Page 50 of The Kiss Connection

“I do. It was a lot tonight, the cameras, the influencers, everyone wanting a picture. You handled it with ease,” she says.

When we’d left the restaurant, I let them snap a few pictures of us together while we waited for valet to bring the car around. We were holding hands, nothing too showy.

Juniper had looked super uncomfortable the entire time. I’m not sure if it was holding my hand that make her clam up or the fact strangers were taking our picture.

“I survived. So, I have to ask, the restaurant tonight. Did you request the table by the window?”

I’d been wondering how long it would take her to bring it up. “That was the PR girl, Zuri. But, yes, it had been intentional. She’s trying to fix my image, after what I did at the gala.”

“After you punched your brother.” Juniper gets right to the point.

Wordlessly, I nod, glancing away. I’m not proud about the fight, but he’d gotten under my skin and pissed me off.

“I’m just hoping Zuri is happy with the photos.”

“And if she’s not?” Juniper asks.

“She’ll have me do some more grunt work.”

“Grunt work? Is that what you would call this, our date?” She pulls her legs to her chest and inhales and exhales heavily. She’s growing upset and stands, moving away from me. “I can’t believe I started having feelings for you. How stupid of me. You’re the same, just like when we first met. Arrogant. Opinionated. Think you’re high and mighty above everyone else.”

“Would you calm down and let me answer?”

She grabs a seat opposite, in the corner between the wall and the panel, glowering at me. “Fine.” She gestures for me to talk, but she’s still fuming. It’s cute, the rosiness of her cheeks while her bottom lip juts out all pouty.

I try not to stare at her lips, but damn, it’s hard.

“Grunt work isn’t a date—doesn’t matter if that date is with you or anyone else. Grunt work is the stuff that Zuri makes me do, like record a PR video for her to share on the account. It’s doing a public service announcement or volunteering overtime. I love working at the dog shelter, but getting videos of me cleaning up poop, that’s grunt work.”

She laughs, tears rolling down her cheeks. “They don’t make you clean up dog crap.”

“Well, not me personally, but I’ve heard stories. I mean, Zuri threatened me with it if I didn’t behave on this date and treat you like royalty.”

The corner of her lip twitches upward. “I’ll have to thank Zuri sometime.”

“So, does that mean you had fun on our date?” I ask, hoping she didn’t think it was too overwhelming. There were a lot of influencers and paparazzi canvasing outside the restaurant. It felt like they were there all night, trying to get the perfect picture.

She doesn’t answer my question.

“I had a nice time,” I say, hoping that counts as giving her a compliment. It’s not huge, but we managed to survive each other for a couple of hours.

“Yeah? It wasn’t too bad,” Juniper says and glances at her legs, smiling weakly. “But I have been on better dates.” She stretches her legs out, crossing them, her cute heels wiggling. Is she nervous?

“I would certainly hope so.”

“You weren’t giving me your A game?” I might be imagining it, but I think there’s a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“If I were, you’d have known.” I pin her with my stare.

“Oh. Twenty thousand big ones doesn’t get me the royalty treatment with Myles Dax? Damn.”

“You can’t buy romance.”

She purses her lips, considering my words. “I don’t know. I think you just held back because you were afraid you might actually like me.”

Clearing my throat, I sit up straighter. “I don’t get afraid.”

“Right.”