Page 5 of How to Puck Your Boss (L.A. Hawks Hockey #3)

Chapter Three

H e was a businessman, right? Penny considered this.

Maybe he was one of those IT guys who were filthy rich but still ran around in sneakers, emulating Steve Jobs.

Jack wasn’t wearing sneakers though. He was wearing expensive shoes, ones that were making fun of his pathetic backpack when he wasn’t looking. So maybe not IT, but…a banker? Lawyer? CEO of a…crayon company?

Oh man, she had no clue.

Then again, he’d said that some weeks he felt like he was more in the air than on the ground. He flew first class, spoke well, and flirted subtly. He had to be a businessman, someone who knew how to get his way.

Actually, she wasn’t into men who wore suits all the time for work.

They reminded her too much of her brother, who probably wore a tux to jog in as well as clean his apartment.

Wait, what was she thinking? As if Gareth cleaned his own apartment!

Ridiculous. She loved her brother, but his lifestyle was insane at best.

Penny preferred the alternative types, photographers and educators who couldn’t get their lives together and slept on their best friend’s couch but had big hearts. Gareth liked to call them losers or gold diggers because, according to her brother, working fourteen hours a day was cool.

Whether Jack was a rich businessman or not, everything about him was attractive: His laugh, his piercing blue eyes, his dry humor, his honesty…and his body. Holy mother of God, what was going on with his body?

Penny sank into the soft seat, bit her lower lip, and let her gaze wander down Jack’s broad back as he stowed his backpack in the overhead bin.

She studied his well-defined shoulder muscles, the cords that ran up his neck…

and her mouth went dry. Maybe he was the head of a fitness empire after all?

He was damn beautiful. Hey, after almost a year without an orgasm from someone else, a little superficiality was allowed, Penny thought.

Besides, he had implied that he traveled a lot, and they probably wouldn’t see each other again once she was… well, done with him.

The corners of her mouth twitched at her own dirty thoughts, and she quickly looked away. What would her mother say if she knew what she was planning to do with this stranger?

But this wasn’t the place; they weren’t alone, for one thing, and they weren’t even sitting next to each other.

They would probably spend the flight apart, then nod at each other at baggage claim, and never see each other again.

Besides, she was dead tired, and just because they were flirting, didn’t mean that… Oh, she didn’t care. She wanted him!

“Excuse me?”

Penny blinked and glanced up. Jack was leaning over her, but wasn’t talking to her but to her bearded seatmate. “Would you mind switching seats with me? So I can sit with…” His gaze wandered to her. “My strange acquaintance?”

She had to smile as the man shrugged and moved four rows forward.

“Much better,” Jack muttered and sank next to her.

Penny was certain her smile could be seen from the airport tower. “Is it?” she asked, trying to cover up. “I must warn you, I am not a good flight companion. I’m sure I’ll fall asleep within the next thirty minutes.”

“That’s okay,” he said as the flight attendants recited the safety instructions and the metal monster they were trapped in started taxiing.

Uncomfortable, Penny pulled the belt tighter around her waist. “Jack?”

“Yes?”

“Do you mind if I dig my fingernails into your forearm? Just for takeoff?”

The corners of his mouth twitched. “Fear of flying?”

“No. Fear of falling.”

He chuckled softly. “No problem. I understand irrational fears.”

Penny found nothing about being afraid of falling from a height of ten thousand feet irrational but decided not to go into it any further. Instead, she asked, “What’s your irrational fear?”

“I’m scared of clowns,” he said matter-of-factly.

She studied him. “Really?”

He nodded. “Yup. When I was fourteen, I fainted on a fun-house train when one jumped in my face. My brother was there and couldn’t stop laughing. He still talks about it today.”

“Watch out, that was almost personal,” she said, surprised. “Now I know you have a brother.”

He shrugged. “It would only be personal if we knew who the other was. Which we don’t.”

She grinned. “That’s true, too. Okay, then I feel completely comfortable confessing that I have a clown costume in my closet because when I was ten, I briefly considered joining the circus professionally.”

He laughed. “So, what stopped you from following your dream?”

“My mother. She made me understand that only ugly people can justify wearing so much makeup on their faces. And, unfortunately, I wasn’t one of the lucky ones.”

“Ouch. That’s harsh. So, now I know you have a mother,” he said reproachfully.

She rolled her eyes. “Everyone has a mother!”

“No, not everyone.” He turned his face away and stared out the window.

“Oh,” she said, and her heart sank into her stomach. Shit. He didn’t have a mother? But before she could open her mouth and ask him about it or maybe even apologize, he beat her to it.

“Man, I honestly don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I haven’t shared this much private information in a decade.” He looked at her, shaking his head. “With you, though, it just slips out.”

She smiled cautiously. “So? What’s the big deal? We’re strangers and we’ll never see each other again after this night. Just the thought loosens tongues, doesn’t it?”

He narrowed his eyes. “After this night? Don’t you mean, after this flight?”

She swallowed and heat rushed to her cheeks as a latent tingle began in her chest. She was never so direct. But, then again, she had never encountered a distraction in such a pretty package! “No. After this night,” she murmured and smiled.

A leisurely smile spread across his face. “Is that so?”

That wasn’t a no, was it?

Heat gathered heavily in her abdomen and struggled against the fatigue in her limbs.

And as the plane took off and vibrated beneath her, she dug her nails into Jack’s forearm as promised, her heart pumping not only adrenaline and fear through her veins but also arousal.

She hadn’t wanted to go back to L.A….but now she couldn’t wait to land.

She fell asleep as the pilot performed his greeting and woke up when the plane’s wheels hit the ground.

It was dark outside, one o’clock in the morning in Los Angeles, but she was wide awake.

Almost psyched. The next week would undoubtedly unsettle her, make her angry, and more than exhaust her resources.

But this night…this night was still hers.

“I have to go downtown,” she said loudly over the din of people leaving as she maneuvered out of her seat.

“Me, too,” Jack replied. “My car is in the airport parking garage. Should we meet at the baggage claim and…I’ll drive you home?”

She nodded, her stomach twisting strangely and her lips tingling. “Okay.”

Oh God, was she really doing this? Was she picking up the hot guy from the airport?

That was the question still floating around her mind forty-five minutes later.

She nervously picked at the stains on her pants as the city lights that she had tried to ignore for the past few years passed by.

Her nervousness was not due to her hometown, though, but one hundred percent to the man next to her, who, with his broad shoulders and warm skin, seemed to take up the entire interior of the ridiculously large car.

If Penny had been uncertain before that Jack was a businessman who was a pretty big deal in his company, she no longer harbored those doubts after seeing his BMW 8 series.

She didn’t care, though. The shiny paint and gleaming rims had faded in importance since Jack had grazed her hand when placing her suitcase in the trunk.

Tiny electrical impulses had scurried up her arm and conquered the hairs on the back of her neck.

She had never been so aware of a man in her life.

And she was pretty sure that was exactly his intention.

Those innocent, casual touches weren’t the first of the evening.

Since she had taken a sip from his drink, she had felt his rough fingertips all over her body, even though he had only touched her hands, arms, and knees so far.

None of them were really erogenous zones, but the contact was always so gentle, so light and promising that every inch of her body had been tingling for hours.

And that was no accident on his part. Just as it was no accident that she had canceled the car her brother had sent and turned her cell phone off. Or was it?

Swallowing, she tore her gaze away from his muscular forearms, which had always been one of her weaknesses.

She tried to get rid of the image of his large, tanned hands absently stroking the steering wheel, but in her mind, it was something completely different.

If she really started to get short of breath for no reason at all, Jack might take her to the hospital.

So, she concentrated on her own hands, licked her lips, and shifted restlessly in the soft seat…

“Are you okay?”

“What?” Her head shot up. “Oh, yes. I’m fine. I just can’t sit anymore.”

He nodded, but there was this slight, stealthy smile on his face that made Penny fear he could read minds.

“What was your house number again?” he asked.

“Um…” She pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and said, “211.”

Stunned, Jack looked at her. “You don’t know your own house number?”

“Well, to be honest, I’ve never been to the apartment I live in now,” she admitted.

“ What? ”

Yes, his reaction was justified. “I had my stuff in storage because I haven’t been here in the last five years. My brother rented an apartment for me so I wouldn’t have to go to a hotel. So I’d feel…more comfortable. Feel welcome.” So I’d stay . “He even turned on the heat for me.”