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A woman over the intercom let us know first class could board, and I got up quickly. I was meeting my team in New Orleans at the conference, so Princess Jules, as I’d begun to think of her, was my only company.
She had on headphones and had been annoyingly bobbing her head to something while she read a crusty old paperback. I heard her scramble to her feet and grab her things when she realized I was leaving her behind.
She caught up, pulling out her earbuds and brushing a stray blonde hair from her forehead. “Not going to lose me that easily.”
“That’s a shame,” I said.
She worked her lips to the side. It was a taunting, flirtatious look. A dangerous look. Something about being outside the office must’ve made her feel like we were on some fast and loose field trip. Like I was the stern teacher she could cut it up with while we weren’t on campus. I needed to put an end to that idea before she got either of us in trouble.
“You know you’d miss me if you left me here,” she said. “You’d have nobody to glare at or boss around on the plane.”
I stopped her in the boarding tunnel before we reached the plane. “When we arrive,” I said, pretending I hadn’t heard her teasing. “I need you on your game. I’m going to a conference for the department heads of Coleton, but the man I’m interested in meeting is Gerald Krause.”
Jules’ already big eyes went a touch wider, and the color drained from her face.
I studied her expression. That was strange. “What? Someone you know?”
She shook her head a little too vigorously. “Never heard of him.”
I stared. Usually uncomfortable silence had a way of launching the truth out of people far better than interrogation.
She patted her stomach after a couple seconds. “I get nervous. Airplanes. My stomach is trying to tell me I shouldn’t have had all those eggs for breakfast.”
I put the back of my hand to her forehead, but she tried to swat it away.
“What are you doing?” she asked, ducking as I tried again to feel her temperature.
“Checking to make sure you’re well. Stay still, dammit.”
“I’m fine,” Jules ducked and weaved like a prize fighter while I tried to get my hand on her forehead to check her temperature. “It’s just nerves.”
I put one hand on the back of her head and pressed my palm to her forehead, locking her in place long enough to make sure she didn’t feel like she was running a fever. “You feel clammy,” I said.
She wriggled free, then gave me a dirty look. “Maybe it’s because my boss is manhandling me.”
I shrugged. “Maybe your boss doesn’t want regurgitated eggs in his lap for two and a half hours.”
“It’s only two hours and twenty minutes.” She held up her phone. “Just checked.”
I started walking toward the plane. “If you have time to check useless information like that, you’re not working hard enough.”
Jules jogged to catch up to me. God, the woman smelled fantastic. I had to fight the urge to lift the hand I’d just had in her hair to my nose to see if the scent of her shampoo was still lingering there. It was like strawberries and sugar.
It had been literal years since I’d allowed myself the distraction of a relationship. Being around Princess Jules was making me realize I should’ve been taking the time to get laid every once in a while. My libido was running on overdrive, and I could hardly look at the woman without imagining the things I would do to her if circumstances were different. Imagining how I’d take a fistful of that thick blonde hair and kiss her rough—or how I’d like to toss her down on my bed and push her legs apart.
All those fantasies needed to stay firmly out of the real world.
Hiring her had been a mistake. It had only been a little over a week and I was already sure of that. The fact that I’d had to lock my office door and fuck my hand while I thought of her yesterday was a damning sign. I could maybe blame that on the alcohol, but I’d never been this way. No woman rattled my determination to do what needed to be done, and yet Jules was already seeping into parts of my brain that were supposed to be completely off limits.
We took our seats and she plopped down beside me. It was first class and we were supposed to have all the leg room we needed, but somehow her seat still seemed too close to me. I could smell that strawberry shampoo again.
I lifted my hand to my nose, trying to discreetly block the smell without letting her see I was bothered.
She tried to fit her carry-on under the seat a few times, cursed under her breath when it wouldn’t work, then stood up and started jamming it into the overhead compartment. I sighed in defeat when I looked to the side and saw her white blouse had untucked itself from her tight-fitting skirt and her navel was on display. It was just an innocent sliver of her stomach, but apparently every hormone in my body was on overdrive. Her skin was milky smooth, and I had a sudden overwhelming impulse to put my palm there and push her back into the seats across the aisle. I wanted to take two greedy fistfuls of her ass and press her into me.
