Page 79 of Taking the Pitch
“This way we’ll have plenty of snacks for more reading days, or movie nights, or sleepovers.” He wiggles his eyebrows up and down. “Not that there will be much sleeping,” he jokes.
Shaking my head with a laugh, I grab my stuff and Bruno’s leash, clipping it on him. “Ready when you are.”
We head out the door and lock my apartment. Judd taps his phone to the elevator once we’re in. “Remind me to set up your phone with my access key,” he says as we ride the elevator up.
“Why?” I ask, not doing a great job of hiding the shock in my voice.
Judd chuckles. “Because Amelia, we’re dating. I want you to come to my place whenever you feel like it.” He lifts a shoulder. “Besides, once you see my library, you’re never going to want to leave.”
“We’ll see about that,” I tell him as we reach his floor.
“Ladies first,” Judd says, motioning in front of him.
I walk out of the elevator and my mouth drops open.
Judd’s penthouse is amazing. It’s a modern design with sleek lines and wood tones. Dark hues of blues and blacks spread throughout the space. The white granite countertops pop against the black cabinets in the kitchen. It’s an open concept layout so the kitchen and living room connect. Across one of thetwolarge couches is a gas fireplace. And the back of the apartment is all windows, giving us the absolute best view of the city and mountain range in the distance. “Wow,” I whisper.
This apartment screams masculine but lacks Judd’s personality. It feels…incomplete.
“Make yourself at home,” Judd says, walking into the foyer behind me and tossing his keys onto the side table next to us, then heading to the kitchen to set the bags of snacks down. Bruno must think Judd is talking to him because as soon as I unclip his leash, he runs into the living room and bounds up on the black leather couch, quickly turning a circle before plopping his body down.
“Bruno, that’s not our couch!” I chastise him, running over to pull him off before he tears a hole in the butter soft material with his claws. “I’m so sorry.”
Judd chuckles. “It’s fine, Shortcake. He’s just taking me up on my offer.”
“But his claws,” I start.
Judd doesn’t let me finish. “He’s fine, Mills. I’m not worried about it,” he says, coming over to me and cupping my cheek. He closes the space between us and gives me a soft kiss. “Now, come on.” He links my fingers with his and tugs me towards a room off to the right of the living room. Judd pauses at the door and turns around. “Close your eyes.”
I narrow my eyes at him. “Why?” I ask, suspicious.
“Humor me.”
I sigh and close my eyes. “Fine, but if I open them and it’s just you naked in a room instead of books, I get to giveyoua surprise.”
“Don’t threaten me with a good time, babe.”
I shake my head. I hear him turn the handle to the door, then feel his body behind me, guiding me forward.
I’ve taken half a dozen steps when he stops me. “Okay, you can open them.”
Doing as he says, my eyes pop open and for the second time in five minutes, my mouth hangs open. “Holy fuck, Judd. This is amazing,” I tell him as my feet carry me further into the room, where I make a circle.
The wall of windows has continued into the room, giving it tons of natural light, brightening the otherwise dark room. Floor to ceiling black bookshelves line two of the walls. Lights dotting the shelves every few feet. The shelves are filled with books of all kinds, mystery, thriller, fantasy. Special editions of books I’ve read myself. A ladder,a freaking ladder,with wheels is on the longest wall.
There’s a smokey gray and white patterned area rug in the middle of the dark mahogany colored floor with an oversized brown leather couch and matching chair facing the window. A wooden coffee table with a black metal frame completes the look.
I keep turning, completing my circle facing where we came in. On the furthest side opposite the door sits a bulky wooden desk and leather chair in the corner. The wall behind it is lined with shelves holding various items of baseball memorabilia. This room is what I was expecting the living room to look like, not the sterile, cold vibe it gives off. He must spend a lot of time in here.
Judd’s still standing where I left him, hands in his pockets. “I told you it was hard to beat.”
As I’m walking back to him, I notice a framed sketch of a house on the other side of the door, opposite of where the desk is. “What’s that?” I ask, passing Judd and walking over to the drawing.
The sketch is of a beautiful two-story house with charcoal gray siding and stone accents. The peaks of the house are all framed with wood to match the garage door and pillars of the porch. Matching wooden shutters also frames the black windows.
The bottom sketch shows what the back of the house would look like. It’s the same as the front, but there’s a black framed sliding door that takes up half of the back of the house.
“That,” Judd says, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my middle, “is the house I hope to build someday.”
