Page 21 of Bullied By the Catcher
“That’s not nice, Teresa,” he said with a smirk. And I knew what he wanted me to do.
“Sadie, meet Jeremy.” I smiled tightly as I introduced them. “He’s my…”
“Man?” Sadie guessed, and when I peeked up at Jeremy, his huge smile was, with his dimples on full display, if I was honest, disarming. He seemed like a peacock about to puff out his chest with pride. I sighed.
“Sure, he’s mysomething, all right,” I sarcastically agreed. “Huge pain in my—“ I couldn’t finish my sentence because he gave me a challenging look. “Anyhow, Jeremy, this is my roommate and best friend, Sadie.”
“Nice to meet you, Sadie.” Jeremy extended a hand towards her, and just as she was about to shake it, a seriously pissed-off guy who looked seriously familiar growled behind her.
“It’s you,” my roommate whispered with awe in her voice I hardly ever heard. The guy behind her, a baseball player, too, if I remembered correctly, locked eyes with her, and suddenly, all the hardness in his gaze softened.
“It’s me.” He winked, and Jeremy cleared his throat.
“It was very nice to meet you, Sadie.” His voice softened. “Hope you don’t mind if I steal Teresa for a little while?”
“Tere,” I corrected because I was stubborn.
“Tere,” he finally said, and my belly went all warm and mushy. Shit, this wasn’t good. I melted into him, and when I turned to look at Sadie, her brows had shot up to her hairline.“She and I are going to head inside. Wanna show my girl off. I think you can understand that.”
“Right,” Sadie mumbled before shooting me a look that told me I had a lot to explain. Shit, where would I even start?
“But it’s okay with you?” Jeremy added, his tone completely genuine, taking both of us by surprise. “I just mean, are you going to be okay?” I opened my mouth to tell him I would rather not leave her alone when the other baseball player, I was pretty sure his name was Jason, spoke up.
“She’s perfectly safe,” the shortstop said confidently, and there was something about the way Sadie looked at him that hinted she wanted to hang out with him. Which was weird since Sadie avoided jocks almost as much as I did.
I’ll be right back, I mouthed before Jeremy turned us and led us back into the huge frat house.
“She’s safe with Jason,” the big guy shared, and he looked like he was
“You know him?” I asked as we moved through a crowd of people.
“He’s my roommate and best friend.”
“Oh… Wait, are you setting him up with my roommate?” Was this his attempt at getting me alone?
“Actually, no,” he said as he stopped in the kitchen. “I didn’t know he was interested in her until a couple minutes ago.”
“Interested? Really?” Hmm, interesting development. Did Sadie know she had an admirer?
“Drink?” he offered. I shouldn’t. I had a mile-long list of reasons why it wasn’t okay to not just drink, but drink around him.
I opened and shut my mouth, licking my bottom lip.
“I shouldn’t.”
“Why?” he asked, pulling out two icy water bottles from one of the coolers. He wiped them down with a kitchen towel before handing one to me and popping one open for himself.
“I’m in season,” I answered easily, though it wasn’t the complete truth.
“And?” he asked, as if knowing exactly what I was thinking. It was bad enough that my head spun and my hormones were out of control anytime I was around him. The need to climb him like a tree was overwhelming. I didn’t need alcohol to mess with my head and drop any of whatever was left of my inhibitions.
“This isn’t the kind of a place a girl can safely enjoy a drink,” I added. He stilled. I watched in slow motion as horror was plastered all over his handsome face.
“You think… I would?—”
”No.” I shook my head, completely sincere. “I just…” I paused to get my thoughts together. “Around you, I need to keep as much of a clear head as possible,” I blurted out without overthinking.
He stilled and his beautiful blue gaze darkened, something sinfully predatory in his stare that should have scared me, but if anything, it drew me closer.Literally.It was like my feet had a mind of their own. My hand rested on the center of his chest the moment I was close enough to touch him. I guess I was incapable of keeping my hands to myself whenever he was around.
