Paradox (Unearthly Paradox Series Book 1)

Chapter 15

An hour later, Jett got up and headed toward the stairs.

I quickly switched the channel. When he knocked, I figured he would just walk in as he always did, but the door remained closed.

I cleared my throat. "Come in!"

Jett entered without his customary smile, making me feel even worse. "I'm going to order some food. Do you have any preferences?"

I shook my head.

"Right." He started to leave.

"Hang on a minute."

He stopped and looked at me, keeping his hand on the knob.

"I... I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I had no right to judge you on what could be nothing more than teenage girls' gossip."

Jett stared at me with an expression I couldn't read. "Let's just forget about it." He smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes.

"Forget about what?" I grinned back at him, trying to lighten the mood.

He smiled genuinely. "Do you want me to get another movie?"

No matter how much I wanted to curl up and watch a movie with him, I needed to do the responsible thing. "I can't. I have to study."

"And give up spending another night in bed with me?"

"Oh, the temptation," I teased.

He laughed as he shut the door behind him.

***

Jett returned with boxes of Chinese food. "So what are you studying?" He put the meal on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed, twisting around to face me.

"Math."

"And how's that going for you?" He started unfolding the tops of the boxes. The mouth-watering aromas of the various dishes wafted over to me.

I put down my iPad. "It would be better if I had this year's test instead of last year's."

He smirked. "You know, I could get that for you."

Shocked, I laughed nervously. "I was only joking."

"Then so was I."

I raised my eyebrows, but he didn't bite. I snatched the box out of his hand and looked around for the chopsticks.

He handed me a fork. "Here you go."

"Can't do chopsticks?"

"Can but can't fit as much in my mouth as I can with a fork." He shoved a fork full of noodles into his mouth then picked up my iPad. "I thought you said you had a math test."

I swallowed the chicken in my mouth. "Yeah, I did. Why?"

"Then why are you Googling black-eyed people?"

I sucked in a sharp breath. I had completely forgotten that I had been trying to find answers to why my eyes occasionally turned black. I snatched my iPad away from him. "Don't you know it's not polite to look through someone's Internet browser without permission?"

"I was just trying to bring up the test when I saw that." The look on his face was far from innocent.

"Says the one who can fix my GPS that malfunctioned."

He smirked. "I swear it was an innocent mistake."

"Sure it was."

He lowered his fork, still full of food. "Now, what did you find out?"

"About what?"

"Black-eyed people." He shoved the noodles into his mouth.

"So far, I've found five mythical creatures posing as humans."

He nodded as he chewed then swallowed. "And why would you be researching such a thing? You don't look like the type of girl who'd buy into all that crap."

I studied him, looking for any hint that he was hiding something from me.

"I know I'm hot and you've got a thing for me, but you're starting to make me feel uncomfortable when you look at me like that." He gave an evil grin.

I just about choked. Great. Zane must've told him about catching me watching him. "I was not spying on you."

"That's not what my brother tells me."

"Then your brother's full of shit."

"So it's not true?"

"I bet he conveniently forgot to mention how he tried to hit on me."

His expression turned serious. "He won't ever do that again."

"So he told you about it?"

He twisted some noodles around his fork then stabbed a piece of meat. "I heard about it."

I waited for him to elaborate. When he didn't say anything else, I asked, "Why does that make you so crabby?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Crabby?"

"Just answer the question."

"Fine. I have my reasons."

"Reasons you're not willing to share?"

He winked. "We do have a smart one here."

I picked up a pillow and threw it at him, causing his food to splatter all over his shirt. "Oops."

He turned the pillow over, and picked two noodles off of it, and put them in his mouth. "You know, you could've just asked me to take off my shirt." He pulled his T-shirt up over his head and folded it so that the dirty part stayed on the inside.

My jaw dropped, and I stared unashamedly at his chest, abs, shoulders... really anything I could lay my eyes on.

He took the dirty case off the pillow, folded it up, and put it on the floor with his T-shirt. "So it's true. You do have a thing for me."

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. I could tell you were undressing me with your eyes."

I tried my damnedest not to, but I couldn't help but laugh. "You're really something else."

He winked. "That I am."