Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“—tomorrow?”
“Huh?” I asked, having completely zoned out.
“I asked if you were excited to take off tomorrow?”
“Oh, yeah. I, yeah, totally. I’m excited. Very.” I made an audible gulp.
My dad intervened. “Please, have a seat. I’ll make sure food is brought out for you as well.”
“Thank you. Flying cross-country does drive up an appetite.” He rubbed his stomach, which for some reason I found to be incredibly hot. “What’s on the menu?”
“A soy-glazed sirloin over a bed of seasoned rice and garlic-infused vegetables. Sound good?”
Xavier nodded, grinning. “Sounds delicious. I trust whatever your top chef decides to make.” He moved around the table and drew out the chair, sitting down directly across from me.
“You should top me sometime.” The words spilled out of me before I could control myself. I froze. Did I actually say that out loud? No, it must have been in my head. He had me so fried that I was daydreaming things I could cheekily say to him.
Cassius looked at me with a dropped jaw.
Oh fuck. Fuuuuuck.
That was said out loud. My dad chatted with Joshua, and my mother was speaking to a waiter. They hadn’t heard me. But Xavier definitely had. He cocked his head, eyes searching mine, that grin of his widening, flashing his perfect white teeth. He didn’t reply. Thank the fucking heavens he didn’t reply. He just unfolded the napkin and calmly placed it on his lap.
I stuffed my mouth with lettuce and croutons, wondering if it were feasible for the son of the vice president to run away and live off-grid. Somewhere with no people, no internet, no paralyzing embarrassment.
Why can’t I be the one with the power to turn back time? Fuck.
Chapter 2
Mile High Introductions
Blake
The plane reached cruising altitude, and I still felt myself blushing.
I still couldn’t believe I’d introduced myself to my bodyguard by asking if he wanted to top me sometime. I reclined my chair all the way back and slapped my hands on my face. Twenty-four hours had passed, and it still felt like those words had just slipped out of my mouth.
“Ow.”
“Would you like anything to drink?” the flight attendant asked me. I slowly removed my hands. He looked at me as though he were looking at a baby rhino needing to be sponsored.
“Vodka.”
“With orange juice?”
“No, just straight vodka.”
“You got it. And for you, sir?”
Xavier looked up from his phone. He had one leg crossed over the other, an arm casually propped on the tan leather armrest. His cuffed jeans revealed a colorful pattern from his socks, rising up from his clean white sneakers. “I’ll just have water, please.”
The flight attendant went to go grab our drinks, leaving me to fester in my own embarrassment next to the man who witnessed it all. I went back to covering my face.
“Are you scared of flying? That wasn’t in the briefing.”
I popped apart two of my fingers and peeked at him. “This is how I relax.”
And how I try to dissociate.
“In that case, continue on relaxing.” He smiled as he turned his attention back to his phone.
I raised the seat back to its normal position. “Okay, I’m done relaxing. I was joking about what I said before, about the whole topping me.”
Xavier let out a laugh that sounded oddly soothing. Hmm. I couldn’t remember a time I had ever thought of a laugh as soothing. “It was a funny joke. Especially considering I enjoy bottoming as well.”
My jaw nearly dropped to the floor. My eyes did that cartoon effect where they fly out of my skull and snap back in with an audible pop. “Oh. Right. Well. Okay, then.”
That little bit of information was being bookmarked for later referencing.
“Anyways,” I said, feeling a desperate need to switch topics. Before that desperate need turned its focus elsewhere. “You mentioned a briefing. What do you know about me?”
“That you’re twenty-six years old, held two jobs for a cumulative time of three weeks, graduated summa cum laude, are about to start working on your master’s in chemistry, and you have a very strong dislike toward sour jelly beans.”
“I hate them.” The flight attendant set my drink down in the drink holder and did the same for Xavier. I picked it up and shot it back. The vodka burned all the way down and made me do a wiggle dance in my seat. But at least the warmth in my cheeks immediately started to cool off.
“Anything else I should know about you?”
“I hate action movies, I like any kind of cheese you throw at me, I sometimes get really sweaty, and I’m pretty good at tennis.”
“Noted,” he said as he took a sip of his drink through the thin red straw. My eyes quickly dropped to his mouth before flitting back up. His grin grew a little wider.
“What should I know about you? Considering we’ll be spending a lot of time together and I didn’t get any kind of briefing. I was just told I’d be assigned an expert bodyguard. No one ever told me it’d be a han—” I winced and quickly corrected myself. ”—a dragon.”