Their first evening in Jasper's abode had gone pretty smoothly, Eleanor seemed content with eating her feelings rather than smoking them; they ordered Chinese and watched Made in Chelsea reruns, the Princess occasionally snorting and mumbling less than favorable comments about the people on screen.

When the time came to go to bed, neither of them knew how to go about it; the only time they had ever slept in the bed was after one of their vigorous romps. However, this night was different, they both got ready for bed separately, the bodyguard refusing to let the Princess sleep naked and shoving a grey tee her way. To which she responded by calling him a hypocrite, apparently boxer-briefs counted as a full outfit where bed was concerned.

Both parties had stayed firmly on their own sides, or so they thought.

Eleanor woke the next morning to find her leg wedged in between Jasper's, her arms tucked in between their chests; his mouth level with her forehead, his steady breaths causing the stray hairs to move slightly. This was incredibly awkward, but she was almost too afraid to move, too afraid to alert him to the situation. There was no other way out though, and she eventually pulled her leg free, rolling onto her back with a sigh, the events of yesterday hitting her like a brick wall. Sitting up abruptly, the quick movement caused Jasper to stir, eyes opening, his first instance was to look surprised to see her before his face melted into its usual stoic expression.

"He's dead. My father's dead."

Eleanor's words caused Jasper to bite down on the inside of his cheek, not knowing how to respond to such a thing, so he stayed silent. That clearly wasn't what she wanted though, because she reached over to yank the blankets from over his torso; cold air hitting his skin like a slap to the face. Sitting up beside her, he looked from her face back to the box of tissues sitting atop his dresser. It was strange to see Eleanor in such a way; firstly, he had never seen her with no make-up whatsoever and the sight of her looking so innocent and young had him desperate to wrap her in blankets and soothe her until the pain of losing the first man she loved had died down, but he couldn't. He provided her with something other than comfort, this wasn't a relationship, and she had made that clear. Secondly, normally she would try and attempt to shield her emotions from the American, but now, she was completely baring herself to him and maybe, just maybe that made him feel like he was more than just one of her employees, maybe it proved what he had thought for a while now – that she liked him.

"I'm sorry…"

Jasper was at a loss for words, never had he cared for someone after they had lost a parent, this was out of realm of ability and Eleanor knew that, which was why she merely cocked an eyebrow at the male before slipping off of the bed. He sat there as she padded across the floor in her bare feet, his shirt hanging off her small frame almost obscenely. Making her way out of the room and into the kitchen, come lounge area, Eleanor wasted no time in retrieving the leftover takeout from the fridge and helping herself to his couch.

Dragging a hand over his face, Jasper sat still for another moment or two before pulling himself out of bed, tugging on a pair of grey (of course), sweatpants before following her path out into the living area.

"I can reheat that for you, if you want me to?"

Glancing up from where she had been staring into her takeout, she shook her head, "No, I like it cold." Sitting himself down in the armchair, he leant back, eyes heavy on her face, "Anything you want to do today?" The brunette finished chewing before parting her lips to respond, "I don't know, what's the protocol for the day following your not-biological father's death?" Had this been a different situation, she would have received a snippy comeback, but Jasper let it slide, "We could go for a walk, maybe do some grocery shopping so we don't have to order takeout every night?"

"Grocery shopping? – People actually do that?" Eleanor exclaimed, stabbing at a piece of chicken rather violently, "Yes, let's grocery shop. I forgot that plebs such as yourself, Jasper have to actually go an retrieve your food and drink from a store."

"You may have also forgotten that plebs like me have opened their home to you, so you might want to keep that smart mouth under control; you wouldn't want to get yourself into a situation, would you?"

Jasper could have kicked himself, he didn't want to upset her more; what he hadn't anticipated was for her response to be a smug looking grin, the normalcy of his remark had her feeling better in an instant. She wanted things to go back to how they were before, before Monaco, before any of this. She wanted the controlling, yet giving Jasper who fucked her like he hated her, but protected her like she was the only thing that had ever mattered in his life. Eleanor knew she'd have to push a few of his buttons to get that side to come to the surface once more, the last thing she wanted was his pity; her constant competition with Jasper may be the only thing that could keep her from thinking about her life crumbling around her.

"Go get showered, get dressed, nothing too provocative, we don't need you drawing attention to yourself and making headlines, maybe leave the trademark make-up as well. I think it's best if people don't recognize you," he instructed, reaching over to snatch the takeout box out of her hands, "We'll get you a proper breakfast there, go, don't be long, I need to shower after."

I know this seems slow at the moment, but I wanted to set up both the situation and their level of relationship before I got into any too heavy.

If anyone has any questions they want cleared up, just leave them in the reviews and I'll try and clarify them in the next chapter. Speaking of reviews, they definitely motivate me. I wanted to try and get Jasper's personality as spot on as I could because he's a hard character to pinpoint, any advice or ideas of what you might like to see will be welcomed with open arms.