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Once on board the plane, all it took was one proprietary glance to realize my prayers had not been answered. Because Alex had flirted his way into the line directly behind me—cutting the rest of the people who’d patiently waited, and yet, no one complained. In fact, the woman he’d asked to step in front of simply giggled, like it was a goddamn honor to assist him in his plan to torment me.

Not that I looked at her—or him. Of course not. I stared resolutely ahead, guarding my sanity.

“Long time no see,” Alex purred.

Asshole.

I ignored him, desperate to get to my seat and as far away from him as physically possible.

He occasionally bumped my back as we shuffled past the already full seats that lined the aisle, headed toward the empty rows at the rear of the plane. It was slow going as the passengers in front of us found their spots, and I did my best—but failed—not to inhale his cologne. In my defense, Alex was inappropriately crowded right against me. It was nearly impossible not to breathe him in.

“What’s your name again?” a feminine voice cooed. More than likely the woman Alex had charmed to get in front of.

“Alex,” he replied, warm and flirty.

“Oh!” She laughed, the sound grating on my nerves. Almost as grating as Alex’s presence, but not quite. I could not wait for this whole ordeal to be over.

“Are you from New York?” she questioned, and I rolled my eyes heavenward, begging for patience. The pen in my pocket taunted me. It would be so satisfying to pull it free. To pop the cap off. To jab it into those fancy, fancy slacks and see if I could wipe that smug look right off Alex’s face.

Not that I knew for sure he looked smug.

I was actively refusing to turn back.

I was less than zero percent interested in watching Alex flirt.

But that didn’t mean I couldn’t picture his face. The twinkle in his eyes. The smirk that made me want to do evil, wicked, not very nice things to him. Those dimples that begged me to act on impulses that were as foreign as they were…mildly liberating.

It’d been a long time since I felt so strongly about anyone new—even if my feelings were negative.

“I’m afraid not,” Alex said in response to the woman’s question. “I’m here for business in New York.”

“Business?” she echoed, sounding delighted. I was sure she’d noticed how expensive his suit was too.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She tittered, and I had to fight not to gag.

The closer we got to my assigned seat without separating, the more I despaired. There was no point wishing for a different outcome. Not when it was clear that fate had decided to fuck with me. Alex continued to flirt, and as my unease grew, I gave in to the urge to turn around and sneak a glance.

What I saw nearly made me stumble.

Because the woman Alex was currently chatting with was well into her eighties. And I was…shocked to say the least. She was beaming at him, her round face lit up with delight that this young, flirty thing was giving her attention.

I had no idea what to do with that—especially not when he blew her a kiss as she slid into her row beside two other older women who all seemed equally delighted by Alex. They whispered back and forth to each other as we moved on, voices quickly lost in the murmur of the rest of the crowd as the distance between us grew.

By the time we reached my assigned row, I had already come to terms with the fact that this journey was not going to be a pleasant one . Proving me right, rather than move the rest of the way down the aisle, Alex stopped when I did.

His body pressed into mine as he reached up to stuff his carry-on bag in the compartment above our seats. There was no use denying it now, was there? We, no doubt, were about to sit right next to each other.

Fuck my life.

“You 16B?” Alex inquired against my ear. I had to fight the urge not to smack him away. He did not sound surprised by this turn of events. Which…was odd, but not overly alarming. His breath tickled and sent a hot flicker low in my belly that I pointedly ignored.

Twisting around to glare at him, I opened my mouth to say something biting—but nothing came out. Judging by where Alex was looking, he’d clearly been peeking at the boarding pass that was still pulled up on my phone screen.

“ Why? ” I huffed, despair and irritation growing stronger with every second that passed.

“I’m 16A. Window seat.” Alex’s grin turned wolfish as he tilted his head to the side, arching a brow at me. “I’ll need to get past you. ”

Right.

I’d anticipated this.

I should not be surprised.

And yet, hearing him say it out loud made the situation far too real. Sitting beside him at the gate had been bad enough. Being stuck with him for hours? Yeah. Not my idea of a good time. If I wasn’t careful I really might stab him by the end of the flight.

Alex wasted no time swapping places with me. There was a lot more brushing and pushing than was necessary as he did so. I made sure to project my displeasure so he’d know I did not appreciate his lack of respect for my personal space. I suppose he couldn’t help that he was large, though—so I cut him slack. Once finally settled into his spot by the window, Alex turned to me.

He patted the seat to his right invitingly.

My hands clenched into fists, and it took everything I had not to snap.

Maybe someone would sit in 16C—so we wouldn’t have to be alone.

They could act as a buffer so I could listen to one of the audiobooks I had downloaded to whispersync with my Kindle for the flight. Perhaps another wrinkled woman for Alex to throw himself at?

I had no such luck.

The person who sat next to us was a woman in what I guessed to be her early twenties. She would not be my savior, that was for certain. Because she fell asleep immediately after giving me an affable nod, her headphones tucked around her ears, making it clear she was not open to conversation.

I could feel Alex staring at me. I sighed before turning, very slowly, to meet his gaze.

He was still smiling.

Little shit was obviously his default setting.

Leaning into me in a friendly but domineering way, Alex’s stupidly massive shoulders pushed against mine.

“Why the suit, you have a meeting in Ohio?” Alex said, as if he expected me to want to talk to him. Goddamnit. The knowing glint in his eyes gave the illusion that he already knew what I was about to say.

“This is a casual suit,” I gritted out, shuffling to get comfortable. I was hyper aware of the heat of his thigh where it snuggled tightly against mine. His legs were much wider than my own, and he flexed them so I could feel the muscle tense.

“A casual suit?” Alex echoed, and then he shifted his knee in a way that felt an awful lot like a rub. “Didn’t know that was a thing.”

I shuddered, then surreptitiously attempted to move away from him, because what the hell else was I supposed to do?

“Well, it is,” I said. His knee shifted again. “You have big legs,” I blurted with a grimace.

“Thank you,” Alex’s voice dropped lower, sweeter.

“Wasn’t a compliment.”

It had been. We both knew it had been.

“You ever heard of this thing called personal space? Truly revolutionary,” I asked as I bent down to scrounge around inside my backpack for my headphones—very carefully not knocking Neil free or allowing the woman to my right to see the contents of my bag.

“I like your personal space,” Alex flirted.

I didn’t know how to respond to that.

Maybe if I put my headphones in, he’d get the message? No talky-talky, please and thank you.

I mean, objectively speaking…Alex was hot —like fire—but…the urge to stab him was growing with every passing minute. What had started as a preposterous idea was beginning to feel like a solid plan. I needed him to stop paying attention to me or I was going to implode.

I was not used to this kind of attention, and certainly not from a man who looked so out of my league he might as well have belonged to another planet entirely .

It made me feel like…

Like…

I don’t know.

It was better for all involved if we parted ways now, no speaking, no bonding—and no more of Alex’s personal brand of meaningless flirting.

I couldn’t survive it.

I fumbled with the audiobook app on my phone, headphones sitting pinched between my thighs as I did so. Alex’s eyes were laser-focused on my now slightly sweaty neck before his attention drifted to my screen.

Could it get any hotter in here?

“I love audiobooks,” Alex said. My head thunked against the seat with a groan.

“Let me guess. You read a lot of self-help books,” I rolled my eyes. “Get rich quick schemes?” Alex laughed, not offended whatsoever.

It really was a nice laugh.

“Try again.”

“Memoirs from men who work in the stock market?”

“Colder.”

I squinted at him as I tried to figure out what the hell someone like him would read. “I give up.”

“Boo,” Alex pouted. “I’m disappointed, Georgie. Where’s your stamina?”

“Don’t tell me you’re into the hard stuff.”

“Hard stuff?”

“Non-fiction?”

“Ehhh,” Alex made a sound like a buzzer going off. “Nope. Think sexier.”

I scrutinized him. There was no way…right? “Romance?”

“Erotica.”

“You read erotica ,” I echoed, disbelieving.

“Religiously. I’ve dabbled in romance in general, but my sister and I buddy read, and we both lean toward smut more often than not. Right now we’re on a BDSM kick. ”

Well, that was too close to home. I didn’t dwell, already overwhelmed as it was.

Alex’s eyes were twinkling, his lips twitching. He took my attention for the permission it was, leaning even further into my bubble.

“I didn’t expect that,” I admitted, cheeks hot. “You buddy read erotica with your sister?”

“Sure do.”

“And that doesn’t get weird?” I couldn’t imagine listening to the same smut as my two sisters. I enjoyed it, yes. But the idea that one of my siblings could be turned on by the same thing? Absolutely not. No. Not interested.

“What about you?” Alex asked. “What do you read?”

There were only a few scant inches between our mouths. All I could think about was how good he smelled, musky-sweet, sultry enough to make my cock twitch where it lay trapped inside my silk panties.

I’d always liked panties.

I ordered custom ones to accommodate my cock, always careful the cut would sit low enough that when I bent over, my suit pants wouldn’t show a thing. They were my secret. My power move. No one knew but me. Which was why I was wearing them today. I’d needed the extra boost of confidence both the panties and my suit would give me when visiting home.

Another bad decision.

Because the way Alex was studying me made me feel like he must have X-ray vision. Like he could see through the clutch of fabric at my hips to where my cock lay nestled safely in silk and lace.

Stop thinking about Alex looking at your panties , I reprimanded myself.

“What I like to read is none of your business.”

“Why?” Alex’s eyes crinkled in amusement as he crossed one of his ridiculously long legs over the other, his ankle bumping my thigh. It wasn’t his fault he was massive—but fuck. I blamed him anyway.

I hadn’t been lying when I told him he had big legs .

“I don’t appreciate you getting off on bothering me,” I muttered.

Alex’s thick, dark brows shot up, and his grin turned wicked again. The urge to stab was back. Unconsciously, I pulled my pen from my pocket, fiddling with the cap nervously as Alex continued to tease.

“You seem to think you already have me figured out, don’t you?” He asked, once again entertained rather than offended.

“You’re not that hard to figure out.” Another glance at our seat neighbor confirmed she was still asleep, and not listening to our verbal sparring. Good. Ink spread across the pad of my thumb as I rubbed it back and forth, self-soothing.

“Speaking of hard, you never did answer my earlier question.”

I frowned, confused. “What question?”

“About whether or not you name all your sex toys?” His voice was quiet, intimate. There was no way anyone else could hear, but my cheeks still flamed. “I’m guessing you do.”

“Jesus Christ.” He was such an asshole.

“That’s not a very sexy name.” Alex pouted.

“I’m about five seconds from stabbing you with my pen.”

“So you’ve threatened.” Alex’s whole body was quaking with mirth. “Believe me, I’m terrified.” He did not sound terrified. He was as infuriatingly unbothered as always. Like he truly did not expect me to follow through on my threat.

Like I was a joke to him.

A giant fucking joke.

Someone to laugh at, to poke and prod and taunt.

Well.

Joke’s on him. He wasn’t leaving this flight unscathed. If he was going to push me past the breaking point, I was going to demonstrate why that was a bad idea. I couldn’t quell the bubble of both excitement and irritation mounting inside me.

For the first time since we’d met, I knew exactly how to shut him up .

And no, it wasn’t the perfect or “socially acceptable” thing to do. And it wasn’t ignoring him, or verbally confronting him, because both of those things had thus far only egged him on.

No.

I was going to shut him up by doing exactly what I’d promised I would.

This wasn’t the kind of thing I’d ever consider with anyone else.

But Alex brought out a side of me that I hadn’t known was there.

Raw and unfiltered and honest.

So, even though it was an unhinged choice to make, and totally out of character, I still did it. Still flipped the pen around, squeezed it tight in my fist, and slammed it down on his leg. The tip of the ballpoint planted right into the meaty part of his thigh with enough force to leave a spot of black in the charcoal gray.

Alex’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

His jaw dropped open, pearly teeth flashing.

Surprising him— actually surprising him—was the single most satisfying experience I had ever had. Alex’s leg jumped beneath the point of my pen, and ink spread in a streak that I hoped would remind him every time he looked at it not to be a dick.

“You actually stabbed me.” Alex gasped, shocked. He was gaping at me like I’d grown a second head. For once, that infuriating smirk was absent. “Holy shit.”

“I said I would,” I replied immediately. To be honest, I was a bit surprised too. Not that he needed to know that.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you were serious?—”

“Not thinking is probably a common problem for you,” I interrupted, recapping and returning my pen back into my pocket. Finally, I had the upper hand.

My skin was buzzing.

Electrified .

I’d never fought back before.

This was…invigorating.

God. I’d never been this turned on in all my life. I was half-tempted to stab him again just to see what face he’d make. More surprised? Shocked? The first time had certainly been satisfying.

“I was only trying to be friendly,” Alex grumbled. Though he didn’t actually look upset, merely puzzled, like he’d thought he had me figured out, only to be proven wrong.

I shrugged, reaching for my headphones and popping them in with a grin of my own.

“So was I,” I replied, tipping my head back, closing my eyes, and tapping play on my book.

Maybe my day wasn’t ruined after all.

Alex’s shoulder continued to brush against mine, warm and somewhat comforting. I didn’t pull my Kindle from my bag, content to bask in superiority for as long as it lasted. I was sure, soon enough, Alex would do something to steal my attention again.

And even though he kept accidentally touching me, I didn’t push him away.

Instead, as the plane took to the sky and the tarmac disappeared, I simply enjoyed my win.

I hadn’t had one of those in a long, long time.