Chapter 6

Megan

When he’d finally arrived at the airport, the driver of my car got out and opened my door. I wasn’t used to having someone wait on me but thanked him for his help. As I started for my bags, he had already beaten me to it and was heading toward the plane.

I spied Ryan across the runway talking to his driver, so I walked over to join him only to be intercepted by his personal driver and led aboard the plane.

Minutes later he joined me taking the seat beside me.

“Sorry about the delay, but the pilot says we’ll be there by two hours from now, so we’re good.” He sat next to me and propped his feet up on the little stool in front of him. The plane was like a tiny house with a kitchenette on one end and eight loungers which were separated by the small aisle in groups of two on the other. I’d spotted the bathroom on the other end when I’d entered.

I looked around and contemplated moving away from him. “You’ve got this whole plane to move around in, and you choose to sit right beside me?”

“Why not? This way when we die it will be easier to recover our bodies—if there’s anything left. I hear these little jets usually burn up to nothing on impact, but better safe than sorry.”

I smiled a toothy grin at his weak attempts. “You’re trying to scare me, Mr. Walker, and it’s not going to work. I’ve flown many times, and I don’t think the pilot wants to die any more than I do today.”

He shrugged. “Accidents happen.” My smile faded as his widened. “And please, call me Ryan. I’d much prefer to be on a first-name basis.”

“I bet you would.” I shifted in my chair away from him. “Fine, Ryan. Call me Megan if you like, but let’s get one thing straight, we’re working here.”

Anger steeped in his brow. “Why are you such a hard ass about the whole situation anyway? You don’t know me, and maybe if you did, you’d find out that I’m not all that bad.”

“I don’t know you, and I’m fine with that. I don’t owe you any explanations of who I am or what I’m about.” His ego was impossible, and though I found him a bit of a brat, my attraction to him was undeniable which only made me angry with myself.

He held his hands up. “I thought since we’re going to have to spend the next few days together we may as well share our stories and get to know one another.”

He wasn’t going to give up, and I wasn’t giving him the chance to fool me into thinking someone like him could like a girl like me. “I’m not getting to know you. I’ll be glad when we get to the hotel and find our rooms just so I can get away from you.”

“Wow.” He didn’t have a witty comeback, and instead, the pilot came on butting into our argument to announce we were minutes from takeoff. He jumped from his seat and crossed the aisle to grab a different one. Then he buckled himself in and motioned to my lap. “Buckle up, Buttercup. Safety first.”

I glanced down not even realizing that I hadn’t buckled myself in. It was hard to remember I was in a plane with the glamorous feel. I strapped myself in and braced for takeoff, hoping there wouldn’t be much turbulence. I wasn’t as savvy at flying as I’d made out.

Soon we were in the air and unbuckled, and Ryan was eased back in his chair with his phone. I reached to open the shade on the window only to have Ryan scream don’t open that and scare me out of my skin.

After catching my calm, I turned and gave him a death stare. “You’re not amusing.”

“Sorry, I had to add some excitement to my day. It could have all been avoided if you’d only talk to me. Let’s at least talk about work. That ought to excite you.” He wagged his brows at me and shook his head.

“Are you trying to say that’s all I have in my life?” It was probably true, but he didn’t need to know that.

“You seem like a friendly girl, with that sparkling personality. I’m sure you have many friends.” He glanced back down to his phone, this time turning the volume up so I could hear the default music to the game he was playing.

“Fine, I’ll talk if you’ll put down that toy.” His eyes met mine, and he placed his phone in his pocket.

“So have you lived in Chicago all of your life?”

“Yes.” I’d keep the answers short.

“Me too,” he said closing his hands in his lap. “So what do you do for fun?”

I let out a long breath. “I thought we were talking about work. My personal life is really none of your business, so I’d like to keep it private if you don’t mind. Feel free to ask me about anything else.”

“Well, at least I’m trying to get to know you without making assumptions about who you are.” He was still wounded that I’d called him out. The poor guy was probably used to people feeding his ego instead of starving it. “You’re right, quiet is better. “ He pulled out his phone and reached inside the console next to him for some headphones, and I settled in for a long trip.

Now and then I’d catch him staring, and I had to admit I liked his eyes on me if nothing else.

The private jet was much quicker, but it had still been a long trip, especially considering we had to leave the plane for another half hour trip to our hotel. I’d stayed behind him at the counter as our rooms were supposed to be waiting on us.

The hotel staffer was a short woman with wide green eyes, and Ryan seemed to tower over her even though he was on the other side of the counter. “Thank you, Sir, here’s your keycard and—

“This is for one room. I had reserved two.” He leaned in, and she narrowed her eyes.

“There’s only one room, sir.”

“I’ll just take another one. Make it a suite too, please.” I thought it was kind of him to offer to resolve the issue and breathed a sigh of relief until the little woman shook her head.

“I’m sorry sir. We’re full. There’s a convention in town, and all of our rooms are reserved for other guests. The room you have is a king suite, and I’m afraid the best I can do is let you know if something comes open.”

He turned and glanced at me and curled his lip. “Any chance of that happening?”

The girl leaned in, looking around to make sure no one else could hear. “Honestly, it’s not likely, sir.” Her Arkansas accent was rich and brought a smile to my face if only for a fleeting moment.

Ryan turned and pulled me aside. “You go on up to room and get comfortable. I’ll go down to the plant and sleep in a chair.”

Was I that awful? I let out a sigh. I had been terrible company, and I couldn’t help thinking of how my mother had raised me better. “That’s silly. We can both stay.” He didn’t seem so sure and instead of arguing he headed for the elevator.

“We’ll check it out. If it’s too intimate, I’ll understand. I wouldn’t want to interfere in your personal space or life.”

The elevator doors opened, and I followed him inside. As the doors closed, I dropped my bags and crossed my arms. “Okay, I get it. I’ve been abrasive. I’ll soften up a bit if you stop acting like a passive aggressive asshole.”

“Deal and you’re not being a little aggressive. You’d think I murdered your whole family or something.” Maybe just one.

I don’t know where the thought came from but I realized at that moment that I’d been blaming him for what happened to my grandfather, which wasn’t fair. He’d only been a kid like me when that went down, and though his father might be to blame, there was not even proof of that either.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. You’d just think that two young, attractive kids like us would get along better, right?” He smiled and shook his head, and then I grabbed my bags as the elevator opened to our floor. Knowing he found me attractive was a huge turn on. I pushed down the heated feelings that had me giddy inside. My outer shell of armor was softening a bit.

We made our way down the hall to our room and left our bags there, agreeing that I’d take the bed and he’d take the couch. It was the first thing we’d been civil about since arriving and the second was that we’d go right over to the plant after a quick lunch break and get down to business.