Page 16 of The Law of Attraction
“We should probably go stand by the gate.”
“We’ve still got fifteen minutes, and we’re in the last boarding group.”
“Which means most of the overhead bins will be full by the time we get on board. We need to be the first in our boarding group if we want any chance of stowing our bags.”
“We can always just gate check.”
“It takes forever to get your bags when you gate check, and we’ve already lost enough time today, don’t you think?”
“Fine.” He pushed himself begrudgingly to his feet and held out a hand to help her off the floor.
She accepted his hand as begrudgingly as he’d stood up, levering herself upright and letting go of him as quickly as possible—but not so quickly she failed to appreciate the rough warmth of his skin.
They started toward their gate, but when they passed a restroom she stopped and shoved her roller bag at him. “I want to use the bathroom one more time before we board.”
His mouth pursed in irritation. “You know they have bathrooms on the plane, right?”
“I hate using airplane bathrooms. They’re tiny, and between the people with bad aim and the periodic turbulence, I’m pretty sure every single surface has been spattered with urine. It’d be one thing if I didn’t have to sit down—”
“Okay, Jesus. Just go.” He took her roller bag and moved over against the wall to wait out of the way.
If he wasn’t so annoyed by it, she wouldn’t enjoy making him wait half so much. She was almost tempted to make him wait again while she stopped off to buy more airplane snacks, but since she could already see people lining up at the gate, she decided to forgo further Adam tormenting.
They lined up with the other three hundred people flying to Houston with them. Adam began to grow tense again as the impatient crowd filled in behind and around them. His neck muscles stood out taut as bowstrings, and his mouth pressed into a thin line as his eyes flicked around him.
Olivia wasn’t uneasy in crowds like Adam clearly was, but she always struggled a bit because of her size. People tended to overlook her and try to usurp her space by using their size advantage to crowd her out of the way. She was used to it though, so she’d learned to defend herself with the tools she had at hand: her big purse, her elbows, and even the judicious application of her shoe heel when necessary.
The large man standing next to her at the gate was doing that thing where he kept bumping into her as he talked to the woman he was traveling with, oblivious both to Olivia standing there and her attempts to make her presence known by nudging him back. She was on the verge of employing her signature move, which involved turning sharply to look at something and “accidentally” letting her heavy purse slam into the offender at full force, when Adam’s hand wrapped around her arm.
He shifted her away from the shoving guy and edged over to take her place. Only there wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver in the crowd, which meant he basically had to press the front of his body against her back and do a sort of sliding shimmy to get past.
The move clearly wasn’t intended to be sexual, but the sensations it inspired in Olivia definitely were. She couldn’t help it—he was basically dirty dancing up against her, and she swallowed a lump in her throat as her ass glided across his thighs.
Once he was standing next to the big guy, who wasn’t really all that big after all, Adam casually hip-checked him, giving him a dose of his own medicine. The man took a stumbling step away, opening up more space which Adam immediately moved to fill.
Olivia snorted in amusement, and Adam looked pleased with himself. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you. But I could have handled him.”
“Okay.”
“I’m used to crowds. I can take care of myself.”
“I’m sure you can.” There was amusement in his voice, but it was the good kind of amusement. Warm amusement. Fond sounding, almost.
But that was impossible, because Adam Cortinas was not fond of her. He didn’t even like her enough to give her a simple fucking reference.
Except the way he was looking at her said otherwise. His eyes were soft and flecked with gold at the center that glittered at her like he was pleased. All the tautness she’d noticed a moment ago had melted away, and his head was tilted slightly to one side. As he continued to gaze at her, he bit down on his lower lip, and—Jesus jumping Christ on a pogo stick—that sexy lip bite was too fucking much to handle.
“Why aren’t they boarding yet?” Olivia wondered, turning away to peer at the gate—which was a futile exercise, given her height and the comparative heights of the people around them, but at least it allowed her to look at something other than Adam’s lips.
“They never board on time, remember?”
Her hand squeezed the handle of her roller bag. “I’m just worried this flight is going to be delayed too, and then it’ll turn out we would have been better off sticking with the first one.”
“It’s done now. There’s no point second-guessing the decision. Relax.”
And just like that, her hackles were up again. “Can you quit telling me to relax?”
