Page 10 of Her Beastly Billionaire Rock Star
“I can’t handle the heat. I’m a plain cheese kind of girl.”
“Plain cheese? Really? No pepperoni or sausage or anything?” Malakai sighed heavily. “We have to do more than some cheese. Give me something. Mushrooms? Tomatoes?”
“My dad liked cheese pizza. That’s the only way I’ve ever eaten them. If it’s not broken, I don’t fix it.”
“Not a risk-taker, huh?” He gave her a sly grin. “We’ll have to fix that.”
Charlotte shook her head. “No, that’s okay. I’m good.”
Malakai’s grin widened. “Oh, no. We have to make this whole relationship stuff look real. Anyone who knows me will see right through it if you don’t like just a little bit of danger.”
Her stomach dropped. “Danger?” she squeaked. She didn’t like the sound of that at all. “I don’t need danger.”
“Challenge accepted.”
“What? No. There’s zero challenge.” Charlotte’s heart hummed in her chest. Danger was not her middle name. Sure, working behind Octavia’s back could be considered dangerous, but at no time was her life in actual peril. “I’m happy with stick-in-the-mud.”
Narrowing his eyes, Malakai leaned down a little, holding her gaze. “No,” he said and pointed his finger at her. “I can see it right there. Those eyes are screaming, ‘Give me danger!’”
Charlotte grabbed his finger. “No, you don’t. You see hunger. I need food.”
He leaned back, his warm, throaty laughter filling the entire room. Wow, great laugh, nice smile, charming. No wonder the guy was an international superstar.
“How about we get two pizzas. One for you and one for me,” he said. Without waiting for her to respond, his fingers went to work, and a few minutes later, he slipped the phone back in his pocket. “Done.”
“Are you going to tell me how they’re going to be delivered?” she asked.
Shrugging, he replied, “Where is the fun in that?”
She huffed. “Fine.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she tapped her foot. “What now?”
Malakai shrugged. “Want me to show you around the house?”
“Sure. Is there a secret room with a rose in it that’s slowly losing its petals?”
“Are you trying to tell me I’m a beast?” His lips were turned up at the corner, so she could tell he’d taken it the way she meant it—as a joke. So far, he was nothing like she expected.
“You’re really tall—”
“And you’re really short. I think that makes you biased.”
“Wouldn’t your height make you biased too?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “It seems we are at an impasse.”
Charlotte stepped onto the nearest couch, still not quite eye level. “Okay, we’re kind of the same height. I’m surprised you don’t carry around oxygen.”
Closing the distance between them, Malakai put his face inches from hers. “Yeah, well, I’m surprised you can see over the countertop.”
He was kissable from a distance, and this close, it was near impossible for her thoughts not to go places they couldn’t and shouldn’t. Pushing the thoughts away, she replied, “Oh yeah? Well, I bet you hit your head every time you enter a room.”
“You’re so short, you’re legally required to sit in a booster seat.”
“You’re so tall…” Surely she wasn’t out of digs already. “You’re so tall…you’re so tall, redwoods shrivel in your shadow.”
He chuckled. “That was lame.”
Charlotte rolled her lips in, trying to keep the laugh that was building from pouring out. He poked her in the stomach, and she burst out laughing. “It was so lame.”
