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I turned away from him. Blaire arched an eyebrow, and I shrugged. I couldn’t explain Hollin Abbey.
With him occupied again, I pulled the book back up and began to read the sexiest truth-or-dare scene I’d ever read. A girl folded over a lap, skirt raised, getting spanked in front of all of her friends. I shifted in my seat and swallowed. Maybe this wasn’t the best choice to read around company.
“You’re free to move about the cabin,” the pilot said, coming over the speakers.
Jordan, Julian, and Hollin unbuckled their seat belts and went to sit on the couch. Blaire and Nora settled into seats nearby. I could sort of hear their murmurs about possible design logos. Jennifer had her camera out and was snapping shots of us all up here in the private jet. Annie was posing like a model. Blaire laughed and adjusted her arms and feet for proper posing.
I lost the train of the conversation as Auden and Poe in the book took control of my entire world. I licked my lips and squeezed my legs together. I wanted to stop reading, so I wouldn’t be this turned on, and I also had no interest in stopping at all. If I were home, I’d slip my hand into my jeans and get off right then and there. But…there was no chance of that here.
I was so consumed in my own world that I didn’t even notice that Hollin had moved from his seat with the Wright brothers. Not until I felt his eyes reading over my shoulder.
“Well,” he breathed, “that isn’t the Pride and Prejudice I read.”
My heart galloped ahead at the words. I was turning to castigate him for reading over my shoulder when plucked the Kindle out of my hand. I could barely react as he took the little Paperwhite in his massive hands.
“Hollin,” I protested. “Give that back.”
“What are you reading?”
I came to my feet, glaring. “Give. It. Back.”
The others were looking at us now. Color was coming to my cheeks. They were going to ask. I’d have to explain. Jennifer knew what kind of books I read because she sometimes borrowed them from me. She wasn’t in this particular smut book club though. Too dirty for her poor sensibilities.
“Hollin, stop being a jerk,” Nora admonished.
Hollin’s eyes skimmed the page I was on. The particularly filthy page where everyone watched the heroine get spanked. Like how bad of luck did I have?
“Hollin,” I growled.
He smirked up at me and passed it back. “I was just curious.”
“Asshole.”
I flopped back into my seat with the Kindle in my lap. Hollin stepped around me and took Blaire’s empty seat.
“What do you want?” I demanded.
He grinned. “Why did you lie about what you were reading?”
“Why do you care?”
“Well, I didn’t pin you as a classics reader.”
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. I thought you’d read nonfiction or something.”
“Like biographies?” I asked dryly.
“Or…I don’t know…self-help or business or productivity stuff.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why?”
“You seem like you’re a hundred and fifty percent on all the time.”
“I am,” I ground out.
He laughed darkly. A sound that went straight to my curling toes. “And yet you’re reading…that.”
“I can like romance and be a smart businesswoman.”
“Clearly.”
But there was a sparkle in his eyes. A light that I hadn’t seen before. It wasn’t his teasing. It was something else, something sultrier. As if this had opened up his entire world. Like it had blown his mind that I read raunchy romance novels. And he…liked it.
He nodded his chin at the book. “That what you always read?”
“So what if it is?”
“Nothing wrong with it. It’s just…hot.”
My cheeks flamed at the word that had come out of his mouth. The way his eyes slid down to my lips. The tension in his body at the thought that I was reading about sex on the regular. Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
I needed to somehow swim out of the deep end. Otherwise, I wasn’t going to be able to breathe. Or think. Or exist.
This wasn’t how things were supposed to go with Hollin. He was supposed to needle me, I’d tell him to fuck off, and we’d part. This was…personal. It was definitely so much more personal.
I pulled back from that thought. This was Hollin Abbey. He didn’t care about anything but the chase. He didn’t give a fuck about me. He was interested in the book because of sex and nothing else.
“Hot,” I said flatly as I came to my feet. “Well, thanks. Needed to know you thought I was hot to survive today.”
He huffed. “But didn’t you?”
I rolled my eyes. “Whatever you want to believe.”
Then, I made a hasty retreat to where my friends were sitting. I didn’t turn my book back on the rest of the flight and tried to stay present as the girls chatted about logos, photography, and posing. But still, my brain was always a little aware of Hollin’s presence at any given time.
