The man had stiffened up from the moment she’d called out to her aunt, which had set off Sharon’s already bubbling temper. Yeah, she’d seen he was embarrassed just because she’d called out, and the combination of his judgment plus her family’s had sent a little devil raging through her. There was a small part in the back of her head that disapproved of her deliberately prodding him at the same time she was engaging her aunt and mother, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

The look he seared her with when she called him Jakie-poo would have had her shaking in her high heels if he’d been a Dom. Her ass would have been grass. But Jake was mostly vanilla.

Hmm. Vanilla with sprinkles sounded a little too soft for how bossy he was... He was like a harder vanilla. Tough vanilla? Concentrated vanilla?

Pissed-off vanilla at the moment. She could see it in his eyes and the set of his jaw. Heck, she’d ticked him off enough in the past to know what it looked like, although she hadn’t done it recently. It wasn’t as much fun now as it had been before.

Maybe a drink would help cool both of them down.

Steering him to one of the waiters walking around the room with a tray of cocktails, Sharon picked up one for each of them. They were going to be here for a while, so she could have a few drinks in the beginning to kill the edge she was feeling and then have plenty of time to sober up before driving back to her parents.

“Don’t do that again.” Jake’s voice was low and hard as he whispered in her ear. To an outside observer it probably looked like he was whispering something intimate.

Sharon sighed as she handed him one of the drinks she’d picked up. She had no idea what her aunt was serving tonight, but she knew it would be strong. “I probably won’t need to. Here, have a drink.”

“I’m serious, Sharon,” he said as he took the drink from her, his blue eyes almost cold. “Don’t do that again.”

She glared back up at him. Yeah, she got it; she’d embarrassed him by being herself, just like she did her family. Just what she needed, another parent judging her.

“Don’t tell me how to behave,” she snapped back, spinning on her heel as she stalked away from him, drink in hand.

Even though she didn’t look over her shoulder, she knew he was following behind her, like a grim reaper haunting her steps. That was how she felt about her parents a lot of the time too. The biggest difference was that she did have some obligation to Jake to introduce him around and make sure he wasn’t left standing alone in a corner.