have taken great delight in beating the man into the ground.

  “They said about thirty minutes but I’m thinking closer to forty-five due to the weather,” she was saying as she sat back down beside him. “I hate that I don’t have anything to offer you to drink other than water.” Maggie blushed slightly, embarrassed suddenly by their nearness. It was one thing to have traveled together for weeks and be in each other’s hotel rooms, but this was her room, her bed, and it failed miserably in comparison to all of the places Jason had probably lived and seen.

  Sensing her discomfort, Jason reached out and pulled her down beside him so that her head was back on his shoulder. “I can wait for the food to get here,” he said softly, kissing the top of her head and then sighing with contentment. When she didn’t say anything, he gently shrugged his shoulder to get her attention. “What’s going on, Maggie? Do you want me to go?”

  She sat back up and struggled to meet his gaze. “I don’t want you to go but I’m just a little…well, compared to the places that we’ve stayed my place is a little…dumpy.”

  Jason reached out and placed a finger under her chin, forcing her to look up at him. “There is nothing wrong with your home. I don’t give a damn where we are, Maggie; I just want to be with you.”

  That made her relax and smile. “I want to be with you, too, Jason. But I have to admit, you’ve spoiled me.”

  “Me? How?”

  “I was thinking how it was going to be great to come home and sleep in my own bed but after some of the luxurious hotels we stayed in, I realize that this bed is just old and not that comfortable.”

  He laughed and pulled her back down beside him. “I didn’t even notice because I was perfectly comfortable having you wrapped around me.”

  “Still you have to admit that a comfortable bed would be a nice bonus.”

  He made a non-committal sound.
“We may have to go back to some of those hotels and do a comparison.” A slow smile crept across his face at the thought of going back to New York and being able to share a room with Maggie and doing all of the things that they had missed out on because it wouldn’t have been appropriate. Carriage rides through Central Park or taking in a Broadway show while dining out at some exclusive restaurant all seemed perfect to him.

  “I’ll tell you, I wouldn’t mind going back for one of the pretzels we had in New York and maybe going to the Statue of Liberty,” Maggie said as if reading his mind. Jason let out a small laugh and she raised her head to question him.

  “I was just sitting here thinking how I’d like to take you back to New York to see a show or to maybe eat at some fancy restaurant and you’re talking about pretzels. It’s funny!”

  She playfully punched him in the arm. “I don’t care about the fancy stuff, Jason. That doesn’t impress me. I had fun just running around the city and taking in the experience; meeting people, tasting the food…it was all just so amazing! I’ll never be able to thank you enough for giving me that day. It was perfect and I’ll never forget it.”

  Her words were so sincere and the look in her eyes told Jason more than anything how much it all had meant to her. In that moment he vowed to himself to take her back there and give them the time to do what they wanted at their leisure; no time limits or constraints, just the chance to enjoy themselves and relax.

  “You’re very welcome. Someday we’ll go back and play at being the ultimate tourists,” he said and kissed her again. He was just settling in, enjoying the feel of Maggie relaxing against him when they heard the doorbell ringing.

  “Don’t take this the wrong way,” Maggie said as she jumped from the bed, nearly giddy, “but I’m so excited that dinner is here!” She bolted from the room and Jason could hear her laughing as she went to open the door.

  He climbed from the bed and winced as he reached for his still damp pants. It was not at all appealing to put them back on so he wrapped a sheet around his middle and scooped the clothes up off of the floor and walked out to the kitchen where he found Maggie setting their food down. “Would you mind if I tossed these in the dryer? They’re still pretty wet.”

  Maggie took the clothes from him, making sure the pockets were empty, and tossed them in the dryer and then turned to admire the sight of Jason wrapped in a sheet. Very nice. Slowly she walked toward him and placed her hand over where his was holding the sheet together. “Nice outfit,” she said saucily and got up on tip-toes to place tiny kisses along his chin. “You look good in my sheets.”

  Jason let out a low growl as her hands began to wander over his chest, his shoulders, and his arms. “You think so?”

  Maggie nodded. “I do. But…” she reached back down and pulled his hand away from its make-shift fastening. “I think I like you much better out of them.” In a flash the sheet dropped to the tile floor.

  “What about dinner?” he asked and groaned as she began to kiss her way down his body.

  “That’s what microwaves are for,” she said.

  ****

  The rain had stopped by the next morning and Jason’s clothes were long-since dried. He could very easily go out to his car and grab his luggage so that he had clean clothes or he could go home and unpack and let Maggie get herself settled back in.

  He didn’t want to leave. The thought of going home to his big, empty house left him cold. He’d bought the big townhouse on the golf course because it suited his needs. But now? It just seemed like a place that was way too big for a man alone. Maggie stretched beside him and then snuggled closer. She was a snuggler and Jason found that he enjoyed it.

  Unfortunately, the thought of cold pizza for breakfast was not doing it for him and he knew that it would be best for him to get up and either go and get them breakfast or for them to at least talk about how they were going to spend their day. It was funny because he thought that after spending so much time together that he’d be ready for some time alone, but he wasn’t. If anything, now that he knew that there wasn’t any reason for them to not be together, Jason didn’t want them to be apart.

  “I can hear you thinking from here,” Maggie said sleepily and then followed that with a yawn. “What time is it?”

  “Almost nine,” he said. “I was thinking about breakfast. Then I was thinking about clean clothes and my luggage. And then…”

  “Then you were thinking about going home,” she said quietly and sat up beside him. “It’s okay for you to leave, Jason. I don’t expect you to move in or anything just because we slept together.” She was only being slightly defensive but she was trying to protect herself. Just because they finally gave in to their obvious attraction to one another didn’t mean that she thought Jason was in love with her or anything. If this was all they were going to have was the one night, she would find a way to be okay with it.

  “Do you want me to leave?” he asked, sitting up beside her.

  She huffed with frustration. “Please don’t answer my question with a question, Jason. It’s annoying. All I’m saying is that I know that you have a life to get back to. Obviously you didn’t go home after we landed yesterday and just like I’ve got things to do around here to get settled back in before we have to go back to work on Monday, I’m sure that you have things to do at your place. It’s okay.”

  He leaned in and kissed her squarely on the mouth. Short and sweet. “I know that I have stuff to do but I just wasn’t ready to…leave yet.”

  That made Maggie smile. “I’m not kicking you out, Jason.”

  “That’s good,” he said and his smile matched hers. “But I am hungry and leftover pizza is not something that I ever want to have for breakfast. How about I go and get us some bagels and coffee or something?”

  Maggie shook her head. “I know you’d never know it after all of the breakfasts we’ve shared in the last month but normally I am not a breakfast person. I think I gained a good five pounds just in breakfast foods. I’m kind of anxious to shower and get laundry going and then hit the grocery store. Monday will be here before you know it and I want to get settled back in.”

  He nodded in understanding. “Can I take you to dinner tonight?”

  She blushed and her smile grew. “I would like that very much.”

  “That’s good. I want to take you out someplace nice and not talk about business and not have to share you with anyone.”

  Maggie liked the sound of that. “You don’t have to make a fuss, Jason. I’d be happy just going someplace casual.”

  He knew that she would put up an argument but he also knew that for one night, he wanted to spoil her a little. “You’ll just have to wait and see,” he said distractedly.

  “How will I know what to wear?” Maggie asked, leaning in to trail kisses down the column of his throat and down to the sculpted chest she was beginning to enjoy touching too much.

  “Whatever you wear, Maggie, will be perfect.”

  She raised her head and looked at him doubtfully.

  In a move she never saw coming, Jason whipped the sheet away from them both and scooped her up into his arms. “Personally, I can’t wait to see you wearing nothing but bubbles…”

  ****

  Jason arrived back at Maggie’s promptly at seven and when she opened the door, she simply took his breath away. “Wow,” he said, stepping inside and handing her a bouquet of white tulips. “You look absolutely beautiful.”

  Maggie blushed. All day she had worried about what to wear because Jason had essentially seen most of her wardrobe over the last several weeks but then she remembered a cocktail dress that she hadn’t had the opportunity to wear because it was during that brief period after New York when he stopped inviting her to social events.

  Now, dressed in the curve hugging black dress with the tiny straps and wearing a pair of killer skinny heels, Maggie knew she had made the right choice. “Well, I wasn’t sure where we were going so I decided that I couldn’t go wrong with a litt
le black dress.”

  He leaned in and kissed her slowly and thoroughly and when he lifted his head, he scanned her slumberous and sexy eyes and smiled. “It’s perfect.”

  Maggie turned and grabbed her purse and a wrap to take with her and then walked out the door that Jason was holding open for her. “Are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

  “We’ll be there soon enough,” was all he said as he placed a strong hand on the small of her back and led her over to his sporty BMW.

  Within minutes they were in downtown Charlotte and pulling up in front of one of the best steakhouses in the state. Maggie was more than a little impressed with Jason’s choice of and then heard a commotion across the street. A sports bar. She sighed wistfully and jumped when Jason called her on it.

  “Is there a hockey game on tonight?” he asked with a knowing smirk.

  “I don’t know…maybe.”

  Indecision marked his face. On one hand he wanted to take her out for a romantic dinner where it was just the two of them and he could spend time getting to know her and then he remembered how much fun Maggie had when they had gone to see the game at Madison Square Garden. His mind made up, Jason walked around the car and took Maggie by the hand and began leading her across the parking lot.

  “Jason? The restaurant is back there.”

  “Yeah, but you know you’d rather be over here watching the game and eating a burger,” he teased and was surprised when Maggie stopped short and stood her ground. He turned and faced her. “It’s not a big deal. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care where we eat.”

  She closed the distance between them and kissed him. “I can watch the game later on the DVR. I’d very much like to have a quiet dinner; just the two of us.”

  Nothing could have pleased him more. They walked back toward the restaurant and were seated immediately at a quiet corner table. Maggie was overwhelmed by the atmosphere as well as the menu but it didn’t take long for her to relax and order. When all of the preliminaries were out of the way, Jason reached across the table for one of her hands. “Thank you for coming out tonight.”