Page 38 of Passenger Princess

Unfortunately, Jaime refused, calling his boss, filling him in, and getting a new location he approved of to spend the night at. Then Jaime helped me pack up my things. I’ve never been more grateful I only brought one of the suitcases into the room, but I’m sure Jaime saw a good number of underwear and bras regardless.

ThatI will be wiping from memory, thank you very much.

We walk to the front desk of a new hotel, where they quickly check us in and hand Jaime two key cards, unlike the past few stops where he was given four, two for each room.

Which means…

One room.

Me and Jaime in the same room.

My mind moves to when his hands were on my shoulders, theway he looked at me, the way he calmed me down, the way he called me Princess, the way he kissed the top of my head before going to check my room out.

When we’re in the elevator, I finally speak, attempting to ease the tension that is near suffocating. “One room?”

“Greg and I decided it’s better for us to stay together if someone is after you.”

I roll my eyes and sigh. “Isn’t that a bit much?” Jaime taps the button for the top floor, and slowly, the elevator rises. “No one islooking into me.”

“Your room was broken into and destroyed, this after you’ve had multiple threats and messages sent to you on multiple platforms. If it were up to me, this would be the bare minimum of what we do.” His jaw goes tight, and I try to parse out what he means. Then I decide I don’t really want to know what drastic steps his crazy ass would take.

The police and the hotel staff agreed that, although there was no camera in the hallway my room was in—a budget hotel the pageant picked—it was probably a group of kids screwing around. According to the police chief who came to personally reassure Jaime, there was no imminent threat to my life. It’s something that’s been happening a lot in the area. With nothing to keep the high school kids entertained on weekends, they resort to being little fucks, causing enough trouble to be a headache but not enough to be a real issue.

Instead, I return to the subject at hand.

“So, one hotel room,” I start, a wide smile spreading on my lips and bumping him with my hip. “Are we going to have some fun on the bed trope shenanigans?”

“What?” he asks, staring at me with the kind of exhaustion a parent gives an unruly child.

A pretty good analogy, if you ask me. If Jaime is the responsible parent, I am absolutely the overactive kid.

“You know where we’re supposed to have two twin beds, but there’s only one king, and you try to put up a pillow wall between us,but then I wake up with you spooning me.” I smile at him, and he stares at me before taking a deep breath.

“What the fuck?” he asks, confused and a bit annoyed, I think. I just smile and continue.

“Or maybe I have a horrible nightmare, and you wake up thinking I’m being hurt, then hold me until I fall back asleep.” His brows come together now seeming concerned.

“Do you have nightmares often?”

“I don’t think more often than the average human.” I smile and pat his shoulder. “Don’t worry, you’re not going to have to cuddle with me because of my bad dreams.”

He shakes his head at me, both in exhaustion and confusion. “Where do you come up with this shit?”

“I read a lot,” I say.

“Read what? Horror books?”

I roll my eyes at him and scoff. “No, you doofus. Romance. The one-bed trope is aclassicin romance books.” There’s a pause where I think he’ll make some snide remark about reading romance, at which point I’ll have to get all self-righteous, which is a shame because it’s been a long day, but instead, he just gives me a somehow more annoyed look.

“Did you just call me a doofus?” The elevator dings, the doors slide open, and I step out before he can first, turning to face his glaring face.

God, he’s so fun to tease. And so easy to rile.

“Sure did. Now which room is ours,doofus?”

“Wow, this is nice,” I say, stepping into what seems to be a two-bedroom apartment with a very small kitchen.

“The only thing in the area that had a suite and allowed cats. Full disclosure, after what happened, we’re getting a two-bedroom suite at each stop from now on instead of two separate rooms,” he says.

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