Page 26 of Taking the Pitch
Delicious.
Stop it.
I can feel him come closer and I tug at the back of my skirt as he stops next to me.
“Hi, Shortcake. Nice costume. I’m really digging your handcuffs.” An image of what Judd could do with those handcuffs pops into my head, and I feel my cheeks heat. I cock an eyebrow up at him and send him a side glare, extracting a low chuckle from him. “Where’s Bruno?” he asks, looking around for my sidekick.
“In my apartment, he’s not the club type,” I tell him, looking over at the girls.
Hazel looks at Charlie and mouths, “Shortcake?” Charlie shrugs and looks at Judd as he answers her question. “No, just coming back from taking Hudson Trick or Treating with Kess.”
Kess must be his older brother Kessler. I remember him and his now fiancée being plastered all over the gossip sites not too long ago when their relationship went public. And again, when Kessler got into a fight during a game after Hudson’s bio dad said some unsavory things about Lucy and her son at the plate.
“Oh, how fun! Did you get pictures?” Charlie asks. Judd takes his phone out of his pocket and unlocks it, bringing up a picture and handing his phone to Charlie.
“Aaawwww,” both Hazel and Charlie croon, looking at the picture.
“Hudson and Kade look so adorable,” Charlie says, handing Judd his phone back.
“You wanna see too?” he turns to me, holding his phone up.
Not wanting to be rude, I nod my head once and he hands me his phone. Two tall pirates with identical green eyes have their arms slung around two much shorter pirates who are holding their fake swords out towards the camera. Wide grins grace all four faces. Seeing Judd being so ‘domestic’, the opposite of what his reputation is known to be, gives me a funny feeling I’m not used to in my stomach.
“Cute,” I tell him, trying to play it cool that he turned my insides to mush with just a picture, handing the phone back tohim. Our fingers brush when he takes his phone back, sending a jolt through my hand like the same jolt I felt yesterday when we shook hands. My eyes connect with his, seeing that he felt it too.
A throat clears, making us both jump and look at the two women that we forgot were standing in front of us. Taking my hand back, I cross my arms and shift to my left, trying to create a little distance between us without being noticeable.
“Anyway,” Charlie drawls out, looking between us and giving me a look that says ‘we’ll talk about this more later’. Cool, just what I needed. “We wouldn’t want to impose, Judd. We can just find a group ride share,” Charlie says, holding up her phone and shaking it.
“Absolutely not,” he argues, crossing his arms as if that’s final. “You’re not imposing. I was just going to go upstairs and turn onHocus Pocus.”
“Ooh, Ilovethat movie!” Hazel exclaims. Looks like someone’s still buzzing. Mine has unfortunately died down since freakingJack Sparrowhas joined us.
Judd holds out his fist for a bump, and Hazel enthusiastically returns it. “Judd,” he says to her.
“Hazel, nice to officially meet you!”
“Same,” he says, giving her his playboy smile. “Anyway,” Judd continues, “there’s no imposition. I’ll take you.” He pulls his keys out of his pocket and shakes them.
Charlie and Hazel look at each other and shrug. I, however, protest. “That’s unnecessary. Thanks, but no thanks. We’ll just wait for an Uber to free up,” I tell him, grabbing my phone out of my purse and bringing up the Uber app, which now shows that there’s nothing available forat leastan hour.
Awesome.
“I found a group rideshare that could be here in fifteen minutes,” Charlie says, looking at her phone.
“Perfect!” I yell at the same time Judd says, “No.”
I whip my head to look at him, and he gives me a pointed look. “It’s not your decision,” I tell him, matching his look.
He takes two steps towards me, closing the gap, towering over me. “It is when you look like that,” he says in a low voice.
I narrow my eyes at him. “What’s wrong with how I look?”
His eyes quickly drop to my cleavage, then back up to my eyes. His stare a little more heated than before. “Not a damn thing.”
I squirm under his gaze, fidgeting with the strap on my purse, but not breaking eye contact.
“Okay, you know what, we accept,” Charlie says, breaking our stand-off.
