Page 2 of Jasper

He checked his ticket to make sure he was at the right gate.

“Sorry, sorry.”

Grumbles met the apology, and he looked up to see a woman bent down picking up the contents of her purse. She probably tripped and fell. No one moved to help her, so he did. His feet came into her field of vision, and she looked up. Dark gray eyes widened when they looked into his. Blonde hair spilled around her shoulders so haphazardly, he wondered if she’d even brushed it this morning.

“Need a hand?”

“No, I’m good.” She spoke so softly he might have missed it had he not been listening. She snapped her purse shut when she shoved the last of her things in it with such force he blinked.

“What’d that purse ever do to you?”

She let out a loud sigh and stood. “Long day.”

“Long year,” he said more to himself than to her.

“That too.”

“I’m Jasper.”

“Nice to meet you, Jasper. I need to go find somewhere that has decent coffee.” She gripped the handle of her luggage tightly and sidestepped him.

He watched her go down the long hallway with restaurants and shops on both sides. Part of him wanted to go after her, but he needed to keep a low profile. He had a feeling that girl was so far from low profile, it wasn’t even funny.

Instead, he found an empty seat and sat down, pulling his baseball cap on, and closed his eyes. He had a good hour before his plane was supposed to board. A nap would do.

Cursing woke him up.

The same blonde was back, only this time she was struggling with a cup of coffee, her purse, and her luggage. The luggage was winning. He jumped up to help her.

“Hey, let me help…”

He reached out the same time she swung around.

His hand connected with the coffee, and it flew backward, the lid coming off the cup and spilling down the front of her shirt.

Her mouth opened, and a shocked gasp escaped along with a hiss of pain.

She looked down at her stained blouse then back up at him, her eyes wide and horrified.

Shit. He felt like a jackass. “I am so sorry…” He tried wiping at the mess with the sleeve of his jacket, but all that did was get his jacket wet.

“Please stop. I think you’ve done more than enough already.” She sighed and pulled the wet fabric away from her chest.

“Did you get burned?”

“Considering it was a scalding hot cup of coffee, it would be a good guess to say yes.”

“I’m so, so sorry.”

She looked around and noticed people were staring, some pointing and laughing, which only heightened her embarrassment. Her cheeks warmed, and he stepped around her to block out their view. The girl was tiny. Not short tiny, but her figure was small. She had a runner’s build, but for all that, she just seemed tiny to him. Maybe because he towered over her, and he was wide enough to keep prying eyes away.

“Don’t mind them. They’re just jealous.”

“Jealous?” She quirked a brow.

“That you’re talking to the best-looking man in the entire airport.” He winked, expecting a giggle, but she only rolled her eyes. Not the way women usually reacted to him.

Sloane Collins wanted nothing more than to curl up and die of embarrassment, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon. She’d rather stand here, soaking wet, than allow anyone to see how much she wanted to hide. But that was what got her into this whole mess in the first place, wasn’t it?

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