Passenger Princess: A Grumpy Sunshine Bodyguard Pageant Queen Romance (Evergreen Park Book 1)

My phone beeps with a text, and I jump up from where I’m in the bathroom on FaceTime with Harper and Jules, getting ready to let Jaime into the hotel room.

‘One sec,’ I say, then skip to the door, undoing the bar, the deadbolt, and the chain he insists I keep on the door, opening it to see Jaime towering over me with a tray of two coffees in one hand.

‘Fuck, Princess,’ he groans as he steps in, the door slamming behind him, moving to back me into a wall with his body, using his free hand to move to my ass and lift me. Then his lips are on mine, tasting like black coffee and everything Jaime.

My legs wrap around his waist, and I sigh into his lips as his tongue dips into my mouth. Instantly, my hips tip, already wanting him.

I had him this morning; I came at least three times, though the last orgasm got a bit hazy, my mind not able to pinpoint where one started and another stopped, so it could have been more. But still, I want him again.

It’s as if my body wants to use every moment we’re together to make up for the weeks we denied there being anything between us. Eventually, though, he pulls back, resting his forehead on mine.

‘I got your coffee,’ he says low, and I smile.

‘The girls are on FaceTime in the bathroom,’ I whisper, and slowly, he lowers me.

‘And you’ve gotta be ready to go in.’ He looks at his watch. ‘Forty-five minutes.’ I roll my eyes, knowing we don’t have to be at the speed dating event until at least an hour from now. ‘Meaning I don’t have time to fuck you now.’

My lips tip up, even though I think that’s a crying shame.

‘But you in your little robe and whatever you’re wearing under it,’ he says of the cream silk robe and the matching silk and lace bra and underwear set I’m wearing to get ready in, ‘are making it really, really hard for me to make the right choice.’

I smile at him, reach for my coffee, and duck under his arm that’s braced on the wall.

‘Well, it’ll just have to wait until after, won’t it?’ I say with a laugh, moving back to the bathroom, where all of my makeup and hair products are sprawled about.

‘Is that him?’ Jules asks as I pick up my still-warm curling iron, fixing my bangs one last time.

‘Yes, that’s Jaime,’ I say, taking a sip of my coffee before grabbing my primer and starting the process of putting on my makeup base.

‘Jaime!’ Jules yells from my phone. I turn to him, standing ten feet away from me like a deer in headlights. With a makeup sponge in hand and the straw of my coffee between my lips, I smile at his shocked, panicked face. ‘Come here.’

‘Jules, you’re going to scare the man,’ Harper says under her breath. ‘We need him to like us when she brings him home.’ Something about that warms me, my friends wanting the new man in my life to like them.

‘You’ve been summoned, Big Guy,’ I tell Jaime.

‘Oh my god, you call him big guy, I can’t even.‘

‘Come here,’ I say to Jaime, tipping my head toward the bathroom.

‘I don’t think—’ he starts, but Jules hears him and jumps on it.

‘I don’t bite, not through a phone screen at least,’ she says.

‘You really are going to scare him off, stop, Jules!’ I fully turn to him and fight the laugh at seeing him standing panicked in the other room. ‘Trust me, it’s easier on both of us if you just come here and say hi to them.’ He stares at me, and I lose the battle of my smile, letting it take over my face. Then he sighs and walks into the bathroom to a round of cheers from me, Jules, and Harper.

‘Oh my god, he’s even hotter on FaceTime,’ Jules says under her breath.

‘Jules!’ Harper shouts.

‘Tell me I’m wrong. Do it. You can’t!’

‘Hi, Jaime, I’m so sorry, please ignore that one. I’m Harper, Ava’s sane friend.’

‘Fuck off,’ Jules says. ‘I’m Jules, the much more fun one. It’s great to meet you. Is our Ava treating you well? Giving you lots of head?’

Now it’s my turn to turn my head to my phone, a blush coming to my cheeks. ‘Jules! What the fuck!’

‘Oh, don’t even try to tell me you haven’t given that man head. Just look at him.’

My face burns, and Jaime nods at the disaster that is this interaction and starts to turn away.

‘On that note, I’m gonna go,’ he says.

‘No! No, don’t go!’ Jules yells.

I reach out, grab his arm, and look at my phone screen. I want him to stay, chat with my friends, and spend just a few more minutes with me. It’s all I want lately: to spend time with him doing nothing but hanging out, like he’s really mine and we’re not in this very strange arrangement where lines between work and pleasure are much too blurred.

I just want a hint of normalcy. A taste of what this could be in a few months.

‘If you behave and stop being such a nudge, he’ll stay, right?’ I say, looking from my phone to Jaime’s face in the mirror.

‘I promise I’ll be good! Nothing weird or anything. I just miss my girl, and she won’t tell me any of the juicy details, which probably means she actually likes you, and I want the inside scoop. But I’ll stop being a pain if you hang out with us.’

Jaime sighs. He looks at me, then at the screen of my phone, then moves further into the bathroom, sitting on the closed toilet seat.

‘So, how’s it going?’ Harper asks. ‘Anything exciting happening?’

‘He’s teaching me to protect myself!’ I say excitedly, remembering I hadn’t yet filled them in on this. When we got to the hotel room yesterday, Jaime decided it was a good time to practice our releases again. However, this time, his lesson ended in a much more fun way than when we had our first lesson at the dance studio.

‘Woooow,’ Jules says. Then her gaze moves to where Jaime is sitting off-screen. ‘Prepare for her bullshit, Jaime, because she’s a pain in the ass when it comes to that kind of thing. I had to teach her the dance routines, and it was like pulling teeth.’

I roll my eyes, putting a hand on my hip. ‘That’s because you’re a drill sergeant! I was tired! My feet hurt!’

‘I’m just warning the man. If he’s going to be teaching you self-defense, he should know how impossible it is to teach literally anything.’

Jaime smiles at me before speaking. ‘Trust me, I know how stubborn she is.’ I turn to glare at him. ‘You did good, though, Princess,’ he says, his voice a bit lower.

I gasp, putting a hand to my chest. ‘Was that a compliment?’ I say facetiously, a wide smile on my lips.

‘Well, yeah. I’ve gotta keep you motivated, so you keep learning,’ he says.

I see the truth in his words, though—so we can have more nights like last night.

‘I’m just lucky I have a patient instructor,’ I say, trying to make him roll his eyes before I lean over with a smile and skim my blush brush on his nose. ‘Perfect.’

‘Did you just put makeup on my nose?’

I smile and wink at him as he glares. ‘Maybe.’

He rolls his eyes at me, giving me exactly the reaction I was looking for. I love knowing I got to him, even if it’s in a little way.

‘God, you two are too cute,’ Jules says with a sigh right before an alarm goes off. ‘Fuck, that’s my reminder to get out of the house. Gotta go, babe.’

‘Me too, I have a call in ten I have to get ready for.’

‘All right. Love you guys!’ I say to my friends.

‘Love you too. See ya later, Jaime. Keep my girl safe, yeah?’ Jules says.

‘My only job,’ he says with a rumble, and I smile at the screen. Jules and Harper’s smiles are a reflection of mine right before the screen goes black.

I sigh, missing my friends already.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.

‘They seem nice. A bit crazy, like you, but nice.’

‘They’re the best,” I say with another sigh.

‘I can’t wait to meet them when we get home,’ Jaime says, his hand reaching out to rub my lower back.

I smile at him, unable to put words to what that means to me that he stays in the bathroom for the rest of the time I get ready like he wants to be near me as much as I want him to be.