Page 36 of As Long As You Kiss Me

“I thought you were a hardened warrior.”

“Hey. Don’t judge me. I don’t like being stung.”

She threw pillow number three.

He blocked the cushion with his arm, and it bounced off lamely. “Hey, cut that out. It’s not helping. I think you’re only going to make it mad.”

Sully walked up to him.

“What are you doing?” Jackson eyed her warily.

“I’m going to get this thing off you,” she insisted.

“I don’t like where this is going.”

“Just hold still.”

But instead, he did the opposite. “No, no. Don’t. I’m just going to end up getting stung.” He flailed his arms around.

“You’re making it worse. Stop freaking out.”

“Don’t tell me to freak out. It’s too late for that.” Jackson waved his hands in front of him to keep Sully from coming near. At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing. It was either that or he was coming up with some new dance moves. If that was the case, he probably needed to take some lessons because his moves weren’t great.

He started contorting his body. Maybe that was part of the dance too. But then the inevitable happened. The chair began to tip.

“Jackson, you need to stop or you’re going to—”

The chair toppled backwards, and Jackson went flying like Superman across the living room. He landed on the floor with a loud thud.

“—fall,” Sully finished. She rushed over to his side.

The wasp was trotting off like nothing had happened.

She grabbed an empty cup from the coffee table and plopped it down over the wasp. “Got the little bugger.”

“Ow.” Jackson’s cheek was pressed against the carpet.

“Look on the bright side,” Sully said. “At least you didn’t get stung.”

“Gee, thanks.”

Sully got a piece of paper from the side table and slid it under the cup. She slid open the patio door and released the wasp. It flew out into the evening air.

Jackson sat up and propped himself with an arm on the floor. “That thing gets to live?”

Sully blinked at him. “There was no reason to harm him. He was an innocent creature.”

“Innocent?” Jackson sputtered. He thrust an arm out to the side, pointing toward the glass doors. “Did you see how evil it was? That thing was in my hair.”

“I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”

“Since when is he a male? For all you know, that’s a female wasp.”

“I don’t know. I just randomly picked a gender.”

“I still can’t believe you set him free. I meanitfree. I had pillows bouncing off my face, and now I’m probably going to get bruises from that fall.”

“Isn’t it manly to have a few battle scars?”

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