AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Out of the city, yeah, yeah, I know. Away from temptation and all that. But where are you taking me, exactly?” She interrupts me, cutting me off mid-sentence, and I don’t like it. It’s disrespectful and rude, and something I generally don’t tolerate. I fix her with a glare that tells her in no uncertain terms that she’d best not interrupt me again, and she gulps. Good, she’s learning.
“Camping,” I tell her, forcing a blank expression to my face. It wouldn’t do to smirk at the response I know I’m going to get.
“Camping?” She’s not impressed. Just as I predicted.
“Yes, camping,” I confirm. “Something all young people should do.”
Jade shakes her head and visibly shudders. “Nuh-uh. I don’t like camping.”
“Have you ever been camping?” Somehow, I don’t think she has.
“No,” she admits quietly. “But?—”
“But nothing.” I cut her off, vaguely aware that I got so pissed off with her interrupting me just seconds earlier. It’s probably hypocritical of me to do the same thing to her, but too bad. “It will do you a world of good. Get to be at one with nature. Heals your spirit.”
“I don’t want to be at one with nature and I don’t need to heal,” she insists stubbornly. If there was a trophy for stubbornness, she would win it, hands down.
I growl. “Must you argue every point?”
She nods, quite matter-of-factly, as though it’s perfectly normal to argue every single thing, and it’s weird for me to be annoyed by it.
There’s nothing left for me to do but sigh. “I guess we’ll have to do it the hard way, then.”
She doesn’t ask what the hard way is, which is fortunate, because at this point, I don’t actually know. As tempting as it is, I can’t drag her over my knee and spank the love of camping into her. I guess I’ll just have to make camping as enjoyable as possible for her. I know Jade well enough by now to know that trying to convince her she will have fun is just a waste of energy. I’ll have to show her. So I change the subject. The whole camping idea can wait.
“What do you want for breakfast?” I ask. Or lunch, more like. But whatever. As long as she eats without kicking up a fuss. I havezero patience for stick-thin Hollywood girls who are forever on one fad diet or another and refusing to nourish their bodies with decent fuel. That’s not a healthy way to live, and Jade won’t be doing it under my watch. It doesn’t matter that Jade isn’t stick-thin; she’ll be eating. I like a girl with a healthy appetite.
“I don’t know. Sushi?”
“For breakfast?” I try to keep the disgust out of my voice. Why do people keep insisting sushi is a food? It’s seaweed. Seaweed is not food. Nor is cold rice or raw fish. Bleurgh.
“What’s wrong with sushi for breakfast?”
I shrug. I’m not going to tell her that it’s not the time of day she’s choosing to eat it that’s the problem, but rather the choice of food in general that’s the problem. “Nothing, if you’re sure that’s what you want. We can get pretty much anything, we’ve got time.” I put a slight emphasis on the wordanything, hoping she might pick something else. She doesn’t.
“I’m not hungry.”
“Oh, hell no, little girl. You’re not pulling that shit with me,” I growl. “You need to eat.”
She stares at me blankly, and I’m not sure if she is still half asleep and doesn’t comprehend what I just said, or if she just doesn’t care.
“I’m hardly going to waste away, Jaxon.”
She sweeps her hand up and down her body, making me look even closer at it than what is probably wise. She’s right; she’s not going to waste away if she misses a meal. Although she’s lean, she’s got delicate curves in all the right places with a rounded bottom, shapely hips, and breasts that are definitelymore than the requisite handful. The hem of her fitted red skirt stops just above the knee, revealing long, shapely legs. Damn, she’s perfect. She didn’t get those curves by starving herself. I deliberately look away.
“I’ll be perfectly fine going without food for a few hours if that’s what I choose to do,” she insists, her tone decidedly stroppy, and although she definitely should know better after the consequences she learned about in the plane last night, I could swear she’s gearing up for a fight. I really don’t want to ruin our day by spanking her again, so I stare at her hard, knowing I’m going to have to let this go to defuse the situation. This is one battle I’m going to have to lose.
I sigh. I guess I don’t like losing any more than she does.
“Get your things together then, I’ll take you into the city for a quick look. The traffic shouldn’t be too bad, being Sunday afternoon.” I hope it won’t be, anyway. The last thing I want to be is stuck in traffic. I do my best to avoid Auckland for a reason, and traffic is it.
She bounces up and down on her toes and although I think she’s trying to suppress it, her excitement is obvious. She gives me a sheepish grin and hurries out of the room, presumably to pack her stuff.
I can hear angry muttering, muffled through the wall. A bang. A quick, piercing scream. “Gah! Jaxon!”
I race into her bedroom, senses on high alert, my hands clenched into fists, ready to kill to protect my charge.
“What’s the problem?” I ask, looking around, searching for the slightest possible threat, and not finding anything.
