Kelsey rolls her eyes.
I lean over and whisper, “I didn’t peg you for a coward, Kels.”
“I didn’t peg you for an idiot, Cart.”
She opens her laptop as she says it, clearly trying to indicate the conversation is over.
This has been, without a doubt, the best twelve hours of my life. January 28 will live on forever as the day Ifinallybecame more to Kelsey Harper than just some guy. The sex—the sex was fucking mind-blowing. But sleeping with Kelsey isn’t what makes today worth remembering. No, it’s that I’m finally able to drop the carefully constructed mask I’ve worn around her since high school. It’s freeing to show just how interested I am in everything she has to say. Just how captivated I am by every move she makes.
Even if this stupid rivalry between our two companies is making it so she can’t officially be mine, I will take any piece of Kelsey she’s willing to give me—even the ones she’s trying so hard to keep hidden.
And I will do anything to make it happen, anything except lose this contract.
Kelsey taps her fingers on the edge of her laptop, focused on whatever email or message she’s working on. But I can feel the connection still humming between us—the energy lingering in the airlike static.
I know she wants me to act like nothing happened, but I can’t look away. Shit, maybe I should’ve let Nash sit next to me. At least then I wouldn’t be spending the entire flight with a semi. And I wouldn’t be obsessing over the fact that Kelsey’s hair has every color in the spectrum, from almost silvery blonde to deep browns. Now that I really look at it, some people might even call her hair brunette rather than blonde—I might be overlaying her beach-blonde waves from high school over the darker shades that currently dance their way down her head and shoulders.
Forcing my gaze away from her, I place my headphones in my ears and pull up the “World War II meets zombies” movie I downloaded this morning after our run.
I don’t care that she’s pretending to be absorbed in her work. I know she’s trying to rebuild the boundaries we upended this morning. Because if there’s one thing I know about Kelsey, it’s that she needs to be in control.
And right now, she’s pretending we didn’t just fully lose control this morning.
“So we’re just going to pretend like we’re both not thinking about this morning?” I ask, my voice low enough for only her to hear.
The crew turned the lights off about five minutes after we were airborne, knowing everyone is trying to get some sleep, so it feels less risky to talk to her.
Her fingers pause on her keyboard, and she bites her lip, clearly trying to figure out how to get the upper hand.
“I’m not thinking about it,” she mutters, her eyes still glued to her screen.
“Liar,” I tease.
“I have to work, Carter. You can flirt with me all you want, but I’m not going to play this game.”
“Of course you are.” I grin, leaning in closer. “I know you better than that. You love a challenge.”
A small smirk forms on her lips. “Oh, really?”
“Yep.” I pop the sound at the end just to annoy her. “What I don’t know is if you’re too scared to meet me in the bathroom in a minute. The one on the starboard side.” I nod my head toward the back, where the last two rows of people are all in headphones, attempting to sleep.
“I’m not doing that.”
I shrug like I don’t care either way. “It’s for the best, you probably wouldn’t be able to be quiet with what I have planned for you anyway.”
I hold her gaze as I stand up, waiting for her to put her things down so I can slip out of the aisle next to her.
As I pass by, I whisper into her ear, “This morning was real for me, and whether you join me in that bathroom or not, Iwillbe tasting you again, very, very soon.”
With that, I stride down the aisle and into the bathroom, which is much smaller than I remembered. Shit. How do people have sex in airplane bathrooms?
I check my watch for the fourth time in two and a half minutes, just about to give up, when there is a soft knock on the door.
I don’t even try to hide my smile as I press my body against the wall, making room for both the folding door and Kelsey to push their way inside.
“You came,” I whisper into her hair as I pull her tight against me, locking the door behind her.
“Did you think I would—”
