Jock Blocked: A Billionaires on the Beach

Luckily, they didn’t seem to be heading my way. Like the fairy tale villains they so resembled, they’d cornered their prey. I was about to turn back to the food when the crowd shifted and suddenly, I could see who they were trying to sink their talons into: Jessie.

Crap.

That guy just couldn’t catch a break today. First, I’d nearly flattened him, and now those two had their claws in him—almost literally. But he was a grown man. He didn’t need any help handling his love life.

Except, even from our brief meeting earlier, it had been clear that he was also a very nice man. And nice people sometimes did need help extracting themselves from rude people.

I sighed and put down the plate I was holding.

Keeping my eye on the evil stepcousins’ victim, I wove my way through the crowd. I spotted Doug’s parents—two very nice people—but I skirted around them. I’d be happy to talk to them later, but right now, I was on a mission.

The closer I got, the more I appreciated Jessie’s good looks. He was dressed formally, in a light gray suit that probably cost more than my car. His jacket hung over a black button-down shirt that was open at the neck. It was a great look for him. He looked handsome and sophisticated, but not too stuffy like some of the men around here.

His expression, on the other hand, didn’t look sophisticated at the moment. A better way to describe it was like a deer in headlights. Hanna, or maybe it was Savanna, hung off his shoulder like a kitten dangling from a tree. On his other side, the other one was trying to ply him with champagne. She kept taking sips from her glass, giving a silly little giggle, and then pushing the glass against his lips. My irritation grew when she spilled some on his shirt, obviously on purpose, and then wasted no time in trying to pat it dry.

Yep, she was basically feeling him up right in public. That got a reaction from Jessie. Firmly, he took her by the wrist and moved her hand away. He still had a smile on his face, but his expression had hardened.

I wasn’t sure what he was about to say to her, but I decided to spare him the trouble. “Jessie! There you are.”

His gaze fell on me, and I swear his eyes were filled with relief. He was a strong, fit, powerful man, but apparently, his nice demeanor was no match for the evil stepcousins.

“Good evening, Maddie.” He sounded like a drowning man who’d just been offered a life jacket. “You look beautiful.”

Thing One and Thing Two weren’t very happy to hear that. Both sneered at me, perhaps wondering if I’d made this dress, too. I had—and it looked damn good on me, thank you very much. Jessie seemed to think so. His soulful brown eyes swept up and down me twice.

“Did you forget you promised me a dance?” I said, ignoring my roommates.

“No,” he said, without missing a beat. “I was just looking for you, actually.”

“Good thing I found you, then.” Jessie took a step forward, trying to free himself from the women clinging like starfish, but they moved forward, too. Time to raise the stakes. “I owe you a drink, too.”

“Right,” he said, sounding slightly less than sure. “Because of—”

“Because of how I ripped your pants earlier, silly. Did you forget?” I batted my eyelashes at him. I was no size zero like the evil stepcousins, but I had dark brown eyelashes that were long even without mascara. “I don’t know what came over me. I guess I got carried away.” I gave a little giggle that I hoped made the stepcousins think that Jessie and I had been up to all sorts of naughtiness. I sure as hell wouldn’t have minded if we had.

Somehow, my little act seemed to work. Savanna let go of her prey and a moment later, Hanna did, too.

They were down, but not out. “Save a dance for me later, okay?” Savanna leaned forward on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss. I bit my lip to stifle the possessive growl that almost escaped me. He wasn’t my man—I was just pretending we had a connection.

Hanna, not to be outdone by her sister, gave him a kiss from the other side. “I want a dance, too. We can take turns… or you could have us both.”

My eyes narrowed. She wasn’t very subtle. I caught Jessie’s eye and was surprised to see that he seemed to be trying to keep from laughing. Now that I’d offered him an escape route, he looked as if he found this whole situation amusing instead of terrifying.

“Shall we?” He looked into my eyes and ignored the women on either side of him.

“I’d love to.”