He glanced at her in surprise. “Why?”
“In case anyone asks.” A lame reason but she couldn’t think of a better one that wouldn’t expose her in some way. “I’m supposed to be your fiancée, after all. I mean, what if we’re interviewed?”
Jax’s gaze flickered away for a moment, looking over the crowd once more. She knew what he was doing, checking for the press. His arm around her tightened, pulling her closer and although she told herself sternly it didn’t mean anything, she still couldn’t stop herself from wanting to arch her back with pleasure like a cat being stroked.
“We’re not doing interviews. I made that quite clear to Donovan.”
“Still …” Indulging herself, she put a hand on his chest, touching the snowy cotton of his shirt, feeling the powerful muscle beneath. “Why not? Perhaps we might even be … I don’t know, friends or something.”
Dark brows drew down. “Friends?” He said the word as if it were in a foreign language and he didn’t understand it.
Pandora stared at the cotton under her fingers. “Why not? I’ve … never had a real friend before.” It sounded lame when she said it aloud and abruptly she wished she’d never said it. “Actually forget it. That’s stupid and—”
His fingers gripped her chin all of a sudden, tipping her head back so his gaze met hers. “What do you mean you’ve never had a friend?”
“I did tell you I wasn’t allowed to go out anywhere. Which meant I never got a chance to meet anyone. I had some online friends but … they didn’t know who I was in real life and I never told them.”
“Why not?”
“Who wants to be friends with Nick Garret’s daughter? No one, that’s who.”
Jax didn’t say anything for a long moment, still frowning as he stared at her. “God, your father’s a prick.”
“I’m not arguing.” She took a breath. “You’re basically the first person I’ve ever had the opportunity to get to know. The first person who … ”
“Who what?”
Longing burned inside her all of a sudden. Bright and fierce, surprising in its intensity. She didn’t want to tell him, didn’t want him to know how much this meant to her but he was holding her chin and she couldn’t look away. “I guess … who might want to get to know me, too.”
Again he said nothing, his blue eyes searching her face. Then he bent, brushing her mouth with his in a tender kiss that had the longing swelling against the back of her throat, making it difficult to breathe.
Stupid. She was stupid. Why should she want someone to know her? And not just “someone.” Him. It didn’t matter surely. There were would be plenty of time to meet people and find friends. Do all the things she’d missed out. Once the problem of her father was taken care of and she was finally free. She didn’t need Jax in particular.
When he raised his head, she smiled up at him, playing her part in their deception. “Hey, forget I said anything, okay? I was only—”
“I hate parties.”
“What?”
“You wanted to know something about me that no one else knows. Well, parties bore me to tears and all I want to do is go home.”
Pandora blinked in surprise, warmth uncurling inside her.
“Your turn,” Jax said softly.
“Uh … basically no one knows anything about me so … you already know more than just about anyone else. Including Dad.”
“Tell me something else.”
The curious tension in her chest had eased. She could feel the smile on her face relaxing along with it. “That whiskey you bought me at the bar? Well, I didn’t like it. It was disgusting.”
Jax smiled. And for the first time since she’d met him, it reached his eyes.
The rest of the evening was better after that.
Really, it was kind of ridiculous how much it thrilled her to be the only one who knew that although he might look like he was enjoying himself, actually he was counting down the minutes until they left. It was like she was being let in on some kind of delicious secret.
Much later, in the limo on the way back to his penthouse, she said, “On a scale of one to ten—one being dire, ten being bearable—how boring was that?”
“Maybe a four.”
“You did well then. Anyone would have thought you were having the time of your life.”
“Long years of practice. I have to at least pretend to look interested.” He began undoing his bow tie. “At least the press got a good look at us. That little discussion on the walkway certainly helped, I would imagine.