Page 147 of Wild Pitch
“Yeah, he was pretty reasonable. Just wants us to keep professional boundaries at work.”
“Who were the two against?” Audrey asks sharply.
“Watson from HR.” Cade stops to roll his eyes and Logan drops anof coursewith a harsh word in between. “And the owner. Although he wasn’t so much against it, as he didn’t want any bad publicity.”
Audrey sneers and leans back on her chair, saying nothing further.
“Let me get this straight.” I grab Cade’s chin and turn his head to me. “I can keep my job?”
His cheek pushes against my hand as he smiles. “Yeah, you get to keep what was rightfully yours all along.”
“Woohoo! The job and the man!” Rose pumps the air with, er, a pizza slice.
“Salud!” Rivera lifts a glass of Coke. “To love’s victory!”
Audrey scoots toward the coffee table and grabs one of the soda glasses that Rivera poured. She lifts it up ceremoniously. “Cheers to any future such panels having women in them.”
“I can toast to that.” Rose clinks her glass with Audrey’s.
Kim adds nothing verbally but lifts his nearly finished slice as toast.
And Cade and I? We celebrate with a kiss.
CHAPTER 48
CADE
Once I step out of the men’s restroom, I’m faced with Hope Garcia leaning against the opposite wall while she scrolls through her phone. She’s much more blatant now than the one time she pretended not to be waiting for me so she could ask me not to tell anyone that she had a humiliating date.
I stuff my hands in the pockets of my uniform pants and clear my throat.
Hope lifts her eyes to my face but doesn’t stop there too long. Slowly, she inspects me down to my feet. I’m about to tell her that she can inspect me with much more detail any time she wants, when she suddenly lifts her phone in the air like she’s comparing me with something else.
“Hmm.” Her eyebrows tighten in pensiveness.
“What?” I ask, thoroughly confused.
“YourSPORTYphotoshoot is out,” she explains, still looking at the phone. “I’m just comparing the photoshopped version to the real one.”
“And?” I fold my arms and stand straighter. “Don’t tell me you prefer the oiled up and touched up version?”
“Pfff. Of course not.” Clicking the screen off, she pockets the phone back and adds, “Although I have to do a more thorough inspection in privacy.”
A corner of my lips lifts and I’m amused that she could read my mind. However, I want to clarify something. “Of the real version, I assume?”
This evil woman looks at me like the power of her gaze is enough to singe the clothes off my body, complete with licking her full lips like she can already taste mine. Just the gesture alone is enough to send electricity down my spine.
“Both,” she declares boldly before turning around. “Anyway, I was sent over to fetch you because the game’s starting soon.”
“Just to fetch me?” I catch up to her easily and slide an arm around her waist. A little squeak comes out of her throat as I press her against me, before lowering my face to nuzzle her hair. The scent of vanilla immediately eases my pre-opening game nerves, but does nothing to cool my blood.
“Hey, this crosses professional lines.” She grabs my arm and if she tries to push me off, I will. Yet she doesn’t. If anything, she melts into me even more.
“Eh, I think they know I need this.” I drop a kiss on her neck. “Otherwise they’d have sent literally anyone else.”
“That hypothesis has merit.” Stretching, she twists enough to glance up at me. “What exactly do you need, though?”
“This.” With my free hand, I support her chin so I can kiss her lips from behind. It’s not the most comfortable position and I definitely can’t deepen the kiss as much as I want to, but that’s probably for the better. I can’t get this kind of engine too fired up before the game, when I’m supposed to be revving up the starter pitcher engine instead.
