Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
Adrian
Ifeel trapped in this seat.
I’m not claustrophobic or afraid of flying. It’s not that.
It’s this girl beside me. I want to get another long look at her beautiful face, but I can’t. My eyes are forced forward, staring at the TV on the seat in front of me, the safety instructions playing as the airplane taxis toward the runway.
I’d give a million dollars to freeze time right now so I could turn in this seat and stare at her all I want. I only got a glimpse of her honey brown eyes and amber hair, but it was enough to stun me. To shake me to my core.
I’m gripping the armrests, heart hammering in my chest as I glance down at her legs, wondering what they look like when they’re not covered with those black yoga pants.
It hits me that this beautiful girl will be showing them off on the beach and a possessive side I didn’t know I had roars in outrage.
It wants to steal her away and keep her to myself.
I don’t want anyone’s eyes on her but mine.
I thought this whole day was cursed. My private jet had mechanical problems, so I had to buy a last minute ticket on a commercial flight.
All they had left was this seat on SkyExpress, the worst airline on the planet, but I took it so I could make my reservation at The Aurelia.
I had to frantically sprint through the airport like the mom on Home Alone and just barely made it before the doors closed.
I was thinking about abandoning the whole trip, but now I know it wasn’t bad luck.
It was something else entirely. It was the universe guiding me toward this moment.
Toward this girl. This is fate. One look and I’m already obsessed.
I know she’s mine. Nothing else can explain these primal feelings of possession pounding through my body. I must have her.
“Champagne for the takeoff?” the flight attendant asks as she offers us each a champagne flute.
“I’d love one,” the angel beside me says as she takes a glass. She has the most beautiful hands. I get thrown off for a second as I admire them.
“And for you, sir?”
“Yes, please,” I say, taking a glass as well.
“You are the most beautiful couple I’ve seen in a long time,” she says as she leans over and fills our flutes. “Are you on your honeymoon?”
I turn to my dream girl and smile when I see her blushing cheeks.
“No,” she says shyly. “We, uh… don’t know each other.”
Yet.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she says as she finishes pouring. “It’s a long flight. You never know what can happen.”
She raises her eyebrows and grins before moving onto the passengers behind us.
My nerves feel like they’re all firing at once as the plane slows to a stop on the taxiway.
“Cheers,” I say, smiling as I raise my glass and turn to my future wife.
Those honey brown eyes seize my soul as we make eye contact. This girl is stunning up close. She’s perfect.
“Cheers,” she says, clinking my glass with hers.
We each take a sip and she suddenly turns her head away, her nose scrunching up.
“Are you—”
I’m about to ask her if she’s okay, but she sneezes three times like rapid fire—cute sneezes that make me fall even deeper. They make my obsession grow.
“Bless you,” I say as I watch her with a grin.
She sniffs as she looks at me all shyly, her cheeks getting a little redder. “It’s the bubbles in the champagne. They always make me sneeze.”
She’s so adorable. I’m already in love.
“Would you like me to get you something else?”
“No, no,” she says, looking into her glass. “It doesn’t happen if I pinch my nose shut.”
“So, why don’t you?”
She sighs as she pinches her nose. “Because it looks like this,” she says, sounding like Kermit the Frog. “Not very classy, is it?”
“I won’t judge,” I say with a chuckle.
She turns toward the window and finishes the rest of the champagne, squeezing her nose so she doesn’t sneeze again.
“Are you traveling alone?” I ask, wanting to keep the conversation going. I only have a few hours to make this woman understand that she belongs with me. I can’t waste a second of it.
If I had my way, I’d make this plane crash-land in the Caribbean. We’d swim onto a deserted island and live there for the rest of our days, just the two of us.
“Actually, my family is back there,” she says with a sigh as she points to the curtain separating us from the masses in the back of the plane. “My cousin Leah is getting married.”
“Oh yeah?” I ask, wondering how I can score an invite to the wedding.
“It’s a bit of a disaster already,” she says. “The groom is hammered, the bride is crying, and the resort looks like it’s going to be hell.”
“Which resort are you going to?” I’m praying she’s going to say The Aurelia, but no one with half a brain would describe The Aurelia as hell. It’s one of the most luxurious beach resorts on planet Earth. It’s breathtaking.
She looks embarrassed as she says it. “The Breezy Winds Resort & Casino.”
I’ve heard of that one. That’s usually where the large groups of loud college kids in the airport are going to.
It’s a discount resort. The lowest tier resort, just above a hostel.
It’s not somewhere that a girl like this belongs.
She should be bathed in luxury. She should be spoiled rotten.
She deserves the best this world has to offer.
“Where are you staying?” she quickly asks, trying to change the subject from Breezy Winds and how horrible it will be.
“The Aurelia.”
Her mouth drops open in shock, but she quickly recovers.
“I read an article about that place while I was researching Isla Verdanza,” she says. “It’s stunning. I thought that place was only for billionaires and royalty.”
She laughs as I shrug my shoulders. “Occasionally, they’ll let some riffraff like me in.”
I doubt that’s true with the price of the rooms. I’m staying in The Empire Suite and it has a price tag of forty thousand dollars a night.
“Well, if the Breezy isn’t to your liking, you’re welcome to stay with me.”
I reach into my leather bag and hand her a card. She turns my crisp ivory business card around in her fingers like she’s contemplating it.
“Just in case,” I say with a casual smile. “If not, you can use it as a bookmark.”
She smiles as she slips it into her book. “Thanks.”
My heart is thundering as the plane starts rolling again, lining up with the runway.
For the first time in years, I’m not thinking about where I’m going—only about the woman sitting beside me.
She doesn’t know it yet, but fate brought us together. This is destiny at work.
And by the time the wheels hit the ground on Isla Verdanza, she’ll officially be mine.
“What do you do for work?” she asks as she cuts into her roast beef.
We’re halfway through the flight, eating lunch, and the time is going by way too fast. It’s stressing me out.
I keep contemplating going into the cockpit and offering the pilots a million dollars to take the long way to Isla Verdanza.
Maybe they can circle around Australia a few times before landing.
We’ve been chatting the whole time and if I wasn’t taken before, I am now. I’m completely captivated and bewitched by this girl. She’s everything I never knew I needed.
“Officially, I’m retired,” I tell her as I eat my shrimp risotto.
“Retired?” she says, tilting her head. “But you’re only like forty.”
“Forty-two,” I say, hoping that’s not too old for her. “I still do some occasional speaking gigs, but I don’t have a job job.”
She smiles, a slow, curious smile that makes my pulse skip. “So, you’re one of those mysterious, early-retirement guys who made a fortune doing something no one understands?”
I laugh softly. “Something like that.”
Her fork hovers midair. “Okay, then what was it? You can’t just drop a bomb like that and not tell me. Bitcoin millionaire?”
I made over fifty million on Bitcoin, but that was just a bonus. I already had my empire set in stone before I touched that.
“Tech,” I say, keeping it vague. “Software stuff. Nothing exciting.”
“Software?” She squints like she’s trying to picture me hunched over a computer. “You don’t look like a tech guy.”
I raise a brow. “No?”
“You look like…” She trails off, eyes flicking down my chest before darting away. “Like the guy who hires and fires the tech guys. The one in charge. The boss.”
God, I like the sound of that coming out of her mouth. I lean a little closer. “What makes you say that?”
She shrugs as she chews her roast beef. “Just a vibe you’re giving off. I can see you prowling around some fancy high-rise office, getting everything you want.”
“Everything I want?”
I raise my eyebrow as I look at her. My billions can buy anything on the planet, but all I want is her.
The universe is funny like that. You think you’re on top of the world and untouchable, and then your dream girl comes along and you realize you’re just as helpless and vulnerable as everyone else when it comes to love.
“Pretty much,” she says with a grin. “Am I wrong?”
My eyes drop to her luscious lips for a heartbeat and then I’m back to gazing into her gorgeous honey brown eyes. “Maybe not.”
“What’s it like to work for you?” she asks, tilting her head like she’s trying to picture it. “Are you all demanding and dominant?”
Does this girl even realize the words she’s saying? Demanding… Dominant… All the things I’ll be in the bedroom with her…
“I don’t think I’d last very long as your employee,” she says, chuckling. “Pretty sure I’d be fired within a week.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t fire you.” I tip my glass of wine toward her, watching the way her throat moves when she swallows. “I’d just find creative ways to keep you… motivated.”
She presses her lips together to hide a smile, but it still curls the corners. “That sounds suspiciously like sexual harassment, Mr. Boss Man.”
“Adrian,” I correct gently. “And it’s only called sexual harassment if you tell me to stop.”