Page 37 of My Rock Star Neighbor
I frown.Maybe introducing Maddie and Luca was not a good idea.
“You think I can’t?”Maddie asks Luca.
Nope.I don’t want Maddie and Luca showing their jujitsu moves—or any moves—to each other.
“You can show him using me,” I interject.Pathetic, I know.
Luca leans back and smiles like he’s figured something out.Great.
“I believe you,” Luca says.“Nick here isn’t bad either.I’ve taught him a few maneuvers.You guys can practice together.”Luca winks at me.He does know how to read a room, as his career in security depends on it.“I’ll do the dishes.Let me bring out the mat.”
He would have a mat handy.
Maddie turns to me and leans close.“You should show me.”That whiff of peony drifts by.It’s not my jujitsu moves I want to show her.
But better me than Luca.
“Show me your move to get out of a grab from behind.I’ll grab you,” Maddie says.“But don’t actually throw me.I just ate.”
“Okay,” I say.
We both stand up and move away from the table.Maddie grabs me from behind, her arms wrapped around me, her chest pressed against my back.All that softness… My mind goes blank.Absolutely blank.
“Nick?”she asks.
Right.Focus.I drop lower and step out so the gap between my legs widens, bringing Maddie off-balance, clinging to my back.I swing my left foot behind her.And then I grab her lower legs, pushing my hips forward so that all of a sudden, Maddie is fully off the floor and about to be tossed over my left thigh.
“I’m not going to throw you because that’s kind of a nasty throw.”I put her down gently.
“That’s cool,” Maddie says.“I’m adding that to my repertoire.Let me try it on you.”
Maddie stands with her back to me.Normally I grab across the chest, so I hesitate.Luca snorts.So glad we’re amusing him.
I grab her low around the waist.She drops down, stepping her right foot to the side, and then steps behind me with her left foot and grabs around my legs but doesn’t try to pick me up.
“Got it,” she says.
She then shows me her under-the-arm move.When she butts her head into the crook between my shoulder and neck, I forget to focus on keeping my balance.I fall easily into her when she sweeps against my foot.
“You’re not putting up any fight,” Maddie says.“I’d then flip you over my shoulder.”
“I’m worn out from the hours of choreography practice,” I say weakly.
“Let me show my Osotogari move,” she says.
When she first grabs my arm and directs me to fist her shirt near her neck and then moves me to the side, almost as if we’re in some dance, our arms locked together, all I can think is:I want Maddie.
Until she sweeps my leg out from under me and I’m on the mat.
She kneels down next to me.“Are you okay?”
No.Her lips are so close to mine.
Luca coughs.“Still.You guys can always bunk here if you think you need more security.I have an extra room.”
I scramble back to a sitting position because lying down with Maddie leaning over me is testing my self-control.“And a comfortable couch.Or so I’ve heard.”
“It’s a good thing that Tristan is not here to hear you rub it in,” Luca says.“You should introduce him to Maddie since they’re both reporters.”
