A warm hand landed on my thigh and I relaxed a little when his deep voice said, “You won’t crash, Princess. I’m here.”
I nodded and shuffled on the seat. “Distract me.”
I glanced towards him in time to see his delicious smirk and shook my head when his hand inched closer to the hem of my shorts.
“N-no, James.” I bit my lip and clenched my legs together. “Not that type of distraction unless you really want me to crash.”
“Then what type of distraction, Princess?” He was practically purring, caressing my inner thigh as if he couldn’t wait to dive his hand inside my underwear.
“Tell me about your Mom.”
24
I’LL SPANK YOU
MIA
When his hand froze on my thigh, I looked over at him and quickly added, “Or not. Forget it. I was thinking about my Mom and figured I should—”
“Mia. It’s okay.” He took away the hand from my lap, and,despite aching for his touch, I let him continue. “She was pretty clever. I could never have the last word with her when we argued. And she was a nuisance.”
“Such a big nuisance.” He was smiling sadly when he continued, “Always laughing and pranking me. She was a kid in an adult’s body with wisdom beyond her age. We’d be laughing one moment, and the next second she’d tell me some shit about life and how I should help others before pranking me with a fake bug.”
I looked away and kept my eyes on the road, swerving and using the auto gear. “She seems lovely.”
“She was.”
Was.Again.
Swallowing the lump in my throat, I asked, “What happened?”
He knew what I was talking about. He must have heard from Dad how my mom passed away in—
“She died in a car accident.”
I took a sharp breath and momentarily lost my grip on the steering wheel. I stole a quick glance and found him glaring out of the window, his hand clenched in a fist on his lap. With as much gentleness as I could muster, I placed my hand over his. I exhaled the breath I was holding when he entwined our hands together, his thumb stroking patterns on my knuckles.
“I’m sorry,” I said when we reached the hospital, parking the car perfectly on the spot.
“It’s okay, Princess.” James met my eyes and smiled. It didn’t reach his eyes, but still he leaned closer and kissed my forehead. “Let’s go meet Clyde before he harasses his nurse about Star Wars again.”
I nodded and held back a few questions. I wanted to know how the accident happened. Why and how did it happen? But James wasn’t used to opening up and telling me about his mom and how she… it was a big deal. I would respect his decision and wait for him to share anything he wanted to on his own terms.
Wow, look at me. I almost sound like an adult in my head.
Soon. I will be an adult soon.
* * *
“Are we seriously watchingTangledagain?”James groaned, hearing my evil little giggle. “Let’s try something—”
“No.”
“Mia.”
“I want to see Flynn Ryder. It’s my birthday.”
“It’s not your birthday until the clock strikes twelve, you little brat.” I ignored him and settled on the couch. “We literally watched Tangled with Clyde yesterday!”