Page 18 of Once Bitten

His carefree playfulness pushed me over the edge and I sprang out of my seat and turned to face him front on, my eyes locked on his.

“Listen. And please listen VERY closely because I am NOT going to repeat myself again. This is a work trip for me. A very important work trip that my boss has trusted me and, apparently, YOU, with.

I love my job and I take it very seriously. In any other circumstance, in any other universe, I would NOT torture myself being 5 minutes in your company let alone a whole week. Because that’s what this is. Complete and utter torture. And if you can’t understand how hard this is for me, then you are more of a heartless jerk than I remember.”

I felt myself trembling as I finished the speech and I could only hope that he would leave soon so that he wouldn’t witness the breakdown that I knew was inevitable. I could feel some of the other passengers watching us, but I didn’t care. I needed him to know.

The smile had vanished from his lips and he just held my gaze for a moment and then reached for my wrist. I snatched my hand away from him. He got up and gently squeezed my shoulders and then slowly pushed me down into my seat.

Sitting back down, he handed me his drink.

Despite the open bar, I usually don’t drink on the plane trips, as I couldn’t think of anything worse than waking up with a hangover with 12 hours of meetings ahead of me, but just this once, I decided that I deserved it.

I downed the cognac in one gulp, and hissed as it burned a liquid hot trail down my esophagus.

“Easy,” he said gently, taking the glass from me.

I covered my burning face with my hands, catching the tears streaming down my cheeks. I didn’t want to see him, and this was the very last way I wanted him to see me.

“I can’t, I just can’t-...” I tried to get out.

“Shhhh. It’s ok, you don’t need to say anything for now.” He ran his large hand up and down my back. It was strangely comforting considering he was the cause of my stress. He softly whispered, “shhhhh” a few more times over the next minute or so and continued to rub my back as my tears slowly subsided and I regained control of my breath.

I vaguely heard a flight assistant ask after me and felt him just wave her away.

A crumpled up tissue was pushed into my hand and I looked up to see him watching me worriedly. I sat up and dabbed at my eyes, embarrassed.

“Kara...” He started to say.

I wanted to just ignore him, but I’d never been able to before, and nothing much had changed.

“Just let it go, Finn.” I got up and went to the restroom to wash my face. And wonder how my life had come to this.

***

Finn was still sitting there when I came back about 10 minutes later. He had ordered a drink for me and was reading through some of the files I had printed out and delivered to him that morning. He looked up when I sat down and I set up the laptop, ready to get to work.

I forced myself to look at him, taking a sip of my drink to soften the directness of my gaze. “So, do you have any questions?”

He opened his mouth, and then closed it. A breath later he spoke up, “Well, um, I’m up on most of the numbers and our negotiations. As I understand it, this is really a final sit down before we sign off. So I guess it’s more about our relationship with the directors that I need to understand, so that I’m not way out of line compared to how we’ve been dealing with them in the past.”

I appreciated his effort to keep it to work talk and gave him a small smile. He matched my look, but not the smile.

It was the first time I’d really looked at him since seeing him again, not clouded by surprise or anger or sadness, just a really long look.

He was more handsome than he’d been when he was 17. At the time I’d thought he was so hot, but I realize now that he was just a boy then.

Now he’d filled out into his arms and legs and chest. His face was rugged and strong. His jaw angled and rough with a dark sexy stubble. And his eyes, his eyes were bluer than blue, crystal clear so that you thought you could see through to his soul in them. And they were searching mine now. For what, I didn’t know. But I wasn’t going to give him anything but business.

“Well, um,” I cleared my throat, trying to focus, “I’ve never met them myself, but I’ve listened in on all of Larry’s conversation with them, and the reason we even have this opportunity is because Larry went to the Sorbonne with La Mer’s CEO’s son. They have a strong level of mutual business and personal respect. So, Finn...”

His serious face broke into a grin, “yeah, yeah, don’t fuck it up.”

***

“And then the last meeting should just be a formality and working out the schedule for the acquisition and timeline for due diligence and submitting everything to the NYSE. Larry will join us for that one on the teleconference as well.” I stopped talking for a drink.

Scanning the last page of printed notes, Finn nodded and then closed the file. “Looks good.”