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

‘Ava,’ the voice says, a low rumble in my ear as I shift out of my dreamless sleep. ‘Wake up, Princess. I let you sleep in as much as I could, but we gotta get on the road.’

Cracking open one eye, I see Jaime’s face not far from mine before he stands straight, crossing his arms on his chest casually like he wasn’t just inches from me moments before.

‘Mmm,’ I grumble, closing my eyes again and rolling over.

You know I’m tired when I’m too exhausted to even pick on Jaime when the perfect opportunity is in front of me, but after the past few days, I’m fully drained.

‘Uh-uh,’ he says, his voice suddenly firm. ‘No, we have to get on the road. We’re already cutting it close if we want to get to the next hotel before the sun gets down.’

I groan again but don’t move. I packed last night, and all I’ll have to do this morning to get ready for the next leg is pack up my last-minute things, put some clothes on, and try and convince Jaime to take me to a coffee shop for much-needed caffeine. Maybe a snack stop, too, because I’ve already eaten through my stash, and it’s a nearly a six-hour drive this time.

‘Ava, we have to get going, or we’re going to hit traffic.’

I let out some kind of inhuman sound, this time grabbing the edge of the blanket and rolling with it, curling in on myself and the warmth of the bed.

And suddenly, the warmth is gone, air conditioning taking over my body and forcing my eyes open. ‘Wha—?’ I say, rolling back to my back and looking around, propped on my elbows. In front of me stands Jaime, eyes wide as he stares at me, hands holding the white hotel blanket in his hands, frozen in place.

Except for his big hazel eyes that graze over my body.

He’s lucky I made the decision that I had to wear pajamas to maintain a bit of common decency on this trip, but even I know these pajamas are barely decent. A pair of silky shorts and the world’s tiniest silk cami provide nearly no coverage, leaving a large swatch of my stomach exposed. No bra and the cool air conditioning cause the nipples on my full breasts to pucker, but I don’t cross my arms over them to hide it. My hair is crazed, over my shoulders, and probably a total mess, but I smirk at him through my tired eyes.

Gotta fake it till you make you.

‘Like what you see, big guy?’ I ask, pushing my shoulders back and my tits out.

‘I-I-I—’ he stutters, and my smile grows more, then he throws the blanket back on me. ‘We have to go.’ Then he’s out of the room.

I give him the courtesy of not laughing until the door is closed behind him, though he definitely hears it if the groan that comes from the other side means anything.

But Jaime wins the next round of who can shock the other more when we walk into the parking lot, with him holding my bag over his shoulder even though I told him I could. He’s stiffer than usual, hyperalert like something is going to happen, but it’s six in the morning and the lot, while there is a scattering of cars, is mostly empty.

After opening the back door of the black SUV and tossing in my bag, Jaime makes his way to the passenger seat door and opens it for me, but I hesitate getting in.

My brows furrow in confusion as I ask, ‘What….?’.

There’s a big iced coffee already in the cupholder, a fluffy white blanket on the seat, a book I have never read or owned, and my headphones on the seat. In the footwell, there’s a bag, and sticking out is the recognizable top of my favorite kind of chips. Through the thin plastic, I think there are the gummy bears I like—the ones I definitely told him in passing were my favorite, but not more than once or twice.

I turn to my bodyguard and driver to see he has a hand behind his neck, gripping it there, the other on the door of the car.

‘What is this, Jaime?’

‘It’s…nothing. Really.’

‘It’s definitely not nothing, Jaime. It’s…is that a new blanket?’

‘It was at the store, and it looked comfy. You need comfy; this leg is a bit longer.’

‘At the store. What store? When? When did you go to the store?’ I turn fully to him and cross my arms on my chest. It’s clear on his face he wants me to drop this, to just get in that car and pretend I didn’t notice a thing, but I will never. I smile wide, waiting for his answer.

‘Jesus, Ava, can’t you just get in the fucking car?’

‘Once you tell me when you went to the store and why.’

Finally, he sighs, giving in after staring me down for a minute. He realized he wasn’t going to win, I guess.

‘I woke up early and worked out. I realized you were still out like a light, which, considering yesterday, makes sense. You were wrung dry, burnt out. I’m not doing my job if you collapse from exhaustion, so I ran out to a twenty-four-hour store and grabbed a few things so you could sleep in the car.’ There’s a pause like he realizes his next addition might help his case, even if it’s a total fucking lie. ‘If you sleep, I’ll get some peace and quiet for a bit.’

I shake my head at him, flabbergasted. ‘You’re so full of shit.’

His head tips up to the sky like he’s looking for divine intervention that never comes.

‘The book? Where’d you get that?’

‘There was a girl there who worked there. She was stocking the shelves. I named some of the books I’ve seen you reading; she said this one just came out, so I thought it was a safe bet.’ Again, he pauses, almost biting his lip before stopping as if he were catching himself. ‘Have you? Read that one?’

God, he’s nervous. Jaime Wilde, the giant bodyguard who gets paid to protect people, is nervous because he isn’t sure how I’m going to take this utterly sweet act of kindness. I take a step closer, closing the gap between us a bit, then put my hand on his chest.

‘I haven’t, big guy. Thanks.’ I pause, looking into his eyes, which, for the first time, have the heavy guard down, like it’s too early or he forgot to put it up. ‘Why did you do this, Jaime?’ I ask quietly. ‘You didn’t have to,’ I remind him.

A long beat passes when I think he won’t answer, but then he shifts, and intentionally or not, our bodies are closer now, almost touching. I’m wearing a white oversized hoodie and a pair of bike shorts, my hair slicked into a low bun since there won’t be any appearances, and I’m focused on comfort. In any other situation, I’d feel weird not having my face done, not having my armor on.

But Jaime always sees through it anyway.

He sighs before finally answering. ‘I just… I wanted to make sure you were comfortable so you could relax. You had a rough couple of days.’ He shrugs, his big shoulders seeming gigantic on him when he looks shy and nervous like this. There’s a light blush across his cheeks, and he refuses to make eye contact with me.

I should just say thank you and hop in the car.

But god, this is too perfect. I can’t do it—I think if I could make a career of it, I’d be CEO of Making Jaime Wilde Blush.

Honestly, it has a pretty good ring to it.This is property © NôvelDrama.Org.

But since I can’t actually make that my career, I’ll just settle with doing it as a hobby.

‘Oh, you like me,’ I say with a smile, looking at the little space he’s carved out for me, then back at him, his head shaking vehemently and that blush growing.

Jesus, for such a big, tough guy, the man sure does blush a lot around me.

He so totally likes me.

‘What? No, no, I don’t. Just doing my job.’

‘Your job is to wake up early so you can set up my seat for me because you know how tired I was last night and want to make sure I could relax? Bullshit.” He stares at me for a moment and I think, just maybe, he’ll explain himself.

He doesn’t. ‘Get in the car, Ava,” he says instead.

I shift so my back is to the car and cross my arms on my chest, smiling at him. ‘Not until you admit it.’

‘You’re such a fucking pain in my ass, you know that?’

‘A pain in the ass that you like.’

He stares at me, thoughts moving behind his eyes, but I continue to smile because, slowly but surely, I’m winning him over.

‘You’re tolerable, is that enough?’

I’ll take it, I think. It feels like a colossal win, all things considered.

‘Now get in the car, Princess,’ he says lower.

And I do as he asks, but I do it with the world’s biggest smile on my lips.