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“I’m aware.”
Of course she was. It seemed like the type of fucked up little fact she’d keep tucked into her back pocket. “Then what’s the problem?”
“Don’t you start with logic and that nonsense.” Aubry paced around the tiny kitchen counter. Hell, everything in the apartment she used to share with Jules was tiny. The few times he’d been here, he’d felt just as uncomfortable as he did now, as if one wrong step would send him crashing through some breakable item. It made him feel big and clumsy, and he hated it.
“You would seriously rather spend several days in closed quarters with me than risk a tiny chance that our plane might fall out of the sky in a ball of fire?”
She went paler, if that were even possible. “That’s not funny.”
“No, what’s funny is that your fear has no fucking basis in reality and it’s going to cost us days of travel for no reason. Except, no, it’s not funny. At all.”
“I knew this was a mistake.” She turned and plopped down onto her well-worn spot on the couch. It was practically a little nest, with a blanket curled around her body and a set of Xbox controllers in front of her on the coffee table. Hell, even her cell phone was already sitting on the cushion next to her.
She spends a shitload of time here, all playing that damn game.
She’ll be crushed if she isn’t able to play that stupid demo.
He looked away, uncomfortable with the sudden desire he had to make sure she got her chance. He appreciated her passion, even if he didn’t always understand it. She wasn’t the type of girl he usually hung out with. She obviously didn’t like the outdoors or getting any kind of dirty, and he’d bet his left nut she’d never been on the back of a horse.
But she loved that damn game. If it was Jenny, he’d want someone to step in and help her out so she could do something she loved without her anxiety getting in the way.
The only reason you’re doing this is because she reminds you of your sister, whom she’s nothing like at all…Yeah. Sure.
He forced himself to unclench his hands and release as much tension as possible. “If we do this, we do it on my terms.”
“I’m not trying to negotiate with you here. I’m flat out telling you that I won’t fly.”
It was really difficult to have any kind of empathy for the woman when she was willing to bite any hand he offered her off at the wrist. “If we’re driving, we need to leave on Monday instead of Wednesday.”
“What? Why the hell do we need two days to drive to California? It’s only fifteen hours.”
Only fifteen hours. She was killing him. “I’m aware, sweet cheeks.” He enjoyed the way her face turned red and her eyes blazed when he used that particular nickname. “But after that amount of driving, you’re going to need some extra time to settle in.”
“The hotel is only for Wednesday and Thursday.”
She was just determined to make the whole thing more difficult than it had to be. “Yeah, I got that part, too. We’ll just get a hotel for one more night in town.” She looked so outraged he couldn’t help another little dig. “It’ll give you that much more time to perfect pretending you worship the ground I walk on.”
Aubry snorted. “Let’s not get carried away. I said I’d try to pretend I can stand you. And besides, I wouldn’t worship the ground anyone walked on, let alone a boyfriend.”
Her phrasing was so strange he started to ask her if she’d ever had a boyfriend to try it out on, but then he stopped. He might enjoy poking at her and watching her blood pressure rise, but if he was going to be cooped up in the car with her for days on end, pissing her off before they even got started would be a lesson in insanity. He might not be the smartest man in existence, but even he had some sense of self-preservation.
Besides, no way she’d never had a boyfriend, prickly or not. Most of Aubry could be termed sexy. Her curves made his mouth water when he was able to forget the attitude they were attached to. There had to be some guys out there who liked contrary women. He just wasn’t one of them. Quinn preferred his women to be the agreeable sort—agreeable and sexy as hell.
But then, maybe she was more agreeable than he thought. He was honestly kind of surprised she’d let him get away with that kiss the other day. Though it had been sexy as fuck to have her lips go soft against his. And the way her fingers had kneaded his chest had made him think more kitten than the tigress he was used to.
