Page 34 of Passenger Princess

Finally, I reach her right as her foot slips beneath a rock, my arm going around her waist and catching her, then stumbling back until I right my footing. Her eyes are wide, her face pale, and small rocks fall down the cliff into some body of water that is definitely not deep enough to survive a thirty-foot drop.

“What thefuckare you doing!?” I shout, birds flying off as I stand tall, pulling her body to mine, my arm still on her waist.

She gives me a small cringe before answering. “Having fun?”

“Can you have fun without giving me a fucking heart attack?”

“I mean, IguessI could, but it sounds substantially less fun.”

“Sacrifice some of your fun for my heart health,” I say in a gravelly voice I barely recognize.

“Youarepretty old,” she teases with a smile.

My pulse is pounding from nearly watching her fall to her death,anddefinitelynot because her body is plastered to mine. “Jesus, you could have died, Ava.”

“So you were worried about me?” she asks, a smile on her lips.

“It’s my job, Ava.”

“Mm-hmm, I guess. Or it’s because you like me,” she teases with a smile and the line that seems to be her most common refrain—the line crafted with breaking my sanity in mind and not much else.

“I definitely don’t like you, Princess. I’ve never met a single person in my life who drives me crazy the way you do.”

There’s a pause as she smiles at me, lifting a hand to brush back hair before saying all breathy and low, “Then why are you still holding me, Jaime? You could have let go a while ago.”

Instantly, I realize my mistake, dropping my arm and taking three big steps backward. Her smile is wide and teasing like she finds this entertaining, but all I can think is she’s too fucking close to the edge still, so I reach forward, grab her hand, and tug, taking a step back as I do and pulling her from the cliff’s edge.

“Oh, yousolike me, Jaime,” she says, her pink lips encasing a huge smile.

“I—” I start to argue, but she shakes her head, her little bows and pigtails swaying as she does.

God, she’s fucking gorgeous, all blonde and curves and pink bows I want to tug on. Every shift of her body is a temptation I can’t seem to ignore, and the worst part of it?

She fucking knows it.

“If I admit I like you, will you behave for me?” Her lips tip up, and a part of my brain tells me I’m treading thin ice and could fall to a freezing death at any moment.

“Probably not,” she whispers with a smile, so quiet I almost don’t hear it, but my eyes are locked on her lips just inches from mine. It wouldn’t take much at all to lean forward and kiss her. A moment passes and I wonder what would happen if I just said,fuck it.

“We should go back to the group before they wonder where we went,” I say, stepping away.

I expect her to argue, to tell me I’m no fun, something along those lines, but instead, she nods and waves a hand before her.

“Lead the way, big guy.”

I understand the allure of this form of exercise when we hit the top of the mountain and look out over the valley. I was never a hiking guy or even much of anoutdoorskind of guy. I’d much rather get my physical activity at a gym studio with plenty of air conditioning and no bugs. But this view is worth it.

Then I watch Ava taking in the mountains and the lush green trees with childlike excitement, and I know that’s what she sees. I get why she likes hiking, why she apparently chooses this as her workout of choice. Even more, I’m forced to come to terms with the fact that, once again, I judged her too soon, thinking she wasn’t the kind of person who hiked when she barely even broke a sweat at the steeper inclines.

And with the backdrop, in her little outfit with the bows and the pink shoes, she fits. A work of art surrounded by more beauty. I reach in my pocket for my phone, tapping the screen the way she showed me.

“I’ll take your picture,” I say, starting to snap before she even poses and catching a look of pure shock and joy.

“You’re going to take my picture?”

“You need them for your social media,” I say, lifting the phone from different angles, again like she showed me. I’ve also been watching everyone else do the same, realizing it’s not just her neuroses.

“I mean, yeah. I just never thought you'd offer,” she says, but shifts her body so I can catch different angles and expressions—some silly, some sexy—within a matter of a few moments.

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