Page 16 of Not As Advertised

Catching on to what I was talking about, he took a slow perusal of my outfit. So slowly, in fact, that he had my cheeks heating by the time his gaze returned to mine.

Damn it!My body betrayed me again with a rush of arousal.

His eyes darkened, and an amused smirk appeared on his lips. He glanced down at my T-shirt once more, where the enormous image of the pink kitten-like Pokémon was printed.

“You look perfect,” he murmured so quietly I wasn’t sure I’d heard him incorrectly.

Butterflies erupted in my stomach.

“There is no agenda going on here, Abbie. As I said in my text, there is no sense in you being uncomfortable while we travel.”

I held his stare, searching for the truth. His words sounded genuine, and my shoulders relaxed slightly from where they had been approaching my ears. Surely, he had to be aware of how completely mismatched we looked?

“But then why…?”

Here I was, gesturing again. My awkwardness increased as I waved a hand toward him like I was directing traffic. Was I doomed to speak only one coherent sentence per conversation with him?

“My comfort is not the point here.”

Unsatisfied with that strange answer, I was at a loss for words. Why should his comfort be less important than mine?

Not willing to go any further down this road, I admitted defeat and pointed to the empty seats a few steps away. He nodded, and we sat down. The awkward tension shadowed us everywhere.

He went back to scrolling through his phone. Our conversation was apparently over for now. That suited me fine. I always seemed to find new and exciting ways to embarrass myself in front of him.

It was only after we had sat down that I realized the implications of narrow airport waiting area seats. Aiden was a tall man who was obviously in incredible shape. I knew from his schedule that he worked out like a machine, at god-awful early hours, seven days a week.

He always physically dominated the room, no matter what situation he was in. But it wasn’t until this moment, with the soft skin of my jean-clad hip pressed against the rock-hard muscle of his thigh, that I felt just how overpowering his body was. It didn’t matter that there were multiple layers of clothing between us.

The only time I had ever been this close to him was on that very first day in his office, when I’d stood in front of him like some idiotic high schooler who couldn’t form proper sentences.

Most of the time, I kept the entirety of his desk between us, or better yet, an entire conference table built for twenty.

I could feel the heat of his body through his carefully tailored suit pants. Was he running a fever? Was I? How was it that all of a sudden, the point of contact between our bodies felt like the surface of the sun?

Maybe this whole power battle was going on in my head only, but I would be damned if I let Aiden know he rattled me in any way this many weeks into working together.

Feigning the need for something in my carry-on, I bent from the waist and pulled my wallet out of my bag. This movement allowed me to shift my lower body away from where it was touching his.

Taking a deep breath to keep the blush from reaching my cheeks again, I pretended to check that my boarding pass was exactly where I knew it would be.

Sitting back in my seat, I realized, to my horror, that he had moved his huge arm onto the armrest, and now the side ofmy breast was pressed against another set of deliciously hard muscles.

My little plan had only brought an even more intimate part of my body in contact with his. His upper body was radiating heat, and my torso felt like it was on fire. I was mortified that I couldn’t control my reaction to this man.

I looked over at him to gauge his reaction to our close proximity. He looked infuriatingly unaffected. Every cell in my body was lit up from the contact, and he could have been sitting next to a concrete pole for all the effect this seemed to have on him.

I resisted the urge to hide in the restroom until our flight was ready to board and decided to stick it out. If it didn’t bother him, I’d do everything I could to show it didn’t bother me either.

Moving the arm that wasn’t next to him, I pulled up the book I was reading on the Kindle app on my phone. An escape into a fictional character’s life sounded just right about now.

Rereading one of my favorite books kept me moderately distracted from the current standoff between my arousal and Aiden’s goddamn drool-worthy muscles. Consequently, I had mostly tuned the airline employee’s voice out until I heard our names over the loudspeaker.

“Would passengers Sullivan and Summers please proceed to the gate? Passengers Summers and Sullivan. Please report to the desk and speak to the gate agent.”

I sighed and locked my phone, not wanting to leave the sanctuary of the fictional world where I’d been able to ignore my seat partner.

Following Aiden, I gathered my purse and carry-on and strode toward the desk.

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