Worried about what the answer might be, I asked, “Well, there will be other people on the plane with us, won’t there?”

  “Um, I don’t know. Usually, it’s just one person per game. Just to be there as a representative, I guess,” she said.

  “So, you think it’ll just be me and him?”

  “Who knows. If he’s taking his private plane, maybe he is bringing more people along this time. I’m not really the one to ask.” A sympathetic smile crossed her face.

  I looked down at my phone, reading the email again as if there would be a new piece of information that I had missed the first several times.

  “Don’t worry. Even if it is just you and him, you can put your headphones in and pretend to sleep the whole time. That’s what people do on flights,” Amanda reassured me.

  “Yeah, you’re right. But I will have to talk to him a little bit. And you saw how awkward it was at lunch the other day,” I said.

  “Hazel, it is going to be okay,” she said. “One-on-one time with the boss might not be such a bad thing.”

  “Didn’t you just tell me last week that you have never met someone so cocky, arrogant, and condescending in your entire life?” I asked.

  “Yes, I did. But he seems to like you more than he likes me. Maybe he won’t be such a jerk to you,” she said.

  I nodded and went back to my desk. I didn’t have the courage to tell Amanda how I really felt about him. Sure, he was arrogant, but he was also thoughtful and brilliant. He was probably the hardest working person I had ever met, and he was excellent at his job. It didn’t hurt that he was also incredibly sexy.

  I had two days to mentally prepare myself for the long flight with Noah. Amanda was right, though, I could just pretend to sleep the whole time, then I wouldn’t have to say a word to him. But maybe it would be more awkward if we didn’t talk. I debated back and forth about how I was going to handle the situation, but I couldn’t come up with a clear decision. My mind kept wandering to the dream I had. When he had pulled me onto his lap in his office, I thought it was finally going to come true. I wanted to be pressed up against him again. I wanted to touch his skin and press my lips to his. Deep down, I knew it wasn’t a good idea, but it was exciting just to think about.

  Chapter ten

  Noah

  The morning before the game in Seattle, I boarded my private plane expecting to see Todd join me. It was the marketing department’s turn to attend an away game, and typically, the department head would attend. The previous owner flew everyone in first class on a commercial airline, but I thought it might be a nice treat to allow them to join me on my plane. Everyone seemed to be excited about the idea, and it had worked out well so far. Though this was only the third away game of the season, word had already gotten around, and employees were clamoring for their turn to attend.

  It had given me a chance to spend some one-on-one time with members of each department, and I thought it was helpful for them to get to know me outside of the office as well. I heard about some of their concerns and problems, plus things that were going well for them. It was a perk of the job for them, and I considered it a perk for me, too, even though the team was not paying the staff on my plane, nor footing the cost to fly all over the country.

  I had spoken to Todd many times since taking over the Bees, but we hadn’t ever actually met in person. He took advantage of the team’s work from home opportunities, and I wasn’t sure the last time he had been in the building to work. I wasn’t really concerned, however, because it seemed that the department ran perfectly fine without his presence.

  He was a rather old man who I assumed was well past retirement age. For some reason, he continued working, and I was curious to talk with him and find out why. He seemed like a very interesting man who had had quite a long career, so I was looking forward to getting to know him.

  As I sat on the plane waiting for Todd’s arrival, my mind started to wander to Hazel. I reclined my chair, closed my eyes, and allowed myself to think about her, something I never let myself do anymore. I pictured her stunning long legs and exposed back, just as I had seen them at the charity banquet. I imagined what it would be like to hold her again and finally kiss her soft lips. If Harry hadn’t interrupted us that night in my office, I would have been able to show her how much I was falling for her. Having her pressed up against me on my lap had made me want her even more than I already had. I know she couldn’t miss the bulge in my pants, and I would’ve loved for her to set me free and slide into her. Even with layers of clothes between us, I could feel that she wanted it just as much as I had.

  I wished for a moment that she could be with me right now. A private plane had a surprisingly large number of places for a good hook up. And I was willing to bet money that Hazel hadn’t ever had sex 30,000 feet in the air. I would give anything to have her here with me now. When I opened my eyes and saw her standing there, I thought I must have been dreaming.

  Unable to come up with something better, I said, “Hazel, hi.”

  “Hi.” She looked around, not making eye contact with me.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked, still not certain that I was awake.

  “Todd asked me to take his place this weekend. Didn’t he tell you?” she asked.

  “No, he didn’t tell me,” I said.

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I—” she started to say.

  “Hazel, it’s okay. I’m glad to see you,” I said.

  Finally, she looked at me, and her body relaxed a bit. “You are?”

  “Of course,” I said, “come have a seat.”

  I gestured to the seat opposite of mine, and Hazel hesitated for a moment. There were only four chairs in this section of the plane, and I wasn’t sure if she would choose to sit across from me or go behind me where I wouldn’t be able to see her. She glanced around to each seat but didn’t move.

  “Who else will be flying with us?” she asked.

  “Oh, um, no one else. Well, Marisa is here, but she has an office at the front of the plane where she likes to work,” I said.

  “So, it’s just us?”

  “I’m afraid so. But don’t worry, if your dad is upset about it, Marisa will assure him that nothing happened.”

  “Right, okay.” Hazel finally stepped towards the seat next to mine.

  She sat down and immediately started digging through her purse. I sat down in my seat as soon as she pulled her headphones out of her bag. She stuck them in her ears and closed her eyes, never once looking at me.

  I sat there for a moment, unsure about how to handle this. Before I came up with a solution, the stewardess came down and tapped Hazel on the shoulder, waking her from her trance. She popped one of her earbuds out to talk to the stewardess.

  “Miss, would you like a mimosa with your breakfast this morning?” she asked.

  “Oh, um, sure. That would be great, thank you,” Hazel responded.

  Before she had the chance to put her earbud back in, I intervened. “You’re not going to wear those for the whole flight, are you?”

  “I—uh—” she started to say, clearly surprised by the question.

  “It’s fine if you are, but I had hoped that we would be able to talk a little bit, too,” I said.

  “Sure, um, what did you want to talk about?”

  Trying to remain professional, I asked, “Work, life, anything really. Is there anything on your mind?”

  “No, not really,” she said, looking away from me.

  I wasn’t convinced. “Well, I don’t want to pry too much, but I’d be happy to talk about anything with you.”

  She looked over at me and smiled, but she still said nothing.

  The stewardess came back to tell us that we were about to take off, and we both nodded in thanks. I noticed that Hazel hadn’t put her second earbud back in, so I took my opportunity.

  “How has it been working with your dad? I know the two of you haven’t always been very close.”

  “It’s been…interesting,” she said.

  “Oh?” I asked.

  “I don’t really know much about him. We’re so different that it’s hard to have a conversation with him sometimes.”

  “You are very different people, that’s for sure,” I said.

  “We talk about work, and that’s pretty much it. My mom was always better at talking about real things.” She looked down at her hands.

  “Your mom was a lovely woman. I was so sorry when I heard that she had passed,” I said, hoping that she could sense my sincerity.

  “You knew my mom?”

  “Of course. She and your dad met when they did their study abroad in London, which is also when I met them,” I said.

  “Oh, that’s right. I guess you would have known her,” she said, looking up at me, her eyes looking a bit misty.

  “How long has it been now? Eight years?” I asked.

  Looking down again, she said, “Nine years next month.”

  We were quiet for a moment as the wheels of the plane lifted off the ground. I wanted to break the silence, but I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “I lost my mom when I was thirteen,” I said, surprising myself with this sudden, personal revelation.

  Hazel looked up at me expectantly.

  “She had cancer,” I said, pausing for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to continue. It had been so long since I had spoken about her. “She died six months after she was diagnosed. It was all very quick.” While I was confessing, I couldn’t make myself look her in the eye. “My parents were divorced, and my dad was a truly terrible person. So, I went to live with my aunt in London.”

  Hazel looked at me with sympathy and concern, something that not many people gave me. She reached across the aisle to grab my hand and squeezed it tight. She closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat. “Losing your mom changes you, don’t you think?”

  “I didn’t know who I was anymore after my mom died. I didn’t think I could go on without her,” I said.

  “I know the feeling. Some days I still feel like that,” she said.

  I looked down at her hand, still resting on top of mine. We sat like that for a few more minutes, Hazel with her eyes closed, and me admiring her strength and beauty.

  “Do you have siblings?” Hazel asked me as she pulled her hand away from mine.

  “No, I don’t,” I said.

  “Do you think it would have been easier when your mom died if you had a sibling?”

  “I don’t know. It’s not something I have thought about a lot. Would it have been easier for you?”

  “Before my mom died, I always wanted a sister. And part of me thinks it would have made it easier to share the sorrow with someone who was going through the same thing. But I don’t know.” She turned to look out the window.

  “Part of me also thinks that I’m stronger for going through it alone,” she continued.

  “You are certainly very strong, Hazel,” I said.

  She gave me a sad, yet appreciative smile. “I have been alone ever since she died, so I guess it was a good preparation.”

  “What do you mean you have been alone?” I asked.

  “Well, I had my dad until I graduated high school, but he was never the same after she died. We got more and more distant the older I got. Sometimes, I would go days at a time without even talking to him,” she said.

  “He never got back to being the person he was before, did he?” I asked, somewhat rhetorically.

  It was true, Harry was once a happy, care-free man who was easy to laugh and forgive. Now, he still came off as a happy guy, but he was much less liberal with his laughter, and he certainly didn’t let anyone know when he was hurting.

  “No, he didn’t. Once I left home, we hardly ever talked. After he dropped me off at my dorm freshman year, the next time I saw him was two years later for Christmas. He was still sending me money and checking in every once in a while, so it’s not like he totally abandoned me,” she said.

  “That doesn’t justify his actions, though,” I said, feeling a bit upset that he treated Hazel like that.

  “It sounds like you’re just as alone in this world as I am,” she said with a bit of a smile.

  “Well, neither of us are alone right now.”

  Moments later, the stewardess came with our breakfast and mimosas. I raised my glass and turned towards her.

  “To being a little less lonely,” I said.

  Hazel smiled and clinked her glass with mine.

  I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the fact that we had both revealed some deep feelings to one another, but when I leaned towards her and our lips finally met, nothing had ever felt more natural. All the thoughts that had been running through my mind about Harry and about being her boss were suddenly gone. The only thing I could think about was that I must be the luckiest man in the world to be kissing such a goddess.

  Hazel’s lips were even softer and more supple than I had imagined. Our mouths moved together effortlessly, and when I used my tongue to open her lips, she let out the smallest moan of pleasure. I wanted to hear that sound over and over. It took all of my willpower to pull myself away from her and not climb on top of her right then and there, but I didn’t want our first time together to be in an airplane seat. A woman like her deserved the best.

  When I pulled back and looked at Hazel, her cheeks were flushed. She took a deep breath before letting out a small laugh.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “Nothing,” she said, unable to hide her smile.

  “Hazel,” I said.

  “That was better than I ever imagined it would be,” she said.

  I smiled back at her, giving her a soft kiss before taking another sip of my mimosa.

  For the rest of the flight, we made easy conversation, talking and laughing about anything and everything. We discussed work, but for the most part, we simply got to know one another. With every word, I could feel myself falling for her more and more. No longer did it feel like a purely sexual drive, it was starting to feel realer than that. Sure, I still wanted to make her scream with pleasure, but I also wanted so much more than that.

  I excused myself to go freshen up in the bathroom when we were about thirty minutes away from landing. As I stood in the mirror, reality came rushing back in. I couldn’t be with Hazel. She was my employee. She was Harry’s daughter. She was half my age. I had to keep repeating these phrases to myself as I returned to my seat and saw her gorgeous face again. I would, I feared, have to keep repeating these phrases for as long as I was around her.

  Chapter eleven

  Hazel

  I couldn’t pinpoint the moment that everything changed, but as we arrived in Seattle, the Noah that I thought I knew was completely gone. No longer was he a cocky prick, he was a much more sensitive and thoughtful person than I ever imagined he could be. I let myself be a bit vulnerable with him, something I never did, and he returned the vulnerability. I felt like we had grown closer to one another, and then, he kissed me. I had felt myself falling for him even more. It was the most incredible kiss that I had ever experienced, and I wanted more. I didn’t want him to pull away from me, but I knew that there was only so much we could get away with on a plane.

  There was a car waiting to pick us up at the airport when we got off the plane, and it took us straight to the team’s hotel for the weekend. When we arrived, the team bus was parked out front, and reality hit me like a brick wall. If my dad saw me with Noah, he would definitely suspect something was going on. I had to make sure that I stayed hidden and that he never found out I was here.

  Noah sensed my tension as we approached the hotel, and he gave my leg a reassuring squeeze, which did not go unnoticed by Marisa, who was sitting in the seat across from us. The driver came to a stop, and Marisa slid out of the car.

  “I’ll go get you both checked in,” she said.

  “Thank you, Marisa,” Noah said as she closed the door.

  I looked over at Noah, and I knew he could read my mind.

  “It’s going to be okay, Hazel. Todd asked you to come, not me,” he said.

  “That’s true,” I muttered.

  “Plus, every employee who comes to games with me gets the same treatment. This isn’t anything special,” Noah said.

  “You’re right. I don’t know why I am so worried about it, anyway. It’s not like anything could ever happen between us.” The words escaped my mouth before I even realized what I was saying.

  “Do you want something to happen between us?” Noah asked, his voice deep and slow.

  “I—um—well—you kissed me today and in your office that night,” I trailed off.

  Noah gave me a wicked smile, and I desperately wished that I knew what was running through his mind. Marisa swung the door of the car open and handed us our room keys.

  “The team is heading to the training facility, so they will be out of the hotel for the next several hours,” Marisa said, “just in case you were wondering.”

  “I appreciate that, Marisa, thank you,” Noah said.

  We climbed out of the car and walked inside the hotel, which looked like it was straight out of a movie scene. The lobby was massive and ornately decorated with crystal chandeliers and a roaring fireplace. We followed the sign to the elevators, and I couldn’t help but marvel at everything we walked by. I had never felt more out of place in my life.

  When we stepped inside the elevator, Marisa told us that the team was all staying on the 8th and 9th floors, including the coaches, she was on the 12th floor, and we were on the 15th floor. I wasn’t sure if this was something she told everyone or if she was trying to offer me some sort of reassurance that I would be nowhere near my dad, but I appreciated it nonetheless.

  When we reached the 12th floor, Marisa stepped off the elevator, and Noah and I were alone again. He looked over at me with a quick wink, and I felt my stomach do a somersault. I couldn’t believe that I found someone my dad’s age to be so unbelievably sexy, but I couldn’t help it. It was going to be a very difficult weekend if I had to keep my hands off of him.