before he pulled open the door and disappeared inside, and the casual gesture tugged at her heart.
Then she pulled away from the school and turned toward the airport.
* * *
The acting CFO was already at the gate when Allison arrived.
Nate offered her a smile and a large coffee. “Cream only.”
She didn’t ask how he knew, she just accepted it gratefully. “Thanks.”
As she sipped her coffee, she tried to focus on what she’d told her son—that this was a business trip, not unlike so many other business trips she’d made with John Garrett in the past. Except that this time she was traveling with her boss’s nephew, and the memory of that one stolen kiss was still far too vivid in her mind.
When they boarded the plane, she was grateful that flying business class meant they wouldn’t be sitting as close together as they would if they were in coach. Although Nathan didn’t have the same girth across his belly as his uncle, he was a couple inches taller, his shoulders were broader and his legs were longer.
He paused at the aisle to let her precede him.
“You don’t want the window seat?”
“No, I like the aisle.”
“Oh. Okay.” She slipped past him and into her seat.
He settled beside her and buckled his belt.
His choice of aisle over window wasn’t a big deal, except that she couldn’t help feeling as if she was trapped between the wall and Nate’s body. Nate’s long, lean and delicious-smelling body.
She tried to ignore his proximity, but every time she drew in a breath, she inhaled his scent and felt a little quiver low in her belly.
Seriously, the man was dangerous to her peace of mind.
While everyone else was boarding, she kept her attention focused on her tablet, checking her calendar for the dates and times of meetings in the next couple of weeks. Nate, she noted, was reading a newspaper, but he tucked it away when the flight attendant began to review the safety procedures of the aircraft.
Most of the passengers in business class were frequent fliers who probably knew the spiel as well as the staff, and she didn’t doubt that he was one of them, but he gave the flight attendant his attention anyway. Or maybe it had nothing to do with the safety procedures and everything to do with her big...smile.
When the presentation was finished, he turned to Allison. “Are we being picked up at the airport?”
She shook her head. “John always preferred to have a rental car rather than be at the mercy of someone else’s schedule. I didn’t think to ask what arrangements you wanted made.”
“I would have told you to make the usual arrangements,” he said, and smiled.
And damn if that smile didn’t make her toes want to curl.
In an effort to refocus her thoughts, she said, “Did you want to review any of your uncle’s notes before the meeting?”
“I did that last night.”
“Do you have any questions?”
He shifted in his seat, so that he was facing her more fully. “As a matter of fact, I do.”
“Okay.”
“Why are you pretending that nothing happened at the Christmas party?”
She felt color climb up her neck and into her cheeks. So much for her determination to stay focused on business. “I meant—do you have any questions about the meeting?”
“No,” he said. “But I want to know why you’re pretending the kiss we shared never happened.”
Since he obviously wasn’t going to let her ignore his question, she decided to answer it succinctly and dismissively. “Not making a big deal out of it isn’t the same as pretending it never happened.”
“So you do remember it?”
She scrolled through the notes on her tablet. “I remember that it was late, there was mistletoe, we both had a little too much to drink and got caught up in the spirit of the holiday.”
“Do you want to know how I remember it?”
“I’m actually a little surprised that you do.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“I would have thought your sojourn with Melanie would have eradicated one meaningless little kiss from your mind,” she said.
“Let’s put aside the inaccuracy of your description until after you explain who the hell Melanie is.”
“Melanie Hedley,” she said.
“The name sounds vaguely familiar,” he admitted.
“Perky blonde, works in marketing.”
His confusion finally cleared. “You mean Lanie?”
“Yeah, I guess I have heard some people call her Lanie.”
“And the sojourn?” he prompted.
“Your ski trip.”
He shook his head definitively. “I didn’t go with Lanie.”
“And yet she couldn’t stop talking about the wonderful lunch you had at a fabulous little café by your hotel.”
“We did have lunch together one day,” he admitted. “I ran into her in the lobby of the hotel when I was heading out to grab a bite and invited her to join me. It wasn’t anything more than that.”
“You don’t have to explain anything to me,” she told him.
“Apparently I do,” he said. Because he could tell by the tone of her voice that she’d arrived at her own—and obviously erroneous—conclusions. “Do you really think I was sleeping with another woman the night after I kissed you?”
“I really didn’t give it much thought at all,” she said, shifting her gaze to the clouds outside the window.
If he hadn’t already suspected that she was lying, her refusal to even look at him would have triggered his suspicion. “Yes, I went away with some friends. And yes, I received a couple of offers to hook up while I was there.
“But I didn’t consider any of them for more than two seconds—” he shifted so that his shoulder brushed against hers, and lowered his mouth closer to her ear “—because since that kiss we shared under the mistletoe, I haven’t been able to go much longer than that without thinking about you.
“And when I think about that kiss, I remember how good your body felt against mine, and how surprised—and incredibly turned on—I was by the passion of your response.”
“You’re
