“Sorry.” I moved to the overhead bin above my seat and had just bent down to pick up the carry-on when it was out of my hands and up into the bin. I blinked in confusion at finding Caleb standing so close beside me that our bodies brushed.
He looked displeased that we had to share another couple of hours together.
Well, why help me with my carry-on, then? I dropped down into my seat. As soon as he was seated, I said through the line of moving people, “You knew we’d be on this flight together, so I don’t know what the dirty look is for. Why are you going to Boston anyway?”
“Why are you?”
“I live in Boston.”
“Koto’s North American division is based out of Boston. I have a meeting there.”
“If your meeting is in Boston, what the hell were you doing in Phoenix?”
“It’s called a layover.” He smirked and turned back to his laptop.
“Ha ha ha.” I glared at him. “Your wit is unparalleled.”
Caleb shot me an assessing look. “You seem awfully upset I’m on this flight, considering you were fully aware I would be.”
“You have to admit, it is a little awkward.”
“Facing your sins, you mean?”
“Actually, yes.” I lifted my chin haughtily, my voice lowering as I lied, “I can be forgiven, however, because I was drunk.”
Indignation claimed his features. “You were as sober as I was. You regret it, fine. But own your actions.”
I stiffened at the derision in his voice and realized he was right. The truth was, I didn’t want to feel vulnerable around him, and that was pretty much how I was starting to feel. The lie had slipped out as a defense. “Fine, I wasn’t drunk.”
When no response was forthcoming, I side-eyed him and saw he was working on his laptop, ignoring me once again.
Sighing to myself, I pressed the power button on my e-reader, determined to ignore him for the duration of the flight. At least it was a short flight.
“Excuse me.”
I glanced up at the smooth voice to find a guy around my age looking down at me.
“I’m in the window seat.”
“Oh, of course.” Unlike Caleb yesterday, I got up out of my seat to let the guy in.
“Thank you.” He flashed me a flirtatious, charming smile. “Must be my lucky day.”
Normally I’d just wave a comment like that off, but I was too aware of the Scottish bastard, and I wanted him to know I was just as unaffected by our one-night stand as he was. “Some guys have all the luck,” I joked affably, hoping it came off as charming versus conceited.
The guy chuckled, moving past my seat and into his. He wore a suit that fit him so perfectly it had to be tailored. He hunched over a little in the space to shrug out of the suit jacket.
“Would you like me to take that, sir?” A flight attendant appeared at my side.
“Yes, please.” He handed the jacket to her. Handsome. Check. Well mannered. Check.
Not that I was interested, but it was safe to say today’s seatmate was a step up from yesterday’s already.
“Could you take mine?” I began unbuttoning the red peplum jacket of my suit. I’d had the hotel dry clean it too.
“Of course, madam.”
Ugh. Madam. I missed the days of being a “Miss.” Still, I smiled gratefully as I handed it to her with a thank you.
I slid back into my seat well aware of my new companion’s eyes on the black silk cami I wore tucked into my skirt. Turning to him, I gave him a small smile, which he returned. The guy had dark chocolate brown eyes, long sooty lashes any woman would have killed for, and a smooth Rob Lowe circa St. Elmo’s Fire look about him, minus the hair. This guy’s hair was thick, dark, and waved so perfectly back from his forehead he had to be using product. And a very expensive barber.
I took in the crisp white shirt he wore along with the dark blue silk tie he was currently loosening. He had a slim, athletic build, more to my usual appeal than the man across the aisle from me. Yet he was doing nothing to my hormones. Which, as it turned out, was a good thing. My gaze snagged on his left hand as he tugged on the knot of his tie.
There was a white band around his ring finger.
The jerk had removed his wedding ring.
Between the one-night stand on my right side and this ass on my left, I was beyond exasperated.
“I’m Hugh.” He held out his hand to me.
I shook hands, even though I was quietly cursing him in my mind. I didn’t understand guys who got married if they had no intention of staying faithful. “Ava.”
“A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”
Ugh, he wasn’t even original. “Thank you.”
I thought I heard a grunt across the aisle, but I ignored it.
“You live in Boston?” Hugh asked.
He was giving me good eye contact, so much so it was like he was deliberately trying not to look anywhere else.
“I do. You?”
“Yes. Arlington Street.” He said it pointedly, with more than a hint of pomposity.
God, the guy lived across the Common from me. And he was basically telling me he had lots of money.
I don’t need your money, pal. There was no way I was telling him he could find my place just a ten-minute walk from his. “Nice.”
“We like it.”
Bingo. “We?”
“Uh …” He gave me another charming smile. “I have a dog.”
Did he just refer to his wife as a dog? “Oh, breed?”
“French poodle.”
I raised an eyebrow and Hugh gave a little self-deprecating laugh. “She was actually my ex-wife’s, but when she left me she also left La Roux.”
A laugh bubbled up out of me before I could stop it. “She named the dog La Roux? And your name is Hugh.”
He chuckled. “She had quite the sense of humor.”
Past tense. Really?
Okay, so there was the small possibility that this guy was recently separated … but my gut told me otherwise. Or maybe that was just my cynicism.
Thankfully, before my distaste started to show, the flight attendant arrived to offer us something to drink. I almost flinched at the sight of the champagne and opted for a water. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Caleb working away on his laptop.
The jerk didn’t even care some other guy might be flirting with me, and honestly … I didn’t want to flirt with this leech just to make a point to Caleb when I’d never see him again after this flight.
“You know, I think I’m going to use the restroom before we take off,” Hugh said.
“Sure.” I got up out of my seat to let him out, and this time he did let his eyes drag down my body.
Not so well mannered after all.
“Excuse me.”
I turned to see the flight attendant behind me and stepped back to let her past, only for my ass to bump into the guy behind me. I spun around, my cheeks flushed as I met Caleb’s gaze. “Sorry.”
He stared back, deadpan. “I’m familiar with having your arse in my face, babe. It’s not a problem.”
Thankfully, he had no one beside him to overhear. Still, I leaned down so none of the other passengers could hear me, and a pleasurable but traitorous tingle of awareness shot through me as our noses almost touched. “Well, treasure the memory, Scotty Boy.”
He gestured to the restroom beyond us, his expression neutral. “Planning on giving Vanilla there a look at it tae?”
“It’s a nice ass—it would be a shame to keep it to myself,” I taunted, and the dark look he cut me made my breath catch.
“A pain in the arse, aye. But I didn’t take you for being manipulative or a game player. But I guess what you said last night was right. Nobody really knows anybody else enough tae really trust them.”
My breath caught and I straightened, needing distance from him. “You were awake.”
“Aye, I was awake.”
I decided to ignore the fact that he’d heard me say something so personal and so revealing and went with being pissed that he’d deliberately pretended to be asleep. “You didn’t need to pretend to be asleep to get rid of me. I was leaving anyway.”
He shrugged. “It made it easier, though, right? No awkwardness.”