10. Vincent #2
I’d assumed Maya would be equally excited to explore Spain with me, but she preferred tipping off the paparazzi so we had an audience no matter where we went. She spent the entire trip posing and pretending to eat.
It was miserable, and we’d barely done any sightseeing.
“Did I send you the itinerary from Jean and Joe?” Piper asked.
“You did, but I was too busy to look at it before we left. Let me pull it up now.”
I scrolled through my endless inbox to the message. “Okay, here it is.”
I opened the document on their farm letterhead, which featured a heliotrope blossom woven into the font. I was so close to getting what I wanted. What I needed. I couldn’t let the temptation Piper presented derail me from my work.
“What?” Piper demanded. “You look grumpy all of a sudden. You don’t like what they have planned?”
I snapped out of it. “I haven’t even looked—I was just strategizing.”
“Always working,” she sighed.
I glanced at the incredibly full itinerary. “Hold on, hold on…did you sign off on all of this?”
She hunched up her shoulders and bit her lip. “Full disclosure? Jean and I planned it together. It was part of the wooing process.”
“Piper,” I scolded. “I am not going horseback riding!”
“Why not? Didn’t you grow up playing polo, or going on fox hunts?”
“No.” I frowned as I read through the impossible plans. “I don’t ride. At all. Ever.”
“Hold on…” Her voice softened, taking on a concerned note. “Do you have a problem with horses?”
I looked up from my phone. “Why would you ask me that?”
Piper shrugged. “Just a hunch.” She paused a beat. “Am I right?”
I sighed and turned to her. “Let’s just say I had a bad experience as a child.”
Her hand shot out to clasp my wrist. “Oh no! Were you hurt?”
Piper was just offering me comfort but her fingers electrified my skin like it was foreplay. I cleared my throat and forced myself to focus on her question.
“I don’t remember much of what happened because I was very young, I just know there was a horse that didn’t want me on its back, and then I remember my mom crying.”
I didn’t remember anything about the incident, but it had become lore in my family. I’d grown up hearing my mom tell people “horses don’t like Vincent,” which made me feel like there was something wrong with me that would make the majestic beasts universally dislike me.
But right in this moment, what felt wrong was just how easy it had been to share that story with Piper. I’d already revealed more with her than I had with any other woman I’d dated.
No, not any other woman I’d dated, because I wasn’t dating Piper. Not really. Why was it so hard to remember that?
“Maybe we can just visit with the horses, instead of riding them?” Piper suggested.
“Or maybe we can focus on the blooms?” I picked up my phone and scrolled. I could feel my furrow deepening as I read through everything the pair had cooked up. “Piper, yoga?”
She squinted at me. “Umm, that was Jean’s idea, since our yoga retreat was ‘canceled.’” She made air quotes with her fingers. “She tracked down the most famous yogi on the island and got her to agree to do a private session with us. It would be really bad form to opt out.”
I sighed in frustration. “So the farm tour isn’t until the second day—”
“So we can get over our jet lag,” Piper explained.
“And we have a dinner with them tonight?”
“Yup, we get to start the show right away. No rest for the weary! Are you ready to pretend to love me?”
Piper batted her eyelashes at me again, and despite the horses and yoga and dinner bullshit, I had to laugh. Was I ready?
Yeah, more than I wanted to let on to her or myself.
“I’ll make it work,” I finally said.
“Excellent!” Piper smiled and pushed the recline button on her chair. “I need my beauty rest,” she said as she fished the eye mask from her little toiletry bag.
No, she didn’t. Piper looked flawless. But I didn’t argue. It would be easier for me to focus if she was resting and not being adorable.
She drifted off to sleep while I spent the next hour answering emails. I finally succumbed to my own exhaustion and closed my eyes for what I’d assumed would be a cat nap. To my surprise, I didn’t wake up until the pilot announced our descent.
Piper and I both stretched and repositioned ourselves as the cabin pressure shifted.
“I guess we both needed that,” she laughed.
It was rare that I let myself go and slept. Piper was right, I must’ve been more tired than I’d realized.
“I’m going to go freshen up,” Piper said.
I followed suit, because I had a feeling Jean and Joe were going to be waiting for us when we landed. I felt prickly about the hands-on-ness of the trip, but I was willing to do whatever was necessary to secure my blooms.
Except horseback riding.
We settled back in our seats, the soft hum of the plane filling the silence between us. Piper glanced over at me with that familiar provocative glint in her eyes.
“So, how good of an actor are you, really?” she asked.
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
“Well, we’re supposed to be in love, right?” She smirked. “You think you can pull it off?”
“We’ve done it before, haven’t we?”
“Oh, please…we’ve pretended for a couple of hours. This is different. This is the real show.”
“Are you doubting my ability to pretend?”
She shrugged, but I could see the challenge in her expression. “I’m just saying…We’ll be in close quarters for an extended period of time. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not get called out for being a bad actor. Maybe we should…”
“Should what?”
She gave me a wicked grin. “Maybe we should practice.”
My heart kicked into overdrive, because I had a feeling I knew what she meant. “Practice?”
“Yeah. Work out how we’re going to show that we’re really in love.” Her voice was so casual, like we were talking about the weather, but her face…
Her sweet face was so open and beautiful in that moment, so thoroughly kissable that I had to force myself to keep my hands to myself. I wasn’t sure exactly what she was suggesting, but I could almost guarantee it wasn’t kissing. No matter how badly I wanted it to be.
“And how would we go about it?” I asked, my voice coming out lower than I intended.
“We could try a baby step…” she reached over and slid her hand into mine.
I reflexively closed my hand on top of hers, relishing how we fit together. It was a simple gesture, seemingly no more intimate than a business handshake, but it sent a pulse of anticipation through me.
“Not too bad, huh?” Piper asked.
I grinned at her understatement. “Not at all.”
In fact, it felt so good, so right, that it made me feel impetuous. I pulled her closer and paused when she was just inches away.
“How’s this for romance?” I whispered, watching her face closely to make sure I hadn’t misread what she wanted.
Bold Piper was suddenly shy, her cheeks flushing a soft pink as she looked up at me. But she didn’t move away, and it was enough of a greenlight for me to close the gap between us and press my lips to hers.
The sweetness. It was a brush of a kiss, but it was enough to make me imagine what could come next.
We pulled apart slowly, right as the plane touched down. Piper’s eyes bounced around my face, as if questioning whether we were both feeling the same shockwaves.
Yeah, they were real, and I was fucked, because I craved more.
“Welcome to Hawaii,” I whispered, my lips still tingling from the kiss.
“Thanks,” Piper whispered back, grinning mischievously. “Now let’s go have some fun.”