Page 23 of Just Like You
I stood there, as my nerves felt like fire through my bones. Sneakily glanced at my phone as a text came through from Sonny.
“Quick update. Got into the hotel. The receptionist? Hot AF. I may have flirted, totally innocently. Get up to my room, and I have a message on Grindr advising me of his imminent arrival at my room. I am struggling to walk this morning. I may have to try to swap onto another trip here. The service at this hotel is exceptional, and I don’t mean the bouncy beds.”
I had to laugh out loud, dropping my phone out of sight in time to receive our first passengers. Smile on my face. My stomach nowtrying to upend itself as I rattled off greetings like I did not have a care in the world.
Awkward. This was, and would be…so awkward.
He came on last, leisurely strolling down the jetty, with a nervous smile on his face, something that instantly calmed me. I had no idea what was happening here, but his face cracked into a smile and then he simply said,
“Julian.”
“Kieron,” I replied back as nonchalantly as I could muster as my stomach filled with strange butterflies.
Shit. Fuck. Damn it. This was never going to end well.
“30B, by the bulkhead. I was very nice to the check-in lady.”
“Good for you,” I replied, trying to swallow down all my sudden urges to just slam my mouth on his.Oh, for fuck’s sake.
I didn’t and just nodded as he passed me by, thankful for the interruption of the dispatcher telling me to close the door and fuck the hell off.
I did just that.
If he had been… I don’t know. I should probably have done what I’d done with the other crew cling-ons, plucked him out of his economy middle seat and delighted him with a journey in comfort. I had a spare first-class seat, but I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Nor could I bear to have to watch him for most of the flight. I needed space, so I could function and do my job. I needed not to have his gaze constantly on me. I needed…
I was so flustered that I dropped my cup and had to spend the first minute of our taxi on my knees cleaning up tea off the floor. Not my finest moment.
But this was work, and I did my rounds and sorted out issues and smiled politely at Kieron. He was in a tracksuit. A nice one, and also? Nice watch. Patek. I knew the model well and blushed as he caught me staring.
I had his Rolex safely tucked away in my topper bag and wasn’t about to fall for any of his stupid games. His ridiculous…ideas. I would have said demands, but then, if they were and I was going along with them? I didn’t think I liked what that made me.
Foolish? Stupid? Or like Sonny had said, hearing of my ridiculous…blackmail into bringing a hook-up on a trip?
The truth? It made me a massive slut.
I felt like one, as I crept into the rest area and finally got to take my shoes off. Over halfway to the Maldives, Kieron Andrieu was contentedly asleep in his economy seat, and I was lying here in the cramped crew bunks, wishing I was anywhere but.
I couldn’t rest. Couldn’t make my head stop churning. I didn’t know this guy at all, and a quick fuck and a few stupid exchanges of meaningless words? I knew nothing of any substance about who he was, and now I would have to spend the next four days with him? I’d also…have to keep him in my bed?
Well, I didn’t have to, but that was my plan, wasn’t it? He’d not even mentioned getting a room elsewhere after I’d stupidly given in and texted him the hotel name. I mean…he would have found out. And he needed to fill in his immigration card and needed…
Shit. I was so stupid. How on earth had I got myself roped into this was the issue here.
Turns out Mr Andrieu was not stupid because he’d managed to figure out where to stand to intercept me coming though immigration, not only that, the idiot that he was, he’d also befriended the rest of the cling-ons and was standing there with his wanky little case, passport in hand, like the wannabe tourist he was. Couldn’t get away with it, with those posh trainers and the gentle scruff on his chin.
He was, and I could even admit it to myself now, devastatingly handsome. Far too handsome for someone like me. He was the kind of guy who probably drove a car worth millions, lived in a glass penthouse and had a string of willing bed partners and a fiancée tucked away in the Cotswolds, someone to take home and show off to the relatives when the occasion called for it. I didn’t trust him. At all. Yet here we were.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“Kieron.” I tried. I couldn’t help it. I grinned.
“Claire here has briefed me, no PDA, no causing trouble. I’m supposed to pretend I don’t exist and accept anything with a gracious smile.”
“Indeed.” I smiled. “Claire is absolutely right. You board the boat last, take whatever seat is available and shut your mouth,” I gritted out. Then I smiled again, because I couldn’t help myself.
Fuck. Fuck indeed.
I sat next to him on the transfer boat, feeling overwhelmed and wrung out. A little nauseous, whether that was the boat ride through choppy waters, the heat, or the fact that the guy next to me kept his hand next to my thigh. His little finger gently stroking up and down my leg.
