Page 45 of Taming Dahlia

She snapped her head toward me, surprised. “What did you just call me?”

“Your name?”

“Huh…” he blinked, considering. “It’s just that you always call me Blondie. I wasn’t sure that you even knew what my name was.” With that, she went back to flipping through the channels, completely disregarding what I was just saying.

“I was watching something,” I bit out as calmly as I could.

As if things couldn’t get any worse, the TV began blaring obnoxiously loud music, making the hairs at the back of my nape stand up. Thankfully, she quickly switched it to a sports channel.

“I’m not spending my evening watching another polar bear documentary. Come on.”

“Well, tough luck because I was watching that.”

I grabbed the remote from her and switched over to what I was previously in the middle of watching, before Blondie had set her butt down on the couch.

“Give it back,” Blondie demanded. She made a move to snatch the remote out of my hands again, but I raised it and held it up over my head.

She gave me an unimpressed look. “Seriously, give it back.”

I looked her straight in the eyes and said,“No.”

If she had been a cartoon character, I was sure that steam would have started to billow out of her ears at any moment now.

Her expression was all scrunched up in displeasure and I couldn’t help but notice that the scowl she was wearing really added a certain charm to her already pretty face.

I should really make her angry more often.

“You’re going to give it back or I’m going to take it from you.” She turned to another tactic, trying to intimidate me.

“Ha!” I barked out a loud laugh after hearing her little threat. “I want to see you try.”

Blondie huffed, giving me the stink eye. “Well… you asked for it—” was all she said before she lunged at me and I really should have seen it coming.

I groaned as an elbow hit me in the ribs, but I continued holding the remote raised over my head even as she started to climb over me.

“For fuck’s sake—“ I grunted, trying and falling not to lose my balance. I fell back on the couch, Blondie landing on top of me.

“You’re one crazy woman,” I panted, letting out a pained wheeze as her knee hit me in the groin. “Take the fucking remote if it means that much to you,Jesus.”

Blondie let out a victorious yell as she snatched the remote in her hand. She sat back in my lap, her eyes sparkling with mischief, a playful grin dancing on her lips.

“So you admit defeat, then.”

Chuckling, I slowly shook my head from side to side. “Ah, Blondie, Blondie… You should know that I’m always the one who wins at the end.”

I rolled my stiff shoulder, feeling the tension releasing, and I interlaced my hands behind my head. I smirked up at her. “From where I’m sitting, I feel pretty triumphant right now.”

It wasn’t like I had any reason not to be.

It wasn’t every day that I had a pretty little thing sitting in my lap, smiling down at me.

“You shouldn’t say things like that,” Blondie admonished me with a gentle flick on my forehead. “Someone might get the wrong idea.”

“And what kind of idea might that be?” I asked, my eyes falling to a stray lock of hair that brushed against her cheek. I reached out and tucked it back behind her ear.

“The idea that you look like you really want to kiss me right now,” she said, hushed and secretive.

“And if I did?”

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