“I don’t know. It felt like someone was following me earlier. Not just someone yelling out my name. It’s that instinct that my wolf keeps telling me something’s off.”
Austin sat back and cracked open a can. “It’s the energy in the air that’s making your wolf nervous. Everyone’s edgy tonight because of the mixed crowd. Earlier we saw a Mage escorted off the grounds for throwing his energy into a Chitah.”
Fireworks went off in the distance.
Lexi gasped. “I want to watch!”
Austin chuckled handsomely and stood up, holding out his hand. “Come on, Ladybug. Let’s go get you some sparklers.”
They finished their hot dogs and strolled off, holding hands.
“I really like those two,” I said. “They’re perfect together.”
Jericho drank a few swallows of beer and set it on the grass. “It’s more obvious to everyone else but them. That’s how it goes sometimes. Can’t see the forest for the trees. They bicker, and she has her tantrums, but that’s the spark that puts the passion in their sex life.”
I leaned back in the chair and let my thoughts drift away from me. Fighting sure didn’t put the passion in my sex life. It had the opposite effect on me.
I must have tilted my chair back too far, because Jericho suddenly lunged forward to grab me as the seat folded. It happened so quickly that when my back hit the ground, I couldn’t stop laughing. He stood over me with his hair hanging down and a cheesy grin on his face.
“Isabelle, you’re a nut.”
A shrill scream poured out of my mouth and I flipped over. He tried to grab me, but I slapped him away.
“What’s wrong?”
“Something crawled in my shirt behind my hair!” I kept screaming. Then I went into that body convulsion you do when a critter is on the loose inside your garments.
Jericho pulled the ends of my shirt and peeled it off.
In public.
With everyone standing around watching.
“Don’t move.”
Those two words made my eyes widen, and I stood as still as a tree. His hand slowly smoothed across my back and then he flicked his wrist. That was my cue to run and do the arm flap.
Jericho stared at the ground and scuffed his shoe across the grass. “That was the biggest damn water bug I’ve ever seen.”
“Hell’s bells. I’m going to be sick.”
Someone wolf whistled and I crossed my arms over my bra. “Thanks, Jericho. Now everyone got to see the second act.”
“At least it was a comedy show.” He held up my shirt between two fingers. “Do you want to put this back on?”
“What are my alternatives, Mr. Shirtless?”
He chuckled and patted my shirt to make certain nothing else had crawled inside. I snatched it from him and slipped it on.
“I don’t think I’m a country girl.”
A slow laugh began to roll out of him. “You should have seen your face. I wish I had recorded that on video.”
All the humor ebbed away from my expression, and I reached out and put my arms around Jericho. “I’m sorry Hawk did that to you. I had to watch you suffer on that television and it almost killed me.”
His hands flattened on my back reassuringly. “It’s okay, baby. He didn’t hurt me.”
“I wish you could have heard me talking to you so you wouldn’t have been so alone in there.”
His mouth moved against my temple. “I wasn’t alone, Isabelle. I got you under my skin.”
“Sounds itchy.”
“It can be uncomfortable at times. More like a rash.”
“Does it burn?” I said with a soft chuckle.
“Sometimes. Other times it feels like a heat that’s out of control.” His hands softened around my body, and I pressed a kiss at the base of his throat. “Isabelle, I rented one of the trailers on the grounds for the band.”
“Why are you telling me?”
His ragged breath heated my ear. “Because I’m going to make love to you.”
Chapter 17
After Jericho had announced his intent to seduce me in a private trailer, he led me through the crowd by my hand and made love to me with his eyes each time he glanced over his shoulder.
I, Isabelle Monroe, became aroused as the thoughts of what we were about to do stimulated my senses.
It wasn’t just my senses being stimulated.
His steps became rushed, and at one point, Joker appeared. “Hey, Jericho! They want us to play another song.”
“Later.”
“I told them yes.”
“Later!” Jericho shouted, his urgent pace now a jog. I struggled to keep up, my shoes in my left hand, but I kept stepping on sticks and pebbles.
“Ouch,” I hissed, hopping on my foot.
Jericho spun around and lifted me over his shoulder. It was so cavemannish that it made me want to laugh. But I didn’t, because I was too distracted with running my hands down his strong back.
“Isabelle, you need to stop doing that,” I heard him say.
His words filled my head like a fever. I slid my hands into his jeans and grabbed his ass. When I felt his fingers claw at the waistline of my shorts, I wanted to knock him down and mount him right there in front of the crowd.
A squeak sounded, and he set me on my feet. “Get in.”