Page 15 of Here Comes Trouble
Although, judging by the bemused look on his face, she suspected she was going to have a tough time getting him to take any of this seriously.
Shoving back his chair and balancing his foot on his knee he waved at her to begin. ‘Shoot.’
She cleared her throat and sat up straighter, pen poised over her notepad in readiness. ‘Okay. Beer or wine?’
He raised an amused eyebrow. ‘Tequilla body shots.’
Heat rushed up her neck as a vision of him licking salt out of her bellybutton slammed into her head. She pushed it away quickly, hoping her expression hadn’t given her away.
‘Favourite animal?’ she ploughed on, not looking up from her pad.
‘Tiger.’ He growled and she glanced up to see him making clawing gestures with his hands.
She fought to keep her smile under wraps. ‘Favourite way to travel?’
‘Asleep.’
She sighed. Yup, he wasn’t going to make this easy on her.
‘What?’ he asked, holding his hands up in mock offense. ‘I hate travelling, it’s tedious. I try to sleep through all my journeys.’ He leaned forwards in his chair. ‘I’m guessing you’re one of those people who don’t believe in power naps.’
‘I can’t sleep during the day.’
‘What, never? You should practice. It’s a useful skill.’
‘I’m usually too busy working in the day.’
He grinned. ‘Yeah, well, if you sleep as badly as me you need to master afternoon napping.’
‘Have you always slept badly?’ she asked, intrigued by the small snippet of personal information he’d let slip.
He shifted in his chair, switching his legs over and propping the other foot on the opposite knee, obviously annoyed at himself for slipping up.
‘I’ve always had strange sleep patterns.’ He didn’t look at her and she wondered why. Judging by the sudden tension in his body she’d swear he was lying.
‘What is it that keeps you up in the night?’ she pushed, determined to pursue this until he gave her something interesting she could use in the piece.
He glanced back at her, his expression now teasing. ‘Usually the hot woman lying next to me.’ He shot her another grin, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.
‘Right. So what? All the partying you’ve become famous for is to help you sleep? Wouldn’t it be easier to take a sleeping pill?’
‘I party hard to have fun. You’ve heard of that, right? Fun.’ He gave her a withering smile as if he knew exactly what she did for fun.
She thought about all her quiet nights in and cringed a little.
‘Sadly, I don’t have the opportunities or resources that you do,’ she said, trying to keep the giveaway clip of indignation out of her voice.
Instead of responding, he got up and strode out of the room, leaving her staring after him.
What the hell? Was this how he was going to act whenever she pursued a line of questioning he wasn’t comfortable with?
Before she had chance to get up and follow him, he reappeared, sketchpad and pencil in hand.
Her stomach did a slow dive. ‘What are you going to do with those?’ she asked dumbly, suddenly hot with worry. He wasn’t going to start sketching her now, was he?
‘I needed a little pre-dinner snack and these looked delicious,’ he said, his voice laden with sarcasm.
Jess bristled. ‘Do you really need to start doing that right now, here at the dinner table?’
