Elevating Eve (Fairford Affairs #4)

9. Jonathan

CHAPTER 9

Jonathan

C hecking her phone for the thousandth time, Eve sighed and continued fidgeting in the passenger seat of his car. She seemed to worry she might not feel it vibrate, even with her fingers wrapped tightly around it.

“Give it to me,” Jonathan said, his tone brooking no argument.

Sighing, she placed her phone in his outstretched hand. “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous.”

He dropped the phone into one of the cupholders, then placed a hand on her thigh, moving his thumb back and forth in a soothing motion. “You have nothing to worry about. I told you, Lainey approved the time off. She assured me she has no problem with it.”

Her exact words had actually been, “Oh, thank God. If you two didn’t start fucking soon, I was going to ‘accidentally’ lock you in a dark room and lose the key. Go get this out of your systems before we all go crazy.” Apparently the “lovesick puppy looks” they directed at each other were a great subject of gossip among the new crew.

Jonathan had no idea what she was talking about. He’d never been lovesick in his entire life. But he wasn’t about to argue since it got him exactly what he wanted.

When he’d met Eve in the Manor’s parking lot that morning, guiding her into his car and driving away without explanation, she practically begged him to turn around, not wanting to be late for work. Even after all his assurances, she still expected an angry text or call from her boss any second.

“Do you trust me?” he asked when he saw her eyeing the phone, hardly even blinking.

After a few seconds, she let out a long sigh and finally relaxed into the seat. “Yes. I do.”

“Then please believe me that everything will be one hundred percent fine, and just try to enjoy this, okay?” He said it gently, not wanting her to think she’d upset him, too.

“Okay,” she agreed. “Sorry I’m so tense. Spontaneity isn’t really my strong suit.”

To be honest, it wasn’t his, either. But as he lay in bed last night, the smell of her still on him, too intoxicating for sleep to be possible, an idea popped into his head. Once the seed was planted, he couldn’t stop thinking about it until he put things in motion.

“I thought you were taking a new client?” Zach had teased when Jonathan told him about his plans first thing this morning.

“Oh, fuck off.” Jonathan did his best to look stern. “Don’t make me tell Remy to punish you again. Your ass can’t be feeling super great this morning.”

Zach had thrown his head back with delighted laughter. “You can’t say things like that to your employees, you know,” he said, bright green eyes dancing with mirth. “I should report you to HR.”

“Unfortunately for you, I’m the closest thing we have to an HR department.” Jonathan hadn’t been able to stop himself from smiling. “Consider your complaint noted.”

Now here they were an hour and a half later, skirting around the edges of Burlington, and he still couldn’t keep a smile off his face for longer than a few seconds.

“Do you think I could at least get a hint?”

In answer, Jonathan pointed at a road sign, simultaneously moving over to the exit lane.

“The airport ?” Her voice went up a whole octave on the second word. “We’re going on a trip? ”

“Don’t worry,” he said as he exited the I-89, maneuvering the car through the tight curve of the ramp. “I’ll have you back in time for work Monday morning.”

“But...” For a few moments, she seemed at a total loss. “I don’t even have a suitcase.”

He smiled, taking hold of her hand and giving it a squeeze. “We’ll take care of that when we get there. For now, just sit back and try to relax.”

She stopped asking questions after that, instead staring through the windshield as he drove them the rest of the way to the airport. Her hands fidgeted adorably in her lap.

It wasn’t until they got to the departures area that she spoke again. “Wait, aren’t we supposed to go in there?” she asked, pointing at the tiny airport’s only parking garage.

“Trust me,” he said, stopping the car right in front of a woman wearing a well-tailored pantsuit. Her stick-straight, auburn hair was cut into a short bob. She hurried to open the passenger side door.

“Welcome to Burlington International Airport, Ms. Hutchinson,” she said, grinning as a bewildered Eve climbed out of the car. As soon as Eve moved out of the way, the woman shut the door and moved around to the trunk, moving his small, black rolling suitcase to the curb. When she made it to Jonathan’s side of the car, she smiled again. “I’m Angelica. We spoke on the phone this morning.”

“Keys are in the ignition,” he told her, pulling his wallet out of his pocket. “I’ll text you when I know what our plans are for the return flight.”

The woman gave him a thousand-megawatt smile when he handed her what looked like three or four hundred-dollar bills. “Of course, Mr. Hale. I’ll make sure I’m waiting at arrivals when you and Ms. Hutchinson get back.”

“I appreciate it, Angelica.”

With a final grin, she slipped behind the wheel, quickly adjusted the seat and rearview mirror, and closed the door. Seconds later, his Astin Martin pulled out into the minimal departures traffic, looping around the road and out of sight.

“Um, what just happened?” Eve muttered as he joined her on the sidewalk.

Jonathan frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“The parking garage is literally right there.” She pointed at the four-story building across the street.

Understanding washed over him, and for a moment he felt mildly embarrassed. Rubbing the back of his neck, he made himself admit, “I don’t really like parking garages. I came home from a business trip several years ago and someone had fucked up the entire driver’s side of my car. Bastard didn’t even leave a note.” Probably realized they’d just mangled a Porsche and hauled ass out of there. He supposed he couldn’t blame them.

“So where is she taking your car?” Eve asked, looking over her shoulder as he led her into the airport terminal.

“To a small, private garage nearby,” he answered, leaving out exactly how private of a garage it was. In truth, a friend who lived forty-five minutes away let Jonathan use one of the five garage bays at his home. Whenever he flew out of Burlington, he paid one of the local limo companies cash to loan him one of their drivers to ferry the car back and forth.

It had always seemed a perfectly reasonable solution to his problem before. Now, seeing it through Eve’s eyes, he wondered if maybe he was being a tad ridiculous.

Luckily, she let the matter drop, eyeing his suitcase now instead. “How come you get a bag?” she complained. “You get to change your clothes, and I have to be grungy all weekend?”

He gave her a mischievous grin. “Who said I have clothes in here?”

Her eyes got so wide, he could see the whites all the way around her irises. She swallowed nervously as he led her into the airport and toward security, towing the suitcase behind him. “Wow, this airport’s even smaller than I thought,” she said, eyeing the almost non-existent line.

“Have you never flown out of here before?” he asked while they wound between the line divider ropes. Her home with Frank hadn’t been too far from Burlington.

“Flights out of Boston or Manchester are usually way cheaper,” she answered, digging her wallet out of her purse and producing her driver’s license. “We didn’t travel much, but when we did, Frank was super particular about that.”

Nothing about that surprised him in the least.

Minutes later, they were through security and walking down the terminal. “Here we go,” he said, steering her to what had long since become a familiar gate. The sign behind the desk read only, Private Flight .

“Holy fuck,” Eve muttered under her breath, eyes wide as she walked up to the bay of floor-to-ceiling windows. The private jet waiting at the end of the boarding bridge gleamed in the early morning sunlight. “This...this is for us?”

Moving up behind her, Jonathan rested his hands on her shoulders. “This is for you,” he said softly. “Everything this weekend is for you.”

She twisted around, wrapping her arms around his neck and crushing her lips against his. He grabbed hold of her, digging his fingers into the sharp jut of her shoulder blades, pressing her body flush against his as he deepened the kiss.

Christ, she felt good. Almost too good—if he let this last much longer, they wouldn’t be going anywhere but a jail cell for indecent exposure.

Longing for the freedoms he enjoyed at the Manor, he forced himself to pull away. “Come on,” he said, grabbing the suitcase handle and leading her toward the short, middle-aged man waiting at the podium by the boarding door. Jonathan wasn’t sure where he’d come from. The gate was deserted when they arrived. “Let’s get on the plane before things get too out of hand.”

No one would care what they did once they reached cruising height, so long as he tipped well enough. And Jonathan Hale was nothing if not an exceptional tipper.

“You’re still not going to tell me where we are? Seriously?” Eve crossed her arms over her stomach as the chartered jet taxied up to a gate.

“Aren’t surprises fun?” he teased, tugging at her arms until she relented and uncrossed them. Taking both her hands in his, he brought them up to his lips, kissing the back of her left hand, then her right. “I’m taking you somewhere very special to me. Is that enough to tide you over for now?”

Heaving a dramatic sigh, she said, “Oh, I suppose so.” She went back to staring out the window. That didn’t stop him from seeing the tiny smile she tried to hide.

Once they made it into the airport itself, her head swiveled from side to side as she read every sign in sight, searching for clues. It was one of those little gift shops with the snacks and magazines that finally gave it away. “Denver?” she said, darting over to grab a burnt orange hoodie with the city name and an artistic rendition of the Rocky Mountains on the front. “We’re in Denver?”

Giving the hoodie an appraising look, he nodded once as he made his decision. “That would look adorable on you,” he said, taking it from her hand and walking over to the register.

“You don’t have to buy me a sweatshirt,” she said, trailing after him. He didn’t have to see her face to know she’d just rolled her eyes.

“It gets cold here at night,” he said, tapping his AmEx on the credit card machine. Tucking his wallet back into his pocket, he accepted the bag from the bored cashier. “Besides, you love this color.”

Her lovely brows arched up in surprise. “Why do you think I love this color?”

“All the new shirts you’ve been wearing to work,” he explained, hoping he hadn’t gotten this entirely wrong. “Several of them have either burnt orange or emerald green on them. I...” He hesitated, not sure how to read her expression. “I assumed that meant they were your favorite colors. But if I’m wrong?—”

“You’re not wrong at all,” she said, going up on her toes to plant a kiss on his lips. “I just didn’t realize you were paying that much attention.”

Reaching up with his free hand, he brushed her beautiful, red-streaked hair away from her face. “I always pay attention to you.”

If she were an anime character, there would be little hearts in her eyes right now. It was fucking adorable.

“Come on,” he said, taking her hand and leading her away from the little newsstand. He gripped the bag and suitcase handle in his other hand, the bottom of the plastic bag resting against the top of his luggage. “I have a car waiting.”

“Of course you do.” She shook her head. “Wait, if we were only flying to Denver, why did you book a private plane? Every airline in America probably flies here.”

With a little shrug, he admitted, “We’d have to drive all the way down to Boston to get a nonstop flight.”

She blinked up at him for a few seconds, utter disbelief written in every line of her face. For a moment, he thought maybe he’d made an error in judgement—that all he’d accomplished was to make her consider him a rich, entitled asshole.

But then she laughed, bemusement lighting her beautiful brown eyes. “Oh, man,” she said, linking her arm through his as they strolled through the airport. “Being your girlfriend is going to be a whole new experience for me, isn’t it?”

Girlfriend?

They were fucking. Not dating. Hell, they only even started doing that under twenty-four hours ago.

And yet, he’d spent the last seven months of his life wanting to be near her as much as possible. In fact, he wanted to be around her so much that mere hours after they finally got involved, he surprised her with romantic weekend away. At one of the most important places to him in the world.

A place he’d never brought anyone before.

Yeah, okay, she was absolutely his girlfriend.

Holy shit. That was new.

Jonathan thought maybe he should be panicking right now, or even planning his escape route back to the plane. But none of those feelings materialized.

Instead, a warmth spread out from his chest, making him feel like he’d just stepped into a bright beam of sunshine.

Pulling his arm free of hers, he wrapped it around her shoulders, tucking her snugly against his side. “You’ll get used to it.”