Page 38 of Badd B*tch

"You changed the subject on purpose earlier, didn't you?" Tea asked, eventually withdrawing her hand and staring at her short but well-shaped nails—which, I realized, weren't bare, but did in fact have a layer of very pale pink polish on them. I was just now noticing. I also noticed for the first time that she had a single piercing in each ear, currently empty. Meaning, she did wear earrings, just not while flying.

I tried to picture Tea in casual clothes, but my imagination couldn't quite get there. I kept seeing her in the flight suit, unzipping it…

Fuck.

I lurched to my feet and headed into the trees away from the fire to take a long piss against a tree well out of sight.

When I returned to the fire, Tea glanced at me.” Did I say something?"

I faked a face. "Nope. All good."

She sighed, rolling her eyes; the woman rolled her eyes more than anyone I'd ever met, and could communicate a fucking lot with a well-timed eye roll.

"You can't bullshit me, Jax. I've got a foolproof bullshit detector, and that was some rank-ass fuckin' bullshit, my guy."

I shook my head. "No, nothing. Just had to piss."

She eyed me skeptically. "Mmm. Right. Keep your secrets, then."

I snorted. "I'm not keeping secrets, Tea. I'm just not saying everything I think or feel, same as you."

Tea frowned thoughtfully. "We barely know each other, Jax."

"Exactly," I said. "And it's obvious there's stuff you don’t want to get into. That's fine. So do I."

"But the way you got up so suddenly seemed like it had something to do with me." She shrugged, rubbing a thumb over her lips.

My eyes followed her thumb, and for a split second I saw myself leaning in to kiss her, my mouth touching hers, my hands sliding up her thighs.

I twisted away and shut my eyes tightly, viciously banishing those futile, pointless images and desires.

This, of course, did not escape Tea's sharp gaze. "Dude, you're being weird."

What was I supposed to say?

I want to very slowly take that flight suit off of your tight, sexy little body and kiss every last inch of your perfect, ivory skin? That walking behind you is torture, because the only thing to look at for hours and hours at a time is the delectable way your hard little ass moves with each step?

"I can see you thinking, dammit," Tea snapped. "Just fucking say something. Say literally any part of what you're thinking. Please. It clearly has something to do with me. I'm clearly causing you some kind of existential crisis, and I can’t do anything about it if I don’t know what the fucking problem is."

"There's no problem," I lied, knowing she'd know it was a blatant lie.

She sighed. "You're being an asshole."

I lurched off the log, feeling pissed off, irrational, and lost. "I am?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, her tone going low and quiet and dangerous. "Your tone implies that I'm being an asshole."

"You're the prickliest person I've ever met. You're always rolling your eyes or snapping at me."

She opened her mouth to respond, blinked a few times at me, and then clacked it closed. "Jax, I—"

I held up a hand. "That was unfair of me. I'm sorry. This is stressful for both of us. We're tired, and we're hungry."

“Yeah. But you're also not wrong about me. I told you I was a bitch."

I sighed. "Tea, no. You're not. And you'll never, ever hear me say so."

"Then you're the only one. Especially since—" she shook her head. "I don't need to burden you with all that mess."