The Bodyguard

18.

continuance from last chapter

"So demanding," Ace tuts. "Do you ever say please?"

Regardless, he moved away, back behind the counter to start on another.

Jasper watched him with close eyes.

"Only when I'm begging." Jasper said it so casually, with such a cadence that was bordering on the line of suggestiveness.

The blond watched as Ace paused slightly due to the ambiguity of his comment.

The guard was used to the cold, reserved version of Jasper. Not this.

"You should watch the things you say."

"Why?" Jasper tilted his head. "Does it make you uncomfortable?"

Ace proceeded to put a small amount of ice in the glass from the provided freezer.

He decided on bourbon for the base this time, and would make something up as he went along. Ace said nothing, so Jasper continued.

"You realize we're going to be stuck here for days," he deadpanned. "How else do you expect me to have fun?"

"I don't know, Jasper," Ace sighed, adding some more ingredients to the drink. "But I would appreciate it if you didn't torment me with your brazenness."

"You think I'm brazen?"

"I think you're a lot of things."

"Tell me," Jasper demanded. "I want you to tell me."

"You already know what I think of you." Ace countered. "I don't think we need to rehash literally every argument we've ever had."

"It only ever turns into an argument because you don't listen," Jasper explained cooly. "If you did what I said, It wouldn't be an argument."

"Do you really expect me to just bend to your will?"

"Yes," Jasper answered. "I want you to do what I say. You work for me, or did you forget?"

"Okay, okay, " Ace met eyes with Jasper's again, his eyes full of assertiveness. He was already becoming fed up with this conversation, and Jasper all together, but in fear of another screaming match, he settled.

"What is it?" Ace asked frustration evident in his tone. "What do you want me to do? What could possibly be left that I haven't done for you already?"

"Right now?" Jasper raised his eyebrow, a calculating look in his eye. "I want you to answer a question."

Ace hesitated a bit, topped off the drink with something sugary, and slid it across the table, over to Jasper. He caught it, wrapped his slender fingers around the cool glass. His gaze was prompting, intense. As if he was challenging Ace to see if he would actually respond.

"Go on," Ace responded. He began to make himself a drink. He felt wherever this conversation was going, he would need something to make it more bearable.

"Do you find me attractive?"

Ace supposed he would've been more caught off guard by the question if he weren't already very familiar with Jasper's boldness. And of course, Ace already knew the answer to such a question. He was more concerned with feeding into Jasper's natural disposition.

With Jasper, everything he said, every question he asked was calculated. He had ulterior motives behind almost everything he did. As the two spent more and more time together, Ace was just starting to learn how to differentiate between what was genuine and artificial.

"Why do you want to know?"

"You didn't answer the question." Jasper countered, sipping from his drink without breaking eye contact.