Fake Boyfriend - Miley Maine Page 0,10
to keep talking?”
I loved the glint in his eyes. It was the first time I’d seen them sparkle like that. “Uh no. I think your age is just fine.”
So what if I went over the top and flirted with him? I’d already made a fool of myself in the airport. He didn’t judge me then, so maybe he wouldn’t judge me now.
“I’m fourteen years older than you are,” he said.
Maybe he was thinking the same thing. Because if he wasn’t thinking about hooking up, then why did an age gap matter? It certainly didn’t matter if your seatmate on a plan was older.
Was I really going to tell him this? What could it hurt? I was never going to see him again. Our paths wouldn’t cross. “As part of my new freedom from my parents’ restrictions for my life, I’m going to make it my goal to lose my virginity.”
Jackson stared at me. He blinked a few times. Then he cleared his throat. “What did you say?”
“My new goal. It’s to lose my virginity.”
Jackson swallowed a few times.
“Did I embarrass you?” I asked. “I think I embarrassed myself.” I put my pillow in front of my face. “I can’t believe I just said that.”
“I’m not embarrassed.” He tugged the pillow away from my face. “Just shocked.”
I touched my flaming hot cheeks. “I’m shocked too. But, I’m tired of suppressing myself. This trip is the beginning of my new life, where I’m making my own rules.”
Jackson couldn’t hide his grin.
“You think that’s funny?”
“No. I think it’s cute.”
“Cute! I don’t want it to be cute. I want to be fierce.”
“You’ll get there,” he said.
I might as well go for broke. “If we met at a bar, would you hit on me?” I asked.
Chapter Five
Jackson
I was actually speechless. Which never happened. After the life I’d lived so far, I thought I couldn’t be shocked, but Loren had managed it. “Are you seriously asking me this?
“Yes! I am! I have lived a life of deprivation, and now I’m free.” Loren clapped her hands together. “Please answer. I need the truth.”
I wasn’t going to lie to her. I’d like to do a lot more than hit on her. Not that I was going to spell that out right now. “Yes. I would hit on you.”
I should not have admitted that. Even though I was never going to touch her, I was flirting with disaster. Loren was a sweet young woman, and I was fresh out of a mission that had left me reeling.
I hadn’t had one night without a nightmare since the mission in Romania, even though it had been over for seven days. Something about that day had knocked a screw loose in my head, and I’d woken up every single night since then, screaming.
I wasn’t fit for anyone’s company, much less Loren, who was so bright and happy -- and young.
This was supposed to be a solitary vacation for me. A way to reset whatever had gone wrong in my head. I was not up for a fling. Especially one with someone so innocent.
But I had to admit that she was enticing. She’d had me captivated from that first big smile, and I was glad this plane ride would be our only time together, because if I had to see her on a frequent basis, I wasn’t sure I could resist her.
“Even after you watched me attempt to take a gigantic can of hairspray onto the plane.”
“Yes. Even after that.”
This was insanity. There was a twenty-two year old sitting next to me on a plane. A twenty-two year old who was oddly naive about certain things, and at the same time, very forward about others.
How far was I willing to take this? We were four hours into a five hour flight, and we had another flight to go.
“What would you say to me?” she asked. “If you saw me in a bar.”
I absolutely would not repeat what I’d said to the last several women I’d met in bars.
I also wasn’t going to mention that lately I hadn’t been chasing women so much. Lately, they’d been coming to me. I wasn’t especially vain, compared to my teammates, but I was in good shape. And the women all said I was hot. Plus some of them had a thing for soldiers, and the person wearing the uniform didn’t matter much to them. It wasn’t ideal, but for now, it worked.
“I’d say, ‘Would you like to have dinner with me?’”
“You don’t expect me to believe that,