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I shrug and do my best to hide my smirk. Does she really not know she’s been asleep on me for the last several hours?
“Well, you were pretty comfortable sleeping on me before,” I tell her, my smirk merging into a wide grin that I don’t even try to hide. At this point, I don’t care if my amusement offends her. I point to a damp patch on the shoulder of my shirt, where her cheek had been before. “You even drooled on me in your sleep, look.”
She blushes. It’s obvious she’s mortified and for a second, I feel sorry for her predicament, but my pity doesn’t last long. It dissolves into a blend of adoration, arousal, and protectiveness instead. She’s cute when she blushes, and my body is starting to react in ways that it shouldn’t.
“I didn’t!” she protests, her blush deepening. “Please say I didn’t!”
“Yep, you did,” I inform her cheerfully.
I watch as horror and embarrassment take turns flitting across her face, the two emotions warring with each other. I should probably be mildly offended that she’s so upset by the thought of sleeping on me, but I’m not. I’m too amused by her reaction to be offended.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, the embarrassment winning out.
“Don’t be sorry,” I tell her, grinning. “I think it’s cute.”
“Cute?Cute?Drooling on someone is not cute!” she protests shrilly, glaring at me like it’s my fault she fell asleep on me and drooled on my shirt. Her blush gets deeper. My grin gets wider. I really do like her when she blushes.
“Are you insane?” she asks, and it takes a second before I realise she’s talking to me. “Cute in what way? Cute as in ‘oh, look at that cute little puppy dog’ or more of a sexy cute?” She covers her face with her hands so she doesn’t have to look at me when I answer.
Sexy cute. Definitely sexy cute.But I don’t tell her that straight away. I’m on a job here, after all, and I’m determined to remain professional. Even if her blushing face is making my cock twitch.
“Do you want it to be sexy cute?” I ask, still not answering her question.
“I don’t want it to be anything at all!” she insists. “I can’t believe I drooled on you! I can’t believe I fell asleep on you in the first place! You’re the hired thug my father pays to keep me safe, not some boyfriend I feel comfortable with. You don’t like me, and I don’t like you andargh!” she huffs in frustration. Tension radiates off her.
She doesn’t like me? Ouch! I deserve it, I guess, but still, it hurts.
“I like you,” I tell her, my tone casual.
“No, you don’t!” She still sounds frustrated. “Stop lying to me! It’s not fair!”
“What’s not fair about me liking you?” I ask, sounding a bit miffed.
“You don’t like me, that’s my whole point,” she says. “You’re an asshole one minute, nice to me the next. It’s confusing. I don’t know what to expect.”
I swallow back my frustration. I’m struggling with this as much as she is.
“But it’s simple,” I tell her. “You do what you’re told, and we have no problems.” And to my mind, it truly is that simple. But it clearly was the wrong thing to say because she sits bolt upright, glaring at me harder than she’s ever glared at me so far, and that’s saying something, because since she met me, this girl has been fixing me with some pretty fierce glares.
“I’m not your fucking puppy, Jaxon! I’m not just going to sit and stay and roll over like a good dog. God, you’re infuriating! Is that what you think I am? Some robot that you can control and…”
I cut her off before she can say any more by pressing my hand against her mouth.
“Shush,” I growl in her ear.
She wrenches away from me with a vicious twist and fury darkens her face, anger sparking in her eyes. She looks pretty close to losing control.
“I will not shush!” she exclaims, her voice getting loud, shrill. “Don’t you tell me to shush!” Her body language is animated, her hands waving in front of both our faces wildly. How did we go from a civil conversation to this? And so fast? If I don’t calm her down quickly, I’m going to have a riot on my hands. Only a one-person riot, but still. A mid-air riot is the last thing anyoneon this plane needs. So I grasp her hands, wrapping one hand around both her wrists and drawing her hands down to her lap. At the same time, I take her chin in my other hand and hold her face still, pressing one finger to her lips.
“You are making a spectacle of yourself,” I growl quietly, keeping my voice deep and low. The words I have to say are for her ears only, not the innocent people surrounding us who don’t need to be dragged into Jade’s drama. “Be quiet. People are sleeping, or trying to, and you’re ranting away like a spoiled brat.”
She opens her mouth to speak, or yell, but I reach up and tap her mouth with my finger. “No. Don’t say anything, I’m not finished.”
She breathes heavily out through her nose, blowing hot breath over my hand, but she does close her mouth, glaring at me fiercely. I glare back. Somehow, this has become a battle of wills between us, and I’m determined to win. Why does everything become a battle with her? Why can’t we have a rational conversation like normal people? Why does it always end in me telling her firmly what to do and her doing everything in her power to defy me? Why does it have to be this hard?
I gentle my voice a bit. “I know you’re not a puppy, Jade. And I know this is hard for you. But the fact is, your father is paying me a rather large sum to rein in your behaviour and keep you out of jail and the quicker you accept that and work with me, the more pleasant our time together is going to be. So you can either sit here quietly and have a civil conversation with me like the adult you are, or I can drag you back into the loo for round two. Your choice.”
Jade doesn’t say anything for a full five seconds. Nor does she take her eyes from mine. She’s looking at me like I’m some shitshe wants to scrape off her shoe. There’s not even a smidgen of respect in her sparking eyes, and it’s obvious she has no intention of cooperating with me. She’s furious at me, her father, Richard, everyone on this ‘cramped excuse for a plane’ as she calls it, the world… and she wants me to know it.
