Free Flirting With Disaster by Ruthie Knox

important.”
    “Important how?”
    He shrugged. “I like you.”
    “Honest to God, if you tell me you like me one more time, I’m going to knee you in the nuts.”
    “I
do
like you.”
    She closed her eyes and counted to ten, because Judah had no idea.
    He didn’t know she’d given Levi fourteen years of everything she had. Didn’t know that what she’d gotten in return was a Dear Katie letter that praised her for being such a good friend, such a likable, faithful spaniel of a wife.
    I really like you, Katie
.
    Levi had told her that and then skipped town with the contents of their joint bank account, leaving her to close up their business and move home in disgrace.
    And Judah didn’t know, but Jesus, how was it possible that the first guy she’d tried to sleep with since Levi was handing her the same godforsaken line?
    “Judah,” she said. “You hired me and Sean. You had us drive all the way here from Ohio, and then you made us sit around. That was really rude.”
    “I know, but—”
    “And I get the impression you don’t want to talk about these threatening messages you’re supposedly getting. Maybe there aren’t even any messages.”
    “No, there are.”
    “So tell me about them.”
    His forehead wrinkled up. “No.”
    “Tell me
something
. Tell me why I’m here.”
    He sighed and flung his arms out against the couch cushions. “I don’t know why you’re here,” he said. “You’re just supposed to be.”
    “Supposed to work with you?”
    “I’m not sure.”
    “Supposed to sleep with you?”
    “I thought so.”
    Katie stared at him for a long time, trying to decide if he was drunk and confused and pitiable or if he was a spoiled celebrity asshole who’d jerked her around because he felt like it. If she had the words
Use Me
invisibly painted across her forehead.
    Or if he really meant it—if he really believed he needed her.
    And if she cared.
    She did, for some reason that had a lot to do with the dark circles under Judah’s eyes and the real fear she heard in his voice.
    Something was wrong with him. He didn’t trust her enough to tell her, but he seemed to wish he could. She saw it in his eyes. In his face. In the way he rubbed his thumb restlessly over the nap of the suedelike couch cushion.
    She reached out and put a hand on his arm. “Judah, you can trust me. Whatever’s going on that convinced you to bring me and Caleb all the way to Chicago to talk to you, it’s got to beimportant. It’s
got
to be, or I wouldn’t be here.”
    He covered her hand with his. The same thing Sean had done, but the touch felt completely different. He opened his eyes and looked right into hers, and for a second she saw through his facade to the real Judah Pratt.
    He wasn’t cocksure at all. He wasn’t drunk, either. He was needy. Guarded and scared.
    “I can’t,” he said.
    “Why not?”
    “I don’t. I don’t trust people. I’m in the music business, Katie. Nobody trusts anybody, and Paul is the master of not-trusting. He trained all the trust out of me. I don’t know how to do it anymore.”
    “You want to tell me,” she said.
    “Part of me wants to.” He took his hand away and leaned forward to retrieve the tequila from where he’d left it on the coffee table. “The rest of me wants to finish off that last set of three with one more shot, then kill the rest of this bottle and pass out.”
    He didn’t bother with the glass this time. He drank straight from the neck with his eyes closed, his Adam’s apple bobbing until he finally pulled the bottle away from his mouth with a gasp.
    “You’re a wreck,” she said.
    He wiped his hand over the back of his mouth and grinned at her again. It was a smile that had sold thousands of records, magazines, and T-shirts. A smile that made her sad, because it didn’t come anywhere near his eyes.
    “You’re quick,” he replied, with a tip of the bottle in her direction. “Another reason I like you.”
    “So what do we do now? You