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“Fuck,” I mutter, staring down at the text. Lucas made me give him my phone number and enter his into my contacts the first day I started working at his company, but he’s rarely used it.
A trip? A few days out of town with the boss I can’t stop fantasizing about?
Yeah. This is gonna end well.
The driver is still standing there, waiting patiently for me to answer him.
“Um, yup, that’s me,” I tell him, shaking my head as if that will help reboot my brain. “I’ll be down in a few minutes.”
He nods briskly and walks around to stand by the passenger door. No pressure. Fuck, I don’t want to do this. My anxiety is spiking, and I know exactly why. Work to do out of town—what does that mean? Will I have my own room, or is he going to need me to work late in his? I can see that playing out in several different ways, and all of them end with me panting and naked, either under him or alone in the shower.
“I can’t do this, I can’t.”
I chant that to myself even as I throw some suits in a bag and start collecting my various bathroom necessities. Snatching up my phone, I text Lucas back, feeling like I’m caught on a tilt-a-whirl with no one at the controls.
ME: What kind of work? What clothes?
LUCAS: Business meetings.Suits and whatever else you need for your off time.
“Way to be infuriatingly vague,” I grumble at the phone. It’s not Lucas’s fault, really. He couldn’t possibly know that I’m standing here looking at my pajamas wondering if I should bring the lacy translucent one or the long ratty t-shirt. I shove both of them into the bag along with half my underwear drawer for good measure. Frazzled and irritated, I run down a mental checklist, add a couple different pairs of shoes and a hairbrush, realize I haven’t put my hair up yet, and take the brush back out.
“Calm down, woman,” I tell my reflection sternly. “It’s just a business trip. You’re a businesswoman going on a business trip with your business boss. All business.”
And quite possibly a pool. One piece or two?Oh, who am I kidding. One emerald-green string bikini is slung in my bag.
“This is how people sabotage their careers and give themselves a reputation,” I scold the bathing suit.
As ready as I’ll ever be, I zip up the bag, check to make sure all appliances are off, and head out the door. A few days doesn’t tell me much. Three? More? However long it takes for him to finish his business, I guess, or however long it takes for this irresistible draw I feel to culminate in some career-ruining behavior. I wouldn’t put it past him to put me on a plane home alone for doing something stupid.
Which I’m not going to do.
I smile at the driver and thank him as I slide inside the car. It’s a luxury car, because of course it is. Does Lucas own anything that wouldn’t be described as luxurious? I smooth my expensive skirt. Not a chance.
Okay, it’s fine, right? This will be fine.Lock those walls firmly in place, Sophia. All business.Business, business, business…
Lucas is waiting for me in the parking garage. The driver opens my door and takes my bag to Lucas’s open trunk. Heat creeps up my face as Lucas’s presence brings the dream roaring back. I imagine a bucket of ice water getting dumped over my head, which turns out to be unnecessary, because once again, Lucas Hale has done an abrupt one-eighty.
He was all fire before he drove me home last night, but this morning, his expression is icy enough to put out even the hottest wildfire.
“Ms. Gallo,” he says, his voice and expression tightly controlled. “We should leave immediately.”
I slide into the car beside him. “Where are we headed?”
“To the airport.”
So communicative. A fresh wave of frustration starts to build inside me. “When does our flight leave?”
His expression doesn’t exactly change, but there’s a flash of humor among the ice for a second as he murmurs, “When I tell it to. We’ll be taking my private jet.”
Ah. Right. Of course. Here I was thinking that someone like Lucas would do something as wholly pedestrian as booking a first-class flight. How silly of me.
Anxiety roils through my belly as we pull out into traffic.
A private jet and an unknown destination. We could be up there for a long time.
I wonder, stupidly, if he has a bedroom on board.
Chapter14
