Marry Ex's Billionaire Uncle After Divorce (Aurora and Jasper) novel Chapter 271

Chapter 236: Did I Surprise You?

(Aurora’s POV)

I stared straight ahead at the seat back in front of me.

125 Pinta

Surprise. That was one word for it. The other word was ambush, and I was fairly certain that in any reasonable legal framework, what he’d just pulled constituted a coordinated operation. Harrison. The seating arrangement. The family member clause on the notice.

I didn’t answer him.

The bus pulled away from the curb.

His thumb made another slow pass across my hand, and I felt the warmth of it travel all the way up

my arm.

I said nothing. But I didn’t pull my hand away either.

I pulled my hand back from his – harder than I meant to.

#

I froze, then immediately glanced around. Every single colleague was deep in their own conversation, nobody looking our way. I exhaled and yanked out my phone, typing fast.

*You deliberately hid that you were coming. That’s deception.”

*

His phone buzzed. He read it, then typed back with the unhurried pace of someone who had already won.

*I never said I wasn’t coming. You never asked. Technically, that’s not deception.*

I stared at the screen.

He was lawyering his way out of it. Completely, shamelessly lawyering his way out of it.

I shoved my phone back into my pocket and turned toward the window, putting as much of my body as I could between us without actually climbing over the seat. I pulled out my earbuds,

plugged them in, and hit play. If I couldn’t remove him from the bus, I could at least remove myself from the situation.

Two seconds later, something poked my side.

I flinched. Hard. I’m ticklish and he apparently already knew that, because the corner of his mouth. curved the moment I jolted sideways.

He pointed at my earbuds.

I shook my head.

He didn’t argue. He just rested his hand on top of mine and started moving his thumb – slow,

L

BeDjd! Surpuse You?

unhurried, a small steady circle on the back of my hand. Not demanding. Just relentless.

I lasted about four minutes.

“Fine,” I muttered, and pulled one earbud out and held it toward him.

He took it, settled it in, and I hit play again.

+25 Ports*

The opening drum fill of the first song hit him like a wall. I watched his brow crease slightly as the electric guitar kicked in – loud, sharp, absolutely zero apology about it.

He turned to say something.

I was already asleep.

I didn’t know that, obviously. I only know it because of what happened next.

The bus had been winding up into the hills for nearly two hours when it finally stopped. The engine cut. The sudden quiet reached me through the music and I surfaced slowly, blinking, aware first of the stillness and then of the warmth against my cheek.

I was leaning on his shoulder.

I sat up so fast I nearly knocked my phone off my lap.

“I’m sorry,” I said immediately. “I didn’t – that wasn’t intentional, I don’t usually-”

“It’s fine.” He was already reaching into his jacket pocket.

He produced a small travel packet of tissues, shook one loose, and held it out with an expression of complete, attentive sincerity.

“Here,” he said. “Get that for you.”

I looked at the tissue.

“The drool,” he added helpfully.

My hand went to the corner of my mouth before my brain caught up.

Nothing there. Obviously nothing there. I never drool. But the damage was done – they had

been witnessed, and from somewhere behind us came a sound that was unmistakably someone failing to suppress a laugh, followed by two more people doing the same.

My face went hot from my cheeks straight to my ears.

“I’m so sorry,” I said to no one in particular, grabbed my bag, and got off the bus as fast as I could without actually running.

Behind me, I heard Phineas say something to the group – calm, easy, the tone of someone wrapping up a perfectly normal meeting. I didn’t catch the words. I didn’t want to.

Chapter 236 Did Surprise You?

+25 Ports

The hotel lobby was cool and high-ceilinged, and I stood near the check-in desk trying to look like a person who had not just been publicly humiliated by a tissue.

A colleague appeared at my elbow. “Hey, don’t worry about it. Falling asleep on someone on a long bus ride happens to everyone.”

“Sure,” I said.

“Honestly, your husband seems really sweet. The way he – you know, with the tissue-” She pressed

her lips together, clearly trying not to smile. “You should let him in a little more. He seems like he really cares.”

I had absolutely nothing to say to that.

I smiled. I nodded. I moved toward the front desk.

The check-in process went smoothly enough until the front desk associate looked up and told me,

in a professionally neutral tone, that a suite had already been reserved in my name.

I found the room on the fourth floor. I found, immediately upon finding it, that it shared a wall with

the room next to it.

The nameplate on that door read: *Everett, P.*

I stood in the hallway for a moment.

Of course.

I went inside, dropped my bag, and sat on the edge of the bed. Harrison definitely knew. There was

no version of this where Harrison didn’t know. The suite reservation, the seating arrangement on

the bus – this had all been coordinated, and Harrison had either figured it out himself or been very gently guided toward the correct conclusion.

I opened my laptop out of habit, more than anything else.

The doorbell rang.

*****

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Tapter 237 Let Me Out That for Ya

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