“Nothing.” He flashed her a grin. His Abs of Steele grin. “What makes you say that?”
“That smile is what makes me say that. You always give it to me when you’re covering something up.”
“You’re seeing things, babycakes.” Caleb put the key in the ignition. “Come on, let’s go back to your place.”
But his answer left her feeling oddly frustrated. Evading her, definitely evading her. Well, two could play at that game. She smoothed down the velvet of her dress. “I don’t know if I want to go home right away.”
This time it was his turn to frown. “What? You were just hot for me.”
“I don’t want to go home and just have sex. I want to do…I don’t know. I want to do something else first.”
His frown deepened. “Something else? Like what?”
“Drinks? Dinner, maybe?”
“Are we talking a date here? In public?”
Instantly a small knot of fear gathered in her chest. Go out on a date with Caleb in public? No, she couldn’t. Not yet. God, she couldn’t even tell her friends yet let alone the world at large. Or even Joseph.
“Uh no, maybe not,” she said quickly. “Perhaps you’re right. Perhaps we should just go home.”
Caleb stared at her. “You don’t want to be seen with me?”
“It’s not that.”
“Then what? Because I’m ready for the world to know, Jude.”
Her mouth went dry. “Yeah but I’m not, okay?”
The look on Caleb’s face became opaque and for a minute she wondered why on earth she was protesting. Caleb Steele, ready to go public and commit himself to her? If that wasn’t a show of how far he was willing to go to prove himself to her then she didn’t know what was. And yet the little kernel of fear wouldn’t go away.
“We could do something else,” she said, wanting to show him she was willing to at least take another step. “Like…” An idea began to form in her mind. “Maybe a training session for example?”
A look of surprise crossed his face. “A training session? What kind of training session?”
“I don’t know. A rugby training session?”
“You hate rugby.”
“So? If anyone could make me change my mind about it, you could.”
“Darling, I’m not sure—”
“Why not, Cal? Anyone can wine and dine me. But not just anyone could teach me to kick a goal.”
He began to say something then, clearly changing his mind, shut his mouth and studied her instead. “You really want to know how to kick a goal?”
Judith lifted her chin. This suddenly felt important. “Yes. I do.”
“And you know I’m not very patient with teaching, right?”
“No, I don’t know. In fact, there are a lot of things I don’t know about you, Caleb Steele. Perhaps it’s time you showed me.”
Chapter Ten
The last thing Caleb had expected to be doing that evening was standing on an empty rugby field, teaching a small, beautiful woman in a black velvet dress how to kick a goal. No, he’d expected to be peeling that dress off said small, beautiful woman, and running his hands all over her body, not setting the rugby ball he’d found in the back of his car onto the tee he’d pushed into the grass. Or promising to give said ball, properly autographed, to the groundsman as a bribe so they would be allowed onto the aforementioned rugby field.
Judith was frowning down at her shoes, a pair of black platform ankle boots now sporting a sprinkle of mud across the toes. She bent, brushing the dirt off them. “This is harder than I thought,” she muttered. “Perhaps it’s the shoes.”
She’d been trying for ten minutes to kick the ball but kept missing. Not unsurprising when her run up was slow and her kick more like a tentative poke with her toe.
“If you want to kick a goal, you can’t worry about mud,” Caleb pointed out, finishing adjusting the ball and straightening up. “You need to sight up the ball, get up a faster run, and use more power in your kick. Glaring at it won’t help, either.”
Judith glared at him instead of the ball. “You show me then.”
“Sure.”
She stood back while he demonstrated, sighting up the goal, spending a couple of seconds deep breathing to calm himself, then the side-step, the run and the power of the kick, sending the ball right between the posts. Kicking had always been his forte and he was good at it.
“Wow,” she said softly as she watched the ball go. “That’s amazing.”
He shrugged. “Practice, sweetheart. That’s what it takes. Practice and dedication.” He turned and walked down the field to the goal to collect the ball, with Judith falling into step beside him.